Engaging Moments: The Origins of Medieval Bridal-Quest Narrative 9783110911152, 9783110184501

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Claudia Bornholdt Engaging Moments

Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde Herausgegeben von Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer

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w DE

_G_ Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York

Engaging Moments The Origins of Medieval Bridal-Quest Narrative

by Claudia Bornholdt

W G DE

Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York

@ Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.

ISBN 3-11-018450-8 Library of Congress — Cataloging-in-Pnblication

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© Copyright 2005 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 10785 Berlin All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Germany Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin Printing and binding: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen

Acknowledgments This work, which was initially my doctoral dissertation at Indiana University in Bloomington, would not have been possible without the generous support of a number of people. I am truly indebted to the members of my dissertation committee, Professors Kari Ellen Gade, Theodore M. Andersson, Marianne E. Kalinke, and Stephen L. Wailes for their many helpful comments, suggestions, and their encouragement. A special thanks goes to Ted Andersson, who introduced me to the fascinating world of bridal-quest narrative. I am grateful to have him as a mentor, not least because he has the admirable ability to critique my work in an exceptionally encouraging and constructive way; always objective and always cheerful. I would also like to thank Kari Gade for being a superior advisor and guide throughout my years as a graduate student and beyond. She spent many hours proofreading my manuscript and discussing my project and its progress with me, and she taught me much about the ways of academia. Furthermore, I am indebted to my colleague Marianne Kalinke who fastidiously read the revised manuscript and continues to inspire me with her enthusiasm for medieval literature in general and bridal-quest stories in particular. I would also like to thank Professor Heinrich Beck and his co-editors, Professor Dieter Geuenich and Professor Heiko Steuer, for including my book in the series of the Ergänzimgsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Jon Sherman was a great help to me checking references and tracking down materials while I revised my dissertation for publication. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank Dr. Astrid van Nahl for her superb work in preparing the manuscript for publication and for taking care of all the technical particulars in such a speedy and knowledgeable fashion. Many other people deserve my thanks and appreciation. One of them is Professor Fritz P. Knapp, who sparked my interest in medieval German literature many years ago at the university in Kiel. I am indebted to Dr. Horst P. Pütz and Professor Klaus M. Schmidt who invited me to work on the Conceptual Dictionary of Medieval German Literature at Bowling Green University in Ohio, which was a valuable stepping stone for my discovery of American Germanistik and, even more importantly, the interdisciplinary study of medieval literature and culture that has informed the present study and continues to shape my research interests.

VI

Acknowledgements

My heartfelt thanks go to my friends and colleagues in Germany, Bloomington, and Urbana-Champaign who have always believed in me, embraced me, and cheered me on at all times. Most importantly, I would like to thank my parents, my sister, and especially Brian, who never cease to support and encourage me in my ideas and dreams. I dedicate this book to the memory of my grandfather.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

V

Introduction

1

Chapter 1 Wooers in Disguise

17

Chapter 2 Walter Elopes with Hiltgunt

42

Chapter 3 Catching Her Eye

86

Chapter 4 Anchors Aweigh

120

Chapter 5 Norse Nuptuals

160

Conclusion

204

Bibliography

221

Abbreviations

237

Introduction enhalp des wilden meres vluot do waiß ich ain kungin also guot.1

"I know a queen, so good, lives there, over the wild seas." - This statement, made by the pilgrim Warmunt, is the catalyst for the entire narrative relating the bridal quest of King Oswald in the twelfth-century Middle High German Der Münchner Oswald. This epic belongs to the pre-courtly German minstrel epics (Spielmannsepen) and is an excellent example of a medieval bridal-quest narrative. This special type of narrative is characterized by a fairly consistent scheme. The following plot summary of Der Münchner Oswald serves as an example: Oswald, the orphaned, twenty-four year-old king of England, prays to God, whom he deeply loves, and in this prayer, he expresses his desire to marry. God sends his response in a dream; he supports Oswald's wish to find a queen and heir for his kingdom, but he also requests that Oswald seek his bride-to-be in a foreign, heathen country and convert her to Christianity. Oswald then calls a meeting with the elders of his kingdom asking them to suggest a suitable bride, but they fail their task. Now the pilgrim Warnmunt appears and recommends the beautiful, heathen princess Pamige, who secretly believes in God. Immediately afterwards, however, he warns Oswald of the dangers of pursuing her. She is very well guarded by her ferocious father, Aron, who has killed all previous wooers and who wants to marry his daughter himself after his wife's death. Oswald nonetheless dispatches a messenger (a talking raven) to ask the heathen king for his daughter's hand in marriage. The raven proposes to Aron on Oswald's behalf, but the proposal is rejected and the raven incarcerated. Pamige stipulates that her father allow her to take care of the raven. During a secret conversation in her chambers, the raven proposes to her on Oswald's behalf and hands a letter and ring to her. Pamige agrees to marry Oswald. She sends the bird on its journey home, carrying a ring and a letter for Oswald

Quoted from Der Münchner Oswald. Mit einem Anhang: die ostschwäbische Prosabearbeitung des 15. Jahrhunderts, ed. Michael Curschmann, ATB (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1974), vv. 227-8.

2

Introduction

in which she gives detailed instructions how to proceed in the quest. Now Oswald, accompanied by an army, sails to the heathen country, where he pretends to be a goldsmith. By means of more deceit and cunning and through heavenly intervention, Oswald wins the heathens' trust and distracts their attention so that Pamige can flee out of the castle to elope with him. The escaping party is pursued by Aron and his army, which Oswald defeats in a battle and converts to Christianity. Upon their return to England, Oswald marries Pamige but, following God's command, they live in a chaste marriage until they die. Approximately 500 years earlier a tale found in the so-called Chronica Fredegarii (completed ca. 642), a work that recounts the history of the Franks, tells a markedly similar story: The Franconian King Clovis sends a delegation to Burgundy to reconnoiter the Christian princess Clotild. She is so well guarded by her uncle, Gundobad, however, that the messengers fail in their task. Now Clovis sends a messenger named Aurelian directly to Clotild. Disguised as a beggar, Aurelian is taken in by Clotild and while she is washing his feet as a gesture of hospitality, he asks to meet with her in secret. During this secret meeting, Aurelian proposes to Clotild on behalf of Clovis and hands her a ring as a token of the betrothal. Clotild rejoices, pays the messenger, and hands him one of her rings in return as a present for King Clovis. She also sends instructions to Clovis, telling him how to best continue in his wooing. Aurelian returns to his lord, who immediately sends another envoy to ask Gundobad for the hand of his niece. Gundobad accepts the proposal out of fear, and Clotild and the Frankish delegation travel to Clovis's court. After their departure, Aridius, a close advisor of Gundobad, rebukes the king for having accepted the proposal. He warns him that Clotild may use the might of the Frankish king to avenge the death of her parents on Gundobad. On the advice of Aridius, Gundobad sends an army after Clotild, but it comes too late and cannot catch up with her. The wedding between Clovis and Clotild takes place in Franconia. This story relates the historically significant marriage of the pagan King Clovis to the Christian Clotild, which, according to legend, resulted in Clovis's conversion to Christianity and subsequently to the acceptance of the Christian faith in the Frankish empire. If we compare the two narratives reiterated above, we immediately notice certain similarities. In both a mighty king decides to marry an unattainable, well guarded princess. Both heroes send messengers to the girl's country; Oswald sends a talking raven whose direct proposal to the girl's guardian results in its captivity. The messenger's quest succeeds eventually when he secretly meets with the girl. Clovis's first delegation fails in its task to gain access to the princess. The second messenger, however, is successful and secretly meets with the

Introduction

3

girl. During these meetings, which are key scenes in both stories, a secret engagement ceremony takes place at which the proxy wooer proposes to the girl on his lord's behalf and hands her a love token. The girl accepts the proposal and sends the messenger back with a present for her suitor and a plan for the future proceedings. In both stories the wooing succeeds because of the suitor's astute performance. Aurelian's meeting with Clotild was only possible because he traveled in disguise and approached the girl in secret. Oswald applies the same means after he has arrived in the girl's country; he travels to Pamige's country under false name and pretenses in order to deceive her father and elope with her. In Der Münchner Oswald, a battle between the fugitives and Aron's pursuing army delay the marriage, whereas in the tale of Clovis and Clotild an army is sent in pursuit of the girl, but it does not come to a battle. The similarities between the two narratives are manifold and stunning, especially when one considers that they were composed almost six hundred years apart from each other; one being a short tale in a Latin chronicle dealing with the history of the Franks and the other being an elaborate, independent Middle High German verse narrative. Both tales revolve around historically attested characters, who, however, occupy their place in history for quite different reasons than these narratives indicate. The life of the Northumbrian king and saint Oswald (d. 642) is transmitted in historical and hagiographic sources, which focus on his political and especially his religious achievements and miracles. The marriage of Clovis and Clotild is first documented in Gregory of Tours's late sixth-century Historia Francorum, but this account does not mention any details of Clovis's wooing or the circumstances of his betrothal to Clotild. In the Chronica Fredegarii and the Liber historiae Francorum (completed 727), two continuations of Gregory's chronicle, the marriage tale has been developed into a fullfledged bridal-quest narrative that resembles in great detail the much more famous and better known Middle High German representatives of this type of narrative; the so-called minstrel epics (Spielmannsepen) Der Münchner Oswald, König Rother, Orendel, and Salman und Morolf. In the past, scholars have noticed the similarities between the early Franconian bridal-quest story and the Middle High German minstrel epics but they have not studied this connection in any detail. Hardly any research has been conducted focusing on Germanic bridal-quest narrative and in the few existing studies, scholars rarely looked at the bridal-quest narratives from a comparatistic angle, nor did they search for the origins of this type of narrative. The only exception is the work of Theodor Frings and Max Braun.

