Thidreks saga

Thidrekssaga, sheet from manuscript Perg.fol. no 4

The Thidrek saga is an extensive compilation of legends from the 13th century in Old Norse ; In addition to the older Norwegian version (and related Icelandic versions) there is also a more concise old Swedish from the 15th century ( Didrikskrønike ), which is mostly assumed to be a shortened and contradictory translation of the Norwegian manuscript that has survived . The saga tells in prose (for the works in verse form see Dietrichsepik ) the life of the hero Þiðrekr af Bern , who was known in the German-speaking area as Dietrich von Bern .

According to the majority of research, the figure of Thidrek (Didrik, Dietrich) of Bern is based on the person of the historical Ostrogoth king Theodoric . However, a considerable part of the older German philology has contradicted this assumption and instead considers an original Rhenish-Franconian saga about the Merovingian king Theuderich I , who in the heroic epic context with his son Theudebert I is also advocated as the legendary protagonist of the Wolfdietrich , as more likely. The essential literary changes from the historical Ostrogothic and / or Rhenish Franconian rulers to the legendary figure of Thidrek had already been achieved at the time of Charlemagne , who had an alleged Theodoric statue transferred from Ravenna to Aachen . Already in the Hildebrandslied (recorded around 830-840; probably older) Dietrich had to flee to a "Hun" ruler; but before Odoacer , who was actually his contemporary; not, as in more recent forms of saga, before Ermanarich , who actually lived about 150 years before Theodoric. Around this Thidrek are grouped a larger number of heroic sagas that originally belonged to other contexts , such as those of Siegfried , the Nibelung saga, the saga of Wieland the blacksmith and the Wilzen saga , the protagonists of which are linked to Thidrek through following or relatives. This makes the Thidrek saga the earliest compilation of German heroic sagas in prose form, which is why it is often used in German research.

Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg , who translated the old Swedish version of the Thidreks into German for the first time, put forward the controversial but so far unfounded thesis that the Thidreks relates to historical events during the migration period in Lower Germany and Dietrich von Bern does not identical to the Ostrogoth king Theodoric. Rather, Dietrich is a king of Bonn who has apparently not been attested in any other way . Knight's origin, however, connects Ritter with the family of the Frankish king Clovis I (father of Theuderich I), who, strikingly similar to Erminrik in the Thidrek saga, had ensured the systematic removal of close male relatives or possible heirs to the throne. However, Ritter-Schaumburg's interpretation of the Thidrek saga is rejected by large parts of the research.

The saga writer states that his story was “compiled from the story of German men, partly based on their songs, with which one should entertain great gentlemen”. Presentation of the saga would thus be sources from the Low German space (Sachsen) , partly in prose, partly in verse. At the end of the Niflung part, sources from Bremen, Münster and Soest are also mentioned. Since the High Middle Ages, with the penetration of a Low German aristocratic and merchant culture into the north (cf. Hanse ), Scandinavian interest in Dietrich increased, initially in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Sources

The Thidrek saga has come down to us in three parchment manuscripts in Old-West Norse (Old Icelandic-Old Norwegian) and an Old Swedish version in two very similar manuscripts. However, only copies of two of the old-west Norse parchment manuscripts are still available today.

The old Norse parchment manuscripts

Two of the three parchment manuscripts have been lost. They were probably destroyed in the Copenhagen city ​​fire in 1728.

Johan Peringskiöld's trilingual text edition based on the Stockholm manuscript

The third of the parchment manuscripts is therefore the oldest and is kept in the Royal Library in Stockholm. It is usually called "Membrane" (Mb) and was probably recorded around the middle of the 13th century in the Norwegian port city of Bergen . This version is preferred for translation into German. However, the text is no longer complete, especially at the beginning and at the end there are lacunae . This manuscript now contains only 129 and two blank sheets of originally 162 sheets, which were in 19 layers with 8 sheets each. 10 sheets were subsequently added to the eighth layer.

In the 1308-1314 manuscript index of the Bergen bishop Árni Sigurðarson a manuscript of the Thidrek saga is noted. This membrane, which is now kept in Stockholm, is suspected to be behind this. The chronological location of this manuscript in the Hanseatic and royal city of Bergen under Håkon IV is also important , as it allows conclusions to be drawn about the origins of the Thidrek saga.

The Stockholm membrane reveals the hand of five different writers or editors (Mb1 to Mb5). Mb1 and Mb2 were Norwegians, Mb4 and Mb5 were Icelandic; from these nationalities the origin of Mb3 is disputed. Mb2 subsequently wrote titles for Mb1 and Mb3 for Mb4 and Mb5. The scribes Mb2 and Mb3 were "main scribe" and "transcription manager", respectively. According to Carl Richard Unger's structure of the Stockholm and Old Icelandic manuscripts, the first edition comprises chapters Mb 1 to Mb 196. The third editor edited his predecessor by inserting 10 sheets about the story of Sigurd's youth (Mb 152–169, cf. Bertelsen I, 282-350). In addition, Mb3 deleted the following two sections of Mb2 (Mb 170–171, B. I, 351–352) and inserted his version about the Niflung family as an alternative (B. I, 322–325), so that two editors were retained. Comparable procedures can also be seen in the Wilzen reports (Part I: Mb 21–56); see. also the tales of death about Osantrix in Part II (Mb 134–145, here Mb 144) with the version in III (Mb 291-315, here Mb 292).

These editors can be recognized by the fact that they apparently used different templates. However, the same editor or writer occasionally used different templates with differing content. This makes the Thidrek saga particularly valuable for the genesis of the saga, which allows conclusions to be drawn about different versions of the traditions that have come to Old Norway. The best-known narrative contradictions within the Thidrek saga are two different death reports about the Wilzen king Osantrix and the origin of the Niflungs - these by the same writer (Mb3) twice in immediate succession with sometimes different names (Mb3 provides King Aldrian as Niflungsvater) and the number of siblings (Mb2 also mentions Guthorm or Guttorm among the Niflung Brothers fathered by King Irung ). Narrative duplications, insofar as these concern the sequence of chapters and are less significant in the overall context, are encountered, for example, in the announcement of Hildebrand's sword guidance (belatedly according to Mb 187) and the acquisition of Thidrek's horse Falke according to Mb 188, which, however, according to Mb 100 has long been in the possession of Hero is. Presumably, these cases are not due to erroneous displacements, but to deliberate depositing of different source versions.

The membrane (Mb) was mostly preferred for translations into German, mainly because it is the oldest text in the Thidreks saga. The copies A + E and B + D contain some deviations. Johan Peringskiöld, at that time working as a secretary, antiquarian and Icelandic translator in Sweden's National Archives antikvitetsarkiv , has in his handwriting edition of 1715, although the Anfangslakune of Mb with the accounts of Samson's conquests, Thidreks and Hildebrand's gender, Heimirs introduction and Hilde-Grim -narrative well filled with an old Icelandic manuscript, but not published Thidrek's dragon fight, Heimir's monastery episode and the stories about his and Thidrek's end as a substitute for the final mood. However, these reports are contained in an older Swedish manuscript (see below).

The old Icelandic manuscripts

Two good Icelandic paper manuscripts from the 17th century exist in the Arnamagnaean collection of both lost ancient Norwegian text documents, which are labeled A (AM 178, fol. = Sigle A) with E and B (AM 177, fol. = Sigle B) with D are designated. The manuscripts comprise 109 (A) and 194 sheets (B) and were in the possession of the Icelandic scholar Árni Magnússon , who noted for manuscript A that these traditions come from Austfjarða (East Fjords) and the town of Bræðratunga with an attached prologue .

In the manuscript edition by Henrik Bertelsen, these two manuscripts are used to fill in the lacunae in the older old Norwegian membrane and to represent text deviations. Manuscript A is particularly noticeable because it agrees in many ways with other Nordic traditions such as the Vǫlsunga saga . This is what Kriemhild calls this manuscript under the name Gudrun, she describes Brynhilðr as Buðli's daughter and is the only one to tell of her early death after Sigurðr or Siegfried's death. She also knows the name of Siegfried's sister Signy .

The old Swedish version

In addition to the measure based on a common source base altwestnordischen traditions of Thidrekssaga there's is Old version in two manuscripts (Sv A and Sv B) from the 15th century, the Didrikskrønike , Didrik-Krönikan (Dietrich Chronicle) or Sagan om Didrik af Bern is called . The older version Sv A comprises 159 sheets and is dated around 1500 under the signature E 9013, previously under Skoklosteramlingen no 115./116. It initially provides (sheets 1 ^r –36 ^r ) the chivalric novel Hertig Fredrik af Normandie from the Eufemiavisorna cycle . The tradition of the Þiðriks saga af Bern (sheets 37 ^r - 159 ^r ) was written by two scriptors. The somewhat more recent, fragmentary manuscript Sv B with the codex designation K 45, 4 °, dates back to the first decade of the 16th century, with particularly conspicuous Danisms only passed down to Chap. 229, in which the narrative sections about Sigurd's youth and his wedding to Crimilla are missing.

Overall, these manuscripts report more factually and briefly. In terms of content, Sv A differs from the Icelandic traditions, especially in the final part, in that it constructs a second death story about its title hero, which is nowhere else handed down: In the end, Didrik fights with Wideke Welandsson , who killed Attila's sons and Didrik's brother, defeated him; but he dies of his wounds after sinking his sword Mimungs ( Mymmings ) in a body of water in Svava .

The literary scholar and journalist Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg translated these manuscripts into German for the first time and named them "Svava". That the Swedish version of the Thidreks saga is a translation, she herself indicates at the very end, with the words:

Herr Didrik's book has now come to an end, God may send His grace to him who did it in Swedish.

This is the main reason why the Old Swedish version is generally considered to be a shortened translation of the Old West Norse manuscripts. The fact that the Swedish tradition contains no blatant contradictions or duplications, such as Mb, can be traced back to the fact that the scriptors consciously tried to produce a uniform and non-contradictory work.

Ritter-Schaumburg denies this dependency and considers the Swedish version to be the translation of a Danish or originally Low German text that no longer exists, which is also supported by the Low German names of the heroes and numerous Danisms. He also refers to the relationship between the two manuscripts Sv A and Sv B in the Swedish version, which he believes must be separate translations of the same text. This could be recognized by the frequently used synonymous but different words. However, due to the close relationship between the two manuscripts, the foreign source must have been the same and could therefore not be the membrane.

The deviations between Sv A and Sv B, however, are within the limits of what late medieval scribes can trust. It is therefore unnecessary to assume that the translation is done twice. Where the Swedish version uses names that look more similar to German legends than the corresponding names in the Old West Norse manuscripts, these are German legends that were very popular in the late Middle Ages; the translator obviously knew various legends in the form that was current in Germany at the time, in addition to the original.

The text criticism of the Swedish manuscripts complains about a few incorrect translations and misinterpretations, which Kay Busch sums up as follows:

The pivotal point here is the localization of Vilkinaland, which was probably originally located in Slavic territory, but in the old Swedish translation it was regarded as the old name for Sweden. The content of the saga was of great political importance as early as the 15th century, which can be clearly seen in the fact that text passages from this translation found their way into the prose cronica of King Karl Knutson. It is very likely that this early transmission was also initiated by the ruling party.

content

Overview of the content of the chapters

In the following, the table of contents of the Membrane tradition, supplemented by the old Icelandic manuscripts A and B by Carl R. Unger (Mb), followed by volume and page references from Henrik Bertelsen's manuscript edition. The subdivision into the narrative sequences comes from Susanne Kramarz-Bein (2002).

I. Narrative sequence: youth and experimentation

Only the Old Icelandic manuscripts A and B and the old Swedish version are text witnesses. The beginning of Mb is lost.

• Prologue of the Thidrek Saga (ThS). Contains a legendary assessment from old Norse literature about the sources and the scope of the saga. The date of origin of this prologue corresponds to the dating range of the two Old Icelandic AB manuscripts.

• Mb 1–14 (I, 8–32) "Knight Samson and his sons": Knight Samson, an almost gigantic, black-haired warrior, falls in love with Hildisvid, the daughter of Jarl Rodgeir of Salerni (mostly equated with Salerno , is related to this of the localities, however, rather around a Sal-Franconian seat in today's Belgium), and kidnaps them with their consent. At first he lives with her as a robber in a forest; there he kills the Jarl and King Brunstein, who want to bring Hildisvid back. Finally he is elected duke on a thing by the citizens of Salernis and then even made king. With Hildisvid he has two sons, Erminrik and Thetmar. In old age he started a war against Jarl Elsung von Bern (compared to Bonn, where Verona in the Rhine region was usually equated with Verona in northern Italy). He killed Elsung with his own hands and married his daughter Odilia to his younger son Thetmar, whom he made King of Bern. With his older son, Erminrik , he moves further south towards " Rome ", but dies on the way there. Erminrik conquered the majority of the Roman territory " including many islands of the Greek sea ". (The old Swedish version, which also allows a more northerly reporting geography, only mentions “ Grekin ”, which can be interpreted as the Graacher area east of “ Roma secunda ” or Trier .) Samson made his third son, Aki, whom he had with a concubine Duke of Fritila.

• Mb 15–20 (I, 32–43) “Jung Thidrek”: Narrated by Hildebrand, King Thetmar and his son Thidrek . Thidrek grows up to be a man of enormous strength and with many of the good qualities of his grandfather Samson. Hildibrand (corresponds to the German Hildebrand ), son of the Duke of Venedi (often equated with Venice ), comes to Bern and is appointed by Thetmar to educate young Thidrek. On the hunt, Thidrek catches the dwarf Alfrik (the northernized form of the German name Alberich ), who, in order to be released, delivers the sword, Nagelring, forged by himself . With this great sword Thidrek fights with Hildebrand's help against the magical giantess Hild and her husband Grim. Although the halves of the body of the slain Hild can join together again by magic, he succeeds in killing her for good. Thidrek's most valuable loot is the helmet of the two monsters called Hildigrim. These and other feats made Thidrek famous.
• Heimir is the son of Studas, the manager of Brynhild's stud at Seegard Castle in Swabia. The best of all hero horses come from the Brynhild stud. Heimir was originally called Studas after his father; however, since it is as fierce as the dragon Heimir, the most vicious of all dragons, it is later named after him. Heimir gets the stallion Rispe from his father Studas. Heimir moves to Thidrek and challenges him to a duel; the victors should own the weapons of the loser. Thidrek wins; Heimir lets himself be accepted by him as a companion.

This is where the preserved part of Mb begins.

• Mb 21–56 (I, 44–63 & II, 61–105) “First editorship of the Wilzensaga”: The Wilzen are a people that the ThS locates contradictingly: mostly south of the Baltic Sea, sometimes closer to Russia, sometimes more to the west ; but sometimes also as "Greater Sweden" with parts north and south of the Baltic Sea. This saga is recorded in Mb in two versions ("editorial offices"), which do not show any major differences in content, but differ stylistically. It looks like two translators translated the same German text, or, more likely, an original translation was edited very freely, and the editor Mb3 decided to include the second version as well; this follows in Mb much later: between the stories of "Herburt and Hilde" and Walther and Hildegund . The Icelandic manuscripts only offer the “Second Editing” of the Wilzen saga, neither where Mb has the “First Editing” nor where Mb has the “Second Editing”, but after the narrative sections by Velent, Vidga, Ecke and Fasold.

• The content of the “First Editing of the Wilzen Saga”: First report on the fighting between Wilzen and Russians. The Wilzenkönig Vilcinus defeats the Russian king Hertnit, moves into his capital Holmgard (Novgorod) and makes Russia pay tribute. On the way back across the Baltic Sea after the Russian War, his ship is stopped by a mermaid; he goes ashore, where she meets him as a woman and receives a child. The mermaid brings the newborn to the kingdom of Vilcinus, where it grows into a giant under the name of Vadi. Vilcinus hands over 12 farms in Sweden to Vadi. Vilcinus also has a humane but fierce and greedy son, Nordian. After Wilzinus' death, Hertnit succeeds in subjugating Nordian; this, and later Nordian's gigantic sons Aventrod, Etgeir, Aspilian and Viðolfr are subject to Hertnit interest. King of Wilzenland becomes one of Hertnit's sons, Osantrix, while Russia and Poland inherit another Hertnit's son, Waldimar. Hertnit only leaves Zealand to Nordian.

