Hagen from Tronje
Hagen is a figure in various works of the Nibelungen saga and related sagas. In the Nibelungenlied he is nicknamed "von Tronje", in the Thidreksaga "von Troia".
Etymology of the nickname "Tronje"
Of the main manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied, the main representatives of the two versions, B and C , always write “Tronege” (“von Tronege Hagene”, “Hagen von Tronege”, “geborn von Tronege”, “helt von Tronege”); the much less carefully written and later handwriting A usually writes "Trony" (also "Troni" and "Tronie"). "Tronje" is the corresponding New High German form. In the main sources B and C, the name of his origin is in the dative, the nominative is "Troneg". “Tronje” is consequently a mistake - albeit a common one.
All subsequent attempts, whether they concern an interpretation of the name or the homeland of Hagen, are highly speculative, but backed with more or less insightful arguments. Although the Nibelungenlied has a historical core, it was not written down until centuries later, around 1200, with the influence of medieval knowledge and the intentions of the author.
There are suggestions to connect the nickname Hagens to place names that sound more or less similar . In particular, names that offer only phonetic similarity, but no meaningful connection to the legend, are rejected by specialist science. The probability that such echoes are accidental is great and, above all, they do not provide anything for the interpretation of the literary figure. It is believed that the poet of the Nibelungenlied considered Tronje to be a real place name in the Burgundian territory ; but whether he himself knew exactly where to locate this place is questionable. He did not know the area around Worms very well and made mistakes in localizing locations.
Nevertheless, the connection between Hagen and the following places is discussed:
- The addition of "von Tronje" to the name could mean a descent from the Greek Troy , as it was fashionable in late antique and early medieval Europe to ascribe such ancestors. This equated the Romans .
- There is a place name that was called "Truncinas" in its Celtic form and which over the centuries had the following Romanesque spellings: "Truncinas" (820–822), "Truncinis" (1040) and "Troncinium" (1198). Its current French name is "Tronchiennes". If you pronounce the last name in French, you almost have the name "Tronje". In New Dutch the place is now called Drongen and is located in the Arrondissement of Ghent ( Belgium ). In this area Modern Dutch authors locate the Kudrunsage because there land- and names are from the Kudrunsage as "Wulpe Tenenbaums" (Tenemarke, Tenelant). According to this interpretation, the Hagen of the Nibelungenlied could be identical to the Hagen of the Kudrunlied.
- "Tronje" could also refer to the Colonia Ulpia Traiana , a Roman city founded opposite the Germanic tribes on the right bank of the Rhine near Xanten , the area from which Siegfried also came. That would explain Hagen's surprisingly extensive knowledge of events and deeds from Siegfried's youth.
- The name of the small castle village of Dhronecken in the Hunsrück , which was called "Troneck" in the Middle Ages and was part of the historical empire of the Burgundians, sounds similar . Not too far away there are place names that echo other figures in the Nibelungenlied: A relative of Hagens is Ortwin von Metz, two of his colleagues Hunold and Volker von Alzey . If you include castles from the area around Dhronecken, Ortwin Metz , Hagen Dhronecken, Hunold Hunoldispetra (today Hunolstein ) and Volker Alzey can be assigned. These are places that were on the way for a traveler, for example coming from Xanten and traveling via Metz and Worms to Passau.
- Etymologies that lead the name back to the Norwegian city of Trondheim are implausible . The city was only founded in 997 AD under the name Nidaros and thus only after the origin of the myth itself. The landscape and the then small kingdom, on the other hand, bears the name Trøndelag .
Hagen in the legend
In the Nibelungenlied Hagen struck first with List (Aushorchung Kriemhilds ), then with malice (from behind) the nearly invulnerable hero Siegfried to a source in the Vosges or in the Odenwald . In the Thidrek saga , no cunning is necessary for this; Högni simply stabs Sigurd (equivalent to the German Siegfried ) when he lies down on the ground to drink from a stream. In the other Scandinavian versions of the Nibelungen saga, Högni is not Sigurd's murderer.
In another legend, the Walt forecast , his long-standing friendship with Walther von Aquitaine is put to the test in the battle on the Wasigenstein . The Waltharius manu fortis and the Nibelungenlied describe the legend in a similar way: Walther of Aquitaine, Hagen and Hiltgunt are given to the Hun King Attila as hostages in Pannonia. Hagen flees (or after the Nibelungenlied : is sent home voluntarily by Etzel) when Gunther comes to the throne. When Walther and Hiltgunt flee from being held hostage, they cross the Rhine near Worms and are recognized. Gunther wants to take his treasure from Walther and orders Hagen to fight, even though he is friends with Walther. Hagen refuses at first. However, when Walther kills Hagen's nephew in the fight, the blood revenge falls to Hagen and he takes up the fight. Only after the three (Hagen, Walther and Gunther) are badly mutilated and unable to fight does the fight end: Hagen loses an eye in the process. The Thidrek saga offers a slightly different version of the whale prediction.