Introduction

4

In his article from 1939-40, "Die Entstehung der deutschen Spielmannsepen", Theodor Frings distinguished between two types of bridal-quest narratives: a Germanic type in which a bride is abducted by means of force or battle, and a Mediterranean type in which the bride is wooed by means of disguise and guile.2 According to Frings, these two types coalesced sometime in the twelfth century on the Rhine, where the short Germanic heroic lays were altered and expanded by means of the Mediterranean motifs of disguise and cunning. These motifs were introduced into the Germanic world by minstrels (Spielmänner) who reworked the ancient heroic lays into the first German epics, which for this very reason are called minstrel epics, or, in German, Spielmannsepen. Frings's 1939^10 article and also his book Brautwerbung (1947), which was co-authored by Max Braun, are regarded by scholars as landmarks in the study of medieval German bridal-quest narrative. 3 In their book on Brautwerbung, Frings and Braun established for the first time what may be called a descriptive morphology of bridal-quest narrative by collecting and systematizing the motifs and chains of motifs (Motivketten) an author could draw on when composing such a story. Frings and Braun applied their bridal-quest scheme to the corpus of Serbo-Croatian and Russian bridal-quest songs and ballads. The promised second volume of that study, which was to deal with the Western tradition, however, never appeared, and until now this gap has not been filled. In subsequent scholarship emphasis was placed on the modification and expansion of the bridal-quest scheme and on the way in which this scheme influences the production and interpretation of texts falling into the bridal-quest category. In these studies scholars focused on the Middle High German minstrel epics, either as a group or as individual texts. The most comprehensive and influential examples of such works are Michael Curschmann's Der Münchener Oswald und die deutsche spielmännische Epik (1964) and Christian Schmid-Cadalbert's Der Ortnit AW als Brautwerbungsdichtung (1985). 4

Theodor Frings, "Die Entstehung der deutschen Spielmannsepen", ZDG 2 (193940), 306-21; rpt. in Walter Johannes Schröder, ed. Spielmannsepik (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977), 191-212. 3

Theodor Frings and Max Braun, Brautwerbung,

4

Michael Curschmann, Der Münchener Oswald und die deutsche spielmännische Epik, mit einem Exkurs zur Kulturgeschichte und Dichtungstradition, Münchener Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters 6 (Munich: Beck, 1964). Christian Schmid-Cadalbert, Der Ortnit AW als Brautwerbungsdichtung. Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis mittelhochdeutscher Schemaliteratur, Bibliotheca Germanica 28 (Bern: Francke, 1985).

vol. 1 (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1947).

Introduction

5

Curschmann's study was the first to examine several of the German bridal-quest epics (Der Münchner Oswald, Salman und Morolf, König Rother, and Orendel) with a focus on their structure and the recurrence of certain motifs, although his main goal was to discuss the transmission and possible heritage of Der Münchner Oswald. Schmid-Cadalbert interpreted Ortnit in great detail and delivered many valuable arguments for the inclusion of the work among the German bridal-quest epics. Of even greater importance than his interpretation, however, is the first half of the book, in which he gave an overview of the current scholarship dealing with German bridalquest narrative, a detailed description and discussion of the Middle High German bridal-quest scheme, and a very careful and insightful analysis of the question of oral versus written transmission of the German works. Besides these studies on the specific scheme and structure of bridalquest narratives, indices were compiled in which predominant motifs occurring in bridal-quest tales from around the world were collected. The most important and recent study of this kind is Friedmar Geissler's Brautwerbung in der Weltliteratur from 1955. Although it is important to have a comprehensive list of common bridal-quest motifs, this index is of limited use because the examples given are highly undifferentiated and taken from several genres from many different periods and geographic locations. 5 Geissler's, Curschmann's, and Schmid-Cadalbert's books are the only studies to focus exclusively on bridal-quest narratives, but the Middle High German bridal-quest romances are also examined in the several studies about the so-called Spielmannsdichtung genre. Overviews of the scholarship on this can be found in Walther Johannes Schroder's Spielmannsepik (1977), in which he reprints the most influential articles written on this topic, and his earlier monograph with the same title (1967). 6 Another important reference work is Curschmann's summary of the scholarship on Spielmannsepik (1968). 7 During the years following Curschmann's book, new studies examined the Spielmannsdichtung and addressed the questions of the genre designation and the authorship of these works as well as the

Friedmar Geissler, Brautwerbung in der Weltliteratur (Halle/Saale: Niemeyer, 1955). The earliest motif index is Hermann Tardel, "Untersuchungen zur mittelhochdeutschen Spielmannspoesie. 1. zum Orendel, 2. zum S a l m a n - M o r o l f ' (Diss. Rostock, 1894). Walter Johannes Schröder, ed., Spielmannsepik (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977) and Schröder, Spielmannsepik, Sammlung Metzler, Realienbücher für Germanisten 2 (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1962).

Michael Curschmann, "Spielmannsepik." Wege und Ergebisse der Forschung von 1907-1965 mit Ergänzungen und Nachträgen bis 1967 (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1968).

6

Introduction

social conditions under which they were written. Even though discussions of the bridal-quest romances are included in these works, such as in Rolf Bräuer's two books Das Problem des Spielmännischen aus der Sicht der St.-Oswald-Überlieferung (1969) and Literatlirsoziologie und epische Struktur der deutschen "Spielmanns "-und Heldendichtung (1970), as well as in Piet Wareman's Spielmannsdichtung. Versuch einer Begriffsbestimmung (1951), the bridal-quest narratives are not interpreted or discussed with an emphasis on their particular scheme or possible origin.8 Even less work has been done with regard to the Scandinavian bridalquest material. The only comprehensive study of the Scandinavian sources is Marianne Kalinke's Bridal-Quest Romance in Medieval Iceland (1990). In this book Kalinke for the first time drew attention to the existence of the surprisingly large corpus of bridal-quest stories composed in Iceland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 9 A few, more limited, analyses focus on individual bridal-quest narratives, such as Theodor Frings's Herbort (1943) and "Hilde" (1930). 10 Frings's "Hilde" article in particular is part of the ongoing tradition of scholarly works dealing with the so-called Hildesage, that is, the various stories that tell about the female protagonist Hildr, her suitor Heöinn, and the eternal battle between Heöinn and Hildr's father Högni. Tales that transmit this particular subject matter are known from medieval German and Scandinavian literature, such as Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda, the Norwegian Pidreks saga, and the Middle High German Kudrun epic.11 The example of the Hildesage demonstrates the need for a more Rolf Bräuer, Das Problem des "Spielmännischen" aus der Sicht der St.-OswaldÜberliefenmg, Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Beiträge zur Literaturwissenschaft 42 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1969) and Literatursoziologie und epische Struktur der deutschen "Spielmanns "- und Heldendichtung, Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Beiträge zur Literaturwissenschaft 48 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1970). Piet Wareman, "Spielmannsdichtung. Versuch einer Begriffsbestimmung" (Diss. Amsterdam, 1951). Marianne E. Kalinke, Bridal-Quest Romance (Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1990).

in Medieval Iceland, Islandica 46

Theodor Frings, Herbort, Bericht über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Klasse 95, 5 (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1943); Frings, "Hilde", PBB 54 (1930), 391-418. Additional early studies on the Hildesage and the transmission of the material are Richard C. Boer, "Untersuchungen über die Hildesage", ZOP 40 (1908), 1-66, 184-218 and 292-346; Hertha Marquardt, "Die Hilde-Gudrunsage in ihrer Beziehung zu den germanischen Brautraubsagen und den mittelhochdeutschen Brautfahrerepen", ZDA 70 (1933), 1-23; Ingeborg Schröbler, Wikingische und spielmännische Elemente im zweiten Teile des Gudrunliedes (Halle: Niemeyer, 1934); and

Introduction

7

comparative approach when dealing with the circulation and influence of European bridal-quest narrative. 12 As mentioned above, Frings and Braun took such an approach in the first volume of Brautwerbimg, which discussed the Eastern European tradition, but this has not yet been applied to the Western European tradition. The present study examines the Western European bridal-quest tradition, albeit with a focus on the earliest occurrences of this particular type of narrative in medieval Germany and Scandinavia. 13 Since the origins of Germanic bridal-quest narrative have not been studied, Frings's hypothesis about the existence of two distinct types of bridal-quest narratives is generally accepted. 14 Before and especially after Frings published his article, the corpus of medieval bridal-quest narrative was divided into twelfth-century German bridal-quest romances on the one hand and, on the other, ancient Germanic lays, of which traces are extant in a few Scandinavian poems and tales. The distinguishing criterion for this division is the means by which the bridal quest is accomplished. According to Frings, the use of disguise and cunning and also the notion of love were missing from the ancient Germanic lays, in which the bride allegedly was abducted by means of force and battle. Frings claimed that the former features entered into the Germanic world and thus also into the Germanic bridal-quest stories in the twelfth century. This dating and conclusion are quite obviously based on the fact that the middle of the twelfth century marks the onset of the adaptation of French literature in Germany. However, the German epics that are traditionally included in the corpus of bridal-quest narrative, namely Sal-

Helga Reuschel, "Saga und Wikinglied: Ein Beitrag zur Hildesage", PBB, 56 (1932), 321-45. See Theodore M. Andersson, A Preface to the "Nibelungenlied" ford UP, 1987), pp. 57-8.

