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Der Rosendorn (transl. The Rose Thorn) (sometimes Der weiße Rosendorn (transl. The White Rose Thorn)) is a thirteenth-century German poem. It tells of a virgin who is separated from her vagina,[note 1] and her dialogue with it forms the structure of the piece. They argue about what it is that men want in a woman: the woman claims that men want for herself and her beauty, whereas the cunt dismisses this, claiming that she is all men really want. The two go different directions to discover the truth; neither is successful, and both are treated badly by the men they meet. To conclude the story, the maid is physically reunited with her cunt with the assistance of a passing young man.
Originally thought to have been written in the 15th century, a portion of the text was discovered in Melk Abbey Library in Austria, as part of another book's binding; this has been dated to around 200 years earlier. Poems of this vintage were not uncommon in medieval literature, with other examples known from France, and in England, sexual vulgarity was a frequent theme of Geoffrey Chaucer's poetry. Der Rosendorn has been the subject of much scholarly debate over its depiction of medieval women and female sexuality to 13th-century eyes as well as its place within—and radical differences from—the broader canon of the German courtly romance.
The poem has seen as an influence on later writers such as Denis Diderot, and it has been popularly been described as a medieval version of Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues.
- ^ Cartwright 2003, p. 72.
- ^ Müller 2011, p. 245.
- ^ Hughes 2006, p. 110.
- ^ Adams 1982, pp. 80–81.
- ^ Shanzer 2006, pp. 180–181.
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