• Osantrix sends two of his nephews on a recruiting trip to see King Melias of Hunaland , which includes today's Westphalian and Lower Saxony areas, to get his daughter Oda. However, the haughty Melias has the recruiter thrown in jail. Osantrix makes use of a ruse (he goes incognito to the court of Melias and pretends to be Frederick, King of Spain) and the strength of Nordian's huge sons. In particular Viðolfr Mittumstangi. (in King Rother , who is the model for courting Osantrix, his name is Widolt with the pole ) spreads such horror that the other giants have to hold him by iron chains, and he is only released in the worst of the fighting. The prisoners are freed, the king's daughter is kidnapped. Osantrix tries on her incognito a silver and then a gold shoe; the shoes fit. Then he reveals himself. The shoe test is unmotivated here; it makes sense in King Rother. Osantrix marries Oda and has a daughter with her, Erka (who later becomes Attila's wife ).

• Mb 39–56 (I, 56–73 & II, 84–105) “Attila's courtship”: The Frisian prince Attila becomes king of Hunaland , the kingdom of the Hunir or Hynir (not “Huns”; however, double letters were spelled in the Middle Ages very irregularly handled) by tricking him into the possession of Wilzenprinzessin Erka (daughter of Osantrix). Attila's advertisement for Erka is structurally similar to that of Osantrix for Oda; in particular, both brides can only be acquired through lists. While Osantrix himself plays the decisive role in his advertising for Oda, Attila owes the success of the advertising largely to the second advertiser he sent, Margrave Roðolfr von Bakalar ; this corresponds to the Middle High German Rüedeger von Bechelaren ( Pöchlarn in Lower Austria).

• Mb 57-78 (I, 73-131) "The story of the blacksmith Velent" has Vadi, the son of King riesische Vilcinus with a mermaid from the forest a son named Velent, the dwarves at the Balve cave is in the forge teaching . After Vadi's death he slays the dwarves, comes to Jutland as a court blacksmith to King Nnung, forges his famous sword Mimung . Nothing has the tendons cut through his feet so that he cannot escape. Velent takes revenge for this by killing the king's sons and processing their skulls into skull cups, from which Nendung drinks without knowing it, and by raping the king's daughter. Velent flees with the help of a flying device constructed from bird wings (like the Daidalos of the Greek legend). On Nidung's orders, Velent's brother Egil, the marksman, has to shoot the man who fled; it comes to Egil's master shot. Egil once had to shoot an apple from the head of his son as a test in order to be accepted by Niden, and to do this he had three arrows to himself, although Niden had only allowed him one shot. When Nothing asked why after the shot, Egil answered frankly that he would have shot the other two arrows at the king if he had hit his child. Now, while Velent flees, Egil has the opportunity to take revenge on Nnung: Velent had agreed with Egil that he should order him to shoot Velent at a blood-filled bladder that Velent fastened under his armpit , shoot to make it look like Egil has done his job. Egil actually hits the bladder exactly. Nothing believes that the blood is Velent's and therefore does not realize that Egil cheated on him. Velent flies away. As he flies away, Velent Nnung reveals his acts of revenge. The son Vidga arises from the connection with the king's daughter, after Nidung's death there is a reconciliation with Nidung's son.

Egils Meisterschuss is directly related to the legend of Wilhelm Tell , which has its source in the Gesta Danorum of the Saxo Grammaticus in the story of the marksman Toko: Toko was forced by the Danish King Harald to shoot an apple off his son's head; the story Saxos von Toko takes place in the 10th century and was written before 1216; the story of the ThS around 1250; the battle of Sempach, in which Wilhelm Tell is said to have fought, was only in 1307. The Swiss chronicler Aegidius Tschudi , whom Schiller used as a source for his Wilhelm Tell , knew the version of Saxo Grammaticus and applied it to the invented Swiss national hero.

The Wilzen saga is linked to Thidrek through the figures of Vidga (corresponds to the hero of German sagas called Witege or Wittich ), Velent ( Wieland the blacksmith ) and Attila .

• Mb 79–95 (I, 131–173) “Vidga's first exit”: Vidga moves to Bern to test herself in a duel with Thidrek, and meets Thidrek's companions on the way, including Hildibrand. He exchanges the wonderful sword Mimung in a duel between Vidgas and Thidrek in order to spare Thidrek's life. Only then can Thidrek win. Hildibrand gives Vidga Mimung back when Thidrek tries to kill him. King Thetmar separates Vidga and Thidrek; Vidga becomes Thidrek's companion.

• Mb 96–107 (I, 174–203) “Thidrek's fights with corner and Fasold”: Thidrek moves out to gain fame, kills corner and wins his brother Fasold as a companion.

• Mb 108–131 (I, 203–250) “From Thetleif the Dane”: Heimir is banished and joins a band of robbers. Thetleif Aschenpuster is introduced, he fights Ingram and Heimir on his way to Thidrek, Heimir returns to Bern, Thetleif becomes Thidrek's husband. There is a fight between Waltari von Wasgenstein and Thetleif. Amlung becomes Kämpe Thidreks. King Thetmar dies.

• Mb 134–146 (I, 253–273) “The Wilzen saga, second part”: Vildiver comes to Thidrek, Herbrand becomes Thidrek's standard bearer, Attila asks Thidrek for help against Osantrix von Wilzenland, Vidga is captured by the Wilzen, Vildiver freed with help Isungs Vidga, Heimir steals Mimung from the unconscious Vidga, who later returns to Bern. Attila praises Thidrek's companions.

• Mb 147–151 (I, 273–281) “The train against Jarl Rimstein”: At the request of his uncle Ermanrik, who reigns as emperor in “Rome”, Thidrek moves against Jarl Rimstein and defeats him; Heimir and Vidga quarrel, the city of Gerimsheim ( Germersheim ) is conquered.

• Mb 152–168 (I, 282–319) “Young Sigurd”: Sigmund, King of Tarlungaland, woos Sisibe of Hispania. She is slandered for having cheated on him and is said to be murdered in the forest for it. However, the two hired killers disagree; Sisibe gives birth in the forest and places the child in a glass mead vessel; the two men get into a fight and bump into the vessel that rolls into the river and drifts towards the sea. Sisibe dies of pain over it. The glass vessel shatters on a bank; a doe suckles the child. A blacksmith, Mimir, who burns coal in the forest, finds the child and raises it. He gives him the name Siegfried (only later do the writers realize that Siegfried in their German sources is the same legendary figure who is called Sigurð or Sigurd in Scandinavia and they switch to this Nordic form). Since this soon becomes so strong that he beats up the blacksmiths and knocks the anvil into the ground, Mimir wants to have his brother Regin, who lives as a dragon in the forest, kill him. Siegfried kills the dragon with a wooden ax and a tree trunk and cooks the dragon meat. Mimir, full of fear, gives him armor and the sword Gram, in order to put him in good shape, and promises him a horse from Brynhild's stud; nevertheless Siegfried / Sigurd slays Mimir. Sigurd comes to Brynhild, who tells him where he comes from, gives him a horse.

• Mb 169–188 (I, 319–350) “The hero show”: Oda, the wife of King Aldrian, falls asleep in the garden, an alb lives with her, this is how the son Hǫgni / Hagen is conceived. Afterwards the same scribe writes the same story again, but Oda's husband is now called Irung; the number of siblings also varies. The heroes at Thidrek's court (Hildibrand, Heimir, Vidga, Jarl Hornbogi, Aumlung, Sintram, Fasold, Vildiver and Herbrand) are introduced.

• Mb 190–225 (I, 354 – II, 37) "Thidreks Zug ins Bertangenland": Thidrek moves against King Isung in Bertangenland. There Sigurd fights for Isung against Thidrek, by means of a deceptive oath Thidrek can use miming in dire need and wins. Sigurd recognizes the fraud, but still voluntarily becomes Thidrek's husband.

II. Narrative sequence: getting married

• Mb 226–230 (II, 37–43) “Sigurd and Gunnar's wedding”: tells how Sigurd got Gunnar's sister Grimhild as a wife and persuaded Gunnar at his wedding to advertise the most beautiful woman in the world, Brynhild. The four of Gunnar, Thidrek, Sigurd and Hogni set out for Brynhild. She is now angry with Sigurd because he broke her engagement (in the ThS report about Sigurd's first encounter with Brynhild, however, no engagement is mentioned). Now that Sigurd is married, she agrees to marry Gunnar. So Brynhild is not lied to in advertising. Even so, she is not happy that Gunnar is supposed to be her husband and refuses to accept him on their wedding night. When he approaches her anyway, she ties him up and hangs him on a nail on the wall. It goes like this for three consecutive nights. Gunnar asks Sigurd to take the maidservant from Brynhild. Sigurd vows to remain silent. Sigurd sneaks into Gunnar's bedroom in the darkness, exchanges clothes with him, overwhelms and rapes Brynhild. But then he pulls a ring from her finger without her noticing. Since her supernatural powers were tied to virginity, she is now as weak as any other woman and will be at Gunnar's will in the future. Sigurd disappears again under cover of darkness. The two swap the clothes back. Nobody notices anything. You travel back to Gunnar's court; Gunnar now rules the Niflungenland together with his brothers Gernoz and Hogni, as well as with Sigurd. Thidrek travels home to Bern.

• Mb 231–240 (II, 43–61) “Herbort and Hilde”: Herbort moves to King Arthur of Britain for his daughter Hild as a suitor for Thidrek, but escapes with the princess, lives with her, kills his pursuers, becomes a duke a foreign king and gains great fame through this. Thidrek wins Gudilinda, the daughter of King Drusian, as his wife. His companions, Fasold and Thetleif the Dane, marry Gudilinda's sisters.

• Mb 241–244 (II, 105–109) “Valtari and Hildigund”: Valtari (Walther) von Vaskastein (Wasgenstein), nephew of King Ermanrik, and Hildigund, daughter of the Duke Iliad of Greece, come hostage to King Attila of Susat. They flee together, Valtari becomes master of all pursuers, including Hognis, who wants to kill him cowardly from behind: Hildigund notices him, warns Valtari, who knocks out Hogni's eye with a boar bone that he has just gnawed off. They come to King Ermanrik, who agrees with Attila with great gifts.

• Mb 245–275 (II, 109–158) “Jarl Iron”: Jarl Iron is the son of King Arthur (Hs. A: Arkimannus ) von Bertangenland. Irons wife is called Isolde (this Isolde has nothing to do with the Isolden of the Tristan saga). Iron's brother is Apollonius of Tyra. Iron is addicted to hunting, during one of the hunts he becomes a prisoner of King Solomon of France. Isolde achieves his release, but dies soon afterwards. Iron moves to Rome as a widower and follower of Attila for a festival of Ermanrik. On the way there he stops at Duke Aki's 'Örlungenschutz'. Aki's wife Bolfriana and Iron fall in love. The Jarl puts a magic ring on Bolfriana. Duke Aki kills Iron, but dies a little later. The widowed Bolfriana marries Vidga Velentssohn. She becomes the mother of the Aumlungen, who later become victims of the Ermanrik ( Aumlungen : in the Middle High German legend Harlungen ; historical: the Amelungen are the ancestors of Theodoric; in the northern area around Bern-Bonn , the Amelungen appear as a people between the Ahr, cf. (H. ) ARLUNGEN in the area of ​​the Roman fort Brisiacum [Bad Breisig], and the Amel).

III. Narrative sequence: downfall and death

• Mb 276–283 (II, 158–169) “Sifka's revenge”: King Ermanrik desecrated his wife in the absence of his previously loyal advisor Sifka. Sifka first causes the king to condemn his sons to death or to send them to death. Then he brings about the death of the Aumlungen nephews. The fortune of Vidgas, her stepfather, is destroyed. Ermanrik compensates Vidga at Thidrek's advice.

• Mb 284–290 (II, 169–179) “Thidreks Flucht”: Sifka incites Ermanrik against Thidrek, Ermanrik moves against Thidrek, Heimir is enemies with Ermanrik, Thidrek flees first to Rodingeir (German: Rüdiger), then to Susat to Attila .

• Mb 291–315 (II, 179–218) “The third part of the Wilzensaga”: describes Thidrek's war journeys against the eastern countries of the Wilzen and Russians.

• Mb 316–341 (II, 218–258) “Thidrek's move against Ermanrik”: Thidrek receives an army from Attila after the intercession of Queen Erka. Even the sons of Attila are entrusted to him. It comes to the battle of Gronsport (old north, also Gransport ) on the Moselle (in the Dietrichepik the raven battle ; raven is the old German name for Ravenna , where Theoderich is buried and the Middle High German hero epic settles this "Ravennaschlacht"). Duke Naudung fell in battle; Attila's sons and Thidrek's younger brother Thether are killed by Vidga's miming , whereupon Dietrich persecutes him but cannot reach him. Thidrek returns to Attila hapless. Again Queen Erka stands up for Thidrek with Attila; he is acquitted of guilt for the death of the sons of Attila. Queen Erka dies. Thidrek continues to serve with Attila.

• Mb 342–348 (II, 258–268) The next part of the Nibelungen saga: “Sigurd's death”: a long time had passed since the two weddings, and the realm of the Nibelungs, with the capital Werniza (in the opinion of most researchers: Worms on the Rhine), King Gunnar rules with his brother Hogni and his brother-in-law Jung Sigurd. The empire flourished largely because of Sigurd's strength and wisdom. One day Brynhild enters the hall in which Grimhild, Sigurd's wife, is already sitting in the high seat and demands that she leave it because it belongs to her alone (a high seat could accommodate two to three people; the argument is therefore solely from Brynhild out). Grimhild replies that this is her mother's seat. Then Brynhild insults her that Sigurd ran after a doe (an allusion to Sigurd's youth in the forest), and that his wife had to step back behind Gunnar's wife. Thereupon she is exposed by Grimhild, who tells her the secret of Brynhild's defloration in front of those present and shows her a ring as proof, which Sigurd Brynhild pulled off when he overcame her. Brynhild is not even particularly surprised: she suspected what had happened and demands Sigurd's murder after the argument with Grimhild, not because Sigurd had helped Gunnar on this point, but because he had betrayed it to Grimhild and thus made her shame public. She complains to Gunnar, Hogni and Gernoz of their suffering and demands Sigurd's death and incites the Niflung against him by pointing out that Sigurd is becoming more and more powerful and could wrest their rule from them. The murder does not need any props (like a little cross sewn onto Siegfried's robe in the Song of the Nibelungs ): it is enough for Hogni Sigurd to thrust a spear between his shoulder blades when he lies down on the ground during the hunt staged for this purpose in order to escape from a stream drink. They carry the body home and throw it to Grimhild's bed. They claim a boar killed him while hunting. “You were that boar,” Grimhild says to Hogni.

• Mb 349–355 (II, 268–275) “Hertnidi's fight with Isung”: Death of Fasold and Thetleif - Valtari had died before Gronsport - Thidrek became more and more lonely.

• Mb 356–394 (II, 275–328) “Grimhild's Vengeance”: In this largest section of the entire saga, there are significantly fewer deviations from the Nibelungenlied than in earlier sections. In places you can clearly see the use of a common template, e.g. B. that Oda (Nibelungenlied: Ute) tells her sons a warning dream about dead birds before they leave for Attila's court. However, there are also significant deviations in both works from their presumed common secondary source. The Attilas court in Susater (= Soester ) is located  in the " Hunaland " or present-day Westphalia, not in Hungary as in the Nibelungenlied. According to the predominant research opinion, the ThS is said to have relocated the scenes northwards (see e.g. above on the 'Ravennaschlacht'). Another obvious change to the ThS is that Gunnar is captured by Osid, a nephew of Attila and then, as in other Norse versions of the saga, thrown into a snake tower by Attila. The Gunther of the Nibelungenlied, on the other hand, is defeated by Dietrich von Bern and handed over to Kriemhild. The ThS surely keeps the older version, however, in the fact that Thidrek kills Grimhild on Attila's orders, not Hildebrand single-handedly, as in the Nibelungenlied. Grimhild acts objectively diabolical in the ThS, also in the eyes of the narrator, so that even her husband demands her death, while the Nibelungenlied partially excuses her and Hildebrand does not get the character of an "objective avenger". In the ThS she does not kill Hagen, but her seriously injured brother Giselher by sticking a burning log in his mouth. Attila (corresponds to German Etzel ) is greedy for gold, as in other Scandinavian poems. Hogni was badly wounded by Thidrek, but lives another day until he dies. That night he fathered another son and gave the woman the key to the 'Siegfriedskeller', which she should give to the child when it had grown up. The ThS also does not know a “cook” and therefore does not know “Rumold's advice” from the Nibelungenlied.