(Stanford: Stan-

Such a limitation in scope is a necessity to keep the study within reasonable scope. Bridal-quest narratives are a universial type of narrative and hence representative tales can be located throughout the world. Well known examples belonging to the culture and tradition of the West that could not be included into this study are Paris' abduction of Helen or Issac's wooing of Rebekah. The discussion of Frey 's wooing of Gerd through Skirnir in chapter five, however, presents a close parallel to these narratives. See, for example, the following excerpt from Hans Szklenar's article on König Rother in the new edition of the Verfasserlexikon: "Gegenüber der germanischen Variante (Brautraub) beobachten wir hier [im 'König Rother'] in beiden Teilen die auf Listen beruhende mittelmeerische (Frings 1939-40)" (Hans Szklenar, "König Rother", Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, 2 nd ed. by Kurt Ruh et al., vol. 5 [Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1985], p. 86).

8

Introduction

man und Morolf, Der Münchner Oswald, Orendel, and especially König Rother, seem to predate the influence of the roman courtois, whose beginnings are marked by Heinrich von Veldeke's reworking of the Eneit (begun before 1174 and concluded after 1183), which initiated the spread of the theme of courtly love in Germany. The composition of the German bridalquest romances, however, seems to coincide with the first German adaptations of chansons de geste (Das Rolandslied) and romans d 'antiquite (Das Alexanderlied), in which the themes of love and marriage do not play any role. While the French influence on the latter two literary genres cannot be questioned, there is no convincing evidence of a similar influence on the German bridal-quest romances, since there are no French bridal-quest narratives that clearly predate the German works. The only comparable French bridal-quest story is Florimont, which was written by Aimon de Varennes in 1188 and hence after the assumed date of composition of König Rother. Therefore, the German minstrel epics are the only German twelfth-century genre for which we lack French sources, and, as Theodore M. Andersson concluded, it can be safely assumed that the bridal-quest narratives are original German creations and that at least König Rother antedates the fashion of French romance. 15 Because the direction of literary traffic from France to Germany that otherwise characterizes twelfth-century German literature cannot be shown to apply to the German bridal-quest narratives, Frings's argument that love and guile were introduced at this time into older Germanic lays about bridal abductions is problematic, to say the least. A different point of view is, interestingly enough, found in scholarship predating Frings's 1939-40 article. There it is assumed that the list motif ("cunning/guile") must be regarded as an intrinsic part of the international bridal-quest scheme, which was already in use in Germany well before the twelfth century. Georg Baesecke, for example, concluded in his discussion of Der Münchner Oswald (1907) that the use of disguise and guile are central elements in the bridal-quest scheme. 16 Baesecke examined the similarities that the Clovis and Clotild tale, found in the seventh-century Chronica Fredegarii, shares with Der Münchner Oswald and other minstrel epics, and suggested the existence of an older Franconian oral tradition predating the first written accounts by

Andersson, A Preface, p. 68. "Das Schema liefert von Urvätern her die Umkleidung, und die Phantasie des Dichters durchbricht dann die geschaffenen Schwierigkeiten mit einer der umlaufenden oder einer neuerfundenen List" (Georg Baesecke, Der Münchner Oswald: Text and Abhandlung, Germanische Abhandlungen 28 [Breslau: Marcus, 1907], p. 303).

Introduction

9

centuries and independent of the influence of minstrels. 17 As early as 1891, Friedrich Vogt had argued that the bridal-quest motif played an outstanding role in the earliest mythic texts and only later it was appropriated as the typical theme of the minstrel epics.18 Baesecke's speculation about a Franconian oral tradition of bridal-quest narratives shows up in several later scholarly works incidentally but without elaboration. Ingeborg Schröbler mentions the bridal-quest plots in the two Franconian chronicles, the Chronica Fredegarii and the Liber historiae Francorum, but she denies that they are Germanic compositions, since she does not believe that they could have been transmitted as alliterative poetry.19 The possibility of an oral transmission of these stories was not considered. Frings also discussed the early tales but he argued that the Franconian story of Clovis and Clotild and the wooing of Briinhild are embedded in the Mediterranean culture, whereas König Rother was composed on the Rhine, at the border to the Mediterranean world. 20 As Andersson has pointed out, "to label a seventh-century Frankish story as Mediterranean rather than Germanic is arbitrary", and Frings's claim that the Rhine region in which König Rother was composed borders on the Mediterranean world cannot be accepted. 21 Frings's reference to a Merovingian Briinhild is to the older Franconian Briinhild lay that Andreas Heusler reconstructed as a missing link in the tradition of the Nibelungenlied. Even if we assume that this lay existed, we cannot postulate a Mediterranean influence on it. Moreover, if we go along with Frings's idea of calling the Franconian literature and lays that circulated from the fifth century onwards Mediterranean, it is questionable what remains of Germanic literature. To mention just one example: Atlakvida, one of the oldest poems in the Edda, seems to go back to an old Burgundian tale and is assumed to have circulated under Frankish

"Wir gelangen also dazu, einzig aus der Analyse der Form eine bestimmte Dichtungsart wenigstens der Franken zu rekonstruieren, die den ältesten schriftlichen Denkmälern germanischer Literatur vermutlich um Jahrhunderte (Baesecke, Der Münchner

vorausliegt"

Oswald, p. 303).

Friedrich Vogt, "Erwiderung", ZDP 23 (1891), 496. Schröbler, p. 55. "Ist noch der König Rother am Rande der Mittelmeerwelt, am Rhein gewachsen, so liegen die Werbungen um Briinhild und Chrothilde eingebettet in die merowingische Mittelmeerkultur " (Frings, "Die Entstehung", p. 307). Andersson, A Preface, p. 58.

Introduction

10

rule.22 According to Frings's definition, this poem would also fall under the category "Mediterranean". Vogt's and Baesecke's hypotheses about the existence of an early Franconian oral bridal-quest tradition once more appear in Schmid-Cadalbert's study. Without going into any detail, he explains the occurrence of bridalquest motifs in Gregory of Tours and Fredegar as orally transmitted bridalquest narratives in the West-Franconian area.23 However, he does not include these stories and their bridal quests in his study of the German bridalquest scheme or his interpretation of Ortnit, which is rather surprising considering the fact that he convincingly shows in his book that the German bridal-quest romances must be understood as written works that evolved from an oral society and oral traditions.24 This study traces the early Franconian tradition to establish that the origins of the Germanic bridal-quest narratives indeed lie in Western Franconia. These narratives were mainly transmitted orally but as early as the sixth century they also appear in written form in Franconian chronicles. The Latin chronicles that preserve the earliest extant histories of the Germanic peoples (the Goths, Franks, Lombards, and Anglo-Saxons) contain memorable wooing stories and the earliest occurrences of full-fledged bridal-quest narratives. By drawing additional bridal-quest stories, such as Waltharius and the several bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga, in Saxo's Gesta Danorum, and in the Eddie poems into the discussion, new light is shed on our understanding of medieval bridal-quest narrative, since these narratives bridge the several hundred years gap between the earliest occurrence of such tales in the Franconian chronicles and the composition of the German minstrel epics. An examination of the Middle High German epics (König Rother, Der Münchner Oswald, Orendel, Salman und Morolf, Ortnit, Kudrun, Dukus Horant, and Wolfdietrich B) will confirm that bridal quests in which disguise and cunning were the means to obtain success, are indigenous to the Germanic world and are not twelfth-century literary inventions but more elaborate continuations of a much older literary tradition. This study furthermore argues that the earliest German and Scandinavian bridal-quest narratives are an integral part of the Germanic literary tradition, as they originate at approximately the same time and in the same place as the earliest extant heroic poetry. Therefore the beginnings of the German

See Ursula Dronke, The Poetic Edda 1: Heroic Poems (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969), p. 34. 23

Schmid-Cadalbert, p. 80.

24

Ibid., p. 231.