In the old Icelandic Atlas songs (Atli = the historical Attila; in the Nibelungenlied: King Etzel) the Burgundian kings are lured to the court of the Huns by Atli, who wants to get the Nibelung treasure for himself. There Högni (= Hagen) and Gunnar (= Gunther), who are brothers in the Edda, are overwhelmed by an overwhelming force of Huns. Atli tries to elicit the secret from Gunnar where the Niflung Lair is hidden. Gunnar then calls for Högnis to die, as he can only be sure that they will not be played off against each other if only one is alive. Only when he holds Högni's bloody heart in his hands does he announce triumphantly that now only he knows the hiding place, and Atli will never find out. Then Atli has Gunnar thrown into a snake pit .
Nibelungenlied
The Nibelungenlied combines older versions of legends, which are reflected, for example, in the Edda in the Atlas songs and which were previously only passed down orally in Germany, into a continuous narrative. In the Nibelungenlied , Hagen is not Gunther's brother, but a distant relative and the king's most important advisor.
He is considered a heroic fighter and inviolably loyal (the " Nibelung loyalty "), but also as gloomy and cunning.
When Siegfried arrives in Burgundy , Hagen is the only one at court who recognizes the belligerent stranger and advises peace. When Saxon troops attack Burgundy, Hagen suggests using Siegfried as military leader. Together with Siegfried, Hagen advertises Gunther auf Isenstein for Queen Brünhild .
The good relationship with Siegfried ends when Hagen learns of Siegfried's crime against Queen Brunhild: Hagen promises her to avenge Siegfried's defloration by his death . After Siegfried's murder, Hagen sinks his curse- tied treasure - the Nibelungenhort - in the Rhine.
Kriemhild marries Etzel, the king of the Huns, and lures her relatives to her court to take revenge on Hagen. Hagen warns in vain, and when he becomes aware of the betrayal at the Hunnish court, he immediately kills Kriemhild's (and Etzel's) son Ortlieb, who would also be the heir to the claims to the Burgundian throne. At the end of the Nibelungenlied , after the battle at Etzel's court between the Huns and Burgundians, Hagen died as the last of the heroes in the dungeon by Kriemhild, who beheaded him with Siegfried's sword.
Thidreks saga
In the Icelandic versions of the Thidrek saga , "Högni", as the Nordic form of the name of Hagen is, also has the addition of "von Troia". In the old Swedish version, the German form of the name “Hagen” is used and towards the end of the text is mostly associated with “von Tröuia” and once with “von Trönia”. There the final battle of the Nibelungs against the Huns is described differently than z. B. in the Nibelungenlied . In a final duel with “Thidrik af Berne” ( Dietrich von Bern ), Hagen is so badly wounded that he foresees his death. He asks Thidrik for the favor of spending his last night with a woman. The woman who brings Thidrik to him has no name in the saga. In the morning Hagen says to the woman: “You have had a son whom you should call 'Aldrian' after his birth.” He also gives the woman the key to Siegfried's treasure cellar.
In the Nibelungenlied, Aldrian is the name of Hagen's father. In manuscripts A and B, the spelling of the name is consistently "ALDRIAN". The author of manuscript C makes the name "Adrian" (five times) throughout and doubles the number of lines in which A (L) DRIAN is mentioned to 10 without changing the content of the corresponding lines.
Waltharius
According to Waltharius , Hagen initially lived as a hostage at Attila's court, but then flees to Gunther, who is referred to here as the Frankish king. When Walther fled Attila's empire with Hiltgunt and traveled through the Wasgenwald ( Wasgau / Vosges ) laden with treasures , Hagen fought as Gunther's follower against Walther. In doing so he loses an eye, King Gunter a leg and Walther his right hand. This episode is also told in the Thidrek saga in a slightly modified and very shortened form. Hagen is also mentioned in the Waldere fragment.
Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung
In the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner , Hagen is the son of Alberich , after Alberich managed to father a child despite his curse of love. The curse continues to have an effect in Hagen (“early, pale and pale, I hate the happy ones, I'm never happy!”), Which despite all the gloom of the character drawing cannot be denied a tragic trait. Hagen only enters the action stage in the last work of the tetralogy, Götterdämmerung . He dominates the intrigue that Siegfried tempted, despite its binding to Brünnhilde with Gutrune to marry and Brünnhilde for Gunther to win. Hagen is also the driving force behind the plot to murder Siegfried. His goal is that of his father Alberich, who appears to him night and then einschwört that from the Rheingold regain forged Nibelungenring. After Siegfried's death, he also kills Gunther, his half-brother, in a dispute over him. When Brünnhilde returns the ring to the Rhine daughters , Hagen tries to grab it and is dragged into the depths of the Rhine by the Rhine daughters.
