![Hildebrandslied2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Hildebrandslied2.jpg)
The ''Hildebrandslied'' (; ''Lay'' or ''Song of Hildebrand'') is a
heroic lay
The heroic lay (German ''Heldenlied'') is a genre of Germanic epic poetry characteristic of the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages. A lay is a short narrative poem of between 80 and 200 lines concerning a single heroic episode in the life ...
written in
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
alliterative verse
In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of ...
. It is the earliest
poetic text in German, and it tells of the tragic encounter in battle between a father (Hildebrand) and a son (Hadubrand) who does not recognize him. It is the only surviving example in German of a genre which must have been important in the
oral literature
Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...
of the
Germanic tribes
The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
.
The text was written in the 830s on two spare leaves on the outside of a religious codex in the
monastery of Fulda
The Abbey of Fulda (German ''Kloster Fulda'', Latin ''Abbatia Fuldensis''), from 1221 the Princely Abbey of Fulda (''Fürstabtei Fulda'') and from 1752 the Prince-Bishopric of Fulda (''Fürstbistum Fulda''), was a Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastic ...
. The two scribes were copying from an unknown older original, which itself must ultimately have derived from oral tradition. The story of Hildebrand and Hadubrand almost certainly goes back to 7th- or 8th-century
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
and is set against the background of the historical conflict between
Theodoric
Theodoric is a Germanic given name. First attested as a Gothic name in the 5th century, it became widespread in the Germanic-speaking world, not least due to its most famous bearer, Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths.
Overview
The name ...
and
Odoacer
Odoacer ( ; – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar, was a soldier and statesman of barbarian background, who deposed the child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became Rex/Dux (476–493). Odoacer's overthrow of Romulus Augustul ...
in 5th-century Italy, which became a major subject for
Germanic heroic legend
Germanic heroic legend (german: germanische Heldensage) is the heroic literary tradition of the Germanic-speaking peoples, most of which originates or is set in the Migration Period (4th-6th centuries AD). Stories from this time period, to whic ...
. The fundamental story of the father and son who fail to recognize each other on the battlefield is much older and is found in a number of
Indo-European traditions.
The manuscript itself has had an eventful history: twice looted in war but eventually returned to its rightful owner, twice moved to safety shortly before devastating air-raids, repeatedly treated with chemicals by 19th-century scholars, once almost given to Hitler, and torn apart and partly defaced by dishonest book dealers. It now resides, on public display, in a secure vault in the
Murhard Library in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
.
The text is highly problematic: as a unique example of its genre, with many words not found in other German texts, its interpretation remains controversial. Difficulties in reading some of the individual letters and identifying errors made by the scribes mean that a definitive edition of the poem is impossible. One of the most puzzling features is the dialect, which shows a mixture of
High German
The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...
and
Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
spellings which cannot represent any actually spoken dialect.
In spite of the many uncertainties over the text and continuing debate on the interpretation, the poem is widely regarded as the first masterpiece of German literature.
Synopsis
The opening lines of the poem set the scene: two warriors meet on a battlefield, probably as the champions of their two armies.
As the older man,
Hildebrand
Hildebrand is a character from Germanic heroic legend. ''Hildebrand'' is the modern German form of the name: in Old High German it is ''Hiltibrant'' and in Old Norse ''Hildibrandr''. The word ''hild'' means "battle" and ''brand'' means "sword". ...
opens by asking the identity and genealogy of his opponent. Hadubrand reveals that he did not know his father but the elders told him his father was Hildebrand, who fled eastwards in the service of
Dietrich (Theodoric) to escape the wrath of Otacher (
Odoacer
Odoacer ( ; – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar, was a soldier and statesman of barbarian background, who deposed the child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became Rex/Dux (476–493). Odoacer's overthrow of Romulus Augustul ...
), leaving behind a wife and small child. He believes his father to be dead.
Hildebrand responds by saying that Hadubrand will never fight such a close kinsman (an indirect way of asserting his paternity) and offers gold arm-rings he had received as a gift from the Lord of the Huns (the audience would have recognized this as a reference to
Attila
Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European traditio ...
, whom according to legend Theodoric served).
