Über den Begriff ›kastelân‹ in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters

Abstract

Horses are one of the key elements in the development of war in the Middle Ages. A good example of its importance is the enormous variety of denominations that exist in both Latin andMiddle German. The variety of concepts reflects a specialization that determines the purpose of the animals. The object of this work is the term ›kastelân‹; this is a denomination of the horse that de-notes its origin – of Castile –, and that appears very frequently in German medieval literature. The popularity and fame of these horses is linked to the ambling gait typical of the thieldon horse. This step together with the more physical characteristics of the animal such as its bravery or its carry-ing capacity, made the horse ›kastelân‹ practically a literary topic as we can endorse in the texts of Hartmann von Aue,Wolfram von Eschenbach or Gottfried von Straßburg