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Þiðreks Saga
''Þiðreks saga af Bern'' ('the saga of Þiðrekr of Bern', also ''Þiðrekssaga'', ''Þiðriks saga'', ''Niflunga saga'' or ''Vilkina saga'', with Anglicisations including ''Thidreksaga'') is an Old Norse chivalric saga centering the character it calls Þiðrekr af Bern, who originated as the historical king Theoderic the Great (454–526), but who attracted a great many unhistorical Germanic heroic legends. The text is probably by a Norwegian scholar from the 1200s who translated a lost Low German prose narrative of Theoderic's life, or who compiled it from various German sources, or by an Icelandic scholar from the 1300s. It is a pre-eminent source for a wide range of medieval Germanic legends. Titles The name ''Vilkinasaga'' was first used in Johan Peringskiöld's Swedish translation of 1715. Peringskiöld named it after ''Vilkinaland'', which the saga says was an old name for Sweden and Götaland. Origins The saga contains many narratives found in other medieval tales ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabenschlacht
''Die Rabenschlacht'' (The Battle of Ravenna) is an anonymous 13th-century Middle High German poem about the hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend. It is part of the so-called "historical" Dietrich material and is closely related to, and always transmitted together with, a second Dietrich poem, ''Dietrichs Flucht''. At one time, both poems were thought to have the same author, possibly a certain Heinrich der Vogler, but stylistic differences have led more recent scholarship to abandon this idea. ''Die Rabenschlacht'' concerns a failed attempt by the exiled Dietrich to reclaim his kingdom in Northern Italy from his treacherous uncle Ermenrich, with the help of an army provided by Etzel, king of the Huns. In the course of this attempt, Dietrich's younger brother and Etzel's young sons by his wife Helche are killed by Dietrich's former vassal Witege outside of Ravenna. Witege then flees into the sea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfdietrich
Wolfdietrich is the eponymous protagonist of the Middle High German heroic epic ''Wolfdietrich''. First written down in strophic form in around 1230 by an anonymous author, it survives in four main versions, widely differing in scope and content, and largely independent of each other. ''Wolfdietrich'' is closely associated with another heroic epic poem of the same period, ''Ortnit''. The two stories have distinct (if disputed) origins but they were combined at an early stage, possibly by a single author, and appear together in most sources. In the earliest surviving version of the first story, Ortnit is killed by two dragons sent by his father-in-law after he abducts and marries his daughter; in the second, Wolfdietrich, deprived of his inheritance by two brothers and an evil counsellor, sets out to seek Ortnit's help but, finding he has been killed, avenges him by killing the dragons, he then defeats his brothers and the counsellor, and marries Ortnit's widow. While the earlies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Of Aquitaine
Walter or Walther of Aquitaine is a king of the Visigoths in Germanic heroic legend. Epic poetry Walter figures in several epic poems and narratives dealing with Germanic heroic legend in medieval languages: * ''Waldere'', a fragment of an Old English epic of which just over sixty lines survive. * ''Waltharius'', a 10th-century Latin epic written by the monk Ekkehard I of St Gall. * ''Chronicon Novaliciense'' ("Chronicle of Novalesa"), a Latin prose chronicle composed ''c.''1060, at Novalesa Abbey: Abbazia de Novalesa website Waltarius figures in chapters 7-13. * '''', a |
Nibelungen
The term Nibelung (German) or Niflungr (Old Norse) is a personal or clan name with several competing and contradictory uses in Germanic heroic legend. It has an unclear etymology, but is often connected to the root ''nebel'', meaning mist. The term in its various meanings gives its name to the Middle High German heroic epic the ''Nibelungenlied''. The most widespread use of Nibelung is used to denote the Burgundian royal house, also known as the Gibichungs (German) or Gjúkingar (Old Norse). A group of royal brothers led by king Gunther or Gunnar, the Gibichungs are responsible for the death of the hero Siegfried or Sigurd and are later destroyed at the court of Attila the Hun (called Etzel in German and Atli in Old Norse). This is the only use of the term attested in the Old Norse legends. In medieval German, several other uses of the term Nibelung are documented besides the reference to the Gibichungs: it refers to the king and inhabitants of a mythical land inhabited by d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sigurd
Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovingian dynasty, with Sigebert I being the most popular contender. Older scholarship sometimes connected him with Arminius, victor of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. He may also have a purely mythological origin. Sigurd's story is first attested on a series of carvings, including runestones from Sweden and stone crosses from the British Isles, dating from the eleventh century. In both the Norse and continental Germanic tradition, Sigurd is portrayed as dying as the result of a quarrel between his wife ( Gudrun/Kriemhild) and another woman, Brunhild, whom he has tricked into marrying the Burgundian king Gunnar/Gunther. His slaying of a dragon and possession of the hoard of the Nibelungen is also common to both traditions. In other respect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Velents þáttr Smiðs
''Velents þáttr smiðs'' is the name given to the part of the ''Þiðrekssaga af Bern'' saga that deals with Wayland the Smith (Velent, Wieland, Völundr). Summary Velent is the son of the Jötunn, giant Vaði from Sjaelland.''The Saga of Didrik of Bern''. Translated (from the Swedish) by Ian Cumpstey, Skadi Press, 2017. He is sent as an apprentice to MÃmir, a smith from Húnaland. But Sigurðr is also there by that time, and he beats the other apprentices. When Vaði learns that, he brings Velent back home and sends him to two skilful Norse dwarves, dwarves who live in a mountain called Kallava. The dwarves agree to teach Velent everything they know, but threaten to kill him if his father does not fetch him at the appointed time. Vaði dies in an avalanche, but Velent escapes the dwarves' threat by killing them. Velent then sails to Denmark in a hollowed-out tree and eventually arrives at Jutland, where king Niðung is reigning. Velent is soon challenged by Niðung's smith A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wayland The Smith
In Germanic mythology, Wayland the Smith ( ang, Wēland; , ; Old Frisian: Wela(n)du; german: Wieland der Schmied; goh, Wiolant; ''Galans'' (''Galant'') in Old French; gem-x-proto, Wēlandaz, italic=no from ', lit. "crafting one") is a master blacksmith originating in Germanic heroic legend, described by Jessie Weston as "the weird and malicious craftsman, Weyland".Weston, J. (1929). 'Legendary Cycles of the Middle Age', in Tanner, J.R. (ed.), ''The Cambridge Medieval History'' Vol. VI, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, p. 841f. Wayland's story is most clearly told in the Old Norse sources ''Völundarkviða'' (a poem in the ''Poetic Edda'') and ''Þiðreks saga''. In them, Wayland is a smith who is enslaved by a king. Wayland takes revenge by killing the king's sons and then escapes by crafting a winged cloak and flying away. A number of other visual and textual sources clearly allude to similar stories, most prominently the Old English poem ''Deor'' and the Franks C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Attila The Hun
Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Bulgars, among others, in Central and Eastern Europe. During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (modern France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orléans), before being stopped in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. He subsequently invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. He planned for further campaigns against the Romans, but died in 453. After Attila' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of the devil can be summed up as 1) a principle of evil independent from God, 2) an aspect of God, 3) a created being turning evil (a ''fallen angel''), and 4) a symbol of human evil. Each tradition, culture, and religion with a devil in its mythos offers a different lens on manifestations of evil.Jeffrey Burton Russell, ''The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity'', Cornell University Press 1987 , pp. 41–75 The history of these perspectives intertwines with theology, mythology, psychiatry, art, and literature developing independently within each of the traditions. It occurs historically in many contexts and cultures, and is given many different names— Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Iblis—and at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nibelungenlied
The ( gmh, Der Nibelunge liet or ), translated as ''The Song of the Nibelungs'', is an epic poetry, epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germanic heroic legend that has some of its origin in historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries and that spread throughout almost all of Germanic languages, Germanic-speaking Europe. Scandinavian parallels to the German poem are found especially in the heroic lays of the ''Poetic Edda'' and in the ''Völsunga saga''. The poem is split into two parts. In the first part, the prince Sigurd, Siegfried comes to Worms, Germany, Worms to acquire the hand of the Burgundians, Burgundian princess Kriemhild from her brother King Gunther. Gunther agrees to let Siegfried marry Kriemhild if Siegfried helps Gunther acquire the warrior-queen Brünhild as his wife. Siegfried does this and marries Kriemhild; however, Brünhild and Krie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
