Beyond the Horizons of Desire: Salme's Subjectivity in "Salman und Morolf"

Salme in the Middle High German epic poem Salman und Morolf (twelfth–fifteenth century) is conventionally read as a wild, dangerous, animalistic object waiting to be tamed by the men who fight for her hand. An in-depth analysis of her character is long overdue, and this article argues that Salme is a pertinent example of how female figures resist being “tamed” altogether. She is the movable object of multiple bridal quests for which she is ambiguously responsible. The unreachable, exoticized, and foreignized object of men’s desire, Salme embodies the drive of the western man to possess a fantasy of the Orient, forever beyond the periphery of his understanding. Challenging the present skepticism in German medieval studies—dominated by philological and narratological approaches to literature—this article offers a reading of the plot through a Deleuzoguattarian lens, arguing that male desire in Salman und Morolf functions as a metaphorical conveyor belt with Salme its magnetic core to whom all men are driven. Exploring the link between the recipient’s hunger for the story and men’s yearning for Salme, this article reads the female body as a hermeneutic metaphor for the audience’s insatiable desire for the story.