Introduction

11

epic tradition cannot be explained in the way suggested by Frings and his contemporaries; that is, as a slow expansion from heroic lays into fullfledged heroic epics, and, through Mediterranean influence, also into the so-called minstrel epics. It will be shown instead that the heroic tradition and the tradition of Germanic bridal-quest narrative developed side by side and often merged. As a result of this comprehensive discussion of bridal-quest narrative, we arrive at a much less restricted bridal-quest scheme than suggested in studies narrowly focused on the German bridal-quest epics. Since all previous studies only looked at the German texts, the bridal-quest scheme, which is best exemplified and explained in Schmid-Cadalbert's book, was naturally deduced solely from these narratives. The problematic nature of such an approach is obvious. It can contribute to a misleading understanding of the bridal-quest scheme, and also cause misinterpretations of the German bridal-quest romances, as is partially the case in Schmid-Cadalbert's work on Ortnit. After first determining the bridal-quest scheme based on the extant Middle High German texts, Schmid-Cadalbert then uses this very scheme to interpret one of the epics, arguing that inconsistent developments in the plot of Ortnit must be read as violations of the bridal-quest scheme and are therefore the key to our understanding of the text. Based on this limited definition of the bridal-quest scheme, Schmid-Cadalbert's interpretation of Ortnit is cohesive. His interpretation of Ortnit must be reconsidered, however, if all early bridal-quest stories are included in the formulation of the bridal-quest scheme. By doing so, the story line in Ortnit can no longer be interpreted as a violation of the bridal-quest scheme, as will be shown in Chapter Five, but instead it represents one of the possible variations of a bridal-quest narrative. The bridal-quest scheme underlying the early Germanic bridal-quest tales allows for much greater variation than it appears to be the case in the scheme derived only from the German bridalquest romances. According to Schmid-Cadalbert, that scheme is based on certain key motifs (Handlungsfixpunkte): (1) council scene; (2) selection and dispatching of messengers; (3) the vassals' promise of support and service (if the king himself goes on the wooing journey); (4) landing in a secret place in the foreign country (if the king himself goes on the wooing journey); (5) the wooer's march to the father's residence (if the king himself goes on the wooing journey); (6) secret meeting with the girl in the girl's chambers; (7) abduction of the bride; (8) battle between wooer and father; (9) return with the bride; and (10) wedding. 25 Schmid-Cadalbert ar-

25

Ibid., p. 88.

12

Introduction

gued that these motifs are so essential to a bridal-quest narrative that, whenever one of them is omitted in the plot, the bridal-quest scheme is violated and the scheme per se is jeopardized, whereas at all other places in the plot variations are allowed and quite frequent. He furthermore emphasized that the council scene carries a key function and must be considered as the most important motif of bridal-quest narratives, because this scene initiates the quest, propels the plot, and distinguishes a bridal-quest narrative from a wooing story. A council scene, states Schmid-Cadalbert, can lead to two different kinds of wooing tales; simple and difficult bridal-quest stories. Only difficult quests, however, deliver enough material to be developed into full-fledged bridal-quest stories, whereas easy quests can be encountered as subplots in larger works, especially in chronicles, legends, and epics.26 Schmid-Cadalbert's division is based on an earlier study by Hinrich Siefken in which two different types are differentiated concerning the German bridal-quest epics: firstly, simple or harmless bridal quests (einfache oder ungefährliche Brautwerbung) and, secondly, dangerous ones (gefährliche Brautwerbung).27 The bridal quest is considered easy if the wooer's proposal to the girl or her father is successful without encountering any resistance or after the wooer has proved his valor and suitability through fulfilling a specific deed. The second, dangerous bridal-quest type is divided into elopements with the woman's consent and abductions without consent. Siefken's distinction is a very useful underpinning for the discussion of wooing stories, especially of the early bridal-quest narratives. The texts studied here, however, suggest to add the type "unsuccessful wooing story" and also to modify and rename Siefken's type "abduction with the woman's consent" to "successful wooing by means of cunning", to clearly distinguish between abductions and elopements and to emphasize the importance the hero's slyness plays for the success of the quest. Based on the corpus of early Germanic bridal-quest narrative, certain motifs can be discerned as forming the Germanic bridal-quest scheme. These motifs, which are briefly described below to supply a guide through the discussion of the individual tales in this study, however, allow for a considerable degree of variation:

26

Ibid. p. 59.

27

Hinrich Siefken, "Überindividuelle Formen und der A u f b a u des Kudrunepos" (Diss. Tübingen, 1967), p. 22.

Introduction

13

(1) Decision to marry All tales, usually immediately after the introduction of the protagonists, begin with the hero's decision to marry. In all cases the hero is a young and mighty prince or king who is looking for a wife and subsequently an heir for his kingdom. The decision to find a bride-to-be can be made by the hero himself or it can be suggested to him by a third party: either his parents, councilors, or even God.

(2) Selection of a suitable bride-to-be After the hero has decided to get married, he has to determine a suitable candidate. This is accomplished either in the form of an individual decision made by the hero himself, as is the case in many of the earlier chronicle stories and in many of the tales in Pidreks saga, or during a public council scene at which a third party suggests a particular woman to the hero. This latter variation is found in especially elaborate form in the German bridalquest romances, where the council meeting during which the initial suggestion to marry was made, frequently develops into a discussion about a suitable future queen. In the German epics, this discussion often ends when a wise or very pious man appears and makes his suggestion.

(3) The wooing journey Having determined a suitable bride, the nobleman has to choose between two alternatives. He can either set out on the wooing journey himself or dispatch (a) messenger(s) to woo the girl on his behalf. The bridal-quest stories are set apart from simple wooing stories by the fact that the bride-tobe is usually unattainable and well protected by her father, who is known to deny all attempted proposals. In simple wooing stories, the hero, or, more frequently, his proxy wooer approaches the father of the bride directly and negotiates the terms of the betrothal; a process that closely resembles historical marriage negotiations. Conversely, in the bridal-quest narratives (that is, dangerous wooing stories) the wooer is only successful by circumventing the father of the girl and directly meeting with the girl in secret (motif 4). The wooer (either the hero himself or a proxy wooer) gains access to the girl only with the help of astute and often cunning behavior, which includes disguises, aliases, false pretences, and various other subterfuges. If the wooer directly approaches the father of the girl, however, his quest is bound to be a failure. The latter constellation only applies when

14

Introduction

messengers are sent. In the most drastic cases, the father of the bride kills the wooers, but, more frequently, he captures and incarcerates them. In some tales, the wooer returns home to report his unsuccessful mission to his lord, in others he remains as a guest at the court. Most commonly, however, the messengers are incarcerated or return home to deliver the bad news to their lord. At this point, the wooing journey is repeated. The second wooing journey can develop along two lines; either the hero dispatches a second group of messengers or he sets out on the journey himself. In the latter case, the nobleman directly approaches the girl, or, in rare instances, attacks her father with his army. If messengers are sent on the second wooing journey, the wooing will be unsuccessful again and a third journey follows, in which the hero himself travels to the girl's country. (4) Meeting with the bride-to-be The fourth step is the key moment in all the tales. At this point abduction stories, in which the woman is kidnapped without consent, branch off from the bridal-quest narratives. The abduction stories often share the first three motifs with the bridal-quest stories, but in an abduction story the perpetrator accomplishes his task as soon as he has gained access to the girl, by carrying her off. In the elopement stories the girl gives her consent to run away from her home and guardian(s). Both abduction and elopement tales have furthermore in common that a battle between the hero and a pursuing army precedes the return to the hero's country. In the more eloborate elopement stories, however, the wooer's meeting with the girl leads to the next step, the secret betrothal of the hero and his bride-to-be. (5) Secret betrothal The secret betrothal to the girl is either performed by the disguised hero himself or by a messenger on his behalf, and it is frequently accompanied by an engagment ceremony at which the girl offers a cup of wine to the hero or at which tokens are exchanged. After the secret betrothal, the narratives can continue in three different ways. In the earliest chronicle stories the girl's consent to the marriage leads to the proxy wooer's journey home to his lord. The latter expresses his willingness to continue with the quest and sends messengers back into the girl's country to publicly propose to her father and officially betroth the girl to the hero. In all other cases, the secret betrothal is followed by the girl's escape with her suitor or his messenger(s). In some stories, however, the elopement is delayed temporarily because the messenger first returns home to his lord. Together they return to

Introduction

15

the foreign country and elope with the girl according to the plan outlined during the secret meeting. In other stories, the wooer (either the hero himself or his messenger) remains in the girl's country and later elopes with her as soon as an opportunity presents itself. In the majority of the stories, the girl suggests the plan for the escape, in a few tales, however, the wooer outlines the escape route.

(6) Elopement The elopement from the girl's home is either accompanied by a ruse or it takes place under the cover of darkness. In the German minstrel epics the couple sails away, whereas in the Latin chronicles, the Norse stories, the Walter tales, the bridal-quest narratives in Piöreks saga, and in Ortnit the couple escapes on horseback, often with a treasure taken from the girl's father.

(7) Pursuit and battle The fleeing couple is pursued by the girl's father and/or his army. If it comes to a battle, the hero defeats the attackers. In the later Middle High German narratives, this battle is usually combined with the father's conversion to Christianity.