In some places the ThS (or its source) apparently not only uses the same template as the Nibelungenlied, but also knows this itself and uses it as a "secondary source". Some formulations of the ThS are more similar to the more recent arrangement “C” of the Nibelungenlied than its original version.

• Mb 395–402 (II, 328–341) “Thidreks Homecoming”: It reports the farewell to Attila, the lament over Rodingeir's death, the meeting with and the victory over Jarl Elsung “from Babilonia”. Thidrek learns that Ermanrik is ill.

From Mb 398 (Thidrek's stay in Bakalar) the spellings based on * Aumlunga-, * Orlunga- / * Ørlunga - are consistently abandoned, also inconsistently in the same chapters of Mb and the AB manuscripts. Beginning with Thidrek's stopover at Duke Lodvijgur ( Hlodver , Mb 403), instead, indicating a joint model by one author , only the forms * Omlunga and * Ømlunga - are used in both the oldest Stockholm manuscript and in the AB texts .

• Mb 403–411 (II, 343–355) “Thidreks and Hildibrand's reception in Bern”: Hildebrand meets his son Alibrand. After the father has defeated the son, they identify themselves, Alibrand hands Thidrek Bern over. Ermanrik dies, Sifka wants to become ruler. Thidrek goes to battle against Sifka.

• Mb 412–416 (II, 355–359) “Thidrek's victory”: Thidrek wins the battle against Sifka, Thidrek ascends the throne at “Romaburg”. Hildebrand and Queen Herrad die.

• Mb 417–422 (II, 359–368) “Thidreks dragon fight”: King Hernit is killed fighting a dragon. His wife, again an Isolde, waits in vain. Thidrek can defeat the dragon, rides in Hernit's armor to his castle and marries Isolde.

• Mb 423–428 (II, 369–375) “Attila's death”: Aldrian, Hagen's son, grows up at Attila's court. His mother informs him of his father's death and gives him the keys to the 'Siegfriedskeller'. Aldrian then avenges Hogni's death on Attila by leading the gold-hungry Attila into the Siegfriedskeller and slamming the door from outside, so that Attila has to starve to death with the treasures. After Attila's death, Thidrek also becomes king of Hunaland .

• Mb 429–438 (II, 375–394) “Heimir and Thidreks end”: Report on the death of these two last heroes. Heimir becomes a monk in a monastery that the old Icelandic manuscripts pass on as Wadhincusan . As monastery brother Lodvigur, he kills a giant who threatens the Premonstratensian Abbey, interpreted as a Westphalian monastery in Wedinghausen . Thidrek finds out about this, takes the only one of the old journeymen who is still alive, and later avenges him by killing another giant who killed Heimir. Soon after, Thidrek is kidnapped from the bathroom by a black steed. The horse is the devil, but Thidrek still manages to call on God and Mary, so his soul can still be saved. The old Icelandic tradition ends here.

Localizations of Dietrichs Bern ("Dietrichsbern")

Dietrichs Bern as the Rhine-Franconian Verona

A considerable part of the older German philology has raised considerable objections to a legendary historical identification of Dietrich von Bern, who is represented primarily in the Thidrek saga and in the Nibelungenlied, with Theodoric the Great:

Franz Joseph Mone blames the original, but insufficiently traditional Low German saga of Dietrich and the Nibelungs, the influence of a high German heroic epic that is gaining ground for the geographical and narrative distortion of Bern and Bonn-Verona . According to his identifications by name, Dietrichs Bern is not far from the seat of the Nibelungs, which he associates with the Neffelbach and other place names in the Voreifel that are apparently related to the legendary material (cf. Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg).

Laurenz Lersch follows the basic view of FJ Mone about the Lower Rhine seat of Dietrich. Lersch concludes that two different legends, one about the Italian Theodoric, the other about a Rhine-Franconian Dietrich in the formative epoch of the German-Italian empire and thus also of the Middle High German literary milieu were interwoven. Lersch also points to coin finds, from whose minting Bonn emerges as the northern Verona , which he wants to apply in the area of ​​the Bonn Minster . To this end, he refers to the legendary writing Passio sanctorum Gereonis, Victoris, Cassi et Florentii Thebaeorum martyrum from the second half of the 10th century, which highlights the Bonn area and the execution site of the martyrs Cassius and Florentius as Verona on the Rhine. He also quotes from an archbishop's deed of ownership issued in the 11th century, which refers to a close connection between Bonn-Verona and Zülpich , which Gregor von Tours suggested as a seat of the first Merovingian Dietrich ( Theuderich I ). Based on the first stanza of the corner song and the geographical information in the appendix to the book of heroes, Lersch recognizes the area between Cologne - Aachen and the Middle Rhine as the native area of ​​tradition of Dietrich's comrades in arms, Fasolt, Helffrich (= Hjalprikr in the Thidrek saga).

After Lersch, Karl Müllenhoff positions a Franconian Dietrich von Bern in the geographically and design-oriented narrative area of Widukind von Corvey , the Quedlinburger Annalen and the old English Widsith . Müllenhoff recognizes in the Wolfdietrich traditions, which he implies as evidence of the literary attraction of East Merovingian history, historical allusions to Franconian rather than Romanesque-Ostgothic conditions. He postulated, therefore, that the spatial and narrative historical consistency of a Austrasian Dietrich Sage (thus I over Theuderich or even his son Theudebert I) was fused with a southern transferred heroic poetry. Joachim Heinzle recently confirmed Lersch's basic point of view about the narrative origin of Wolfdietrich:

"The tradition of Wolfdietrich must be regarded as an independent saga, the origins of which are not to be found in Gothic, but in Franconian history."

According to Hermann Lorenz , the entries of the Quedlinburg annalist on the geographical, figurative and narrative-characteristic milieus of two Theodoriches, the Amal and Hugo Theodericus (Theuderich I.) allow the conclusion that Franconian-Saxon history was interwoven with an already legendary Ostrogothic historiography; see. including Jordanes on " Ermanarich ", whose relationship to an "Odoacer" resettled in the Harz Mountains and that " Attila " who, as a supporter of Theodoric's regaining of his empire, apparently also had access to the Harz region in terms of text interpretation. In this region he is said to have given his blood relative Odoacer, who was exiled, a seat at the confluence of the Elbe and Saale rivers. The annalist notes the child-induced death of this Attila among the entries for the year 531, including the appearance of the Frankish Theodoric (Theuderich I) with his twelve noblest followers among the Saxons, but nowhere is an attack on this "Odoacer ".

In his review of Laurenz Lersch, Karl Simrock rejects the limitation of the Rhenish Verona only to the area of ​​the Bonn Minster, the alleged place of death of the two Theban legionaries and martyrs Cassius and Florentius . Looking at the corner song, Simrock sees the fight between Dietrich and Ecke (as well as later with Fasold), also told by the Thidrek saga, in the Low German area of ​​a Dietrich who originally sat here and not in Italy. Simrock also claims to have recognized the Frankish king Theuderich I as the prototype of this legendary figure. He deduces from the spatiotemporal narrative structures in the Widsith's circle of characters as well as in general agreement with Mone (see above) that

“Two lock picks were too many for the heroic saga, one had to give way to the other and so it hit the Frankish with its legend in the mighty stream of Ostrogothic legends due to the preponderance of the High German language and literature under the Hohenstaufen emperors. "

Karl Simrock and Hermann Lorenz agree with Müllenhoff's view of the representational value and receptivity of the Franconian Hugdietrich and the first Merovingian Theuderich for the Gothic Dietrich saga.

In contrast, Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen refers in his translation of the Thidrek saga to Italian scenes and thus also to Verona on the Adige as Thidrek's seat. The theologian August Raßmann , who later broadcast this saga , confirms that the High German heroic epic imagines Dietrich's residence in Verona, Italy , however, with some geographical and strategic considerations, points out that for the Thidrek saga one must rather start from Bonn than its seat. Even more clearly than in the translation by FH von der Hagen emerge in Ferdinand Holthausen's dissertation, geostrategically contradicting conditions for the saga locations. In the context of the saga prologue, Holthausen on the one hand uncritically agrees with the geographical localizations of Gustav Storm's Nye studier over Thidreks saga , but on the other hand shows above all interpretable clues for a historical fall of the Nibelung in Soest, Westphalia (cf. Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg). Holthausen quotes its claimed Frisian and Gallic origin from the legally binding statutes of the high medieval Soest: Preterea iuris aduocati est. hereditatem accipere frisonum et gallorum . On this basis, Holthausen combines the intertextual origin of the apparently anachronistic “Attila” with narrative parallels to the chronically written Frisian story of Suffridus Petrus (Sjoerd Pietersz), who, just as controversial as his literary successor Martinus Hamconius (Maarten Hamckema), of one of the Friesenführer Odilbald reported the capture of Soest, dated to the year 344. However, Willi Eggers only agrees with Holthausen that the statements by Petrus (and Hamconius) are compatible with no more than a “preliminary stage of the Soest local saga” or its “founding saga” after the Thidrek saga. These Frisian chronicles, which are largely apocryphal due to their early historical depictions, provide not only names of rulers such as Odilbold, Adelbold, Adelbricus, Adelen but also historically verifiable rulers such as B. Adgillus or Aldgisl.

The Bonn city seal from the 13th century shows the martyr Cassius in knightly armor under a canopy . In the background the Bonn Minster, on the lower edge of the seal the city wall depicted with battlements. Inscription: VERONA NVNC OPIDI BVNNENSIS SIGILLV ANTIQUA

In terms of text content, there is no explicit information about Thidrek's family seat as to whether the source material that came to Old Norway refers to Bonn as Verona on the Lower Rhine or the place of the same name on the Adige. Even assuming a literal translation of the source, the interpretive leeway for the localization of Dietrich's seat remains unclear for the Nordic scriptors; especially because the dating of the oldest equation of Verona with Bonn on an altar panel donated for the Pantaleon Church in Cologne (second half of the 10th century) correlates conspicuously with the Lower Rhine edition of the Thebaic legend. The equation on this altar panel is viewed critically by Wilhelm Levison and Theodor Joseph Lacomblet . They refer to the historical context according to which the inscribed Archbishop Bruno (a son of Emperor Otto I ) received part of his training in the diocese of Verona in Italy and later supported Bishop Rather who was active there. Due to this relationship, Lacomblet does not want to rule out the possibility of an Italian name sponsorship. Levison also sees no reason to use this table as a basis for evaluation at all, since the Verona on the Adige can just as well be meant here . Both views were rejected as insufficient arguments by the Bonn historian Josef Niessen, who, on the other hand, favored the weight of numismatic equations on the one hand and documented equations that can be proven repeatedly on the other. The best-known equations from the High Middle Ages, which can be assumed to be received from the 10th century, can be found in the Bonn city seal (13th century), in the Cologne royal chronicle Chronica regia Coloniensis and in Gottfried Hagen's rhyming chronicle of the city of Cologne from 1270, in which various references to Dietrich von Bern .

However, if the source from Lower Germany did not provide any clear geographical information about Thidreks Bern for its writing at the Bergenser Hof, then their scriptors could have an interpretive freedom up to Ostrogoth areas or otherwise supplement it presumptively; as this can be inferred mainly from two passages: the final movement of Mb 13 (Bertelsen I, 30–31) and its introductory repetition in Mb 276 (Bertelsen II, 158) about the empire of Erminrik, which with such a claim neither a contemporary of the great Ostrogothic or a Frankish Theodoric. Especially these two passages in the manuscripts that ethnically it, but not genealogically registered Amali , the separately authored Saga Prologue as commenting supplement as well ostgotisch-Roman Tell milieu producing Middle High German Dietrichepik led the majority of scientific research to the conclusion, behind the figure of the Thidrek only to establish the Ostrogothic Theodoric or, in the absence of their equation, which has not yet been conclusively shown, to assume. According to the views of older German philology (see above) and representations of the saga that can be indexed in terms of content, a Low German model of a Rhine-Franconian Dietrich historia could well - as far as the texts project the personified spatial image of Erminrik (cf. Roswitha Wisniewski, William J. Pfaff et al) with additions from Ostrogothic traditional milieu, for example also by inserting the paternal name of the Italian Theodoric, in Old Norway or, at the editorial discretion of the latter, emended.

A Rhenish Franconian Dietrich vita as a prose work in or from Carolingian bibliography cannot be proven. To that of Charlemagne arranged transfer of Theodoric Reiterstatue of Ravenna in the Aachener Imperial Palace are different interpretations to say historical associations. Although Walahfrid Strabo, under Karl's son Ludwig the Pious, wrote his 23rd and, to that extent, exceptionally critical to derogatory poem De imagine Tetrici , transferred by name to a Germanic-Franconian Dietrich, Felix Thürlemann points out that above all Heinrich Fichtenau and Walter Schlesinger developed the thesis according to which the “architectural quote” had less of a religious significance for Karl than “a function in the context of the (political) ideological competition between the Franconian Aachen and the Italian Rome. Aachen should also present itself externally as a Roma secunda and thus make it visible that Roman rule had passed to the Franks. "

Kemp Malone sees in the Theodoric statue , which was captured by Charlemagne and the rune stone erected by Rök at the same time (apparently in the early 9th century), rather the coincident reference to the heroic figure of a Frankish Theodoric (= Theuderich I) for Dietrich von Bern in the Old Norse Hero poetry and to that extent also for the Thidrek saga. Malone refers to the inscription

“Raiþ Þiaurikr hin þurmuþi, stiliR flutna, strąntu
HraiþmaraR; sitiR nu karuR ą kuta sinum,
skialti ub fatlaþR, skati Marika.

Dietrich the brave, ruler of the sea, (and) the beach of
the Hraidmeer, now sits armed on his horse,
the shield tightly tied, Prince (husband) of Marika. "

According to Malone, also on the basis of an alternative identification of the Mæringer , the destruction of a Godland (and thus not "Gothic") maritime campaign led by Theuderich's son Theudebert I under their leader Hygelac (in the first quarter of the 6th century) should be carried out by the Northern countries have experienced a lasting reminiscence. William J. Pfaff quotes the editor of the Hervara saga on the Old Norse idea of ​​the Hreiðgotaland at HraiþmaraR : He þat says, at Reiðgotaland ok Húnaland sé nú þýðskaland kallat. From the point in time when the immediately preceding rune moves Þat sakum ąnart, huaR fur niu altum ąn […] - “That I say second, who nine generations ago […]” - Malone goes to identify or roughly backdate this battle from this period out.

Dietrichs Bern as an Italian term

The rider and deer relief on the portal of the Basilica of San Zeno. Theodoric is not mentioned in the inscription, instead the rider is simply referred to as regem stultum ("foolish king").

As is already expressed in the saga prologue and also essentially in the majority research opinion, the Old Norse text conception is intended to reflect an apparently Romanesque or Ostrogothic milieu for the title figure of the Thidrek saga, which is supposed to be based in Verona on the Adige. In addition, however, William J. Pfaff also takes into account the possibility that forgotten traditions about the end of the Nibelungs in that " Attila ", which was given the death story "Aldrian's Rache" (Mb 423–428, Bertelsen II, 369–375) northern spatial milieu, according to which later German poems even place Þíðrikr at Bonn because the town had been known as Verona Cisalpina in earlier times. With Bertelsen's transcriptions of the narrative sections according to II, 43–46 (AB versions for Mb 231–232) with the local terms Weronni and Iverne, Pfaff also considers that especially the first form, if not an error for Verona in Italy, may reflect a German localization of the story in Bonn ( Verona Cisalpina ).

