Wirnt von Grafenberg's fame as an author of Arthurian romance rests on Wigalois (circa 1210-1215 or circa 1235). A courtly epic of nearly twelve thousand lines, it exceeds the length of Hartmann von Aue's Erec (circa 1180) and Iwein (circa 1203), the two major earlier works in the "classical" form of the genre, as well as Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet (circa 1194-1203), the first of the so-called postclassical Arthurian romances. Compared with epic works such as Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival (circa 1200-1210) or Gottfried von Straßburg's Tristan und Isolde (circa 1210), which clearly transcend the genre conventions, its size and scope appear modest; within the confines of the genre, however, it stands out as a major example of the postclassical group that departs from the structural conventions of the narrative form introduced by Chrétien de Troyes and embraces a new model of romance construction inspired by the fairy...