(8) Return to the hero's country and marriage After the battle (or escape), the couple returns to the hero's home country, where they rule as king and queen over the kingdom. In König Rother the plot is repeated at this point. The bride is abducted back home and won a second time by her husband (the so-called Riickentfihrungshandlung). Unlike Schmid-Cadalbert, who argued that the council scene is the key scene/motif of the German bridal-quest romances, the examination of the earliest European bridal-quest narratives suggests that instead the meeting between wooer and bride-to-be is the central motif of all these stories. Merely the fact that these meetings are held in secret and that whenever they take place in public the wooer's true identity remains hidden, distinguishes these narratives from simple wooing tales and characterizes them as dangerous quests that call for this special course of action. The possible perils involved in a public proposal are avoided by covering up the true intentions of the wooer and by his shrewd behavior. The crucial moment in Germanic bridal-quest narratives is the engagement scene. Here the chosen

16

Introduction

girl accepts the marriage proposal that is delivered by a proxy wooer or the noble suitor in disguise. This engagement scene and the accompanying motifs of disguise and cunning are indigenous to the Germanic world as they are already present in the earliest extant bridal-quest narratives.

Chapter 1 Wooers in Disguise There are four early medieval chronicles that became most influential on contemporary as well as subsequent historical and fictional writing in the Germanic world, the so-called histories of the gentes: Jordanes' De origine actibusque Getarum (or: Getica), (completed 551), Gregory of Tours' Historiarum libri decern (or: Historia Francorum), (ca. 575-590), Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (completed 731-32), and Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum (completed 796-99). 1 In these chronicles, as well as the two most important continuations of Gregory, the so-called Chronica Fredegarii (completed ca. 642) and the anonymous Liber historiae Francorum (completed 727), the earliest occurrences of bridal-quest tales in Germanic chronicle writing are found. The six earliest chronicles cover a period of roughly 250 years, beginning with Jordanes in the mid-sixth century and ending with Paul the Deacon at the end of the eighth century. They cover a geographical area from Moesia and Thrace, to Lombardy, the Merovingian realm (Austrasia, Neustria, and Burgundy), and Anglo-Saxon England, and they contain some of the earliest extant histories of the Germanic peoples (the Goths, Franks, Lombards, and Anglo-Saxons). All of these chronicles stand in a tradition of historiographical writing which influenced their form as well as their content. Their indebtedness to classical sources is especially obvious in those books and chapters that deal with universal history and the heritage of a particular people. Gregory of Tours's first book, for instance, is based upon Saint Jerome's World Chronicle (up to 378), the church history of Eusebius in the Latin translation by Rufinus (up to 395), and Orosius's Historiarum adversus paganos libri VII (ca. 420). More contemporary sources for events related in the chronicles are difficult to trace, because they comprise written annals, chronicles, or saints' lives which are often no longer extant. In addition, the chronicle writers included information they knew from personal experience, eyewitness accounts, or hearsay. The influence of oral tradition (folktales) is most apparent in Paul the Deacon's work, for See in particular Walter Goffart's detailed study of these four chronicles (The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550-800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede. and Paul the Deacon [Princeton: Princeton UP, 1988]).

18

Chapter 1

example, in his account of the origin of the Lombards, but also in the Chronica Fredegarii and the Liber historiae Francorum. The latter two chronicles are to a large extent based on Gregory's Historia Francorum, which the authors independently abridge and, at the same time, embellish by adding details, emphasizing certain events, and also by including new tales. Furthermore, these two chronicles continue Gregory's account; the earlier of the two, the Chronica Fredegarii, from the year 584 to the year 642, and the later Liber historiae Francorum up to the year 727. The Chronica Fredegarii has a rather complicated, though important, transmission history.2 The main chronicle, which received its name from a sixteenth-century marginal entry assigning the composition of the chronicle to a certain Fredegar, has been, up to the year 584, mainly copied out of five sources: books one and two follow the Liber generationis (Hippolytus of Porto, Isidore, Hieronymus, and Hydatius), book three follows Gregory, and the fourth book comprises the author's own time up to the year 642. Although the authorship of this chronicle is still debated, one can safely conclude by means of the contextual evidence that it was written by at least one Burgundian author who had close connections to Metz and possibly even lived there later in his life.3 None of the thirty-eight extant manuscripts, however, shows any direct connection with Burgundy, and, although the oldest manuscript (from around 700), which was the basis of Krusch's edition, stems most likely from Metz, the other remaining manu-

The standard edition is Bruno Krusch's edition from 1888 (Fredegar, Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii Scholastici Libri IV cum Continuationibus", MGH: Scrip, rer. Merov. II [Hanover: Hahn, 1888]). A more recent, albeit slightly abridged edition and translation is Andreas Kusternig's Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii continuations, Quellen zur Geschichte des 7. und 8. Jahrhunderts (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1982). For a good overview of the scholarly discussion up to 1960 and the question of authorship see J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, trans., The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar with its Continuations (London, Edinburgh, et al.: Nelson and Sons, 1960). The only English translation of the third book of the chronicle is Jane Ellen W o o d r u f f s dissertation ("The Historia Epitomata [Third Book] of the Chronicle of Fredegar. An Annotated Translation and Historical Analysis of Interpolated Material" [Diss. Nebraska, 1987]). In the preface to his edition, Bruno Krusch assumes three different authors: the first two being Burgundians who wrote up to 613 and 642, respectively, and the third being an Austrasian who wrote around 658. In more recent scholarship it has been assumed that the chronicle was written by one Burgundian only, w h o moved to Metz. See, for example, Ian N. Wood ("Fredegar's Fables", in Historiographie im frühen Mittelalter, ed. Anton Scharer and Georg Scheibelreiter [Vienna and Munich: Oldenbourg, 1994], p. 360).

Wooers in disguise

19

scripts are independent of this copy. J. M. Wallace-Hadrill reasonably concluded that, because none of these remaining manuscripts is older than the ninth century, the chronicle mainly circulated in the Carolingian realm under Carolingian rule.4 The chronicle's close connection to the Carolingian age is established by the fact that more than half of the extant manuscripts contain at least one of its continuations in addition to the chronicle proper. These continuations were composed in three parts; the first continuation (up to 736) was based on the later parts of the Liber historiae Francorum in its Austrasian reworking (MS version B). The second continuation (up to 751) was commissioned by Duke Childebrand, the half-brother of Karl Martell, and the third (up to 768) by Childebrand's son Nibelung. The anonymous Liber historiae Francorum shows a clear Neustrian bias, as the author seems only interested in events that took place in the Neustrian part of the Merovingian realm, which he refers to exclusively as Francia.5 The author most likely wrote in the Paris region and apparently had close connections to the monasteries of Saint Denis, Saint Vincent (Saint-Germain des Pres), and the city of Soisson. 6 Since the reign of King Theuderic III (673-690) is emphasized in the chronicle, it is also very likely that the author was a member of this king's entourage. The Liber historiae Francorum was widely disseminated in the Middle Ages in two versions. The first version (MS A) goes back to the original Neustrian version from 727, whereas the more popular second version (MS B) is an Austrasian reworking of the Α-version from before 737. This second version was also used as the source for the first continuation of the Chronica Fredegarii and circulated widely in the Carolingian realm. When marriages are mentioned in the early chronicles, they are usually not told in detail but rather given as factual information. Therefore all those The manuscripts were copied throughout the Rhineland and Northern France (Mehrau, Reichenau, Lorsch, Reims, Cologne, Metz, Liege, St. Gall, etc.). See J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Long-Haired Kings and other Studies in Frankish History (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1962), pp. 71-7. See Jan Prelog, "Liber historiae Francorum", in Lexikon des Mittelalters, ed. Robert-Henri Bautier et al., vol. 5 (Munich and Zurich: Artemis, 1991), 1944-5, and Bernard S. Bachrach (Liber historiae Francorum, ed. and trans. Bernard S. Bachrach [Lawrence: Coronado Press, 1973]), pp. 9-22. The standard edition is Bruno Krusch, Liber historiae Francorum, MGH: Scrip, rer. Merov. II (Hanover: Hahn, 1888). An abridged version is found in Kusternig (Chronicarum quae clicuntur Fredegar ii). Richard A. Gerberding argues that the author could have lived in the monastery at Saint-Medard in Soisson (The Rise of the Carolingians and the "Liber historiae Francorum" [Oxford: Clarendon, 1987], pp. 146-59).

Chapter 1

20

.instances in which the authors develop a wooing situation and/or marriage into a short narrative are of special interest. These short wooing episodes take on different shapes and can be divided into the following five categories, which will be discussed in detail below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Unsuccessful wooing Successful wooing based on a condition Successful wooing by means of force Successful wooing without resistance Successful wooing by means of cunning

To fit into one of these categories, the wooing stories must contain at least a few common features: the wooer must travel to the land of his bride-to-be or he must send a messenger who woos on his behalf; the proposal is made either to the bride-to-be, her father, or another close relative; and the proposal is then either accepted, deferred, or denied.

