Reception and Accolade. On the literary Representation of court Ceremonial in French and German Arthurian Romances around 1200

Analysing the literary representation of courtly reception and of the promotion of the knight in French and German Arthurian Romances of the 12(th) century, the article points out that the German adaptions frequently differ from the French texts in these passages. That means that the statement of Joachim Bumke who pulled the interest in modern French literature in Germany together with an interest in modern French courtly culture, is to be re-examined. Although Hartmann and Wolfram also describe scenes of courtly ceremony, they give them lower emphasis. This seems to be related with different focuses in their adaptations, e.g. Hartmann highlights the importance of the things happening for the protagonists instead of courtly ceremony. With regard to the literary representation of the promotion of the knight it can be shown that the German romances often eliminate the detailed description given by the French romances.