Kudrun saga
The shape of the Hagen Kudrunsage place except for the above-mentioned connection through the site Drongen as possible origin of the epithet "von Tronje" no parallel to the shape of Hagen Tronjes. The figure of Hagen in the Kudrun legend is a figure from the Nordic legend.
interpretation
An interpretation of the Nibelung topic as the history of the Christianization of Germania sees the old pagan beliefs embodied in Hagen .
This interpretation is supported by Hagen's external appearance, which has been handed down in writing; so he was - according to the whale prediction - one-eyed. According to the ancient or early medieval reading, this was a sign of special military ability (the Carthaginian general Hannibal was at least temporarily regarded as one-eyed because of an eye disease or an injury) or visionary abilities (the supreme Nordic god Odin sacrificed an eye for the gift of sight).
Sometimes parallels are drawn between the figure of Hagen and the Roman general Flavius Aëtius , who was born in Dorostorum (today in northeastern Bulgaria, on the Danube) and as a child was both hostage to the Visigoths - the later Visigoths - and to the Hunnic court. The Burgundians fought in the battle of the Catalaunian fields in 451 (not far from today's French Troyes ) under Aetius against Attila . According to Merobaudes , Aetius was a feared javelin thrower and known in all the empires of that time. According to Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus , he could do long night watch without sleep like no other. All these qualities are also assigned to Hagen von Tronje.
Poetry and Political Propaganda
The ambiguous, at the same time heroic and dreadful aspect of Hagen has been a theme in poetry since the reopening of the Nibelungenlied in the 19th century (cf. Friedrich Hebbel to Agnes Miegel ).
At the beginning of the First World War, the catchphrase “ loyalty to the Nibelung ” referred to the connection between the German Reich and Austria-Hungary, and in the Second World War the connection between the Germans and Hitler. It refers to Hagen's absolute loyalty to his master Gunther and vice versa. The Germanic propaganda of National Socialism praised Hagen after the defeat of Stalingrad - and no longer Siegfried as before.
Wolfgang Hohlbein deals with the hero's life in his book Hagen von Tronje , in which Hagen, not Siegfried, plays the leading role. The American author Stephan Grundy tells in the novel Attila's Treasure (German title: Wodans Fluch ) the experiences of the young and young Hagen before the events of the Nibelungenlied . Grundy mixes various sources of inspiration such as the Edda , the libretto for Wagner's Ring and actual historical facts about the way of life of the Huns and Teutons at the time .
Movie and TV
Hagen has been portrayed by the following four actors in the five film adaptations of the Nibelungen saga to date :
| year | Movie | actor |
|---|---|---|
| 1924 | the Nibelungen | Hans Adalbert Schlettow |
| 1967 | the Nibelungen | Siegfried Wischnewski |
| 1967 | the Nibelungen | Alfred Schieske |
| 2004 | the Nibelungen | Julian Sands |
literature
- Gerd Backenköhler: Investigations into the figure of Hagens von Tronje in the medieval Nibelung poems . Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn 1961 (dissertation).
- Heinz Cüppers (Ed.): The Romans in Rhineland-Palatinate . Theiss, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8062-0308-3 .
- Claudia Brinker-von der Heyde: Hagen . In: Johannes Hoops et al. (Ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . tape 13 . de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-11-016315-2 , p. 346-349 .
- The Thidrekssaga or Dietrich von Bern and the Niflungen / trans. by Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen. With new geographical note vers. by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg . Der Leuchter, Reichl, St. Goar 1989 (Icelandic: Þiðreks saga . Translated by Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen, 2 volumes).
- Gregor Vogt-Spira (Ed.): Waltharius: Latin / German . Phillipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-004174-0 .
- Uwe Ludwig, Ingo Runde: Dark rock in the surf. Hagen von Tronje, a positive hero in the Nibelungenlied? in: Z. Zeitschrift für Kultur- und Geisteswissenschaften. H. 17, Fosse, Hannover 1998. ISSN 0945-0580 , pp. 49-64.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Bartsch, Helmut de Boor: The Nibelungenlied Middle High German / New High German . Philip Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-050644-1 , pp. 274 f., 342 f., 826-829 .
- ↑ See Jan Philipp Reemtsma : Why Hagen killed Jung-Ortlieb . Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49427-7 .
- ^ Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg : The Didriks Chronicle . Otto Reichl, St. Goar 1989, ISBN 3-87667-102-7 .