Unsuccessful Wooing The six chronicles contain only two examples of detailed unsuccessful wooing efforts. The earliest example, related by Jordanes in the Getica, is the unsuccessful wooing of Darius, King of the Persians (5th century B.C.) who demanded in marriage the daughter of the Gothic King Antyrus (ch. 10.63).7 In this tale, Darius himself appears before the Gothic king and asks for the hand of the princess. The Goths reject the alliance, even though Darius threatens the king with war if his request should be denied. Darius, inflamed with anger because of the refusal, sets out with a great army against the Goths to avenge his wounded feelings. His attempt fails because he is unable to reach his destination of Thrace and Moesia. The second, less clear-cut example of an unsuccessful wooing, found in Gregory of Tours as well as in Paul the Deacon, is Authari's wooing for Chlodosinde, the sister of the Frankish King Childebert. According to Gregory, Chlodosinde was promised to Authari, the Lombard king, and the alliance had already been sealed by means of a treasure the Lombard legates had given to Childebert (Book 9.25).8 Later, however, Gothic legates Jordanes, Romana et Getica, ed. Theodor Mommsen, M G H : Auct. ant. V. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1882, rpt. 1982). See also Charles C. Mierow, trans., The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1915, rpt. N e w York: Barnes and Noble, 1960). Gregory of Tours, Historiarum Libri Decern, 2 vols., ed. Bruno Krusch, 7 th rev. ed. by Rudolf Büchner, trans. W. Giesebrecht (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1988).

Wooers in disguise

21

appear before Childebert and ask on behalf of their lord for Chlodosinde's hand in marriage, which is granted to them. Childebert, now allied with the Goths, declares war on the Lombards to drive them out of Italy, but he is defeated. Paul the Deacon corroborates this story in all details, albeit from a more Lombard point of view (3.28).9 These two short accounts are the only examples of unsuccessful wooing in the six chronicles. This paucity of evidence could be explained by the fact that the incidents are of no particular interest as long as an unsuccessful wooing did not initiate further events, such as acts of revenge or battles. Jordanes may have included the Darius story for two reasons: firstly, to show the strength of the Goths, who are able to decline the wedding proposal made by such an influential political figure as the Persian king, and, secondly, as a prelude to the narrative for Darius's failed attack. The second example, Authari's failed marriage, is more difficult to evaluate, since the wooing as such did not fail, but the wedding never took place. Therefore it is doubtful whether this tale should even be included in the category of unsuccessful wooing stories. Gregory and Paul quite clearly relate the events in more detail to introduce the failed Frankish attack on Lombardy, but certainly not in order to relate a wooing tale. Successful W o o i n g Based on a Condition The second group of wooing stories, which consists of tales in which the wooing is successful only after the wooer has fulfilled a certain condition stipulated by the bride's father or close relative, is also very small. The best examples of this type occur in Bede's Ecclesiastical History. The first incident Bede relates takes place in 625 A.D., when King Edwin sent an embassy of nobles to Eadbald, King of the Kentish people, to request the hand of his sister Tata in marriage (2.9). In the second example (653 A.D.) Peada, King of the Middle Angles, asks for the hand of Alchfled, the daughter of the Northumbrian King Oswy (3.21).10 In both cases the request is denied, the reason being that it was not permissible for a Christian Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardoram, ed. Ludwig Bethmann and Georg Waitz, M H G : Scrip, rer. Lang. V I - I X (Hanover: Hahn, 1978). English translation by William D. Foulke (Paul the Deacon, History of the Langobards [Philadelphia: Dept. of History, 1907, rpt. 1974]). Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Bertram Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969). English Translation: Leo SherleyPrice, Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People with Bede's Letter to Egbert and Cuthbert's Letter on the Death of Bede, rev. trans, by R.E. Latham, rev. intr. and notes by D.H. Farmer (New York: Penguin, 1990).

22

Chapter 1

maiden to be given in marriage to a heathen husband. 11 Consequently, the two wooers and their subjects convert to Christianity and the weddings take place. The only other example of a conditional marriage agreement occurs in Gregory (4.28) and pertains to Chilperich's marriage to the Spanish princess Galsvintha (ca. 567).12 Chilperich, who had multiple wives of low birth, sends legates to the Spanish court to woo on his behalf. He receives Galsvintha's hand in marriage only after he has promised to change his behavior and to abstain from his former wives. The Liber historiae Francorum (ch. 31) corroborates Gregory's version without inserting any changes, whereas the version in the Chronica Fredegarii (3.60) has a slightly different twist: Chilperic promises the envoys of the Goths that he will never remove Galsvintha from her throne. Gregory apparently tells this wooing story in greater detail to illustrate Chilperich's character and also to set the stage for the political consequences of his behavior. Chilperich does not abstain from his former wives and eventually even kills Galsvintha, thus breaking both conditions, the one mentioned in Gregory, and the one mentioned in the Chronica Fredegarii. This breach results in severe power struggles among the Franks. Galsvintha is murdered at the instigation of one of Chilperich's earlier wives, Fredegunde, who is also responsible for the death of another one of Chilperich's wives. As a result a power struggle breaks out between Fredegunde and Brunichilde, who tries to avenge the death of her sister, and lasts until both women die. Bede's two tales are the only wooing stories contained in the Historia Ecclesiastica. This is not surprising, considering that Bede wrote a history of the English church and was thus less concerned with political and personal matters. He includes the two wooing episodes because they are of significance to his church history: They exemplify a policy by which Christianity was spread in England. Both of his episodes illustrate how parts of the country were Christianized through marriages between formerly heathen kings and Christian princesses. Therefore, Bede's wooing stories are closely connected to his intention and are not self-contained wooing tales in the same manner as Gregory's tale and the examples in the unsuccessful wooing category discussed above. "Non esse licitum Christianam virginem pagano in consortio profanarentur regis qui veri Dei cultus esset prorsus ignarus" (2.9). Compare also 3.21. This marriage is closely connected to the marriage of Sigibert, Chilperich's brother, and Brunichilde, Galsvintha's sister. That marriage will be discussed under category four.

Wooers in disguise

23

Successful Wooing by Means of Force The few examples in which a woman is forcefully abducted from her home during a state of war and subsequently married to her abductor are not related in the form of short narratives, but instead only mentioned as factual information.' 3 The only longer account of a forceful wooing which could possibly be included in this category is the story about Alboin, King of the Lombards, who marries Rosamunde after having killed her father (Gregory, 4.41). This marriage must have been involuntary on Rosamunde's part because, according to Gregory, she is full of hatred for her husband and plans to avenge the killing of her father. She finally succeeds and poisons her husband with the help of one of his servants. Gregory does not provide many details; he does not even mention the name of the woman. Paul the Deacon, however, corroborates this account, and he gives the woman's name and the details of her assault (2.28-9). He also describes the killing and the incidents that provoked it in great detail: Alboin forced Rosamunde to drink out of the cup that was made out of her father's skull, so that she could drink merrily with her father. Afterwards Rosamunde uses a trick to convince one of her husband's servants to help her kill the king (the details of this trick, as well as the name of the actual murderer vary in the various versions). They attack the king while he is asleep and, even though the king tries to defend himself, they kill him. The Chronica Fredegarii (65-66) abbreviates this tale so that only the main facts are mentioned, and the Liber historiae Francorum omits it.14 Overall, the chronicles are more concerned with the killing of the abductor and the events that lead to it than with the wooing and the abduction proper. Therefore the same observation that has been made for the preceding two types of wooing stories can be made for this type: the wooing is told in more detail only if it motivates the subsequent events; in this case Rosamunde's assault on her husband. It is surprising to encounter only one example of a forceful abduction that goes beyond a short note, one that is not even a full-fledged wooing story, especially since scholars have claimed in the past that this kind of bridal-quest tale was the predominant Compare, for example, Jordanes 31 (159): Placidia, daughter of Emperor Theodosius, was led away captive from Rome by Athavulf, king of the Goths, who later married her. Gregory of Tours relates Chlotachar's abduction of Radegunde (later St. Radegunde), the daughter of the Thuringian king Berthachar (3.7). The Chronica Fredegarii only mentions that Alboin, after the death of his first wife, married another woman whose father he had killed and that he died by her instigation ("qua defuncta, aliam duxit coniugem, cuius patrem interfecerat. [66] Ipse vero eiusdem muleris fraude venino perit").