Thidrek's end from Mb 438 (Bertelsen II, 392) must also be added from the old Icelandic manuscripts, with an obvious allusion to those two reliefs on the portal of the Church of San Zeno in Verona and the " Weltchronik " of Otto von Freising (1143–1146, revised 1157) ). He interprets these representations with a popular tradition, according to which Theodoric is said to have gone to hell on a horse. Otto's rejection of his contemporary constellation with the Greutungskönig Ermanarich as well as the Hun leader Attila already allowed conclusions to be drawn about untrue Ostrogothic Dietrich traditions - including the previous criticism by Frutolf von Michelsberg based on the Gothic Chronicle of Jordanes and the author (s) of the essentially adopting Imperial Chronicle to.

It remains unclear whether these authors were able to refer to the oldest text testimony about “Dietrich von Bern”, the Old High German Older Hildebrand song available as a fragment : The special value of this work, probably written around 830 in Fulda Abbey, is particularly evident for text research and the genesis of tradition in Dietrich's archenemy, who is not equated here with the Greutungen ruler Ermanarich , but with Theodoric's historical opponent Odoacer . The presentation of this song, however, contradicts the real historical fact that Theodoric was never expelled from Odoaker, but - blatantly different from the saga - he was finally murdered by Theodoric himself. The Quedlinburg notes, which are closely related to this song in chronological terms and apparently amalgamating two lines of tradition, do not reveal, regarding the figurative context of relationships between their Attila, Theoderic and that Odoacrus , that the Frankish Theodoric ( Theuderich I ) , who performed in Saxony, was once called by a Gallic- Saxon army commander , as Gregor von Tours mentions one such as an Odovaker around 470 in northern Gaul, had already been expelled because of a possible dispute within the Franks.

The further interpretation of an apparently "mythical Dietrich legend", which is mainly based on the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great, requires considerable concessions to both geopolitical and figurative interpretations for its equation with the Old Norse Thidrek, which is less so than the Middle High German Dietrichdichtung ("Theodorich der Große = Dietrich von Bern ”) rather than contradicting the content of the saga. For example, Thidrek's campaign to recapture the lower Moselle ( Musula ) and the battle at its mouth at Gransport or at “Raben”. However, with less textual agreement, this passage is also reinterpreted as the fighting at the “grandis portus” of Ravenna - the historical residence, which is also the slaughter site “Raben” of the great Ostrogothic Theodoric. It also seems highly questionable whether the saga of those Witichis (from 536 to 540 king of the Ostrogoths) as the archenemy persecuted and later killed by Thidrek (cf. old Swedish texts) can be demanded. Another significant disproportion exists for the interpretative inclusion of the Ostrogothic Amal dynasty, which the source texts only represent as a tribe and therefore cannot be reconciled with the grandfather's "Hispanic" origin of Thidrek.

A name correspondence with his father “Theodemir” , but not with his father and all forefathers, can be shown in the saga for Theodoric's origin . However, according to the information provided by Gregor von Tours and the pseudonymous Fredegar, a Théodomer can be identified in the early Franconian royal series as well as an earlier Þettmar in the saga , cf. Mb 9 (AB manuscripts) or Bertelsen I, 23. Accordingly, there are comparable ancestral relationships with the first Merovingian Theodoric as well as with Thidrek on a great-grandfather level, but with different genealogical-name interrelationships.

A fundamental problem of interpretation lies in the obviously directional relationship of dependency between contemporary Latin chronicles about the Ostrogothic Theodoric and his transmission into the heroic epic as the Thidrek depicted in Old Norse. The initiation of this procedure should therefore have been reserved for a group of scholars who knew how to avoid the blatant disparities in the vitae of the real-historical and epized Theodoric, because

Heroes 'songs, as they serve to preserve the memoria of great kings and warriors in oral or semioral societies, are in principle also attested for the Goths through Jordanes' ‹Getica› (probably 550/551), but not for Theodoric.

Elisabeth Lienert notes that only Ennodius created a panegyricus about him in 507, but in Latin .

In this respect, Joachim Heinzle, especially regarding the opposing escape constellations, the extremely distinctive biographical stigmata of Dietrich – Thidrek and the Ostrogothic Theodoric, is by no means uncritical:

The main thing remains a mystery: how Theodoric's historical conquest of Italy was transformed into the expulsion of Dietrich from Italy.

Nibelungen and Thidrek saga

Several episodes of the Thidrek saga, interrupted by other narratives, deal with the Nibelung saga , whereby the Nibelungs are consistently referred to here as the Niflungs. As Roswitha Wisniewski has shown with text synoptic examinations of the Thidrek saga and the manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied, including its so-called "Lamentation" and a postulated "Notepos", the authorship of the Thidrek saga used this Upper German heroic poem for character names and a series of scenic plot sequences but the core content is a template material that can be summarized under the term of a second source , including those Soest depictions of the Niflunge. Not inconsistent with this, Joachim Heinzle z. B. on Thidreks, Herrads and Hildebrand's march back from their exile to Bern states that both the Thidrekssaga and the Nibelungenklage report that the three made a stop in Bakalar / Bechelaren, and both stories emphasize the fact that they took a pack horse. It is unlikely that the reports are completely independent of one another, but one cannot say whether they are based on a common legacy or whether the “Thidrek Saga” writes out the “Nibelungen Lament”.

The differences between the Thidrek saga and the other Nordic versions ( Liederedda , Snorra Edda , Vǫlsunga saga ) are even greater . For example, Brynhild, who is portrayed as the Amazon-like queen from distant Iceland in the Nibelungenlied, is initially mistress of a place called Seegard ( Sægard ) in Svava (which does not necessarily mean today's Swabia - there was also a Svava in Carolingian times ) in the Thidrek saga -Gau in East Saxony). There she has a famous stud, from which the battle stallions of the most famous heroes come; also the Ross Sigurd (which he receives from her). In addition, she is deflowered by Sigurd (= Siegfried) - in the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried only helps King Gunther to conquer the unruly Brünhild on the second wedding night so that Gunther can have sexual intercourse with her. This is quite different in the rest of the Old Norse tradition: there Sigurd advertises in Gunnar's (= Gunthers) figure to Brynhild, because he cannot overcome the obstacles (wall of flames) on the way to her, but lays on the following night, which is his wedding night must spend with her, his sword between the two, in order to keep her virgin for the friend.

In the Thidrek saga, Brynhild demands Sigurd's killing because Sigurd told Grimhild the secret of the bridal night. That she had to marry Gunnar, a hero lesser than Sigurd, is the reason for her refusal on the wedding night.

Differences to the Upper German Dietrichepik

In contrast to the Middle High German Dietrichepik, Dietrich's figure in the Thidrek saga is drawn less positively. His hesitation, e.g. For example, struggling with a corner seems to be more a result of fear than - as in the Upper German corner song, based on morally founded deliberation. He defeats Siegfried - as in the rose garden in Worms , but only with a ruse that enables him to use Vidga's miming, a ruse that makes him appear unfair and Siegfried as someone who has been betrayed. In contrast, the figure of Vidga is drawn much more positively than the traitor Wittich corresponding to in Middle High German poetry . In the opinion of some, it does not speak in favor of Thidrek that he repeatedly supports Heimir, who temporarily joins a band of robbers, and takes him back to court after he was the robber captain of Thetlef the Dane (in Middle High German: Dietleip von Stîre [Steiermark ]) was defeated. But one can also see Thidrek's advantage in this, who accepts his followers again when they return repentant. Dietrich / Thidrek is the ideal of a follower who is unconditionally committed to his followers. Its popularity in medieval poetry is essentially based on this. His tragedy is that the rivalry among heroes ultimately prevails and his efforts to keep the group together fail.

According to some researchers, the motif of the devilish black horse, which Thidrek abducts from the bathroom at the end, comes from the aversion of the Catholic Church to the Arian Theodoric. It was changed in the German lockpick poetry in order not to let the exemplary hero go to hell; similar in the Thidrek saga: in the Icelandic version Thidrek calls on God and Mary and can therefore be saved; In the old Swedish version, the kidnapping by a black horse is just a ruse of Didrik to investigate Wideke without being recognized.

Roman fortress in Thon-Samson on the southern edge of the Hesbaye (Haspengau). The name Samson also appears in the Merovingian ruler's genealogy.

Even though the saga apparently begins much further south - Dietrich's ancestor, Samson , rules Salerni (old Swedish version: Salerna in Appolij ), which is usually equated with Salerno and Apulia (or, unlikely, Salurn ), and wins Bern only later - The geographical focus with the Thidreks area of ​​action, with Susat ( Soest ) and the Wilzenkampf, has been shifted more to the north. This leads to geographical ambiguities, which, however, can be resolved with Bonn- Verona, which is already located in ancient philology as the legendary Bern, the Belgian Hesbaye as Samson's Hispania and the southern Dutch high moor area de Peel in the Salian catchment area of ​​the 5th century. Another coherent northern spatial image is shown e.g. B. in the episode about the Jarl Iron, whose residence is called Brandinaburg (Brandenburg?), But who can hunt in the neighboring Valslongu forest, which was "located to the west of Franconia" . Jarl Irons seat should therefore be more in the west. The old Swedish version only mentions Brandenburg in this context .

The main difference lies in the form and its literary genre . There is no prose story based on the Norse biography of Thidrek or Dietrich von Bern, neither in an Upper German tradition nor in a large work in Low German, which, however, advocates parts of the source text research as missing translation templates of the Thidrek saga (see classification of the Thidrek saga ). Traditionally, it is most closely related to the old Norwegian Karlamagnús saga (13th century), the French prose Lancelot (probably shortly before the Thidrek saga, first third of the 13th century) and Sir Thomas Malory's Arthurian novel Le Morte Darthur (1469–1470, Published in 1485). The Rhenish Karl compilation Karlmeinet (around 1320) is also later and of lower quality than the Thidrek saga and also in verse form. It is a hallmark of the 13th century translations of German and French works into Norwegian that the verse form of the originals is converted into prose.

Narrative parts of the Thidrek saga compared to the Middle High German Dietrichepik

As Joachim Heinzle already remarked on the comparably best-known epics of Dietrich's Flucht und Rabenschlacht , older research tried to determine an exact sequence of previous poems. This resulted in true excesses of a rampant reconstruction philology. Because of the unclear preliminary stages, the following overview cannot establish a direct relationship of dependency between the narratives or Middle High German epics cited line by line.

Thidreks saga	chapter	Dietrichepik
Hilde Grim episode	Mb 16-17; BI, 34-38	Corner Song and Younger Sigenot
Heimir and Thidrek	Mb 19-20; BI, 40-43	Alphart's death (echoes in virginal )
Wilzen tradition I Widolf shoe test / knee placement	Mb 27; BI, 44-49 & II, 62-70 Mb 36-37; B II, 80-83	King Rother
Thidrek's fight against corner, Fasold	Mb 96-104; BI, 174-196	Corner song
Thidrek et al. Fasold with Sintram	Mb 105-107; BI, 196-203	Virginal (Rentwin's Liberation Lines 117-176)
Thetleif's train to Thidrek	Mb 111-129; BI, 209-249	Biterolf and Dietleib
Thidrek's procession to King Isung, competitions	Mb 191-225; BI, 356-II, 37	Younger Sigenot , rose garden , virginal
Herburt and Hilde	Mb 231-239; B II, 43-60	Sources of Tristan or Tristan and Isolde , cf. Tristram's saga ok Ísondar
Waltari and Hilde	Mb 241-244; B II, 105-109	Waltharius
Dishonor of Sifka's wife	Mb 276; B II, 158-159	Book of heroes
Thidrek's expulsion	Mb 284-290; B II, 169-179	Dietrich's flight (echoes in Alphart's death )
Gransport	Mb 316-341; B II, 218-258	Battle of the raven , Dietrich's flight , Alphart's death
Hildebrand and Alebrand	Mb 407-409; B II, 348-352	Younger Hildebrand's song
Hertnid of Bergara	Mb 417-422; B II, 359-368 Mb 419; B II, 363-365	Ortnit Wolfdietrich
	Note: B = Bertelsen

Structure of the saga and conclusions about how it came about

A Low German narrative tradition in the form of a corresponding large-scale model is missing for the Thidrek saga. Therefore, part of the Germanistic and Nordic text research has considered the possibility that the Thidrekssaga is not a translation of a Low German text, but at the Norwegian royal court in the Hanseatic city of Bergen from Lower German smaller forms (more heroic prose than songs) independently according to the resulting ones Norwegian life cycle saga tradition was composed or compiled. Although important prose works such as the Sachsenspiegel and the Saxon World Chronicle were created in the 13th century in the Low German-speaking area , these belong to other literary genres. They show that prose in the Low German-speaking area, in contrast to the Middle High German-speaking area, is considered worthy of literature.

Since, on the other hand, the available manuscripts as well as the old Swedish traditions to be observed in the original context cannot be denied that the text properties are copied, another part of the source research contradicts a work that was largely independently compiled in the old-west Norse milieu from partly orally performed and partly also written heroic songs. In this respect, the source-critical research also postulates a common older and therefore recurrent text version for all available manuscripts, see classification of the Thidreks saga , which, however, can no longer be easily agreed with the local state of Old Norse philology and bibliography due to a considerable part of the content presentations as a translation template .

Conclusions on the content of German source material

With references to some older research articles, Friedrich Panzer shows parallels from the Italo-Norman history of the 11th century to the figure of conquest Samson . However, Hermann Schneider only conceded characteristics that were consistent with the Norman Duke Robert Guiskard and a receptive influence of the Italian Salerno. Schneider, however, negates text-critical assumptions that are based on a Samson Urlied in Lower Germany that also contains French coloring and pleads against the background of the Italian or "Amalic" subordinate saga family von Thidrek for an independently developed saga introductory part.

Hermann Reichert argues essentially against the assumption of a lack of Low German narrative tradition as a major work and template for the Thidreks saga. As he shows in his text-critical investigations into the question of the originals of the Thidrek saga, there are certain common, apparently not random and thus conspicuously indexable additional formulations in the old Icelandic and old Swedish texts, but not in a comparable order of magnitude in the much older Stockholm manuscript. He concludes from this that oral templates are no longer immediate, but rather missing handwriting as the direct source of all available, but at least old Norwegian and old Swedish traditions. Reichert sees this original or its recurrent version (* Th) as a large work of Low German origin consisting of individual sources or narratives, which, according to Heinrich Beck, is "narrative linked" to the Bergensian with Saxon-Danish themes and examples of Old Norse genres Königshof should have essentially been translated. The question of whether this work, which is to be understood as a comprehensive model, was produced in Lower Germany (or Soest) or Old Norway, connects Reichert with the last view of Heinrich Beck, according to which Low German sources should undoubtedly have been conveyed in such a way that, on the one hand, a German one Perspective of the sources presumed, on the other hand in the old Norwegian writing or "creation" an "additional dimension of interpretation", for example the localization of Thidrek's seat, cannot be ruled out.

The partially different linguistic styles as well as some contradicting representations, especially in the oldest manuscript, show the translating activity of editors of different Nordic origins, who obviously used different sources from the German-speaking area, which was repeatedly annotated by hand, and, like the Stockholm manuscript with its five scribes (Norwegians and Icelanders ) has been edited by two main editors (Mb2 and Mb3). The text interpolations of Mb3 ( see above ) relate in particular to Sigurd's youth story and Thidrek's banquet with a subsequent heroic introduction. The interventions by Mb3 in the narrative part of Mb2, which is nevertheless attached in writing, referring to the names of the characters and the number of brothers of the Niflunge, show the editorial access to two different traditions. Another significant example of contradicting duplications concerns the death story about the Wilzen ruler Osantrix, who dies according to Mb2 in the second, but according to Mb3 in the third part of the Wilzen tradition. The old Swedish version of the Thidrek saga, however, does not contain any such contradicting duplications.