Hadubrand takes this as a ruse to get him off guard and belligerently refuses the offer, accusing Hildebrand of deception, and perhaps implying cowardice. Hildebrand accepts his fate and sees that he cannot honourably refuse battle: he has no choice but to kill his own son or be killed by him.
They start to fight, and the text concludes with their shields smashed. But the poem breaks off in the middle of a line, not revealing the outcome.
The text
The text consists of 68 lines of alliterative verse, though written continuously with no consistent indication of the verse form. It breaks off in mid-line, leaving the poem unfinished at the end of the second page. However, it does not seem likely that much more than a dozen lines are missing.
The poem starts:
Structure
The basic structure of the poem comprises a long passage of dialogue, framed by introductory and closing narration. A more detailed analysis is offered by McLintock:
#Introductory narrative (ll. 1–6): The warriors meet and prepare for combat.
#Hildebrand's 1st speech, ''with introductory formula and characterization'' (ll. 7–13): Hildebrand asks his opponent's identity.
#Hadubrand's 1st speech, ''with introductory formula'' (ll. 14–29): Hadubrand names himself, tells how his father left with Dietrich, and that he believes him to be dead.
#Hildebrand's 2nd Speech (ll. 30–32): Hildebrand indicates his close kinship with Hadubrand.
Narrative (ll. 33–35a): Hildebrand removes an arm-ring
Hildebrand's 3rd speech (l. 35b): and offers it to Hadubrand.
#Hadubrand's 2nd speech, ''with introductory formula'' (ll. 36–44): Hadubrand rejects the proffered arm-ring, accuses Hildebrand of trying to trick him, and reasserts his belief that his father is dead.
#Hildebrand's 4th speech, ''with introductory formula'' (ll. 45–62): Hildebrand comments that Hadubrand's good armour shows he has never been an exile. Hildebrand accepts his fate, affirming that it would be cowardly to refuse battle and challenging Hadubrand to win his armour.
#Closing narrative (ll. 63–68): The warriors throw spears, close for combat and fight until their shields are destroyed.
While this structure accurately represents the surviving manuscript text, many scholars have taken issue with the position of ll. 46–48 ("I can see from your armour that you have a good lord at home and that you were never exiled under this regime"). In these lines, as it stands, Hildebrand comments on Hadubrand's armour and contrasts his son's secure existence with his own exile. Such a measured observation perhaps seems out of keeping with the confrontational tone of the surrounding conversation. Many have suggested, therefore, that the lines should more correctly be given to Hadubrand — from his mouth they become a challenge to Hildebrand's story of exile — and placed elsewhere. The most widely accepted placing is after l. 57, after Hildebrand has challenged Hadubrand to take an old man's armour. This has the advantage that it seems to account for the extraneous ''quad Hiltibrant'' in ll. 49 and 58, which would normally be expected to introduce a new speaker and seem redundant (as well as hypermetrical) in the manuscript version. Alternatively, De Boor would place the lines earlier, before l.33, where Hildebrand offers an arm-ring. However, more recently the trend has been to accept the placing of these lines and see the task as making sense of the text as it stands.
Problems
In spite of the text's use of spare space in an existing manuscript, there is evidence that it was prepared with some care: the two sheets were ruled with lines for the script, and in a number of places letters have been erased and corrected.
![Hildebrandslied2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Hildebrandslied2._wynn_rune.jpg)
Nonetheless, some features of the text are hard to interpret as anything other than uncorrected errors. Some of these are self-evident copying errors, due either to misreading of the source or the scribe losing his place. An example of the latter is the repetition of ''darba gistuotun'' in l. 26b, which is hypermetrical and gives no sense – the copyist's eye must have been drawn to the ''Detrihhe darba gistuontun'' of l.23 instead of to the ''Deotrichhe'' in l.26b. Other obvious copying errors include ''mih'' for ''mir'' (l.13) and ''fatereres'' for ''fateres'' (l.24).
It seems also that the scribes were not entirely familiar with the script used in their source. The inconsistencies in the use and form of the ''wynn''-rune, for example — sometimes with and sometimes without an acute stroke above the letter, once corrected from the letter ''p'' — suggest this was a feature of the source which was not a normal part of their scribal repertoire.
