Gottfried von Strassburg was one of the greatest medieval German poets, whose courtly epic Tristan und Isolde is the classic version of this famous love story. The dates of his birth and death are unknown, and the only information about him consists of references to him in the work of other poets and inferences from his own work. Although unfinished, Gottfried’s work is the finest of the medieval versions of the Tristan legend and one of the most perfect creations of the medieval courtly spirit.
