Dietrich's escape
Dietrichs Flucht is the title of a Middle High German heroic poem from the area of historical Dietrichepik from the end of the 13th century . It has come down to us in five manuscripts from the late 13th to the early 16th century, in four of them together with the epic about the battle of ravens that followed . Dietrichs Flucht reports in 10,152 rhyming verses how Dietrich von Bern loses control of the land entrusted to him by his father Dietmar in the fight against Ermanarich (here called Ermrich ).
The content
The following description of the content is based on the introduction to Middle High German Dietrichepik by Joachim Heinzle.
Ancestors of Dietrich
Dietwart, the dragon slayer, wins Minne, Ladin's daughter, as his wife. He has 44 children with her, all of whom die except Sigeher. Dietwart is 400 years old.
Sigeher and Amelgart, daughter of the King of Normandy, have 31 children; only the son Ortnit and the daughter Sigelind remain alive. Sigelind is married to King Sigmund of the Netherlands, their son is Siegfried of the Nibelung saga.
After Sigeher's death, who like Dietwart is 400 years old, Ortnit becomes king. He woos Liebgart, although her father, King Godian, has killed all the recruiter so far. Ortnit devastates Godian's country, forcing him to surrender Liebgart. Godian takes revenge and has four dragons brought to Ortnit's land. Ortnit wants to kill her, but falls asleep on the train against her and is eaten.
Wolfdietrich, who is now in Ortnit's land, can kill the dragons and marries the widowed Liebgart. He is 503 years old and has 56 children, of whom only Hugdietrich survives. This fought for the king's daughter seminaries of France. He is 450 years old. His son is Amelung. He marries a woman from France with whom he has three sons: Diether, Ermrich and Dietmar.
Ermrich's attacks on his nephews
Dietmar, ruler in Verona / Bern over Lombardy, the Roman Empire, Istria, Friuli and the Inn Valley, asks his brother Ermrich to look after his sons Dietrich and Diether before his death (he is 340 years old). But Ermrich devastates the Roman Empire, kills the sons of his other brother Diether, the Harlungs, and seizes their inheritance. His advisor Sibeche now advises him to get rid of Dietrich, Dietmar's successor in Bern. Randolt should lure him to his court. Randolt warns Dietrich.
1. Battle of Milan, hostage-taking and escape
Thereupon Ermrich Dietrichs land covered with war. Dietrich gathers an army, attacks Ermrich's huge army at Milan at night and wins. But Ermrich flees. Dietrich cannot adequately reward his people. Berchtram von Pola and Hildebrand, Dietrich's educators, want to make their treasures available. Ermrich finds out about this and sends out 500 men who ambush Dietrich's most important followers while transporting the treasure and take them prisoner. Only Dietleib von Steier escapes. Ermrich refuses to exchange prisoners even though his own son Friderich is in Dietrich's hands. He demands all of Dietrich's property for the surrender of the Dietrichmannen. Dietrich is not even allowed to keep Bern. He and his farm, men and women, have to leave Bern on foot. Amelolt von Garda brings the women to safety, whom they meet on the way.
2. Battle of Milan
Dietrich moves to the Hunnenland with 50 men and they spend the night in a merchant's house in Gran. The next day, the Hun queen Helche, accompanied by Rüdiger, comes to Gran. She promises Dietrich to stand up for him with Etzel. Etzel, who later arrives in Gran, promises Dietrich help. Amelolt arrives and reports that he could have conquered Bern. Dietrich moves to Bern with his men and a Hunnish troop, Rüdiger follows him with a large army. Again in front of Milan there is a battle that Ermenrich loses again, 56,000 of his men are killed, but he can flee to Ravenna. Dietrich besieges Ravenna, Ermenrich escapes to Bologna. Ermenrich releases the men captured by Dietrich for ransom. Witege, who went over to Ermrich, is not released, but on the advice of Rüdiger and others, Dietrich reconciles with him. He entrusts Witege Ravenna and gives him the horse Schemming. Dietrich leads the Huns back to Etzelburg. Reluctantly, he marries on the advice of Etzel and Helche Helche's sister daughter Herrat.