Against the thesis of an independent origin in Norway speak those content-related information from which in the Thidrek saga the traces of direct takeovers from written German sources are recognizable, for example when the saga writes "Siegfried" instead of "Sigurd" in several places. In the manuscripts, however, there are not only certain anthroponyms , but also those narrative forms of terms that make an authorship originally suspected in Old West Norse of partly widely spaced, incoherent or unrelated reports open to attack. These include, for example, mentions in the old German gold currency in the stories about Vadi and his son Velent (Mb 58-59; Bertelsen I, 75-77; see also Velents Runensolidus von Schweindorf ), about Velent's son Vidga (Mb 81; Bertelsen I, 136 –138), about Thetleif (Mb 117, 125, 127; Bertelsen I, 221–224, 239–242, 244–245) as well as about Erka's death (Mb 340; Bertelsen II, 254-257). Among the scenic narrative formulas of the Thidrek saga, Helmut Voigt recognized the shoe rehearsal and knee-setting custom in the courtship of Osantrix around Oda (cf. King Rothers courtship for Constantine's daughter) as a German and not Old Norse first creation. In this respect, he concludes about the drafting context:

That the author of the kneeling of the princess in the Vs. [= Wilzensage] got to know German legal customs on German soil is the most likely and simplest of all possible possibilities.

Willi Eggers addressed the narrative intention of the Wilzen reports, which is related to Low German source material . Eggers recognizes in the first part of the Wilzen tradition (Mb 21-56), in it the takeover of Soest as the capital of the Hunaland by a Frisian "Attila" and his courtship for Osantrix's daughter Erka, a scholarly version from the Soest milieu. Also through the inclusion of the Lürwald as the area of ​​origin of Vildiver's bear dress - the dominant narrative in the second part (Mb 134-146) - and the conquests of important German and later Hanseatic trading centers such as Smalenskia and Palteskia in the third part (Mb 291 –315), Eggers makes a Low German original much more likely than a Wilzen saga for the Vita Thidreks written by Bergensian writers.

The Heime Ludwig story as an allusion to a Low German author

Master stemma of the Thidreks saga based on Roswitha Wisniewski (1961). Hsr .: Revenge of Hangi's son.

Roswitha Wisniewski recognizes in the story about Heimir in the Wadhincúsan Monastery (Mb 429–435; Bertelsen II, 375–387) an allusion of authorship in this part of the tradition. Wisniewski supplements the walk from Heimir to the Westphalian Premonstratensian monastery in Wedinghausen, which has already been localized by older and more recent text research and is seen as a literary association, with narrative representations that correspond to the Wedinghausen topology and its monastery complex, which was special at the time. As a striking example, she cites Heimir's duel with King Nordian's son Asplian on an island or the Ruhr loop surrounding the monastery area, which has passed down late medieval cartography with river islands. However, since Heimir presented himself incognito to the abbot under the pseudonym Ludwig and only served the monastery community under this name, Wisniewski connects this narrative relationship with the Ludovicus Librarian who performed his literary service in the Wedinghausen monastery in the first half of the 13th century and later also worked in Rumbeck near Arnsberg. This coincidence leads them to the assumption that he not only wrote the monastery story for the Thidrek saga, but also - according to their text-critical considerations as the most likely Low German source - its large-scale model in the form of a Latin chronicle or historia. Concerning the niflung part of the Thidrek saga, she assumes that this template was compiled with other source material as the second source, which is decisive in terms of content, in old Norway. To this end, she cites southern German heroic epics, in particular a postulated preliminary version of the Nibelungenlied ( Notepos or Older Not ), which means that the present genre of the Thidrek saga can be classified less as a chronicle but more as a historia. Hilkert Weddige concludes from Wisniewski's development of the content of the second source :

Nonetheless, Roswitha Wisniewski succeeded to a large extent in unraveling the contamination in the depiction of the fall of the Niflung: In a precise comparison with the Nibelungenlied, she reveals specific features of a "second" source area in addition to the Elderly Need for the saga. In that, Low German Dietrich poetry and a Historia by Dietrich von Bern, which may have been written down in Wedinghausen Abbey and added with Soester and Westphalian locations, seem to flow together. The method of looking for duplications, the productivity of which Bumke has demonstrated for the model reconstruction of the Brünhild fable, is occasionally overused here, however, because every duplication is systematically traced back to two models, namely to the older need and that second source. After all, it is a common narrative principle of medieval epic.

Wisniewski takes the earliest possible date of origin of a Wedinghausen submission of the Thidrek saga from the dialogue between the abbot and Heimir about the loss of his sword, the Nagelring , as its material was intended for the (re) construction of the church building. With reference to its destruction in 1210, she concludes that the postulated Wedinghausen record was written after this point in time.

In his review of Wisniewski's habilitation thesis, the linguist William J. Pfaff addresses the generic genre of the Thidreks saga from a chronological template material as well as the probability of a Westphalian transmission route from Latin source material to Old Norway. He refers to identifiable Latinisms in the manuscripts, which, incidentally, also suggest a Latin chronicle as a larger-scale model in Bergen , also for the significant Old Norse genre problematic of the Thidrek saga :

I should agree that a Latin chronicle played a role in the transmission of much of the material in the Thidreks saga. In support of this thesis one might add that some names from sequences unrelated to the fall of the Nibelungs exhibit the peculiarities and variation which were attributed to faulty use of Latin orthographic symbols: for instance, Ruzcia-land and Villcina-land, although in the latter the variants with c , t , z and k are further confused by the possibility that two Slavic words, one with a t , one with a k phoneme, are involved. If these errors are traceable to the same Latin chronicle, a compilation embracing more than the fall of the Nibelungen was assembled in northern Germany in chronicle form.

However, he complains that the scriptors of the AB manuscripts have handed down the Wedinghausen monastery in Langbarðaland, Italy . As notable, but ultimately hardly convincing, Old French and more southern reception motifs, Pfaff has already mentioned the textual intangible Moniage Ogier and the Heymo tradition from the Wilten Premonstratensian monastery. However , Pfaff cannot offer a convincing explanation for Heimir's work in Langbarðaland , Italy , because, according to his source assessments , the original scope of action of Thidrek's follower cannot be reliably opened up using either Nordic or Southern traditions. Since he in no way excludes erroneous translations of less common geographical terms in the Thidrek saga, he comes to the general conclusion that many geographical and legendary errors were certainly made more likely in Bergen than in Westphalia.

Heimir's narrative localization in the Premonstratensian monastery in Wedinghausen, as far as Roswitha Wisniewski presented her theory of tradition, was rejected by Horst P. Pütz and Susanne Kramarz-Bein with the objection that Heimir was traditionally black and not, as was the case in the 13th century in old Norway It was common for Premonstratensians to barely gain a foothold, to put on a white robe. Nonetheless, Kramarz-Bein takes the view that

the identity of Wadincúsan with the Westphalian Wedinghausen can hardly be doubted (...) In detail, the criticism is directed against the Wedinghausen theory advocated by Roswitha Wisniewski (...), which is predominantly content -wise (chronicle character of Heimir-Moniage , alleged connections of a chronological and local traditional nature) and comes to the far-reaching conclusion of the translation theory of an overall Low German version linked to the Westphalian place name.

In his essay on homes in Wilten and in the Thidrek saga, Hermann Reichert does not explicitly go into the supply of Wedinghausen source material suggested by Wisniewski for the Old Norse writing of the Thidrek saga. In his rejection of the spatial assignments of monasteries and orders by Pütz, Reichert makes it clear to the material-historical addition of Heimir's habit color that the step in the tradition in which the story was localized in Wedinghausen monastery (...) neither in Wedinghausen nor by one with Wedinghausen Person familiar with relationships has happened. As Wisniewski already noted about her traditional thesis, Reichert also allows an old Norwegian assumption and addition of Heimir's habit color. Accordingly, he concludes, probably as the most probable of three possibilities, that someone is editing a story about homes, which was already set in Wedinghausen and did not contain the color of the cowl, based on an ultimately Romanesque work about a hero, about whom similar things were told with mention of the color and supplemented. That could have happened in Norway too. Reichert does not provide a reliable bibliographical perspective on his presumed Romance reception either.

Finally, regarding the argumentative value of Heimir's cowl color, the Arnsberg philologist Norbert Höing points out that a white habit must by no means be assumed for the high medieval Premonstratensian pens in Westphalia. The old Swedish tradition of Heimir's stay in the monastery does not go into the color of his cowl.

Text indexes for extracts from German chronicles

From the Latin chronicle, Karl Droege has made the Staufer Chronicle, continued by Rahewin , and the Chronicon Montis Sereni, written in Northern Germany, likely as secondary sources for motif-scenic as well as characterizing representations through text synoptic investigations . The introduction to the chronicle from Halle's Augustinian Canons' Monastery in Lauterberg Mons Serenus exemplifies the literary handling of historical factuality and reception of a Middle Low German chronicler who expressed the lack of extensive useful sources for the intended design of a major work in these words:

However, I was unable to fulfill this resolution because of the small amount of occurrences of which I was aware. So I didn't think it was useless, because I lacked the material of my own to borrow from strangers. Therefore, in order to remedy the shortcoming of which I spoke, I have put the acts of others and events unrelated to our pen - that is, those which did not correspond to the original intention but were worth remembering - in the account of inserted into the processes with us. I even went so far that almost everywhere I mixed up what was strange with what was my own for the sake of entertaining the readers.

Gesta Friderici I. Imperatoris and their sources

In a text comparison with this work on Friedrich Barbarossa , begun by Otto von Freising and continued by Rahewin , Karl Droege recognizes striking allusions in the Thidrek saga as well as parallels processed in narrative formulas. Among these receptions, referred to by Droege as "insertions", the clerical sphere of influence of the Westphalian 12th century has considerable source-critical weight:

The Wedinghausen and Soest milieu in the Archdiocese of Cologne

With reference to Rahewin's Gesta IV 10 , Droege leads from the Heime-Ludwig story chap. Mb 430 (Bertelsen II, 377–378) just to the understanding of the ministerial circles, according to which Aspilian's request to fight for possession of the monastery - and so according to this state law - ok þetta eru landz løg - as a mockery of von Barbarossa with the Roncaglian Lex Edictalis introduced prohibition of duels for property claims can be interpreted.

Taking up the clerical milieu of Soest, Droege refers to Otto L. Jiriczek's remark in Deutsche Heldensagen I (p. 155) about the unusually rare and apparently non-Norse name of King Brunstein, who was defeated by Thidrek's grandfather Samson (Mb 8f., Bertelsen I, 21f.). He explains its inspirational naming by the respected Soest ministerial family of the same name, whose patron is commemorated by the Soest Brunstein Chapel and from which a knightly servant has almost always appeared in the entourage of Reinald (Cologne Archbishop and Arch Chancellor under Barbarossa) , who via Soest like his predecessors, since 1166 and in particular his successor Philip v. Heinsberg exercised spiritual and secular rule . Droege sees this Reinald as the namesake of Thidreks Dienstmann (Mb 90; Bertelsen I, 161), Erminriks Edelmann und Ritter (Mb 284 [only A / B]; Bertelsen II, 170) and most recently Herzog bei Gransport (Mb 324f .; Bertelsen II, 231f.). Another Rainald served as governor under Frederick II. The book of heroes knows a Reinold as Duke of Milan.

A passage about Thetleif's move to Thidrek at that point in Mb 122 (Bertelsen I, 233), where, according to the oldest manuscript, the Danish hero is advised by an unknown companion who knows the place, but which the more recent Old Icelandic texts, could also point to the surroundings of the Cologne archdiocese as Goszwin (Hs. A: Godzsvin ). Droege sees in it either an allusion to the Gosmaren family seated around the turn of the millennium on the upper Eder or the name reminiscence of Goswin II von Heinsberg and Valkenburg, who was the father of Philip I von Heinsberg and (as the successor of Rainald von Dassel ) worked as Cologne Archbishop and Arch Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire under Barbarossa.

The Wolkenburg , built by Cologne Archbishop Friedrich I at the beginning of the 12th century on the Middle Rhine and in the immediate vicinity of the Drachenfels , which finally became known as the place where he died in 1131, Droege recognizes as a reception model for the story of the ambush murder of Erminrik's son Friðrekr ( Mb 278; Bertelsen II, 160-161).

He quotes the immediately following dialogue between Sifka and Erminrik (in the preliminary planning for the removal of another of his sons) as follows:

c. 279: 'I suppose, Lord, that you will not have received an estimate of England, and for that you shall indeed have an estimate, and I know that when your seal comes so that the King of the Angles does not dare to refuse to pay you an estimate . '

and deduces from this this historical motive for the author of the original who, in his opinion, wrote in a home in the Rhineland and Westphalia :

With this strong emphasis on the likely estimate, shouldn't a historical fact of that time have given cause? According to Rahewin III 7 (1157), Henry II of England sent Frederick I a letter overflowing with devotion, declaring his submission. In the litterae mellito sermone plenae it was said: regnum nostrum ... vobis exponimus, ut vestrae committamus potestati, ut ad vestrum nutum omnia disponantur ... With such humiliation one could indeed entertain the thought that one should also demand valuation.

Droege takes another narrative formula for Sigurd's description of Thidrek's tent in front of King Isung's seat (Mb 200, Bertelsen II, 1) from this historical context as well as from Rahewin's chapter:

One can also see a relationship in the Ths on the splendid tent that the ambassadors bring as a gift. Find. Rahewin says of him: papilionem unum quantitate maximum, qualitate bonissimum perspeximus, and in the Ths. it says: 'I saw a tent ... and this tent is prepared in a different way than I have ever seen before' and after the description: 'I believe that no man will have seen a more magnificent tent', similar to the words for Rahewin: nec materia nec opere putem superatum iri.

In addition, Droege uses Rahewin's Gesta III 28 to emphasize the difference between warhorse and tented horse, first defined by the imperial regulations of 1158, the hippological precipitate of which can be found as turnreid oc gængara in Heimir's imagination as a horse breeder and dressage rider (Mb 18, Bertelsen I, 39) . It should also be noted, however, that the Enite tenters in Hartmann von Aues Erec -Roman (around 1180/90) are well known in literary history .

Sigurd

Droege compares the description of Sigurd or Siegfried with Rahewin's description of Barbarossa's appearance and character:

The detailed description of Siegfried Th. C. 185 of the no less detailed of the Kaiser in Rahewin Gesta IV 86.Siegfried's body is quite even, in Friedrich the forma corporis decenter is more precise, Siegfried has beautiful brown hair that falls in large curls, Friedrich flava caesaries paululum a vertice frontis crispata, Siegfrieds Nose is high, with Friedrich nasus venustus, Siegfried's eyes are sharp, Friedrich has acuti et perspicares orbes oculorum, Siegfried's beard is thick and brown, Friedrich's barba subrufa, the shoulders are strong, with Friedrich umeri paulisper prominentes ... 'Siegfried understood well to draw the bow and ride stallions' and Friedrich: ipsemet arcum tendit ... in equis nulli secundus. Of Siegfried, conspicuous for the strong hero of the deed, is told: 'He was bold in speaking and liked to take advice from his friends, he was agile and elaborate in speaking'; Friedrich says: consilio validissimus, in patria lingua admodum facundus, as we expect the mirabilis eloquentia from him and other statesmen . 'That was Siegfried's desire to give his friends help and assistance', and Friedrich is praised: erga familiares in proferendo alloquio non minax nec in admittendo consilio spernax. Siegfried was ready to give property and treasures to his friends, Friedrich: elemosinas ... ispe manu sua distribuit , etc. The conclusion that 'Siegfried's name in all tongues goes from the north to the sea of ​​Greece' is more striking a ruler who, like Friedrich, struggled with the Greeks, as Friedrich reported at the end: Imperatorem Constantinopolitanum cum sese sicut antecessores sui Romanorum appellaret imperatorem, inflexit, ut se non Romae, sed Neoromae vocet imperatorem.

