Wittich

Wittich , in the Thidrek saga Widga , otherwise also Witege, Wittig , is a figure of the Germanic heroic sagas. Because of the equipment he got from his father Wieland , legend has it that he was the best equipped knight of his time. With Mimung he had the best sword, his armor and his helmet had also been forged by Wieland and therefore of the finest quality and his mount was the stallion Schimming, one of the best horses of the time.

Mimung plays an important role in the Wielands legend, but also in the legend of Dietrich von Bern , because with Mimungs help Wittich can defeat Dietrich. Later, when Dietrich threatens to lose in a match against Odoacer, he borrows Wittich's sword and uses it to kill Odoacer.

In the legends about Dietrich von Bern he plays a role that very darkens the main hero. But elsewhere he is portrayed quite negatively, insofar as he plays an extremely inglorious role in the battle of the ravens at the end of his life, when he became Dietrich's opponent . In this battle, which took place near Dietrich's town of Raben (referring to the historical Ravenna ), in which Dietrich's army fought against that of Emperor Ermenrich in order to win back Dietrich's empire from this, Wittich and Ritter Heime were part of Ermanrich's army , on a scouting ride, and they came across an opposing knight standing there on guard. They fought with him, first hand to hand, as was the custom among knights, and he defeated them both. He wanted to take them with him as his prisoners, but then they forgot all chivalrous propriety, fell upon him in twos and killed him. When they took off his helmet, they discovered that it was Alphart , who was only eighteen years old , a nephew of Hildebrand , Dietrich's old armorer.

They made off with a bad conscience, and Alphart lay dead on the battlefield for a whole day until Hildebrand found him. From the marks of the sword blows he could tell that Mimung must have caused them, and since Alphart had wounds on his back too, he knew what had happened.

In a later battle, in which Dietrich, who had meanwhile been expelled from Bern, tried to recapture his empire, Wittich then came across Dieter, Dietrich's very young brother, and the two sons of King Etzel (of the historical Attila ). He tried to avoid the fight, but was attacked so vigorously by them that he killed them in self-defense.

Dietrich von Bern was so angry about this that he chased Wittich on his horse Falke to fight and kill him. Wittich was so afraid of Dietrich that he committed suicide while fleeing from him by throwing his horse in full armor over a cliff into the sea. Variants say that he was saved there by sea women .

The best known real bearer of the name was the Ostrogoth rex Witichis (536-540), a former follower of Theodoric the Great .

The legendary Vidrik Verlandssons grave is at Ucklum in Västra Götalands län in Sweden .

literature

Kurt Eigel: German sagas of gods and heroes . Kremayr & Scheriau publishing house, Vienna 1953.
Robert Nedoma: The pictorial and written monuments of the Wieland legend . Kümmerle, Göppingen 1988, ISBN 3-87452-726-3 , ( Göppinger papers on German studies 490), (At the same time: Wien, Univ., Diss., 1986).
Gustav Schalk: Master book of German gods and heroic sagas . With 56 text images and 4 color plates by Wilhelm Petersen. Ullstein, Berlin 1911.

Web links

Remarks

↑ If one takes into account that Dietrich and Wittich were oath brothers and that oath brothers should never fight against each other, Dietrich acted dishonorable here too, while Wittich voluntarily died for his honor and his word.
↑ cf. but note 1, there are also other versions of the process

[1] If one takes into account that Dietrich and Wittich were oath brothers and that oath brothers should never fight against each other, Dietrich acted dishonorable here too, while Wittich voluntarily died for his honor and his word.

[2] . but note 1, there are also other versions of the process