While these issues are almost certainly the responsibility of the Fulda scribes, in other cases an apparent error or inconsistency might already have been present in their source. The variant spellings of the names ''Hiltibrant/Hiltibraht'', ''Hadubrant/Hadubraht'', ''Theotrihhe/Detriche/Deotrichhe''. were almost certainly present in the source. In several places, the absence of alliteration linking the two halves of a line suggests missing text, so ll.10a and 11b, which follow each other in the manuscript (''fıreo ın folche • eddo welıhhes cnuosles du sis'', "who his father was in the host • or what family you belong to")), do not make a well-formed alliterating line and in addition display an abrupt transition between third-person narrative and second-person direct speech. The phrase ''quad hiltibrant'' ("said Hildebrand") in lines 49 and 58 (possibly line 30 also) breaks the alliteration and seems to be a hypermetrical scribal addition to clarify the dialogue.
In addition to errors and inconsistencies, there are other features of the text which make it hard to interpret. Some words are
hapax legomena (unique to the text), even if they sometimes have cognates in other Germanic languages. Examples include ''urhetto'' ("challenger"), ''billi'' ("battle axe") and ''gudhamo'' ("armour"). Since the ''Hildebrandslied'' is the earliest poetic text and the only heroic lay in German, and is the oldest heroic lay in any Germanic language, it is difficult to establish whether such words enjoyed broader currency in the 9th century or belonged to a (possibly archaic) poetic language.
The text's punctuation is limited: the only mark used is a sporadic
punctus (•), and identifying clause and sentence boundaries is not always straightforward. Since the manuscript gives no indication of the verse form, line divisions are the judgments of modern editors.
Finally, the mixture of dialect features, mostly
Upper German
Upper German (german: Oberdeutsch ) is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area ().
History
In the Old High German time, only Alemannic and Bairisch are grouped as Upper German. In the Middle High G ...
but with some highly characteristic
Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
forms, means that the text could never have reflected the spoken language of an individual speaker and never been meant for performance.
Frederick Norman concludes, "The poem presents puzzles alike to palaeographers, linguists and literary historians."
The manuscript
Description
![Hildebrandslied Facsimile 1830](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Hildebrandslied_Facsimile_1830.jpg)
The manuscript of the ''Hildebrandslied'' is now in the
Murhardsche Bibliothek in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
(signature 2° Ms. theol. 54). The codex consists of 76 folios containing two books of the
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
(the
Book of Wisdom
The Book of Wisdom, or the Wisdom of Solomon, is a Jewish work written in Greek and most likely composed in Alexandria, Egypt. Generally dated to the mid-first century BCE, the central theme of the work is "wisdom" itself, appearing under two p ...
and
Ecclesiasticus
The Book of Sirach () or Ecclesiasticus (; abbreviated Ecclus.) is a Jewish work, originally in Hebrew, of ethical teachings, from approximately 200 to 175 BC, written by the Judahite scribe Ben Sira of Jerusalem, on the inspiration of his fa ...
) and the
homilies
A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered ex ...
of
Origen
Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an Early Christianity, early Christian scholar, ...
. It was written in the 820s in
Anglo-Saxon minuscule and
Carolingian minuscule
Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...
hands. The text of the ''Hildebrandslied'' was added in the 830s on the two blank outside leaves of the codex (1
r and 76
v).
The poem breaks off in the midst of the battle and there has been speculation that the text originally continued on a third sheet (now lost) or on the
endpaper
The endpapers or end-papers of a book (also known as the endsheets) are the pages that consist of a double-size sheet folded, with one half pasted against an inside cover (the pastedown), and the other serving as the first free page (the free end ...
of the (subsequently replaced) back cover. However, it is also possible that the text was being copied from an incomplete original or represented a well-known episode from a longer story.
The ''Hildebrandslied'' text is the work of two scribes, of whom the second wrote only seven and a half lines (11 lines of verse) at the beginning of the second leaf. The scribes are not the same as those of the body of the codex. The hands are mainly
Carolingian minuscule
Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...
