In the same year he was given the rectory of Linthwaite in Yorkshire. In 1843 he went to Bokhara to seek two British officers, Lieut.-Colonel C. Stoddart and Captain A. Conolly, and narrowly escaped the death that had overtaken them; his Narrative of this mission went through seven editions between 1845 and 1852. In 1845 he was presented to the vicarage of Ile Brewers, Somerset, and was planning another great missionary tour when he died on the 2nd of May 1862.
He published several Journals of his expeditions, especially Travels and Adventures of Joseph Wolff (2 vols., London, 1860).
His son, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff (1830-1908), was a well-known English diplomatist and Conservative politician, who started as a clerk in the foreign office and was created K.C.M.G. in 1862 for various services abroad. In 1874-1880 he sat in parliament for Christchurch, and in 1880-1885 for Portsmouth, being one of the group known as the “Fourth Party.” In 1885 he went on a special mission to Constantinople in connexion with the Egyptian question, and as the result various awkward difficulties, hinging on the sultan's suzerainty, were got over. In 1888 he was sent as minister to Teheran, and from 1892 to 1900 was ambassador at Madrid. He died on the 11th of October 1908. Sir Henry was a notable raconteur, and he did good service to the Conservative party by helping to found the Primrose League. He was created G.C.M.G. in 1878 and G.C.B. in 1889.
WOLFRAMITE, or Wolfram, a mineral consisting of iron-manganese tungstate, (Fe, Mn)WO4. The name is of doubtful origin, but it has been assumed that it is derived from the German Wolf and Rahm (froth), corresponding with the spuma lupi of old writers, a term hardly appropriate, however, to the mineral in question. Wolframite crystallizes in the monoclinic system, with approximation to an orthorhombic type; and the crystals offer perfect pinacoidal cleavage. The colour of wolframite is generally dark brownish-black, the lustre metallic or adamantine, the hardness 5 to 5.5, and the specific gravity 7.1 to 7.5. Wolframite may be regarded as an isomorphous mixture, in variable ratio, of iron and manganese tungstates, sometimes with a small proportion of niobic and tantalic acids. It was in wolframite that the metal tungsten was first recognized in 1785 by two brothers, J. J. and F. d'Elhuyar. At the present time the mineral is used in the manufacture of tungsten-steel and in the preparation of certain tungstates.
Wolframite is commonly associated with tin-ores, as in many parts of Cornwall, Saxony and Bohemia. In consequence of the two minerals, cassiterite and wolframite, having nearly the same density, their separation becomes difficult by the ordinary processes of ore-dressing, but may be effected by means of magnetic separators, the wolframite being attracted by powerful magnets. A process introduced many years ago by R. Oxland consisted in roasting the mixed ore with carbonate of soda, when the wolfram was converted into sodium tungstate, which was easily removed as a soluble salt. Wolframite occurs at many localities in the United States, notably at Trumbull, Conn., where it has been mined, and at Monroe. Conn., where it accompanies bismuth ores. Other localities are in Mecklenburg county, N.C., and in the Mammoth mining district, Nevada. Wolframite has in some cases resulted from the alteration of scheelite (q.v.), though on the contrary pseudomorphs are known in which scheelite has taken the form of wolframite. By oxidation wolframite may become encrusted with tungstic ochre, or tungstite, sometimes known as wolframine, a name to be carefully distinguished from wolframite.
