"diu liebe und diu leide diu wellen mich beide vürdern hin ze grabe"

Heinrich von Morungen is one of the central figures of German-language minnesong. His work, which is committed to the so-called "Minneparadox", proves to be extremely virtuoso and intricately crafted, permeated by the metaphor of light and borne by the pain of the unattainability of the vrouwe. As in Gottfried von Strasbourg's Tristan, a deep connection between love and suffering appears here, which in its dialectical reference structure ultimately reveals a dark background foil: the imminent death of the singer's ego. The author analyzes and interprets this connection using a coarse and a fine-meshed approach.