FREIDANK, Freigedank, or in Middle High German Vrîdanc, the name by which a certain German didactic poet of the 13th century is usually known. It has been disputed whether the word, which is equivalent to freethought, is to be regarded as the poet’s real family name or only as a pseudonym; according to Pfeiffer the former is the case. Little is known of Freidank’s life. He certainly accompanied Frederick II. on his crusade to the Holy Land, where a portion at least of his work was composed; and it is said that on his tomb (if indeed it was not the tomb of another Freidank) at Treviso there was inscribed, with allusion to the character of his style, “he always spoke and never sang.” Wilhelm Grimm started the hypothesis that Freidank was to be identified with Walther von der Vogel· weide; but it found almost no acceptance from other German scholars, and was formally refuted by Franz Pfeiffer in his Zur Deutschen Literatur Geschichte, Stuttgart, 1855, and his Germania, 1857, 2d vol....