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This article examines Ulrich von Etzenbach’s Alexander, whose redaction probably began during the reign of Ottokar II Přemyslid of Bohemia. It focuses on Alexander’s adventures in the Orient, seeking explanations for their specific configuration, and draws on intertextual, historical-political, narrative and literary-historical aspects. In Ulrich’s Alexander, the description of the oriental marvels runs back to different literary sources among which the Latin I2-recension of the Greek romance by Pseudo-Callisthenes and the Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem occupy a prominent position. But Ulrich has no boundaries in this field. His only common thread seems to be Alexander’s youthful enthusiasm, which accounts both for his military excellence and his tendency to dispersion—a characteristic shared with Ulrich’s other great model, Walter of Châtillon’s Alexandreis. Furthermore, the rivalry between the Přemyslid dynasty and the German kings and emperors could have influenced a text in which the “emperor” Alexander gives way to a compulsive need for new experiences and discoveries, recalling criticisms levelled against Frederick II in the first part of the 13th century. From a literary point of view, the accumulation of adventures and the subsequent fragmentation of the narrative, as well as the ironical reuse of courtly themes, may reflect the psychological disorder that affects the protagonist.