. However, a number of features, including the
''wynn''-rune (ƿ) used for ''w'' suggest
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
influence, not surprising in a house founded by Anglo-Saxon
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
.
The manuscript pages now show a number of patches of discoloration. These are the results of attempts by earlier scholars to improve the legibility of the text with chemical agents.
History
The manuscript's combination of Bavarian dialect and Anglo-Saxon
palaeographic
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
features make Fulda the only monastery where it could have been written. With its missionary links to North Germany, Fulda is also the most likely origin for the earlier version of the poem in which Old Saxon features were first introduced. In around 1550 the codex was listed in the monastery's library catalogue.
In 1632, during the
Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an es ...
, the monastery was plundered and destroyed by Hessian troops. While most of the library's manuscripts were lost, the codex was among a number of stolen items later returned to the
Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel and placed in the Court Library. In the aftermath of the political crisis of 1831, under the terms of
Hesse's new constitution the library passed from the private possession of the landgraves to public ownership and became the Kassel State Library (''Landesbibliothek'').
In 1937 there was a proposal to make a gift of the manuscript to
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, but this was thwarted by the library's director, Wilhelm Hopf.
At the start of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the manuscript, along with 19 others, was moved from the State Library to the underground vault of a local bank. This meant that it was not harmed in the
Allied bombing raid in September 1941, which destroyed almost all the library's holdings. In August 1943 the codex (along with the Kassel
Willehalm
''Willehalm'' is an unfinished Middle High German poem from the early 13th century, written by the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach. In terms of genre, the poem is "a unique fusion of the courtly and the heroic, with elements of the saintly
legend attac ...
codex) was moved for safe keeping out of Kassel completely to a bunker in
Bad Wildungen
Bad Wildungen is a state-run spa and a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road.
Geography
Location
Bad Wildungen lies in the eastern foothills of the Kellerwald range in the so ...
, south-west of the city, just in time to escape the devastating air-raids the following October, which destroyed the whole of the city centre. After the capture of Bad Wildungen by units of the
US Third Army
The United States Army Central, formerly the Third United States Army, commonly referred to as the Third Army and as ARCENT, is a military formation of the United States Army which saw service in World War I and World War II, in the 1991 Gulf W ...
in March 1945, the bunker was looted and the codex went missing. An official investigation by the
US Military Government failed to discover its fate. In November 1945 it was sold by US army officer Bud Berman to the
Rosenbach Company, rare book dealers in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. At some point the first folio, with the first page of the Hildebrandslied, was removed (presumably in order to disguise the origin of the codex, since that sheet carried the library's stamp). In 1950, even though the
Pierpont Morgan Library
The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th ...
had raised questions about the provenance of the codex and the Rosenbachs must have known it was looted, it was sold to the Californian bibliophile
Carrie Estelle Doheny and placed in the Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library in
Camarillo
Camarillo ( ) is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 70,741, an increase of 5,540 from the 65,201 counted in the 2010 Census. Camarillo is named for brothers Juan an ...
. In 1953 the codex was traced to this location, and in 1955 it was returned to Kassel. However, it was only in 1972 that the missing first folio (and the Kassel ''Willehalm'') was rediscovered in the Rosenbach Museum and reunited with the codex.
The manuscript is now on permanent display in the Murhard Library.
Reception
Attention was first drawn to the codex and the Hildebrandslied by
Johann Georg von Eckhart
Johann Georg von Eckhart (7 September 1664 – 9 February 1730) was a German historian and linguist.
Biography
Eckhart was born at Duingen in the Principality of Calenberg. After preparatory training at Schulpforta, he went to Leipzig, where at ...
, who published the first edition of the poem in 1729. This included a hand-drawn facsimile of the start of the text, with a full transcription, a Latin translation and detailed glosses of the vocabulary. His translation shows a considerable range of errors and misconceptions (Hildebrand and Hadubrand are seen as cousins, for example, who meet on the way to battle). Also, he did not recognize the text as verse, and its historical significance consequently remained unappreciated.
Both the fact and the historical significance of the alliterative verse form were first recognized by the
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
in their 1812 edition, which also showed improved transcription and understanding compared to Eckhart's, This is generally regarded as the first scholarly edition and there have been many since.