As an indication of a Franconian origin and the Low German source priority for the Thidrek saga, Droege recognizes the alignment of Sigurd's birth as well as the fate of his mother from the legend about Genoveva von Brabant .

Chronicon Montis Sereni

Erminrik's death

There are contradicting representations about the end of the historical and, in particular, heroically epic form of Greutung King Ermanarich , reinterpreted as Odoacer by Middle High German poetry and the research that followed it . As an adversary of Dietrich or Thidrek in the Thidrek saga, but not after the heroic songs of the Elder Edda (cf. Guðrúnarhvǫt and Hamðismál ) and the Vǫlsunga saga , Erminrik is said to have died after a failed surgical intervention. According to the representation of Mb 401 (Bertelsen II, 340–341) , his body was cut open in order to lift the obesity of the intestines . Walther Kienast and Karl Droege recognize in this description the direct parallel after a passage in the Low German Chronicon Montis Sereni . This chronicle of Lauterberg Monastery, later Petersberg , describes the death of Dedos III. who last owned the Lausitzer Ostmark ( marchio Orientalis ), in these words:

Dedonem Orientalem marchionem secum voluit proficisci. Qui itineris illius asperitatem et aeris qualitatem corpori suo, quia crassus erat, contrariani sciens, pro tollenda intestinorum arvina medico adhibito, ventris incisione mortuus est.

According to Bertelsen II, 340–341, the passage in the Thidrek saga based on the oldest manuscript reads:

Ec can segia þer mikil tidindi af mikil tidindi af þinom faðorbrœðr ermenrik konungi. hann hefir nu nockora rið siukr vœrit af þui at hans kuiðr var slitnaðr oc ofan hafa sigit hans þarmar oc istra oc her hefir Sifka lagt til rad at skera skylldi til oc draga sua ut istru og seiger ath þur. Ok suo was gert og er nv halfu werr enn ædur. ok nv vitum wier æigi hvort kongur lifer edur aeigi.

This reception can be corroborated above all with the historical and historical context that Dedos' wife was the sister of Philipp von Heinsberg, who as Archbishop of Cologne mostly stayed in Soest. Due to the positioning of this passage in the manuscripts, which the originator apparently deliberately deposited to identify a spatiotemporal authorship, Droege also assumes this Low German secondary source, which is largely due to the historicization of the material .

Thetleif's feast

The Lauterberg monastery chronicle contains an entry dated to the year 1205, which makes a reception for Thetleif's lavish feast (see Mb 125 and Bertelsen I, 239–242) likely. In the case of the Lauterberg record, a tidericus is said to have applied for the office of provost , whose exceptional character trait the monastery clerk indicates among other personal characteristics as follows:

He gave feasts and feasts for his own kind at inappropriate times and had jokes and amusements with them - all things that so often win over fools.

Velent's attack on King Nidung's tablet

The Old Norse manuscripts report in Mb 72 (Bertelsen I, 112–116) about Velent's attempt to take revenge for his exile from Nidung's empire through a traumatizing poison attack on the royal table, on his daughter. The Lauterberg chronicler offers a parallel to this from the year 1223, according to which the abbot was also served a carefully prepared meal with a deadly poison in a familiar guest round, but this food addition was revealed to the abbot in good time at this feast.

Chronica regia Coloniensis

Winning stones

Velent's failed attempt to take revenge on King Nidung's table by poisoning his daughter is based on the previous story about the royal victory stone. According to the representation in Mb 70–71 (Bertelsen I, 106–112) Velent had delivered this stone to the king in time for his campaign, but fell victim to an intrigue by Nidungs ​​Truchsess over this victory-bringing talisman. Jakob Grimm ( Deutsche Mythologie , 1835, p. 631) already pointed out that such a "sigursteininn" finally came into the hands of Thetleif via the daughter of its owner Sigurdr grikr (Mb 120, Bertelsen I, 231).

Apart from the Liber lapidum , a treatise on the hidden powers of precious stones by Bishop Marbod of Rennes († 1123) and the Alberti Magni Opera omnia (1280 at the latest), the Cologne royal chronicle makes the writers of these stories an inspirational offer from the lapis victoriae Year 1174, which was lifted as a grave from the alleged but fabulous last Andernach resting place of Emperor Valentinian.

Gransport

The Hohenstaufen historiography after Rahewin's death refers to this place located by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg in the mouth of the Moselle, as here - as he himself cites with a quote - Philip of Swabia fought a decisive battle against the Guelph Otto IV in 1198 . In this respect, it remains to be seen whether the originator for the Old West Norse texts implemented a reception offer from the Cologne royal chronicle ( Chronica regia Coloniensis ) or the Annales Colonienses maximi or from this strategically important area of ​​a possibly historical event about Franconian-Thuringian-Saxon disputes of the 6th Century knew.

As August Raßmann pointed out, the writer of the Cologne royal chronicle dates back to the previous year 1197, when these two rulers were already fighting for the crown, an appearance of Theodoric from Verona (Codex B) and Bern (Codex A), who was on his black horse crossed the Moselle and prophesied difficult times for the empire.

Classification of the Thidrek saga

Traditions that appear as preliminary stages to the epics Ortnit , Wolfdietrich , Eckenlied , Virginal , Rosengarten are among the source material for the Thidrek saga. However, unlike most heroic poems, the Thidrek saga provides historiographical representations of the topoi that can be found in Dietrich's Flucht , Rabenschlacht , Alphart's death , Hildebrand's songs and other Middle High German epics. According to Roswitha Wisniewski, however, the Thidrek saga also tries to establish the factual and causal connection of individual events with often changing main characters, which is typical of chronicles, even if the Thidrek plot represents a continuous, repeated narrative context. On the one hand, according to Wisniewski, the Thidrek saga should be viewed more as a mixture of chronicle and vita than as a novel with main and subplots , on the other hand it also clearly shows that very different type of biography that is encountered in many heroic sagas. The hero's life is typified here by certain set pieces, such as extraordinary birth, abandoning the child, acquiring weapons, magic aids and helpers, through dragon and giant fights and violent death.

Row fighting motif from the Hundeshagen Codex, Ms. germ. Fol. 855, sheet 10r

According to general opinion, the originals and genesis of the Thidrek saga go back to Low German sources, either Old Low German songs and / or already written records, which were able to reach Scandinavia through the Hanseatic trade relations between the Norwegian mountains and Germany in the Middle Ages. For the transmission of Middle High German lockpicks into the old Norwegian written form, however, it must be assumed that the preliminary stage and template relationships are unclear. The Quedlinburg Annals, which began in the 10th century, mention a Saxon-Thuringian train of the Frankish Theodoric ( Theuderich I ) with his "twelve noblest confidants" for the narrative structure dominating group of heroes of Thidrek . This figurative ruler characteristic can be found in the narrative context neither in the Italian Theodoric chronicle nor in Middle High German Dietrichepik. The rose garden (version A) creates the same number of opponents for their row battles from four giants, four kings and four heroes on the Burgundian side, but no reference to such a traditional genre can be shown for the considerably older annals.

Written sources of the Thidreks saga, believed to be in the Low German region, have not survived. Therefore, for the Thidrek saga, a source value for the oral legend transmission on German soil in the 12./13. Century considered, for example in the form of the Heldenzeitlied . For German research it is an idiosyncratic testimony that differs significantly from the Upper German Middle High German Dietrichepik and the Nibelungenlied. Scandinavian research also tried to classify it as either Riddarasaga (knight saga) or Fornaldarsaga (prehistoric saga), although it does not conform to either of the two classic genre definitions.

For a long time it has also been disputed in research whether it is a translation or a compilation . The translation thesis is mainly represented by German researchers, the compilation thesis mainly by Scandinavian researchers. The proponents of the translation hypothesis assume the existence of a missing complete Low German original, which was only translated in Norway. Well-known representatives of this translation thesis are RC Boer, Dietrich (von) Kralik , Karl Droege, Heinrich Hempel, Roswitha Wisniewski ( see above ), Heinrich Matthias Heinrichs, William J. Pfaff (see above), Helmut Voigt (see above), Theodore M. Andersson , Hermann Reichert ( see above ), and Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg . The followers of the compilation thesis believe that oral or partially written sources came to Norway via the Hanseatic League as the basis, which were only formed in Norway itself into the complete works of the Thidrek saga. In between there are mediating positions that assume that a large part of the sources were lost written Low German texts; the final compilation took place in Norway.

As not only Helmut Voigt (see above) on the shoe test ritual in the Wilzen reports, but also Karl Droege (see above) exemplarily using Staufer sources with text synoptic examinations of the entire content of the Thidrek saga, its first writing or "composition" can be seen against the background of its own of literary resources of old Norway rather less in its center mountains than with a large Middle Low German model. Conversely, the proponents of a compilation of individual traditions such as those that have long existed there, largely independently drawn up by Bergenser, have not provided evidence that the z. For example, the detailed knowledge from Middle Low and Middle High German, as demonstrated by Karl Droege, Helmut Voigt, Roswitha Wisniewski and other authors, could already correspond to one's own Old Norse level of knowledge. The conclusion that a large work in Low German has been lost can already be confirmed by the first chapters of the Thidrek saga, the Samson story about Thidrek's origins with the narrative of the royal figure Brunstein embedded in it , whose naming after Jiriczek and Droege (see above) can only be found in a contemporary reception in Soest an apparently intentional depositing Westphalian author. The last parts of both the Mb and the AB manuscripts refer to the same source of origin: From Thidrek's stay with Duke Lodvijgur ( Hlodver , Mb 403), the geonyms that were once counted in the possession of Duke Ake and are also used inconsistently in the same chapters become / Ethnonyms in the variants * Aumlunga-, Orlunga - / * Ørlunga- abandoned (see above narrative sequence: downfall and death ). In the following, only the previously occasionally used spelling * Omlunga- or * Ømlunga- is transmitted instead .

Research into the structure of the Thidrek saga shows that, contrary to older assumptions, the Thidrek saga is not a compilation in the sense of an artless 'hodgepodge' but has a structure plan that is similar to other large-scale compilations from the same period in Norway, e.g. B. the Karlamagnús saga . The proportion of so-called Hanseatic literary relationships, specifically the Hanseatic German merchants in Bergen, is estimated to be less high today, as an office of the Hanseatic League was only founded around 1350 100 years after the Thidrek saga was supposed to have originated. The texts related to the Hanseatic League found in Bergen also relate more to the field of law or everyday life than to literature. The initiation and writing of the Thidrek saga corresponds to the literary-cultural objectives of Håkon IV. The reception of continental court literature about Thidrek / Dietrich / Theoderich, Karl and the legendary Arthur is seen as part of Håkon's comprehensive cultural program, which is based on domestic political consolidation as well as Norway Approach to the European bibliography and philology was oriented.

Thidreks saga as a historical source

The Thidrek saga has been known to a broader German public for several decades because the literary scholar and journalist Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg , the historical historian Ernst F. Jung and the private scholars Reinhard Schmoeckel and Rolf Badenhausen made it the main witnesses for a legendary reinterpretation of the Nibelung material. In some media-effective publications they advocated the thesis that the Thidrek saga was not a later extension of the originally South Germanic Dietrichsepik , but as a report of historical events in the Rhine-Franconian and northern German area of ​​the 5th / 6th Century AD. An important basis for this reinterpretation was a different interpretation of the place names as well as the assumption that it is not the old Norwegian Thidrek saga in the membrane version, but the shorter Swedish Sv text that is closer to the original texts of this saga that have not survived. This can be seen, among other things, from the fact that the personal names in Sv have been preserved in the Low German version, but have been translated in the Old West Norse traditions; see also sources . The Thidrek saga is therefore of great value as a historical source for the early Germanic history of the Rhine-Weser region.

Older German research has already pre-formulated this view of the origins of legends in Rhine-Franconian and Low German areas from historical contexts there (see section Dietrich's Bern as the Rhine-Franconian Verona ). Although Ritter-Schaumburg has omitted existing publications, especially Franz Josef Mone's localization of the Nibelungen an der Neffel at home and the equally early identification of Soest as their final marching route destination without reference, but expanded it with detailed text research. The consistency of this predominantly geographic-topographical information stands in significant contrast to the genre-typical spatial concepts of heroic poetry such as the Nibelungenlied and the Middle High German Dietrichepik. In accordance with this general literary-characteristic context (cf. Andreas Heusler and others), Ritter-Schaumburg did not only infer a missing chronicle as the main model for the old Swedish text documents and heroic-epic Norse / Old Icelandic manuscripts, but also recognized in these that the core content was largely authentic. Roswitha Wisniewski confirmed the fundamental admissibility of the at least genre-literary type as the predominant chronistic source of the Thidreks saga with reference to the investigations by Karl Droege:

The design of the Thidrek saga is characterized by peculiarities that are known from chronicles, histories and gestures (...) The name "Dietrichschronik" for the Swedish version should not come by chance. In contrast to heroic songs and epics, which personalize and depoliticize legends, it is precisely the politicization that is typical for chronicles and related forms.

According to Wisniewski and Droege, the historicity question of the Thidrek saga is for Ritter-Schaumburg's view, whereby onomastic and geonymic identifications as indexable yardsticks for historically or historiographically reliable historiography are ultimately subject to a re-evaluation anyway, with the compatibility with sources about credited and thus non-poetological representations of history the early Merovingian-East Franconian and adjacent north-eastern European 5th and 6th centuries connected.

In contrast to Wisniewski's reviewers William J. Pfaff (see above) and Hilkert Weddige (in short, see above), who have taken note of and in no way negated a chronic source disposition of the Thidrek saga, Heinrich Beck speculatively focuses on some of the Nibelung poetry in the discussion of historicity Name and route identifications (cf. Heinrich Hempel, Karl Weller) as well as an Ostgothic saga tradition constructed by Middle High German heroic epics, which the saga writer is said to have rewritten into a message of a more subtle kind in the interest of current appropriation of material .

Geographical conclusions on original spatial concepts

The problem of identifying original place names can be illustrated using a testimonial formulation about a “true event” at the Battle of Gransport (Gronsport). In this battle on the Moselle (in the Middle High German Dietrichepik the battle of raven) , Attila's sons and Thidrek's brother (more historically his son) fell through Vidga's sword Mimung . Raben is the old German name for Ravenna, where Theodoric is buried and the saga interpreted in Italy settles this Ravenna battle. After the historical event, Theodoric the Great besieged his royal seat Ravenna in the area of ​​a swampy lagoon, to which Odoacer had withdrawn. In July 491, however, his attempt to break out failed, which Theodoric was able to repel successfully, but was unable to conquer the city. The transport mentioned in the saga, but not connected with the siege of Thidrek's only royal seat Verona (Bern), is said to be the grandis portus , the great port of Ravenna. In fact, there were two ports in Ravennat at that time, the commercial port at today's Basilica of S. Maria (Porto Fuori) and the naval port at the church of S. Apollinare in Classe. According to the Moselle cartography, Thidrek traces Vidga "to where the Moselle flows at the Rauenthal " and shoots his spear after him before Vidga sinks into the floods. The spear got stuck, "and anyone who goes there can still see it today".

For the localization of the Niflungensitz in the Voreifel Heinrich Beck denies the transferability of the spellings Vernica, Verniza to the place Virnich near Zülpich, cf. also the old Icelandic forms Vermintzu (e.g. Hs. A) and Wermintza (e.g. Hs. B) with the nearby castle and settlement Virmenich and Firmenich. However, the ancient linguist and historian Ernst F. Jung considers the original forms pointing to the Zülpich suburb based on the oldest manuscript to be fundamentally permissible. Furthermore, the linguists William J. Pfaff and Hans den beste raised no objections to the compatibility of the Old Norse spelling with Virnich, as demonstrated by Roswitha Wisniewski.