24

Chapter 1

Germanic type of wooing tale. The evidence from the chronicles disproves this claim, at least for the historical sources, which are the only extant written sources from the Merovingian period. The paucity of examples of wooing by means of force and abduction is certainly not due to the fact that the chronicles in general do not contain sufficient examples of wooing tales. The number of examples falling into the fourth and fifth categories is strong evidence to the contrary. Successful W o o i n g without Resistance Marriage proposals that succeed without any resistance, fulfillment of conditions, or use of force or disguise, occur in the Getica, the Historia Francorum, the Chronica Fredegarii, and the Liber historiae Francorwn. Jordanes relates a very short episode about King Theodoric, who, ca. 493 A.D., sends a messenger to ask for the hand of Audfleda, the daughter of the Frankish King Lodoin, which is granted to him (ch. 57.295). More detailed is Gregory of Tours's account of the marriage of Sigibert (Sigyberthus) and Brunhild (Brunichilde) (4.27-8): King Sigibert, protesting that his brothers had married multiple wives who were not of noble birth, sends legates to Spain to King Athanagild (Athanagildus), where they offer splendid gifts in exchange for the hand of Brunhild in marriage. Brunhild had attracted the king's attention previously, because she was "of fine education, beautiful in her looks, honorable and becoming in her conduct, wise of understanding, and flattering in conversation" ("elegans opere, venusta aspectu, honesta moribus atque decora, prudens consilio et blanda colloquio" [4.27.30-1]). Sigibert's legates are successful and Brunhild is handed over to them along with a large dowry. She is led to Sigibert's court, where he marries her at a great feast (ca. 566-567). In the Liber historiae Francorum (31) and the Chronica Fredegarii (3.57) Sigibert's wooing of Brunhild is related in the same way. Fredegar, however, adds some details to the description of Brunhild, which could point towards an underlying, possibly Burgundian, Brunhild tradition. The Chronica Fredegarii relates that Brunhild's name is Bruna, and, only after she had married Sigibert, is the honorific "-hild" added to her name to make it sound more ornate (3.57). The author goes on to relate that "such evils and spilling of blood were caused in Franconia by Brunhild's plan that the prophecy of the Sibyl was fulfilled, who said, 'Bruna is coming from the regions of Spain, before whose eyes many peoples will perish'" ("Tanta mala et effusione sanguinum a Brunechildis consilium in Francia factae sunt, ut prophetia Saeville impleretur, dicens: 'Veniens Bruna de partibus Spaniae, ante cuius conspectum multae gentes peribunt'" [3.59.14-17]).

25

Wooers in disguise

This addition in Fredegar's chronicle might point to a connection between the historical queen Brunhild and the valkyrie Brunhild familiar from the eddic tradition, as has been suggested for example by Godefroid Kurth. 15 Contrary to Kurth's assumption that Fredegar used lost Austrasian annals, however, it seems more likely that this story developed orally and is a mixture of historical facts and legendary material. 16 Doubtlessly the most famous wooing story in Gregory is King Clovis's wooing for Clotild, which can be summarized as follows (Greg. 2.28): One day Clovis's (Chlodovechus) messengers, who were frequently sent into the land of the Burgundians, see the maiden Clotild (Chrotchildis). They find her beautiful and intelligent and, after they had learned that she was of high birth, they tell Clovis about her. The latter is pleased by the news and immediately sends messengers to Gundobad to ask for the hand of his niece in marriage. Gundobad (Gundobadus) does not dare to refuse this to Clovis and hands Clotild over to the messengers who bring her to King Clovis. He is pleased with her and marries her. One may ask why these wooing tales were included in the chronicles as short narratives and why the marriages were not just mentioned as fact like so many others. It is noteworthy that the main characters in these stories are some of the most famous and influential kings in Gothic and Franconian history. Jordanes's story deals with the marriage of Theodoric, the most famous of Gothic emperors, who, by marrying the daughter of the Frankish king, established an even stronger political position for himself and his people. Jordanes recounts only two wooing episodes, the one discussed here and Darius's unsuccessful wooing of the Gothic princess discussed above. Both clearly emphasize the strength of the Goths—in the latter case their power to refuse the Persian king a marriage, and, in the former, their political strength, which allows for an uncomplicated and successful alliance with the Franks. The two marriages that Gregory of Tours tells in greater detail also deal with some of the most influential and famous protagonists of Frankish history. Sigibert's marriage to Brunhild introduces a dominant female protagonist in Merovingian history, whose power struggles and intrigues influenced the following decades. 17 The marriage of Clovis and Clotild is of ut-

Godefroid Kurth, Histoire podtique

des mirovingiens

(Paris: Alphonse Picard et

Fils, 1893, rpt. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1968), pp. 429-30. Kurth, pp. 406-7. Note also that the marriage of Chilperich and Galsvintha, which is closely connected to the marriage of Sigibert and Brunhild is told in more detail, as mentioned

26

Chapter 1

most importance to Frankish history, not only because Clovis was one of the most powerful Franconian kings, but also because the marriage to Clotild was to a large degree responsible for his own and, subsequently, for the Franks' conversion to Christianity. In all of the successful wooing episodes summarized above a Frank is involved. This may just be a strange coincidence, but could also permit one to conclude that these tales were already well known among the Franks and circulated in written and/or oral form. Two observations strengthen this assumption; firstly, the additional information on Brunhild given in the Chronica Fredegarii, which points to an underlying folk tradition, and, secondly, the fact that the Clovis and Clotild tale has been expanded and reworked into long, full-fledged bridal-quest tales in which the wooing succeeds only by means of cunning and disguise, as will be discussed below. The wooing tales in this fourth category share certain characteristics: the wooer learns from hearsay about a suitable bride; the bride is described as being beautiful, of noble birth, well mannered, intelligent, and presentable; the wooer sends legates to woo her; the agreement is sealed by the exchange of gifts or treasures; and the marriage takes place in the husband's country. These motifs, which scholars in general have only used to describe later (twelfth-century) bridal-quest narratives, are already present in Franconian tales that date back to the fifth to eighth centuries. Successful W o o i n g by Means of Cunning One of the most important motifs in tales traditionally assigned to the genre of bridal-quest narratives is the use of cunning and disguise, which Frings takes as a twelfth-century Mediterranean import into the medieval Germanic world. Since there is clear evidence of such tales in earlier chronicle writing, however, this assumption must be re-evaluated. The earliest example in which a bride is won by means of cunning is found in Gregory's sixth-century Historia Francorum. This wooing tale is particularly noteworthy, since its protagonists are not kings and princesses, but rather lowborn men and women. The tale can be summarized as follows (4.46): The protagonist Andarchius, a former slave of a certain senator Felix, receives an education in literature and gains an excellent knowledge of it. His knowledge, however, makes him so arrogant that he leaves his lord and enters the protection of Duke Lupus (Duke of Champagne from Reims). Lupus refers above. Galsvintha's death at the instigation of Chilperich's former (and later) wife Fredegunde initiates the power struggles between the two most influential w o m e n in Merovingian history, Brunhild and Fredegunde.

Wooers in disguise

27

Andarchius to King Sigibert, who takes him into his service. One day when Andarchius travels to Clermont, he befriends a burgher of that city by the name of Ursus. Andarchus then plays a rather complicated trick on his friend in order to marry Ursus's daughter: he places his armor in a big chest and tells Ursus's wife that he has deposited 16,000 guldens in it, which he will give to her if she convinces her husband to agree to the wedding. By means of false oaths sworn before the king as well as other treacherous plots, Andarchius finally succeeds. He marries the girl and receives 16,000 gulden, which were allegedly his, from her father. The first time Andarchius stays at the house of his father-in-law, he is alone with seven of his own and several of Ursus's servants. Ursus's servants are not willing to accept Andarchius' brutal behavior and treatment and decide to kill him. They serve so much wine to him and his slaves that they are overcome by sleep. Then Ursus's slaves put the hall on fire, killing Andarchius and his servants. Gregory explains that he must relate the entire story as background to tell about Andarchius's end (4.45.29). However, this story does not contain any information pertaining to Frankish history other than the fact that Andarchius was a member of the king's retinue; hence the tale was most likely included in the chronicle solely for its entertainment value or "moral". Since it does not occur in the two continuations and is not known from other sources, Gregory must have been familiar with the story from local tradition, contemporary to the events related and to the composition of the chronicle. 18 This wooing episode, which is more akin to an early fabliau, is the earliest example of a Germanic bride-winning tale in which cunning is used as the means to achieve success.19 It is also the first example of a fullfledged wooing narrative that is included in early Germanic chronicles just for its own sake and its entertainment value. A later example of a bridal-quest tale, contained in the Historia Langobardorum, illustrates the use of disguise, namely King Authari's wooing of the Bavarian princess Theudelinda in 588/90 (3.30):20

The events take place close to Clermont in the region of Velay, which is in today's Departement Haute-Loire. Since these towns are in central France and not very close to Tours, the connection to Tours must have been established through the person of King Sigibert. Another possibility is, of course, that Gregory was familiar with the tale since it circulated among the Franks. It is noteworthy that the tale is missing in Ms C2, which is a later contaminated Ms, so that one might assume that it was included already in the earliest tradition. Note also, that the episode is surrounded by other stories that seem to be derived from local tradition. The summary follows Theodore M. Andersson's plot summary in A Preface, p. 57.