Wilhelm Grimm
Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 178616 December 1859) was a German author and anthropologist, and the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm.
Life and work
Wilhelm was born in February 1786 in Hanau, in ...
went on to publish the first
facsimile
A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...
of the manuscript in 1830, by which time he had recognized the two different hands and the oral origin of the poem. He had also become the first to use reagents in an attempt to clarify the text.
The first photographic facsimile was published by
Sievers in 1872. This clearly shows the damage caused by the reagents used by Grimm and his successors.
The language
One of the most puzzling features of the ''Hildebrandslied'' is its language, which is a mixture of
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
(with some specifically
Bavarian features) and
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It i ...
. For example, the first person pronoun appears both in the Old Saxon form ''ik'' and the Old High German ''ih''. The reason for the language mixture is unknown, but it seems certain it cannot have been the work of the last scribes and was already present in the original which they copied.
The Old Saxon features predominate in the opening part of the poem and show a number of errors, which argue against an Old Saxon original. The
alliteration
Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...
of ''riche'' and ''reccheo'' in line 48 is often regarded as conclusive: the equivalent Old Saxon forms, ''rīke'' and ''wrekkio'', do not alliterate and would have given a malformed line. Earlier scholars envisaged an Old Saxon original, but an Old High German original is now universally accepted.
The errors in the Old Saxon features suggest that the scribe responsible for the dialect mixture was not thoroughly familiar with the dialect. Forms such as ''heittu'' (l.17) and ''huitte'' (l.66) (Modern German ''heißen'' and ''weiß'') are mistakes for Old Saxon spellings with a single . They suggest a scribe who does not realise that Old High German ''zz'', resulting from the
High German consonant shift
In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development (sound change) that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases. It probably ...
, corresponds to ''t'' in Old Saxon in these words, not ''tt'', that is, a scribe who has limited first-hand knowledge of Old Saxon.
The origin of the
Dietrich legend in Northern Italy also suggests a southern origin is more likely.
The
East Franconian
East Franconian (german: Ostfränkisch) or Mainfränkisch, usually referred to as Franconian (') in German, is a dialect which is spoken in Franconia, the northern part of the federal state of Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Nuremberg, ...
dialect of Fulda was
High German
The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...
, but the monastery was a centre of missionary activity to Northern Germany. It is therefore not unreasonable to assume there was some knowledge of Old Saxon there, and perhaps even some Old Saxon speakers. However, the motivation for attempting a translation into Old Saxon remains inscrutable, and attempts to link it with Fulda's missionary activity among the Saxons remain speculative.
An alternative explanation treats the dialect as homogeneous, interpreting it as representative of an archaic poetic idiom.
Analogues
Germanic
Legendary material about Hildebrand survived in Germany into the 17th century and also spread to Scandinavia, though the forms of names vary. A number of
analogues either portray or refer to Hildebrand's combat with his son:
* In Book VII of the ''
Gesta Danorum
''Gesta Danorum'' ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark an ...
'' (early 13th century), Hildiger reveals as he is dying that he has killed his own son.
* In the 13th century
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
Thiðrekssaga, based on lost Low German sources, Hildibrandr defeats his son, Alibrandr. Alibrandr offers his sword in surrender but attempts to strike Hildibrandr as he reaches for it. Hildibrandr taunts him for having been taught to fight by a woman, but then asks if he is Alibrandr and they are reconciled.
* The
Early New High German
Early New High German (ENHG) is a term for the period in the history of the German language generally defined, following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period 1350 to 1650.
The term is the standard translation of the German (Fnhd., Frnhd.), introduce ...
''
Jüngeres Hildebrandslied
The ''Jüngeres Hildebrandslied'' (the younger lay of Hildebrand) or ''Das Lied von dem alten Hildebrand'' (the song of old Hildebrand) is an anonymous Early New High German heroic ballad, first attested in the fifteenth century. A late attestatio ...
'' (first attested in the fifteenth century) tells a similar story of the treacherous blow, the taunt that the son was taught to fight by a woman, and the final reconciliation.