Some authors are of the opinion that a large part of the Thidrek saga (or its Low German originals) mechanically transfers southern myths to more northern areas of Germany or Denmark. The environment would remain unchanged. In turn, illustrating the historicity problem in the Gransport battle, they see “there” as the place where the Moselle flows into the sea. However, it flows into the Rhine. The (Bavarian) raven battle would obviously be primary here; the localization of the Thidrek saga is secondary. Therefore, according to these researchers, the Thidrek saga could also merge the Danube and the Rhine ("rin and duna") if the Nibelung saga was moved to Westphalia (of which Margrave Rodingeir, Middle High German Rüdeger von Bechelaren, who is near Pöchlarn already about 40 years before the Nibelungenlied, with Metellus von Tegernsee, is attested as a legendary figure). However, there is no contradiction here if “duna” is interpreted as dhünn . The old Swedish version of the Thidrek saga, which is consistently more factual and logical and is viewed by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg as the most original version of the saga, does not recognize these contradictions. Compared to the example of Rabenschlacht or Gransport , Wideke (Vidga) only chases "along the river the Moselstrom is called" , "burst into the tide and immediately sank under water" .

Ritter suspects the historical battle of Gransport at the mouth of the Moselle , which the old- west Norse manuscripts at least offer as an alternative location. However, it is precisely the production of coherent versions that is generally viewed in research as a characteristic of secondary processing. It is assumed that the writer of the old Swedish version corrected the "mistake from the sea" at the mouth of the Moselle. However, Ritter argues the other way around, that the Old West Norse versions partly contain additions that would have arisen from the thought of Theodoric the Great. Accordingly, the confluence of the Moselle into the sea would be a secondary addition to the older manuscripts, which arose from the thought of the coastal city of Ravenna. According to Ritter, a lake in the Rhenish area of ​​influence was primarily located in the area of ​​the mouth of the Moselle until the Binger Loch was blown up.

The location of the battle at the mouth of the Moselle has considerable repercussions on other basic geographic narrative conditions. This also includes the localization of Verona as Thidreks Bern, which is reasonable for a high mediaeval readership , who must have crossed the Alps as the Ostrogothic Theodoric in order to recapture his empire at a battle site on the Middle Rhine.

literature

• H. Bertelsen (Ed.): Þidriks saga af Bern. 2 vols., Copenhagen 1905–1911.
• Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius (Ed.): Sagan om Didrik af Bern. Stockholm 1850.Samlingar utg.af Svenska Fornskrift-sällskapet booklet 14,15,22 = vol. 10.

Translations

None of the translations reflects the complicated arrangement of the original text with its contradictions and duplications. Unfortunately, the translators try to produce a "uniform text" in our sense, which the Thidrek saga is not and does not want to be. The translation by Fine Erichsen is preferred from a scientific perspective.

• The story of Thidreks of Bern. ( Thule Collection, Vol. 22). Transferred from Fine Erichsen. Diederichs, Jena 1924.
• The Thidrekssaga or Dietrich von Bern and the Niflungs. Translated by Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen . With new geographical note vers. by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg. 2 volumes. The candlestick, Reichl, St. Goar 1989.
• The Didriks Chronicle or Svava: the life of King Didrik of Bern and the Niflungs. For the first time completely from the old Swedish. Hs. The Thidrek saga transl. and provided with a geographical note by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg. The candlestick, St. Goar 1989, ISBN 3-87667-102-7 .
• The Saga of Thidrek of Bern . Translated by Edward R. Haymes. Garland, New York 1988, ISBN 0-8240-8489-6 .
• Saga de Théodoric de Vérone (Þiðrikssaga af Bern) - Legendary heroiques d'Outre-Rhin . Introduction, traduction du norrois et notes by Claude Lecouteux. Honoré Champion, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-7453-0373-2 .
• Saga de Teodorico de Verona . Anónimo del siglo XIII. Introducción, notas y traducción del nórdico antiguo de Mariano González Campo. Prólogo de Luis Alberto de Cuenca. La Esfera de los Libros, Madrid 2010, ISBN 978-84-932103-6-6 .

Secondary literature

• Thidreks saga. In: Rudolf Simek , Hermann Pálsson : Lexicon of Old Norse Literature (=  Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 490). Kröner, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-520-49001-3 , p. 346 f.
• Heinrich Beck: On the Thidreksaga discussion. In: Journal for German Philology . 112, 1993, pp. 441-448.
• Hans-Jürgen Hube: Thidreks saga. Marix, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-86539-158-2 .
• Susanne Kramarz-Bein (Hrsg.): Hansische literary relations. The example of the Þhiðreks saga and related literature. (= Real Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity - Supplementary Volumes 14). Walter der Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-081488-0 . ( chargeable from Gruyter Online )
• Susanne Kramarz-Bein: The Þiðreks saga in the context of old Norwegian literature. ( Contributions to Nordic Philology 33). Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2002, ISBN 3-7720-3096-3 .
• Susanne Kramarz-Bein: Þiðreks saga and Karlamagnús saga. In: Hansic Literature Relations: The Example of the Þhiðreks saga and related literature. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, pp. 200-203.
• Gerhart Lohse: The relationships between the Thidrek saga and the manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied. In: Contributions to the history of the German language a. Literature. 81, 1959, pp. 295-347.
• EE Metzner: Dietrich von Bern in Scandinavia. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . 3: 1020-1021 (1986).
• Hanswilhelm Haefs : Thidrekssage and Nibelungenlied - comparative studies. Research on the Thidrek saga. Studies on the Migration Period in Northern Central Europe. Volume 2. Thidrekssaga Forum eV, Bonn 2004.
• Hermann Reichert : heroic legend and reconstruction. Investigations on the Thidrek saga. Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-900538-34-4 .
• Hermann Reichert: The Nibelungen saga in medieval Scandinavia. In: Joachim Heinzle, Klaus Klein, Ute Obhof (eds.): The Nibelungs. Saga - epic - myth. Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-89500-347-6 .
• H. Ritter-Schaumburg: The Nibelungs moved northwards. Reichl, 2003.
• H. Rosenfeld: Dietrich von Bern. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Vol. V, Berlin / New York 1984, pp. 425-430.
• H. Rosenfeld: Dietrichdichtung. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Vol. V, Berlin / New York 1984, pp. 430-442. (a separate article about Thidreks saga is in press).
• Hermann Schneider : Germanic heroic legend. Volume I (I. Book), Berlin / New York 1928–1934 and 1962 (on Dietrich / Thidrek especially pp. 214–331).

Literary adaptations

• Gunnar Kunz : The Call of the Valkyries. A Nibelung novel. Erfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3-86680-677-1 .

Web links

• Coin finds AUDWULF FRISIA and AVDVLFVS FRISIA
• Collection of articles
• Rolf Badenhausen: Twelve around Dietrich von Bern - hero physiognomy from the test tube? Essay
• Rolf Badenhausen: Wadhincusan, Ludewici monastery. On the Ludwig signature of the Thidreks saga. (PDF; 2.0 MB) Article

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: The Nibelungs moved northwards. Paperback edition with register, 4th unchanged edition. Reichl, St. Goar 2002, ISBN 3-87667-129-9 .
2. ↑ The same: Dietrich von Bern - King of Bonn. Herbig, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7766-1227-4 .
3. ↑ The same pp. 285-286.
4. ↑ Reviews: Henry Kratz (1983): 'The Nibelungs moved northwards' by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg . The German Quarterly . 56 (4): pp. 636-638 .; Gernot Müller (1983): The very latest Nibelung heresies: On Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg's 'The Nibelungs moved northwards, Munich 1981' . Studia neophilologica. 57 (1): pp. 105-116; Werner Hoffmann (1993): Siegfried 1993. Comments and considerations on the research literature on Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied from 1978 to 1992 . Mediaevistics. 6: pp. 121-151. JSTOR 42583993. pp. 125-128.
5. ↑ Walter Böckmann : The Nibelung death in Soest. Econ, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-430-11378-4 .
6. ^ Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to the Middle High German Dietrichepik. Walter de Gruyter 1999, p. 38.
7. ↑ See the information in the manuscript edition by Henrik Bertelsen: Þidriks saga af Bern. Volumes I and II, Copenhagen 1905–1911, section Inledning I – VXII with more recent evaluation. According to Peter Andersen's counting, the leaves from these layers are missing: 1 ^2–8 , 2 ² , 2 ⁷ , 7 ³ , 7 ⁶ , 11 ¹ , 11 ⁸ , 13 ² , 13 ⁷ , 17 ¹ , 17 ⁸ , 18 ¹ , 18 ⁸ , 19 ^2-7 ; see http://gottfried.unistra.fr/nibelungen/islandische-und-norrone-fassungen/thidrekssaga/ [accessed May 8, 2019].
8. ↑ The same II, XXXII (Inledning)
9. ↑ Cf. Susanne Kramarz-Bein: The Þiðreks saga in the context of old Norwegian literature. ( Contributions to Nordic Philology 33). Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2002. page 51.
10. ↑ Kay Busch gives a manuscript created by Jón Eggertson from a previous tradition of the two old Icelandic manuscripts AM 178, fol. and in particular AM 177, fol. in connection with the Icelandic manuscript Papp. fol. nr 100 on; see great power status and saga interpretation. Dissertation Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg 2002, pp. 203-220, cf. P. 207.
11. ↑ See Henrik Bertelsen, II, 400f. (Register)
12. ↑ Cf. Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius' transcription from 1850–1854 on p. XLI ff. See the digitized edition at https://books.google.fr/books?id=QYAAAAAAcAAJ&hl=fr&pg=PA307#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed May 9, 2019.]
13. ↑ Kay Busch: Great Power Status and Interpretation of Saga. Dissertation Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg 2002. See p. 203f. with further references to Hyltén-Cavallius' manuscript edition from 1850–1854, pp. IXff., and Fornnorsk-isländsk litteratur i Sverige, pp. 50f.
14. ↑ See Bertelsen II, 345,347,352-358,376.
15. ↑ Cf. Heinz Thomas: Studies on the Trier historiography of the 11th century, in particular on the Gesta Treverorum. Rheinisches Archiv 68, Bonn 1968. Accordingly, Trier is said to be the occidental city most honored with the title Roma secunda (p. 162) and this is based on Roman naming (p. 178).
16. ↑ August Raßmann : The German heroic legend and their home. Hanover 1858 (vol. II). See foreword p. XI.
17. ↑ Ferdinand Holthausen : Studies on the Thidrekssaga (diss.). Reprint: PBB , Vol. 9, Issue 3. See pp. 490-491 .
18. ^ William J. Pfaff: The Geographical and Ethnic Names in the Þíðriks Saga. Mouton & Co, 'S-Gravenhage 1959. See pp. 57, 122, 205.
19. ↑ Roswitha Wisniewski : The depiction of the Niflung Sunset in the Thidrekssaga. A source-critical investigation. (Habilitation) Tübingen 1961. See p. 263ff.
20. ^ Norbert Höing: Monastery scribe Ludovicus von Wedinghausen (1210/36) and the Thidreks saga. In: Arnsbergs Alte Schriften , Strobel, Arnsberg 1988, pp. 62–68.
21. ^ Hermann Reichert : Homes in Wilten and in the Thidrekssaga. In: Studies on Old Germanic. Festschrift for Heinrich Beck. Ed. Heiko Uecker (supplementary volume 11 to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde), Berlin 1994. pp. 503-512.
22. ↑ Timeline of the history of the Wedinghausen Monastery: https://www.arnsberg.de/kloster-wedinghausen/kloster/einblicke/einfuehrung.php#zeittafel (accessed on March 23, 2019)
23. ^ Franz Joseph Mone: Investigations into the history of the German heroic saga. Quedlinburg / Leipzig 1836, p. 65f. See p. 67.
24. ↑ The same: Anzeiger für Kunde der Teutschen Vorzeit. Karlsruhe 1836. See p. 418.
25. ↑ The same: Investigations into the history of the German heroic saga. Quedlinburg / Leipzig 1836. See p. 28f.
26. ^ Laurenz Lersch: I. Chorography and history - Verona. In: Yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland. Bonn 1842, Vol. I, pp. 1-34. P. 34.
27. ↑ The same p. 6 with reference to Lacomblet's document book for the history of the Lower Rhine, Bd. I. Düsseldorf 1840. Cf. document No. 179:
    atque thelonio civitatis verone libram. I. et de Zulpigo iterum de thelonio iterum libram. I. et ecclesiam unam Bardinbach [ Bardenberg near Aachen (!)] Dictam non censualem libram dimidiam ad sustentandam fratrum inopiam […]
28. ↑ The same p. 24f.
29. ^ Karl Müllenhoff: The Austrasian Dietrichsage. In: ZfdA 6 (1848), pp. 435-459.
30. ^ Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to the Middle High German Dietrichepik. Walter de Gruyter 1999, p. 43.
31. ↑ Hermann Lorenz: The testimony for the German hero saga in the annals of Quedlinburg. In: GERMANIA 31 (19, 1886), pp. 137–150.
32. ↑ Gregor von Tours reports in the second book (chapter 18) of his Franconian history Decem libri historiarum about a Saxon general Odovaker fighting in Gaul around the years 463 and 464/65 ; see. Translated by Wilhelm Giesebrecht , otherwise after Gregor also Adovacrius and finally Odovacrius / Odovacarius . According to the Quedlinburg Annals, “Odoaker” relates to Dietrich's return, whose role in the Thidrek saga is embodied by Erminrik's successor Sifka, cf. Note from Joachim Heinzle (1999) p. 19.
33. ↑ See MGH SS 3 (Pertz), p. 31 .
34. ↑ MGH SS 3, p. 32.
35. ^ Karl Simrock: Bonna Verona. In: Bonn. Contributions to its history and monuments. Festschrift. Bonn 1868, Vol. III, pp. 1-20. See p. 13.
36. ↑ See Simrock p. 18.
37. ↑ Hermann Lorenz: The testimony for the German hero saga in the annals of Quedlinburg. In: GERMANIA 31 (19, 1886). P. 139.
38. ^ Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen: The Thidrekssaga or Dietrich von Bern and the Niflungen. J. Max & Co. Breslau 1814.
39. ↑ See new edition Otto-Reichl-Verlag, St. Goar 1989 (with commentary by Heinz Ritter – Schaumburg).
40. ↑ August Raßmann: The German heroic legend and their home. Second volume. The legends of the Wölsungen and Niflungs, the Wilcinen and King Thidrek of Bern in the Thidrek saga. Carl Rümpler, Hanover 1858. Page X.
41. ^ Ferdinand Holthausen: Studies for the Thidrekssaga In: Contributions to the history of the German language and literature. PBB, Volume 9, Issue 3, 1884. pp. 451-503.
42. ^ Johann S. Seibertz: Document book for the regional and legal history of the Duchy of Westphalia. Volume 1, Arnsberg 1839, p. 50.
43. ↑ Suffridus Peter De Frisiorum antiquitate et orgine libri tres. Cologne 1590 and 1698.
44. ↑ Martinus Hamconius: Frisia, seu, De viris rebusque Frisiae illustribus libri duo. Franekara 1620.
45. ↑ Willi Eggers: The Low German foundations of the Wilzensage in the Thidrekssaga , Diss. Hamburg 1936 (reprint: Low German Yearbook 62 (1936), p. 84f.)
46. ↑ Herrius Halbertsma: Frieslands Oudheid . Rijksuniversiteit Groningen 1982. Abstract pp. 791–798 . According to coin finds in the Netherlands and England, a Frisian ruler AUDWULF is dated to the beginning of the 7th century, whose name is assumed to be a compound of nobility and wolf ; see also Halbertsma (new edition 2000) p. 68 and
    Peter Pentz, Evert Kramer ( transl .): Kings of the North Sea, 250–850 AD Leeuwarden (Friesisches Museum) 2000.
47. ^ Th. J. Lacomblet: The Roman Basilica of Bonn. In: Archive for the history of the Lower Rhine, II, p. 65f.
48. ^ Wilhelm Levison: BONN-VERONA. In: Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter I , pp. 351–357.
49. ^ Josef Niessen: History of the City of Bonn (I) , Ferdinand Dümmlers Verlag, Düsseldorf 1956. P. 69f.
50. ↑ See as a probable source passage the Getica by Jordanes , which compares the Greutungskönig Ermanarich with Alexander the Great and how he himself “ ruled over all of Germany and all Skiren ”. See also the Quedlinburg Annals : "Ermanricus super omnes Gothos regnavit" .
51. ↑ See the article by Kurt Smolak, which tries to make things relative : Modest panegyric and discrete advertising: Walahfrid Strabo's poem about the statue of Theodoric in Aachen. In: Franz-Reiner Erkens (Ed.): Charlemagne and the legacy of cultures. Berlin 2001. pp. 89-109.
52. ↑ Felix Thürlemann: The meaning of the Aachener Theoderich statue for Karl the Great (801) and with Walahfrid Strabo (829). Materials on a Semiotics of Visual Objects in the Early Middle Ages. In: Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 59, Issue 1 (1977), pp. 25–65. P. 35. See online edition https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/artdok/428/ [accessed on May 13, 2019].
53. ^ Heinrich Fichtenau: Byzantium and the Palatinate in Aachen. In: MIÖG 59 (1951), pp. 1-54.
54. ^ Walter Schlesinger: Observations on the history and shape of the Aachen Palatinate in the time of Charlemagne. In: Studies on European prehistory and early history - dedicated to Herbert Jankuhn. Neumünster 1968, pp. 258-281.
55. ^ Kemp Malone: Studies in Heroic Legend and in Current Speech. Copenhagen 1959. pp. 116-123.
56. ↑ The interpretations from or for Marika , cf. Mæringa burg in Old English Deor , do not give a reliable ethnic conclusion; see. in Geir T. Zoëga's Old Icelandic-English dictionary: “ mæringr (-s, -ar) , m. a noble man ”. Referring to Robert E. Zachrisson ( Studia Neophilologica VI p. 30), Malone interprets Marika = Mearing as an adjacent area; see. Jan de Vries' * mæri .
57. ^ William J. Pfaff: The Geographical and Ethnic Names in the Þíðriks Saga. Mouton & Co, 'S-Gravenhage 1959. See p. 99, also p. 79 on Gautland = Götaland in the Thidreks saga.
58. ^ Kemp Malone: Studies in Heroic Legend and in Current Speech. Copenhagen 1959. See p. 116: The Theoderic of the Rök Inscription. For the preceding "rune strophe" þat sakum ąnart, huaR fur niu altum ąn / urþi fiaru miR Hraiþkutum auk tumi iR ąn ub / sakaR, there are significantly different interpretive translations. The transmissions by Otto Höfler (Vienna 1954) and Malone [in square brackets] read: "I say this to the second who [created] [nine] (generations ago) [generations] / among the Hreidgoten (was born / became human) [ ...] "
59. ^ William J. Pfaff: The Geographical and Ethnic Names in the Þíðriks Saga. Mouton & Co, 'S-Gravenhage 1959. P. 34 on BERN .
60. ↑ Cf. Rolf Badenhausen (ed.): Geographical and Ethnic Glossary: ​​Þiðreks saga and Old Swedish Sagan om Didrik af Bern 'Didrikskrönikan (information from William J. Pfaff and Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg.)
61. ↑ Pfaff S. 106 under Huna country .
62. ^ Hermann Schneider: Germanic heroic saga, I – III. Berlin 1928–1934 a. 1962. See Volume I (I. Book), pp. 434f.
63. ^ William J. Pfaff: The Geographical and Ethnic Names in the Þíðriks Saga. Mouton & Co, 'S-Gravenhage 1959. p. 109.
64. ↑ Gudmund Schütte: . Gotthiod and Utgard, II Jena 1936. See page 211f.
65. ↑ Cf. on the relief representations Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to the Middle High German Dietrichepik. Walter de Gruyter 1999, p. 9:
    It is also unclear whether the demonic traits that Dietrich has in some traditions - he is said to be a scion of the devil and is able to spit fire - belong in the complex of legends Theoderichs / Dietrichs Ende. It remains to be seen whether the traditions of Theoderichs / Dietrichs Ende about the demonization of the Gothic King were developed from the ecclesiastical-Catholic perspective or whether it is a deliberate reversal of an older Theodoric apotheosis into the negative.
66. ↑ The equation of this Odovaker / Adovacrius with the rex Italiae represented by Alexander Demandt and not excluded by Matthias Springer (cf. Demandt: Die Spätantike . 2nd edition Munich 2007, p. 212 and note 70; cf. Springer: Die Sachsen . Stuttgart 2004, p. 52f.) Is rejected by the majority of research. See Penny MacGeorge: Late Roman Warlords . Oxford 2002, p. 102 ff .; Stéphane Lebecq: The two faces of King Childeric: History, archeology, historiography. In: Walter Pohl, Maximilianhabenberger (ed.): Integration and rule. Vienna 2002, pp. 119–132, here p. 121; Guy Halsall: Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West . Cambridge 2007, pp. 270f. After text-critical investigations of Fredegar also most recently by Ulrich Nonn ( Die Franken. Stuttgart 2010, here p. 103) with reference to Herwig Wolfram , who considers a common identity of these two figures to be a “prosopographic relationship mania” (cf. article Odowakar in Reallexikon der Germanic Antiquities , Volume 21, here p. 574).
67. ↑ Cf. Rauenthal and Hunnenkopf at the mouth of the Moselle
68. ^ Elisabeth Lienert: Die ‹historische› Dietrichepik. Berlin / New York 2010. p. 27.
69. ^ Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to the Middle High German Dietrichepik. Walter de Gruyter 1999, page 6.
70. ↑ Roswitha Wisniewski: The depiction of the Niflung Sunset in the Thidrekssaga. A source-critical investigation. (Habilitation) Tübingen 1961. See the review by William J. Pfaff (1961) and (commenting) Hilkert Weddige (1989).
71. ^ Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to the Middle High German Dietrichepik. Walter de Gruyter 1999. p. 40.
72. ↑ See Gregory of Tours : Historiarum libri decem. V, 22.
73. ^ Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to the Middle High German Dietrichepik. Walter de Gruyter 1999. p. 76.
74. ↑ P. 79: HBFaks I , sheet 4 ^v .
75. ^ Friedrich Panzer: Italian Normans in German heroic saga. Frankfurt 1925. On Samson pp. 1-25.
76. ↑ Richard Heinzel: About the Ostrogoth hero saga. Meeting reports d. Akad. D. Wiss., Vienna 1889, p. 83.
77. ↑ Otto L. Jiriczek: Deutsche Heldensagen I. Strassburg 1898, p. 150f.
78. ↑ Waldemar Haupt: On the Low German Dietrichsage. Palaestra 129, Berlin 1914, p. 164f.
79. ^ Hermann Schneider: Germanic heroic legend. Volume I (Book I), Berlin / New York 1928–1934 and 1962, pp. 284–286.
80. ↑ Hermann Reichert: heroic saga and reconstruction. Investigations on the Thidrek saga. Vienna 1992.
81. ↑ The same p. 36.
    
