Ravenschlacht (Dietrichepik)

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Rabenschlacht is the title of a Middle High German heroic epic of the 13th century, which is assigned to the group of historical Dietrichepik and is the continuation of the poem Dietrichs Flucht . The historical background of the heroic poetry is probably the conquest of Ravenna by Theodoric in 493.

It reports in the form of 1140 four-line stanzas how Dietrich von Bern tried again, but unsuccessfully, to regain his empire. In the twelve-day Battle of Raben (= Ravenna) he is victorious over his adversary Ermrich (= Ermanarich / Ermenrik), but due to an unfortunate coincidence, the sons of the Hun King Etzels , Orte and Scharpfe, and Dietrich's younger brother Diether in the fight with Witege ( = Wittich ) her life. Ermenrich can escape. Dietrich returns to Etzel's court and, through the intercession of Rüdiger von Bechelaren , the ruling couple, robbed of their sons, accepts him with grace.

Almost a third of the text is suing, i.e. H. dedicated to the intense lamentation of the Hunnish Etzel sons and Diethers who were killed. There are almost 40 complaints.

Like Dietrich's Escape , this poem is full of drastic expressions. It is mentioned that Dietrich's armor becomes soft from the heat in battle. Blood rushes across the battlefield, covering the dead so that they can no longer be seen.

The main formal difference to Dietrich's Flucht lies in the use of the Nibelungen strophe in contrast to the use of rhyming verses in the preceding epic. It can be assumed that the Raven Battle poem was performed singing with instrument accompaniment, but the rhyming pairs of Dietrich's Escape with a speaking voice. Since in four of the five manuscripts the battle of the raven is handed down together with Dietrich's flight , it can be assumed that both poems were performed to the same audience, which was receptive to both forms (singing and speaking).

Compared to the Middle High German epics, however, the old -west Norse Thidrek saga and with it the old Swedish Didriks-Krönikan (Dietrichschronik) locate this battle on the Moselle or a place called Gransport or Gronsport . According to interpretations that refer to an Italian scene in the saga, this name is supposed to represent the grandus portus of Ravenna. However, the older Moselle cartography in the estuary before Koblenz, not far from a rapids known as the “Gänsefürtchen” in the area of ​​the Judenkirchof, reports both a “Rauenthal” and a “Hunnenkopf” . The main difference to the geographical sphere of activity of the Ostrogothic Theodoric is that Þiðrekr af Bern , who was also located in the German-speaking region of Verona (= Bonn) in the Rhine-Franconian region , receives military support from the Frisian Hunaland ruler Attila (old Swedish Aktilius ), whose seat is Susat ( = Soest ) is specified.

literature

  • Josef Breitbach: The raven battle and other stories . Verlag S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1973.
  • Wilhelm Frenzen: Lamentation images and lamentation gestures in German poetry of the courtly Middle Ages , Würzburg-Aumühle 1936 (Bonn Contributions to German Philology 1)
  • Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to Middle High German Dietrichepik. de Gruyter, Berlin 1999. ISBN 3-11-015094-8
  • Elisabeth Lienert, Dorit Wolter (ed.): Rabenschlacht: text-historical edition. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2005. ISBN 3-484-64502-4
  • Jan-Dirk Müller, “Heroic Memory - Heroic Presence. The lament for the Etzel sons in the battle of raven ”, in: Narrative Logics in Medieval and Early Modern Literature. Files from the Heidelberg conference from February 17 to 19, 2011 , ed. by Florian Kragl and Christian Schneider, Heidelberg 2013 (Studies on Historical Poetics 13), pp. 227–242.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Wilhelm Frenzen: Lament pictures and lament gestures in the German poetry of the courtly Middle Ages (=  studies on historical poetics 13 ). Würzburg-Aumühle 1936, p. 65 .