* In the 14th century
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
''
Ásmundar saga kappabana ''Ásmundar saga kappabana'' is the saga of Asmund the Champion-Killer, a legendary saga from Iceland, first attested in the manuscript Stockholm, Royal Library, Holm. 7, 4to, from the first half of the fourteenth century.Ciklamini, M., ‘The Comba ...
'', Hildibrandr laments being forced to slay his son:
: ‘The beloved son lies there behind at my head, the heir whom I begot; unwillingly I deprived
imof life.’
* In the
Faroese ballad ''Snjólvskvæði'', Hildebrand is tricked into killing his son.
Other Indo-European
There are three legends in other
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...
traditions about an old hero who must fight his son and kills him after distrusting his claims of kinship:
* In
Irish medieval literature, the hero
Cú Chulainn
Cú Chulainn ( ), called the Hound of Ulster (Irish: ''Cú Uladh''), is a warrior hero and demigod in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore. He is believed to be an incarnation of the Irish god Lugh, ...
kills his son
Conlaí.
* In the Persian epic tale
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' or ''Shahnama'' ( fa, شاهنامه, Šāhnāme, lit=The Book of Kings, ) is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c. 977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,00 ...
,
Rostam
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place = Kabulistan
, death_cause = With the conspiracy of his half-brother Shaghad, he fell into a wel ...
kills his son Sohrab.
* In a popular Rus' ''
Bylina
A ( rus, были́на, p=bɨˈlʲinə; pl. ) is an Old Russian oral epic poem. Byliny narratives are loosely based on historical fact, but greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole. The word derives from the past tense of the verb '' ...
''
Ilya Muromets
Ilya Muromets (russian: Илья Муромец), or Ilya of Murom, sometimes Ilya Murometz, is one of the ''bogatyrs'' (epic knights) in Bylinas of Kievan Rus.
He is often featured alongside fellow bogatyrs Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Pop ...
kills his son Podsokolnik.
* In a passage of the
Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...
, it is the son (
Babruvahana
In the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'', Babruvahana ( sa, बब्रुवाहन) is the son of Arjuna, a Pandava prince, and Chitrangada, the princess of Manalura. Babruvahana was adopted as the heir of Manalura by his maternal grandfath ...
) who kills his unidentified father (
Arjuna
Arjuna (Sanskrit: अर्जुन, ), also known as Partha and Dhananjaya, is a character in several ancient Hindu texts, and specifically one of the major characters of the Indian epic Mahabharata. In the epic, he is the third among Panda ...
), though the latter is later revived.
* In the lost ancient Greek epic poem
Telegony
The ''Telegony'' (Greek: , ''Tēlegoneia''; la, Telegonia) is a lost ancient Greek epic poem about Telegonus, son of Odysseus by Circe. His name ("born far away") is indicative of his birth on Aeaea, far from Odysseus' home of Ithaca. It was par ...
,
Odysseus
Odysseus ( ; grc-gre, Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, OdysseúsOdyseús, ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; lat, UlyssesUlixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the ''Odyssey''. Odysse ...
is killed by
Telegonus
Telegonus (; Ancient Greek: Τηλέγονος means "born afar") is the name shared by three different characters in Greek mythology.
* Telegonus, a king of Egypt who was sometimes said to have married the nymph Io.
* Telegonus, a Thracian son ...
, his son by
Circe
Circe (; grc, , ) is an Magician (paranormal), enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion. She is either a daughter of the Titans, Titan Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse (mythology), Perse ...
.
The ending
While the conclusion of the Hildebrandslied is missing, the consensus is that the evidence of the analogues supports the death of Hadubrand as the outcome of the combat. Even though some of the later medieval versions end in reconciliation, this can be seen as a concession to the more sentimental tastes of a later period. The
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...
ic ethos of an earlier period would leave Hildebrand no choice but to kill his son after the dishonourable act of the treacherous stroke. There is some evidence that this original version of the story survived into the 13th century in Germany: the
Minnesänger
(; "love song") was a tradition of lyric- and song-writing in Germany and Austria that flourished in the Middle High German period. This period of medieval German literature began in the 12th century and continued into the 14th. People who wr ...
refers to a poem about the death of young Alebrand.