82. ↑ See Heinrich Beck: The Thidrekssaga in today's perspective. Lecture print in: 2. Pöchlarner Heldenliedversäch. The historical Dietrichepik. Edited by Klaus Zatloukal for Philologica Germanica 13 , Vienna 1992. pp. 1–11.
83. ↑ Heinrich Beck: Þiđreks saga as present poetry? In: Hanseatic Literature Relations. The example of the Þiđreks saga and related literature. Edited by Susanne Kramarz-Bein, Berlin / New York 1996. pp. 91-99. See p. 92.
84. ^ Susanne Kramarz-Bein: The Þiðreks saga in the context of old Norwegian literature. ( Contributions to Nordic Philology 33). Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2002. Page 17f.
85. ↑ Same page 46f.
86. ↑ Helmut Voigt: On the legal symbolism of the shoe sample in the Þidriks saga (Viltina Þáttr) . In: PBB 87 (1965), pp. 93-149. See p. 148.
87. ↑ Willi Eggers: The Low German foundations of the Wilzensage in the Thidrekssaga , Diss. Hamburg 1936 (Reprint: Low German Yearbook 62 (1936), pp. 70–125.)
88. ↑ The same pp. 84-94.
89. ↑ Roswitha Wisniewski : The depiction of the Niflung Sunset in the Thidrekssaga. A source-critical investigation. (Habilitation) Tübingen 1961. See pp. 261–266.
90. ↑ See file: Metzger Arnsberg.jpg
91. ↑ The same pp. 21-22.
92. ↑ Hilkert Weddige: heroic legend and tribal legend. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1989. pp. 112-113.
93. ^ William J. Pfaff: The Journal of English and Germanic Philology , 61, 1962. pp. 948-952.
94. ^ Same: The Geographical and Ethnic Names in the Þíðriks Saga. Mouton & Co, 'S-Gravenhage 1959. See pp. 205-207.
95. ↑ From research on tradition, however, Raymond W. Chambers pointed to Ptolemaic geography, which was used until the late Middle Ages. Accordingly, the Westphalian monastery town of Wedinghausen was in the area of ​​the Suevi Longobardi ; see. Chambers: Widsith. A study in old English heroic legend. Cambridge 1912, here map p. 259.
96. ↑ Cf. Pfaff, page 952: Surely many of the errors in geography and legendary history are more likely to have been made in Bergen than in Westphalia.
97. ^ Horst Peter Pütz: Heimes monastery episode. A contribution to the source question of the Thidrek saga. In: ZfdA 100, pp. 178-195. See pp. 189–191.
98. ^ Susanne Kramarz-Bein: The Þiðreks saga in the context of old Norwegian literature. ( Contributions to Nordic Philology 33). Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2002. See pp. 99-101, 151-159.
99. ↑ The same p. 158. Quotation omitting the footnotes.
100. ^ Hermann Reichert: Homes in Wilten and in the Thidrekssaga. In: Studies on Old Germanic. Festschrift for Heinrich Beck. Ed. Heiko Uecker (supplementary volume 11 to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ), Berlin 1994. pp. 503-512.
101. ↑ The same p. 507.
102. ↑ The same p. 508.
103. ^ Norbert Höing: Monastery scribe Ludovicus von Wedinghausen (1210/36) and the Thidreks saga. In: Arnsbergs Alte Schriften , Strobel, Arnsberg 1988. pp. 62–68.
104. ↑ Wolfgang Kirsch (Ed. Translation): Chronik vom Petersberg (Cronica Montis Sereni). Halle 1996. Quotation p. 11. See original text from MGH SS 23, p. 139 ^3–12 .
105. ↑ Karl Droege: On the history of the Nibelung poetry and the Thidrek saga. In: ZfdA 58 (1921), pp. 1-40. Quoted below from pp. 19-39.
106. ↑ Walther Kienast: Erminrek's death in the Thidrekssaga . In: AdA 40 (1921) p. 97. Karl Droege: Zur Thidrekssaga . In: ZfdA 66 Issue 1 (1921) pp. 33–46, here p. 40.
107. ^ Quote from MGH SS 23, p. 163 .
108. ↑ See Herrschaft Heinsberg
109. ^ Karl Droege: To the Thidrekssaga . In: ZfdA 66 issue 1 (1921), page 40.
110. ^ Karl Droege: To the Thidrekssaga . In: ZfdA 66 issue 1 (1921), pages 37 u. 45. Note the following appearance of the figure Ludwig or Lodvigur observed by Roswitha Wisniewski in Mb 405 (contextual Mb 403–411, Bertelsen II, 346–354), as well as Thidrek's encounter with that greive Loðvigr for this narrative section in the Thidrek saga on his march back from Osning to Bern in Mb 107 (Bertelsen I, 201).
111. ↑ Wolfgang Kirsch (Ed. Translation): Chronik vom Petersberg (Cronica Montis Sereni). Halle 1996. Quote p. 92.
112. ↑ See p. 169.
113. ↑ See Annales Colonienses maximi (MGH SS 17), p. 787 .
114. ^ Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: Dietrich von Bern. Munich 1982. See p. 226 and p. 300 end note 101.
115. ↑ MGH SS 17, p. 807 . See line 15f.
116. ↑ August Raßmann: The German heroic legend and their home. Second volume. The legends of the Wölsungen and Niflungs, the Wilcinen and King Thidrek of Bern in the Thidrek saga. Carl Rümpler, Hanover 1858. p. 688.
117. ↑ MGH SS 17, p. 804 . See line 36f.
118. ^ Roswitha Wisniewski: Middle High German Dietrichdichtung. Metzler, Heidelberg 1986. pp. 59-60.
119. ↑ Cf. Joachim Heinzle: Introduction to Middle High German Dietrichepik. Walter de Gruyter 1999. pp. 76f.
120. ^ RC Boer: The legends of Ermanarich and Dietrich von Bern. Halle ad S., 1910.
121. ^ Dietrich von Kralik: German hero poetry. In: The Middle Ages in individual representations. Leipzig 1930. pp. 168-193.
122. ^ Karl Droege: To the Thidrekssaga. In: ZfdA 66, Issue 1 (1929) pp. 33-46.
123. ^ Heinrich Hempel: Saxon Nibelung poetry and Saxon origin of the Thidrikssaga. In: Edda, Skalden, Saga. Festschrift for Felix Genzmer. Edited by Hermann Schneider, Heidelberg 1952, pp. 138–156. See p. 140ff.
124. ↑ Heinrich Matthias Heinrichs: Sivrit - Gernot - Kriemhilt. ZfdA 86 (1955/56), pp. 279-290. See p. 289.
125. ^ Theodore M. Andersson: An interpretation of þiðreks saga. In: Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature. Eds. John Lindow et al., Odense 1986, pp. 347-377. See p. 349ff.
126. ↑ Cf. (partly summarizing) Susanne Kramarz-Bein: The Þiðreks saga in the context of old Norwegian literature. (Contributions to Nordic Philology 33). Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2002.
     It can by no means be ruled out that here p. 17 especially with reference to Dietrich Hofmann (1976) and the following chap. IV. 2.2 that the references to oral sources and heroic songs also found in the saga prologue were already part of an imported large-scale model, cf. z. For example, in the manuscripts the final or testimony to the Niflung decline in Soest and Thidrek's death narrative according to chap. 438 (Bertelsen II, 392–393: “ en suo seigia þẏdwersker menn ”), which can also be interpreted as the addition of old- west Norse source code processing .
127. ↑ In addition the criticism by Heinrich Beck: Zur Thidrekssaga-Discussion. In: ZfdPh. 112 (1993); see p. 442.
128. ↑ Karl Droege: On the history of the Nibelung poetry and the Thidrek saga. In: ZfdA 58 (1921), pp. 1-40. See p. 19f.
129. ↑ Roswitha Wisniewski: Medieval lockpicks. Metzler, Heidelberg 1986. p. 79.
130. ^ Heinrich Beck: On the Thidrekssaga discussion. In: ZfdPh. 112 : 441-448 (1993). See pp. 445-446.
     Beck's review of Ritter-Schaumburg lacks any perspective, the Thidrek saga of z. To contrast partly incomplete historiography about the Northern European 5th and 6th centuries, but not a topic-thematically inappropriate polemic against Ritter-Schaumburg when he z. B. writes: Like the assumption that Ths. testify to a Low German Dietrich (approx. 470-534 / 36) who was independent of Dietrich von Bern = Theodoric the Great and was not shared by the saga researchers, the literary educated Heinz Ritter has a sure feeling for one point: The Ths. gives the naive reader the impression of a historical report on historical events in the Low German area (and neighboring areas).
131. ↑ See e.g. B. Ludwig Schmidt: The East Germans . Munich 1962, p. 298.
132. ↑ See file: Tranchot – Mueffling Moselmuendung (1806) .jpg
133. ↑ Derselbe, pp. 443-444.
134. ↑ Ernst F. Jung: The Nibelungen train through the Bergisches Land. Bergisch Gladbach, Heider 1986, ISBN 3-87314-165-5 . See page 36f.
135. ^ William J. Pfaff: The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 61, 1962. P. 950.
136. ↑ Hans the best: Comments on a criticism. Johannes Jonata u. a. to Ritter-Schaumburg's 'The Nibelungs went northwards'. In: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies, 33 ', 1991, p. 127.
137. ↑ Heinz Ritter: Was the Lippe the North German Duna? In: Journal of the Association for the History of Soest and the Boerde. 77/1963.