Jans der Enikel

Jans der Enikel ("Jans the Grandson"), or Jansen Enikel ("Jans' grandson"), was a Viennese poet and historian of the late 13th century. He calls himself "Jans, the grandson of Jans", and claims to be a citizen of Vienna with full patrician rights. In Viennese council records he appears as "Jans der Schreiber", so it is likely he was secretary to the council (Stadtschreiber). He wrote a Weltchronik (history of the world) and a Fürstenbuch (history of Vienna), both in Middle High German verse.

Legend of Pope Joan in a 15th-century manuscript of the Chronicle of Jans [der] Enikel, CPG 336, fol. 203r., Passau, circa 1420

History of the World

The Weltchronik tells the history of the world, starting even before the six-day creation by telling of Satan's rebellion in Heaven, and relating the Biblical stories of the Old Testament (oddly not the New), then continuing with Homer and other classical Greek and Roman material, and on down the list of Emperors through Charles the Great to Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.

The style is anecdotal, with many fun tales inserted into what might otherwise be sober history. For example, the reign of Frederick II is interrupted to tell an entirely fictional story of a nobleman named Friedrich von Antfurt. This Friedrich subjects a duchess to what we today could only call sexual harassment, to the point where she thinks up a ruse to get rid of him. She promises to give him what he wants (the poet makes no bones about the fact that he only wants her body) provided he takes part in a joust wearing her chemise (underdress) instead of his armour. She is of course counting on him being killed. But he survives, and there has to be a reckoning.

Jans is recorded in a number of Viennese documents for the years 1271-1302. He is known to have been a member of one of the highest patrician families of the city.

See also

• Medieval German literature
• Rudolf von Ems
• Christherre-Chronik

Further reading

• Critical edition: Philipp Strauch (ed.), Jansen Enikels Werke (=MGH dt Chr III), Hanover & Leipzig 1891-1900, Reprint Munich 1980.
• Excerpts with English translations: Graeme Dunphy (ed.), History as Literature: German World Chronicles of the Thirteenth Century in Verse. Kalamazoo 2003.
• English translation of the Virgil section: Jan M. Ziolkowski and Michael C. J. Putnam, The Virgilian Tradition: The First Fifteen Hundred Years, 2008, 928-930
• Text and bibliography online (in German)