Origin and transmission
Origins
The poet of the Hildebrandslied has to explain how father and son could fail to know each other. To do so, he has set the encounter against the background of the
Dietrich legend based on the life of
Theodoric the Great
Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal ( got, , *Þiudareiks; Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ), was king of the Ostrogoths (471–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy b ...
, an important subject in
Germanic heroic legend
Germanic heroic legend (german: germanische Heldensage) is the heroic literary tradition of the Germanic-speaking peoples, most of which originates or is set in the Migration Period (4th-6th centuries AD). Stories from this time period, to whic ...
.
Historically, Theodoric invaded Italy in 489, defeated and killed the ruling King of Italy, Odoacer, to establish his own
Ostrogothic Kingdom
The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy (), existed under the control of the Germanic peoples, Germanic Ostrogoths in Italian peninsula, Italy and neighbouring areas from 493 to 553.
In Italy, the Ostrogoths led by Theodoric the ...
. Theodoric ruled from 493 to 526, but the kingdom was destroyed by the
Eastern Emperor
This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...
Justinian I
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
in 553, and thereafter the invading Lombards seized control of
Northern Italy
Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
. By this time the story of Theodoric's conflict with Odoacer had been recast, contrary to historical fact, as a tale of Theodoric's return from exile, thus justifying his war on Odoacer as an act of revenge rather than an unprovoked attack.
In the Dietrich legend, Hildebrand is a senior warrior in Theodoric's army (in the
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 ...
he is specifically Dietrich's armourer). However, there is no evidence of a historical Hildebrand, and since names in -''brand'' are overwhelmingly Lombard rather than Gothic, it seems certain that the tale of Hildebrand and Hadubrand was first linked with the legend of Theodoric's exile by a Lombard rather than a Gothic poet. However, attention has been drawn to the fact that one of Theodoric's' generals bore the nickname ''Ibba''. While this could not have been a nickname for ''Hildebrand'' among the Goths, it might have been so interpreted later among the Lombards.
In the later re-tellings of the Dietrich legend, Theodoric is driven into exile not by Odoacer but by
Ermanaric
Ermanaric; la, Ermanaricus or ''Hermanaricus''; ang, Eormanrīc ; on, Jǫrmunrekkr , gmh, Ermenrîch (died 376) was a Greuthungian Gothic king who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled a sizable portion of Oium, the part of Scythia ...
(in historical fact a 4th century King of the Goths), which suggests that the earliest version of the Hildebrandslied was created when the legend still had some loose connection to the historical fact of the conflict with Odoacer. This first version of the story would probably have been composed some time in the 7th century, though it is impossible to tell how close it is in form to the surviving version.
Transmission
The oral transmission of a Lombard poem northwards to Bavaria would have been facilitated by the fact that the
Langobardic
Lombardic or Langobardic is an extinct West Germanic language that was spoken by the Lombards (), the Germanic people who settled in Italy in the sixth century. It was already declining by the seventh century because the invaders quickly adopted ...
and
Bavarian dialect
Bavarian (german: Bairisch , Bavarian: ''Boarisch'') or alternately Austro-Bavarian, is a West Germanic language, part of the Upper German family, together with Alemannic and East Franconian.
Bavarian is spoken by approximately 12 million peop ...
s were closely related forms of
Upper German
Upper German (german: Oberdeutsch ) is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area ().
History
In the Old High German time, only Alemannic and Bairisch are grouped as Upper German. In the Middle High G ...
, connected via the Alpine passes. The two peoples were also connected by dynastic marriages and cultural contacts throughout the history of the
Lombard Kingdom
The Kingdom of the Lombards ( la, Regnum Langobardorum; it, Regno dei Longobardi; lmo, Regn di Lombard) also known as the Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy ( la, Regnum totius Italiae), was an early medieval state established ...
. By the late 8th century, both the Lombard Kingdom and the
Duchy of Bavaria
The Duchy of Bavaria (German: ''Herzogtum Bayern'') was a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom from the sixth through the eighth century. It was settled by Bavarian tribes and ruled by dukes (''duces'') under Fr ...
had been incorporated into the
Frankish Empire
Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...
