Tannhauser

tan'hoi-zer, a German lyric poet of the thirteenth century. Like other singers of the day, he led a wandering life, visiting the Bavarian and Austrian courts. He also traveled in the far East. He was a minnesinger and a writer of dance songs. His name has been preserved in ballads of the sixteenth century. There is also a legend of a knight of the name. The chief event in the tradition of his life is a visit of penance to Rome, seeking absolution for a life of levity at the court of Venus in the mountains. Pope Urban, who held a dry staff in his hand, said to Tannhauser: "Guilt such as thine can never be remitted; sooner shall the dry staff in my hand grow green and blossom than that God should pardon thee!" Tannhauser departed in despair. On the third day afterward the pope's staff began to bud and sent forth green shoots. The pope sent out in search of the knight but without avail. He had gone back to the lady Venus in the mountains and was heard from no more. No doubt the devil got him. Richard Wagner made this tradition the subject of his celebrated opera of Tannhauser. See Wagner