User:Ermenrich/sandboxpilatestone

Summary

The Þiðreks saga is a compilation of legends about almost all known heroes from continental Germanic heroic legend into a single text; it also includes other narratives that were closely associated with such legends. Some of the legends have no extant German counterpart. It also contains material from fairy tales, folktales, and Spielmannsdichtung. At the centre of Þiðreks saga is a complete life of Dietrich von Bern (Old Norse: Þiðrekr of Bern).

About Thidrek's ancestors and kin

Following a prologue, the saga begins by telling the story of Samson, a vassal of King Rodgeir of Salerno, who falls in love with his lord's daughter and abducts her. After Rodgeir declares Samson an outlaw, he attacks Salerno and then kills Rodgeir when the latter encounters him after the attack. Samson then kills Rodgeir's brother and conquers the country. Samson has two sons, Ermenrek and Thetmar. Later, he conquers Bern (Verona) and marries Thetmar with the daughter of the former king there, who died in the battle. Samson gives his bastard Aki control of the city Fritila, and Ermenrek inherits large parts of Romaland after Samsons death.

Thidrek's childhood and adolescence

Thetmar has a son named Thidrek. One day Thidrek heads out with his educator Hildibrand, into the forest, where they capture the dwarf Alfrik. Alfrik tells them about a treasure that has been hidden by the giants Hild and Grim. They go to Hild and Grim's house, where Alfrik steals the sword Nagelring for Thidrek, who uses it to kill the giants. Thidrek then takes the treasure, sword, and a helmet named Hildgrim. In the meanwhile, the young warrior Heimir has come to Bern, where he wants to test his prowess against Thidrek. The two fight, but Heimir's sword breaks and the two become friends.

Vilkina saga

King Vilkinus of Vilkinaland conquers Rus', but the Vilkinan army is defeated by Hertnid of Russia after Vilkinus's death and forces Vilkinus's son Nordian to pay tribute. Hertnid makes the four giant sons of Nordian into his vassals. After Hertnid dies, his son Osantrix becomes king of Rus'. Osantrix wishes to marry Oda, the daughter of the Hunnish king Milias, but Milias refuses and imprisons two separate embassies from Osantrix. Osantrix goes to Hunland in disguise with his giants, planning to enter Milias's service; however, Milias hesitates to accept the disguised Osantrix, and his giants become angry and destroy Milias's court.

Osantrix marries Oda and reconciles with Milias so that he becomes king of Hunland again. When Milias dies, the Frisian Attila conquers Hunland; he wishes to marry Osantrix's daughter Erka, but Osantrix refuses. Finally, Attila sends his vassal Rodolf in disguise to Osantrix's court. He enters Osantrix's service and lives there for two years before he convinces Erka to escape with them. The two flee Osantrix's court and Attila arrives to save them from pursuers.

About Velent

The giant Vadi, the son King Vilkinus and a mermaid, decides to have his son Velent trained as a smith. First, he brings Velent to the famous smith Mimir, who trains him as an apprentice; then Vadi has Velent apprentice for two years with the dwarfs. After those two years are over, Velent goes north to the land of king Nidung, where he is accepted as a servant and becomes famous for his craft. However, Velent is banished when he kills one of the king's barons in self-defense. Velent sneaks back into court and attempts to poison Nidung's daughter, but his attempt is foiled. As punishment, Nidung imprisons Velent and cuts his Achilles tendons. After some time, Nidung's sons come to visit Velent and Velent promises them jewelry. However, he tricks and kills them, making their skulls into goblets, their eyes into jewels, and their teeth into a pearl necklace. When the princess visits a few days later seeking repairs for a torque, Velent seduces and sleeps with her. Meanwhile, Velent's brother, the skilled archer Egil has come to court; he hunts birds for Velent, with the feather of which he makes a feather cloak that he uses to fly out of his prison. Velent is carrying a bag of animal blood with him, and when Nidung orders Egil to shoot Velent, he deliberately shoots the animal blood. Later, Nidung dies and his son Ortvin becomes king; he and Velent reconcile. Velent then brings Nidung's daughter home with him and she gives birth to his son Vidga.