.
The evidence of the phonology of the Hildebrandslied is that the first written version of this previously oral poem was set down in Bavaria in the 8th century.
While Fulda was an Anglo-Saxon foundation located in the
East Franconian
East Franconian (german: Ostfränkisch) or Mainfränkisch, usually referred to as Franconian (') in German, is a dialect which is spoken in Franconia, the northern part of the federal state of Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Nuremberg, ...
dialect area, it had strong links with Bavaria:
Sturmi, the first abbot of Fulda, was a member of the Bavarian nobility, and Bavarian monks had a considerable presence at the monastery. This is sufficient to account for a Bavarian poem in Fulda by the end of the 8th Century. Fulda also had links with Saxony, evidenced by its missionary activity among the Saxons and the Saxon nobles named in the monastery's annals. This makes it uniquely placed for the attempt to introduce Saxon features into a Bavarian text, though the motivation for this remains a mystery. This Saxonised version then, in the 830s, served as the source of the surviving manuscript.
In summary, the probable stages in transmission are:
#Lombard original (7th century)
#Bavarian adaptation (8th century)
#Reception in Fulda (8th century)
#Saxonised version (c. 800?)
#Surviving version (830s)
Motivation
A final issue is the motivation of the two scribes for copying the Hildebrandslied. Among the suggestions are:
*Antiquarian interest
*A connection with
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
's impulse to collect ancient songs
*Interest in the legal questions the song raises
*A negative example, possibly for missionary purposes: the tragic result of adhering to outdated heroic rather than Christian ethics
*A commentary on the fraught relationship between
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...
and his sons.
There is no consensus on the answer to this question.
Notes
References
*
*
* Includes a translation of the ''Hildebrandslied'' into English.
* With bibliography.
*
* With bibliography.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* (Page numbers in parenthesis refer to the online edition, which combines the two printed volumes.)
*
* (Page references are to the online edition.)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Sources
* Provides an edited text of the poem which is widely used and quoted. Line numbers for the text of the ''Hildbrandslied'' in modern scholarship generally refer to this work and its earlier editions.
*
* Most recent printed facsimile.
*
*
* (the first facsimile)
*
* Translation reproduced at th
Celtic Literature Collective*
*
Further reading
*
Wolfram Euler
Wolfram Euler (born 5 May 1950) is a German historical linguist and Indo-Europeanist.
Scientific work
Euler gained his doctorate (Ph.D.) in 1979 at the University of Giessen under Professor Rolf Hiersche. Euler's thesis was on parallels in nomin ...
: ''
Das Westgermanische – von der Herausbildung im 3. bis zur Aufgliederung im 7. Jahrhundert – Analyse und Rekonstruktion.'' 244 p., London/Berlin 2013, . (Including a
Langobardic
Lombardic or Langobardic is an extinct West Germanic language that was spoken by the Lombards (), the Germanic people who settled in Italy in the sixth century. It was already declining by the seventh century because the invaders quickly adopted ...
version of the Lay of Hildebrand, pp. 213–215.)
* Willy Krogmann: ''Das Hildebrandslied in der langobardischen Urfassung hergestellt.'' 106 p., Berlin 1959.
External links
Wikisource Hildebrandslied(Bibliotheca Augustana)
Text of first 26 lines with English translation and explanation of individual words*
ttps://archive.org/details/cu31924027466295 English verse translation by Francis WoodReading of the Lay of Hildebrand in Old High German and in a hypothetical Langobardic versionas reconstructed in 2013 by
Wolfram Euler
Wolfram Euler (born 5 May 1950) is a German historical linguist and Indo-Europeanist.
Scientific work
Euler gained his doctorate (Ph.D.) in 1979 at the University of Giessen under Professor Rolf Hiersche. Euler's thesis was on parallels in nomin ...
, with subtitles in English.
Summary and review of Popa's book on the recovery of the MS from the USA by Klaus GrafThe Danish History/Book VII(English translation of the
Gesta Danorum
''Gesta Danorum'' ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark an ...
)
{{Authority control
Medieval German poems
Old High German literature
German heroic legends
Medieval documents of Germany