Ulrich von Zatzikhoven occupies an uncertain place in medieval German literature of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Overshadowed by the works of such monumental figures as Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Straßburg, and Wolfram von Eschenbach, Ulrich's Lanzelet (circa 1194-1203) has variously been characterized by early critics as insignificant, mediocre, shallow, morally degenerate, a compilation, a good story, a relic, an imitation, and a latecomer. Though later critics have softened and in some cases reversed these assessments, Ulrich can be granted only secondary importance. His only known work is Lanzelet, and the extent to which it is his own work is an unresolved question. The author says that it is a translation of a "welschez buoch" (welsch in Middle High German generally means French, in this case probably Anglo-Norman), "so enist dâ von noch zuo geleit" (and nothing has been added or subtracted...