Academic reaction

Ritter-Schaumburg's works on heroic legend reached a wide audience and are among the three most popular works on Germanic heroic legend published in Germany after World War II. Initially, academics mostly ignored Ritter-Schaumburg's ideas, which were aimed at a popular audience and portrayed themselves as undermining the established academic consensus. However, Andreas Goltz, writing in 2008, notes that Ritter-Schaumburg's re-identifications of figures such as Dietrich von Bern have been convincingly refuted by scholars of medieval German literature, while Florian Kragl (2010) notes that the works popularity does not equal their academic quality and that they are "pseudo-scientific" (German: pseudo-wissenschaftlich).

In a 1983 review of Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts, Henry Kratz compares believing in Ritter-Schaumburg's theory to believing in the Kensington runestone. He accuses Ritter-Schaumburg of dilettantism, failure to consult any secondary literature, distortion of facts to suit his theories, and of naivete in believing that the Thidreks saga would accurately convey events down to precise time and distance. In 1984, archaeologist Andreas Heege was able to show that archaeological finds from Soest do not support the notion of a fall of the Nibelungs in that location in late antiquity. In a longer reaction the following year, Germanists Johannes Janota and Jürgen Kühnel criticize Ritter-Schaumburg for withholding information from readers that contradicts his theories, for distorting information in a way that supports his theories, for engaging in anti-intellectualism. Pointing to the long development of the Nibelungen material as an oral tradition, they argue that Ritter-Schaumburg's insistence on either accepting the Nibelungenlied's or the Thidreks saga's version of the story as a "report" (German: Bericht) of real events is a false choice and that Ritter-Schaumburg shows ignorance of the nature and study of heroic legend, historical studies, archaeology, and philology. They conclude by saying that Germanists must work better to inform the general public about their findings given Ritter-Schaumburg's successful publication of "these assembled abstrusenesses" (German: diese gesammelten Abstrusitäten).

In a 1990 review of Ritter-Schaumburg's translation of the Old Swedish Didrikskrönikan, Dietrich Hoffmann, while accepting a few of Ritter-Schaumburg's identifications of place names, utterly rejects Ritter-Schaumburg's theory that the Didrikskrönikan accurately conveys historical truth and that the Swedish version is the source for the Norwegian Þiðreks saga, pointing to various Norwegianisms in the Swedish text and places were the translator has misunderstood the Norwegian source. In 1991, Werner Hoffmann discussed Ritter-Schaumburg's book Siegfried ohne Tarnkappe, noting Ritter-Schaumburg's failure to take any academic criticism of his theory into account and the fact that Ritter-Schaumburg's vision of Siegfried's good character in the Thidreks saga appears to rely on German ideals of the first half of the 20th century.

Works cited

• Goltz, Andreas (2008). Barbar – König – Tyrann: Das Bild Theoderichs des Großen in der Überlieferung des 5. bis 9. Jahrhunderts. de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110210125.
• Hoffmann, Dietrich (1990). "Das Verhältnis der altschwedischen Didriks-Chronik zur Þiðreks saga – und zur historischen Wirklichkeit". Skandinavistik. 20 (1): 95–110.
• Hoffmann, Werner (1993). "Siegfried 1993. Bemerkungen und Überlegungen zur Forschungsliteratur zu Siegfried im Nibelungenlied aus den Jahren 1978 bis 1992". Mediaevistik. 6: 121–151. JSTOR 42583993.
• Janota, Jürgen; Kühnel (1985). "Uns ist in neuen maeren wunders vil geseit. Zu Ritter-Schaumburgs Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts. Eine Stellungsnahme aus germanistischer Sicht". Soester Zeitschrift. 94: 13–25.
• Kragl, Florian (2010). Nibelungenlied und Nibelungensage: Kommentierte Bibliographie 1945-2010. de Gruyter. doi:10.1524/9783050059655.
• Kratz, Henry (1983). "Review: Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg". The German Quarterly. 56 (4): 636–638. doi:10.2307/405287. JSTOR 405287.
• Müller, Gernot (1983). "Allerneueste Nibelungische Ketzereien: Zu Heinz Ritter-Schaumburgs Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts,München 1981". Studia neophilologica. 57 (1): 105–116. doi:10.1080/00393278508587910.