Wittich's betrayal, battle of Bologna, Alphart
Eckewart arrives at the Etzelhof and reports that Witege has again defected, had handed Ravenna over to Ermrich, who had all of the residents killed. Here the poet Dietrich has the desperate words exclaimed “How should I give birth! owê I poor Dietrich! ”(“ What should I do now! Oh, I poor Dietrich ”). Etzel raised a huge army which, under Dietrich's leadership, defeated Emrich in front of Bologna. Ermrich escapes into the city. Dietrich lost many men, including Alphart. He returns to Etzel weeping.
This ends the story of Dietrich's escape. The story of the battle of raven joins it.
Style and narrative intent
Dietrichs Flucht is written in pairs of rhymes, which, in contrast to the stanzas used in the follow-up epic Rabenschlacht, are not intended for singing with instrument accompaniment, but for speaking. The form of a pair of rhymes is particularly common in vernacular literature. Under certain circumstances, a content that is normally intended for the courtly audience should be prepared for a larger audience by means of the paired form.
The introductory genealogy reveals the intention to incorporate the Dietrich saga into the rest of the heroic poetry of the Ortnit / Wolfdietrich complex and the Nibelungen saga.
The increasing repetition is the basic narrative theme: three battles, won again and again, but without success because followed by treachery (the capture of Dietrich's people) or betrayal (the faithless Wittich hands Ravenna over to Ermrich). The beginning of the conflict also follows this pattern: First the Harlunge are killed, then the more important Dietrich with a huge army.
The evil is concentrated on Ermanrich, which is all the more expressed because the figure of the Sibeche is less clearly emphasized than in the Thidrek saga or the heroic book prose. This emphasizes the unconditional loyalty of Dietrich, who is ready to sacrifice his entire kingdom for the life of his followers, while Ermenrich is indifferent to the fate of his son. The good is also represented by Helche and Etzel, who are presented mildly and generously.
The exaggeration of the descriptions - so the warriors steam with anger and exertion so much that they can no longer see each other - have led the older research, which applied the standard of classical aesthetics, to Dietrich's flight and the battle of ravens as the product of poetic ineptitude have rated it very negatively. But the pathetic-hyperbolic style that characterizes these two works can also be found in Latin-taught rhetorical-related poetry, so it is not the result of inability, but intention.
language
The three earliest surviving manuscripts from the 14th century are all written in Bavarian-Austrian Middle High German . The Berlin manuscript mgf 1062 (around 1300) is assumed to originate in Lower Austria, as is the Viennese manuscript Cod. 2779 (1st quarter of the 14th century). The Innsbruck fragment B III , also from the beginning of the 14th century, also shows a Bavarian-Austrian writing form, partly with features that could point to South Tyrol. In addition, the text is handed down in a Swabian manuscript from the 15th century and again in the Ambraser Heldenbuch from the beginning of the 16th century.
Author and origin
In Dietrichs Flucht it is reported that Heinrich the Vogler had written an excursus against the arbitrariness of the princes, which followed on from Helche's donation of money for the payment of Dietrich's knights. It was therefore assumed that Heinrich the Vogler wrote both Escape and Ravenschlacht. But the differences between the two poems speak against it and actually only the excursus itself can be ascribed to this poet.
literature
- Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to Middle High German Dietrichepik . de Gruyter, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-11-015094-8 .
- Hugo Kuhn: Dietrich's escape and battle of raven . In: The German literature of the Middle Ages - author's lexicon . 2nd Edition. tape 2 . Berlin, New York 1980, ISBN 3-11-007699-3 , Sp. 116-127 .
- Elisabeth Lienert, Gertrud Beck: Dietrich's flight. Text- historical edition (= texts and studies on Middle High German heroic epics . Volume 1 ). Niemeyer, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-484-64501-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marburg Repertory: Dietrich's Flight. on the pages of the Manuscript Census, accessed on March 29, 2018