ABSTRACT
Many courtly pastimes occur in man-made social spaces. However, when courtiers venture into the natural environment, they face a demanding semiotic system. Their ability to decode it may have positive or negative results. Using examples from Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan, Christopher R. Clason examines hybridity: the combination of characteristics of two spaces or species. Spatial hybridity occurs in scenes of hunting, in the orchard episode, and in the Minnegrotte (Love-Cave). For instance, Tristan's ritual excoriation of a slain deer demonstrates his expertise both as hunter and as reader of signs. On the other hand, biological hybridity in Gottfried is aptly demonstrated by two marvelous animals − a white stag and the lapdog Petitcreiu − that represent visual and auditory deceptions. Symbolically, these creatures suggest that the nature of love itself is hybrid, consisting of joy and sorrow. On a metatextual level, the binaries of Gottfried's quasi-mystical text can be reconciled by accepting and decoding its hybridity.