As the relative proportions of iron and manganese vary in wolframite, the composition tends towards that of other minerals. Thus there is a manganous tungstate (MnWO4) known as hübnerite, a name given by E. N . Riotte, in 1865. in compliment to Adolph Hübner, a Saxon mineralogist. There is also a mineral which contains little more than ferrous tungstate (FeW04), and is known as ferberite, having been named by A. Breithaupt in 1863 after Rudolph Ferber. The original hübnerite came from the Mammoth district, Nevada, and the ferberite from the Sierra Almagrera in Spain. It is possible that such minerals may represent the extreme terms in the series formed by the varieties of wolframite. (F.W. R.*)
WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH, the most important and individual poet of medieval Germany, flourished during the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. He was one of the brilliant group of Minnesingers whom the Landgrave Herrmann of Thuringia gathered round him at the historic castle of the Wartburg. We know by his own statement that he was a Bavarian, and came of a knightly race, counting his achievements with spear and shield far above his poetical gifts. The Eschenbach from which he derived his name was most probably Ober-Eschenbach, not far from Pleinfeld and Nuremberg; there is no doubt that this was the place of his burial, and so late as the 17th century his tomb was to be seen in the church of Ober-Eschenbach, which was then the burial place of the Teutonic knights. Wolfram probably belonged to the small nobility, for he alludes to men of importance, such as the counts of Abenberg, and of Wertheim, as if he had been in their service. Certainly he was a poor man, for he makes frequent and jesting allusions to his poverty. Bartsch concludes that he was a younger son, and that while the family seat was at Eschenbach, Wolfram's home was the insignificant estate of Wildenburg (to which he alludes), now the village of Wehlenberg. Wolfram seems to have disdained all literary accomplishments, and in fact insists on his unlettered condition both in Parzival and in Willehalm. But this is somewhat perplexing, for these poems are beyond all doubt renderings of French originals. Were the poems read to him, and did he dictate his translation to a scribe? The date of Wolfram's death is uncertain. We know that he was alive in 1216, as in Willehalm he laments the death of the Landgrave Herrmann, which took place in that year, but how long he survived his friend and patron we do not know.
Wolfram von Eschenbach lives in, and is revealed by, his work, which shows him to have been a man of remarkable force and personalty. He has left two long epic poems, Parzival and Willehalm (the latter a translation of the French chanson de geste Aliscans), certain fragments, Titurel (apparently intended as an introduction to the Parzival), and a group of lyrical poems, Wächter-Lieder. These last derive their name from the fact that they record the feelings of lovers who, having passed the night in each other's company, are called to separate by the cry of the watchman, heralding the dawn. These Tage Lieder, or Wächter Lieder, are a feature of Old German folk-poetry, of which Wagner has preserved the tradition in the warning cry of Brangaene in the second act of Tristan. But the principal interest of Wolfram's work lies in his Parzival, immeasurably the finest and most spiritual rendering of the Perceval-Grail story.
The problem of the source of the Parzival is the crux of medieval literary criticism (see Perceval). These are the leading points. The poem is divided into sixteen books. From iii. to xii., inclusive, the story marches pari passu with the Perceval of Chrétien de Troyes, at one moment agreeing almost literally with the French text, at the next introducing details quite unknown to it. Books i. and ii., unrepresented in Chrétien, relate the fortunes of the hero's father, and connect the story closely with the house of Anjou; the four concluding books agree with the commencement, and further connect the Grail story with that of the Swan Knight, for the first time identifying that hero with Parzival's son, a version followed by the later German romance of Lohengrin. At the conclusion Wolfram definitely blames Chrétien for having mistold the tale, while a certain Kiot, the Provençal (whom he has before named as his source), had told it aright from beginning to end. Other peculiarities of this version are the representation of the Grail itself as a stone, and of the inhabitants of the castle as an ordered knighthood, Templeisen; the numerous allusions to, and evident familiarity with, Oriental learning in its various branches; and above all, the connecting thread of ethical interpretation which runs through the whole poem. The Parzival is a soul-drama; the conflict between light and darkness, faith and doubt, is its theme, and the evolution of the hero's character is steadily and consistently worked out. The teaching is of a character strangely at variance with the other romances of the cycle. Instead of an asceticism, based upon a fundamentally low and degrading view of women, Wolfram upholds a sane and healthy morality; chastity, rather than celibacy, is his ideal, and a loyal observance of the marriage bond is in his eyes the highest virtue. Not retirement from the world, but fulfilment of duty in the world,
