delit1-2, Exercise 3: Dating and attributing medieval poems

Model answer (check the details):

Why it is hard: medieval poems were composed for performance, and the surviving manuscripts are often copies made decades or centuries later, with variations. Authors are often anonymous or known only by a name. Dates are inferred from references to events, patrons or language, so they are approximate. Large collections such as the Manesse manuscript were compiled long after the poets lived.

How to treat "Walther wrote this in 1198": as a claim, not a fact. Ask what the dating rests on: a reference in the poem to an event, a patron, or only a scholar's guess. Check how many manuscripts contain the poem and whether they agree. Look in a scholarly edition for the reasoning, and write "about 1198 (suggested)" unless a firm source exists.