Virginal (Dietrichepik)
The virginal is a text from the aventiuric Dietrichepik , which is also titled as Dietrich and his journeymen , Dietrich's dragon fights or Dietrich's first exit . Probably originated in the Swabian-Alemannic region in the 13th century , it was written in Bernerton .
The poetry of the German hero legend describes the first adventures of the young Dietrich von Bern . Moving out with Hildebrand , he frees the Queen Virginal of Tyrol, who is besieged by the heathen Orkise, and then fights victoriously against the giants and dragons in the mountains. The whole thing ends with tournaments and festivals.
The lore
The completely preserved manuscripts contain independent text versions, which is why a distinction is made between Heidelberg, Dresden and Vienna virginal. In addition to these complete manuscripts, there are 10 fragments that essentially correspond to the Heidelberg Virginal.
In the Heidelberg Virginal (Cpg 324; paper manuscript, around 1440, 1097 stanzas) Hildebrand and Dietrich move to the forest mountains of Tyrol to fight against the heathen Orkise , which has invaded the land of the Queen Virginal . Hildebrand finds a girl from Virginal's entourage who is destined to pay tribute to Orkise. He defeats orcises. Dietrich is now involved in a fight with a whole host of pagans. Hildebrand helps him defeat them. The girl invites the two of them to Queen Virginal's residence in Jeraspunt . She goes ahead, Virginal sends the dwarf Bibung to meet them . Dietrich and Hildebrand got into a fight against dragons. One of them has a knight in its mouth. Hildebrand can kill the dragon, the knight is Rentwin , son of Helferich and Hildebrand's great-nephew. Hildebrand and Dietrich go to Arona , the residence of Rentwin's parents Helferich and Portalaphe. There she finds Bibung and brings Virginals invitation. 14 days later, Hildebrand and Dietrich set out with Helferich and his entourage. Dietrich rides ahead, gets lost, arrives at Muter Castle . The giant Wicram, with other giants in the service of Nitger , the lord of Muter's castle, overpowers him and brings him to Nitger, who puts him prisoner. But Nitger's sister Ibelin takes care of Dietrich. She sends a message to Jeraspunt. Thereupon Dietrich's followers from Bern, King Iman of Hungary and Biterolf and Dietleib are brought in to help. After collecting in Jeraspunt, they move to Muter. All the giants are slain in eleven duels. Nitger has to take his land from Dietrich as a fief. On the way to Jeraspunt there are again eleven individual fights with giants and again with dragon fights. When there is a big party. On hearing of an impending siege of Bern, Dietrich and his journeymen return home.
In the Dresden Virginal ( Mscr. M 201 ; paper, 1472, part of the Dresdner Heldenbuch, 130 stanzas) the mother part is missing. In the Arona part, Prince Libertin comes from Palerne to Arona, challenges Dietrich to a duel, is defeated and becomes friends with him. Hildebrand, Helferich, Rentwin and Libertin are invited by Janapas, Orkise's son, to Orteneck Castle on the way from Arona to Jeraspunt. There they are ambushed, have to fight lions, Janapas and his people and are able to free three more girls whom Orkise had brought to Orteneck as a tribute. Meanwhile, Dietrich has killed a boar, but he has to fight a giant who claims the hunting rights in this area. Dietrich defeats him and takes him prisoner. Then they move to Jeraspunt, the festival there ends with the marriage of Dietrich and Virginal.
The Vienna virginal (ÖNB, Cod. 15478; paper, 1480/90, 866 stanzas) is a mixed text of Heidelberg and Dresden virginal. It also contains the Libertine and Janapas episode, Dietrich's boar hunt with a giant fight and his wedding to Virginal.
The half-entwined motif
The motif with the knight in the mouth of a dragon can also be found in the Thidrek saga . There the knight is called Sintram (or Sistram ) and is held in its mouth by a kite. Fasold, Dietrich's companion in the Thidrek saga, tears a sword from the monster's jaws and uses it to kill the dragon. Like Rentwin, Sintram is related to Hildebrand: Hildebrand is the son of Reginbald. Reginbald's brother is Boltram, Sintram is Boltram's grandson. Since the names of the thidrek saga are different from those of the virginal, one can assume that the thidrek saga does not fall back directly on the virginal in this episode, but on a more original narrative tradition shared with the virginal.
Even in the , Bernese Chronicle ' of Conrad Justinger of 1420/30 mentions a Swiss local legend in which a Sintram occurs: the fortress Burgdorf was built by the brothers Sintram and Baltram. There was a large cave near this fortress where a dragon lived. This devoured Baltram, but Sintram was able to cut his brother out of the dragon alive.
The half- entangled motif is also found in a story by Sindbad the navigator, who uses a targeted blow with his golden staff to induce a snake to spit out a man who has been swallowed up to his navel.
Since the 14th century, the coat of arms of the Visconti , who have owned Arona Castle at the southern end of Lake Maggiore since 1277, has had a snake that swallowed a naked boy up to his waist.
Pictorial representations of a man half engulfed by a dragon can also be found in a frieze on the outer wall of the Andlau Abbey in Alsace (1130/40), a capital sculpture in the ambulatory of the Basel Minster (after 1185) and the initial to Psalm 69 in the Albani Psalter ( 12th century - Christ pulls a person out of the dragon's mouth). Not all of these pictorial representations therefore have to refer to an original version of the virginal, but may have become part of Christian iconography early on, in which the dragon is used as a symbol of evil.
See also
literature
- Heinzle, Joachim: Introduction to Middle High German Dietrichepik . Berlin: de Gruyter 1999. ISBN 3-11-015094-8 (especially pp. 135–145)