Right Paths, Wrong Paths, Circuitous Paths, Dead Ends, and Religious Epiphany in Hartmann von Aue’s Gregorius. Crossroads in a Christian Narrative

Most dramatically, the Middle High German Arthurian poet Hartmann von Aue predicates his story of the sinner Gregorius on the notion of the trail because, having been the result of incest, the young man desperately tries to prove himself, but in that process also commits incest with his own mother. Only when he finally decides to leave the common paths and turn to the absolute wilderness can he embark on his healing process. The well-trodden (world) and the long-forgotten path (soul) thus emerge as the central icons of the spiritual healing process.