The importance of Heinrich von Veldeke for the literature of the German High Middle Ages was well stated some twenty years after his death by Gottfried von Straßburg. In the literary excursus of his Tristan und Isolde (circa 1210) Gottfried extols the beauty of Veldeke's expression and declares that the best poets of the time praised him highly, agreeing that it was Veldeke who made the first graft on the tree of German verse that produced the branches and the blossoms from which they took the art of fine composition. Veldeke taught them to value pure rhyme, a fairly regular rhythm, courtly language, and romance sources.

Veldeke is not mentioned in any official record, but biographical references in his works and documents of the years 1195 to 1264 that name persons who apparently were his relatives provide considerable information about him. He belonged to a family of minor nobility...