In the first part of Gottfried von Straßburg's courtly epic Tristan (c.1210), there is a striking moment when the young Tristan betrays his noble origin at King Mark's court in Tintagel by performing two Breton lays with astonishing musical and verbal skills. The second lay treats the unhappy love of Pyramus and Thisbe:

This passage is introduced by an elaborate description of Tristan's tuning and playing the harp and of the effect his performance has on the audience: he played so beautifully “that many a man sitting or standing there forgot his very name. Hearts and ears began to play the fool and desert their rightful paths.” As Gottfried makes clear, Breton lays were sung rather than spoken and they were sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument, typically a harp. It also emerges from this scene that a medieval audience was appreciative of music and musical skill and that a good performance had the power to move the listeners deeply.

This is not the only time in Gottfried's Tristan that the hero's musical skills as a harphære (harper, minstrel) are mentioned, nor is it the only scene in Middle High German literature in which the oral performance of a narrative text is depicted. Passages like this one occur in a great number of medieval texts.