28

Chapter 1

King Authari sends ambassadors to Bavaria to woo the daughter of King Garibald on his behalf. They succeed in their mission and report accordingly, but Authari is eager to see his bride for himself. He therefore presents himself before King Garibald in the guise of Authari's messenger, charged to view his master's betrothed. Theudelinda, produced for his inspection, immediately delights his heart, and he asks that she proffer him a cup of wine. When she accedes, he touches her hand with his finger. Theudelinda reports this blushingly to her nurse, who surmises that the messenger can be none other than the suitor himself. Authari sets out for Italy, but as he takes leave of his Bavarian escort, he rises in his saddle and drives an ax deep into a tree with the words: "This is the kind of blow Authari strikes." By this gesture the Bavarians recognize his identity. Some time later, when the Franks have invaded Bavaria, Theudelinda takes refuge in Italy and marries Authari. This story can almost be classified as an independent romantic tale because it goes far beyond the usual acknowledgments of marriages in the Historia Langobardorum. Since Authari was one of the most famous kings of the Lombards, it is very likely that several tales about him, such as this one about his marriage with the Bavarian princess, circulated in Lombardy, and possibly even at the Carolingian court, where Paul stayed ca. 782-85 and was engaged in a lively literary exchange with the most important scholars of the time. The tale summarized above contains several motifs common to bridalquest narrative: a king decides to marry, selects a suitable princess, and sends messengers to woo her; the king himself goes to look at her, and he disguises himself by taking on a different identity; on first contact with the bride, the wooer kisses (or touches) the girl's hand when she offers him a glass of wine; he leaves in peace and reveals his true identity; eventually the bride comes to the king's country where the wedding takes place. The wooing proper succeeds without encountering any resistance from the bride's father, as was the case in Gregory's Clovis tale. Therefore the wooer's journey in disguise to the bride's home seems somewhat unmotivated in this tale, since the "mission" has already been completed and the alliance agreed upon. In later bridal-quest stories, the wooer or his messenger disguises himself to establish a first, secret contact with the bride, and not to look at her after the marriage has already been agreed to. It seems as if the author wanted to include the secret meeting, even though the logic of the narrative did not require it nor the historical facts support it. This meeting, during which wooer and princess establish their first personal contact—Theudelinda serves Authari a glass of wine and he touches her hand—is the central scene of this narrative and of particular significance. As we shall see later, similar scenes frequently occur in bridal-quest tales

Wooers in disguise

29

when wooer and bride-to-be meet for the first time. Another episode in the Historia Langobardorum, summarized below, illustrates the importance of this gesture, this time with inverted roles (3.35): After Authari's death, Theudelinda remains queen and is counseled by the Lombards to choose a husband for herself. She chooses Agilulf and gives orders that he come to her court. At the meeting, they first talk for a while and then Theudelinda asks for wine to be brought. After she has drunk, she offers the cup to Agilulf who takes it and kisses her hand. Now Theudelinda says, smiling with a blush, that he, who ought to kiss her lips, should not kiss her hand. She then raises him up to kiss her and explains the marriage conditions. Historians have always doubted the historicity of this tale and believe rather that Agilulf seized the crown and later married Theudelinda to establish some claim of legitimacy for himself. 21 Once more, it seems that Paul the Deacon relates a tale about Authari and his widow, respectively, which is derived from a tradition that was alive in the eighth century and which he apparently regarded as legitimate historical information. Of importance for this study is the significance of the gesture and the order of events: The woman offers wine to the man after she has drunk from it first; the man takes the cup and at the same time kisses (or touches) the woman's hand so that the first intimate contact has been established and the wooing can proceed. 22 The wooing in the later versions of Gregory of Tours's Clovis and Clotild tale follows similar patterns. Furthermore, in these tales, the influence from oral tradition on the account of historical events is even more manifest than in the examples discussed so far. The version in the Chronica Fredegarii can be summarized as follows (3.18-19): (18) King Clovis (Chlodoveus) sends a delegation to Burgundy to observe Clotild (Chrothechildis). Since no one is permitted to see her, he sends a certain Aurelian (Aurelianus) to Burgundy. Aurelian, disguised as a beggar, receives a See the notes to this passage in the translations by Foulke (1907), p. 150 and in the edition of the Historia Langobardorum by Bethmann and Waitz . Pio Rajna was the first to mention the importance of this motif and its earliest occurrences in the chronicles (Le origini dell'epopea francese [Florence 1884, 2 nd ed. 1956], pp. 79-84.). See also Hans Fromm, who mentions the same example as well as examples from the eddic material and Pidreks saga, and who concludes that this gesture "gehört zu den Akten beim Abschluß eines Vertrages [...] bei der Verlobung wurde getrunken, gewöhnlich von den Sippenmitgliedern, die der Rechtstellung beiwohnten, doch auch, zumal bei freier, konsensloser Entscheidung der sich Verbindenden, zwischen Mann und Frau" ("Kapitel 168 der Thidrekssaga", DVjs33 [1959], 249).

30

Chapter 1

ring from Clovis as a token for Clotild and travels alone to Geneva, where Clotild is living with her sister. Upon his arrival there, the sisters take him in, because of the law of hospitality to travelers, and serve him. While Clotild is washing his feet, Aurelian whispers to her, asking for a secret meeting. Clotild nods in agreement, whereupon Aurelian gives his wooing speech and offers her the ring, which she takes, rejoicing. Clotild gives Aurelian 100 solidi in return for his trouble and one of her rings as well as a message for Clovis. She warns Clovis that he should straightway make his demand to her uncle Gundobad (Gundobadus) through messengers, since she is afraid that the wise Aridius from Constantinople might arrive and destroy their plans. Aurelian hastens home and, shortly before he reaches his home, a poor beggar joins him on the road. While Aurelian is overcome by sleep (he now feels secure), the beggar takes the purse with the solidi from him. After Aurelian has reached home, servants are sent out to seek the beggar. They find him, retrieve the purse, and beat him for three days, after which they release him. At Soisson, Aurelian reports to Clovis who is pleased with Clotild's suitability and wisdom and therefore sends an envoy to Gundobad, who, because he is afraid to refuse the proposal and hopes to forge a friendship with Clovis, promises to give her to him. Clovis's envoys then offer a gold and a silver coin (as was the custom among the Franks), betrothing Clotild to Clovis. Without delay the arrangements are made and the nuptials are prepared at Chalon-sur-Saone. Clotild is raised on a litter with a treasure for a dowry. When, however, she learns of Aridius's arrival and his return from the emperor, she requests a horse so she can travel more quickly. (19) Aridius, who comes from Marseilles to see Gundobad, warns the king of the alliance he had agreed upon, since Clotild might now avenge her parents' death. On the advice of Aridius, Gundobad sends an army after her, but they find only the litter and the treasure. Before crossing the border to Franconia, Clotild orders twelve leagues of Burgundy to be burned and plundered. She arrives near Villery, where Clovis had his seat near Troyes. Clovis approves of the burning, which makes Clotild rejoice, and the wedding takes place. The differences between this story and Gregory's account are manifold; Fredegar's account is much more elaborate and he adds the character of Aurelian and the disguise used to woo Clotild. Contrary to Gregory's version, Clotild lives with her sister (who had been in a convent in Gregory's version) at her uncle's court in Geneva, where the secret meeting between Aurelian and her takes place in her chambers. 23 In the Chronica Fredegarii Clotild is much more involved and active: she supports the wedding plans,

Geneva was the capital city of the territory of Godegisil, Gundobad's brother, whereas Gundobad resided in Lyon.

Wooers in disguise

31

encourages Clovis's messengers to hasten their journey through Burgundy, and she actively initiates the revenge for her parents' deaths as a result of her order to burn Burgundian settlements. Additionally, Fredegar introduces the character of Aridius, who attempts to prevent the marriage, as well as the unsuccessful pursuit and Aurelian's adventure with the stolen purse. 24 In the Liber historiae Francorum Clovis's wooing for Clotild shows a tripartite structure and can be summarized as follows (ch. 11-13): (11) Legates, who are regularly sent to Burgundy, happen to see Clotild (Chrotchilde) and notice her beauty, grace, and intelligence. They inform Clovis (Chlodovechus/Chlodoveus), who sends his messenger Aurelian (Auralianus) with a ring and a sack full of treasures on a mission to Gundobad (Gundobadus) to ask for the hand of his niece. Arriving in Burgundy, Aurelian leaves his good clothes with his followers in the woods and puts on poor clothes. He enters the church and sits down at the table where alms are handed out. After mass, Clotild (according to custom) goes alone to give alms to the poor. She puts one gold piece into Aurelian's hand, who, in return, kisses her hand and draws back her cloak. Then she goes back to her chamber and sends her servant to call in the pilgrim. Aurelian enters her room, holding Clovis's ring in his hand, but he leaves his sack behind the door of the room and engages in dialogue with Clotild. She asks him why he is disguised as a poor man and why he pulled back her cloak. He then asks for permission to speak to her and proposes to her on Clovis's behalf. When he looks around for the treasure, he notices that the sack is no longer behind the door and becomes very saddened. Clotild gives orders to have the sack found, and when it is retrieved, she receives her gifts. She also accepts the ring, which she puts in her uncle's treasury, and sends greetings to Clovis, saying: "It is not permitted for a Christian woman to marry a pagan; therefore, do not let our betrothal be known. Whatever my Lord God orders, in whom I profess faith in the presence of all, that I will do. Go in peace."25 Aurelian returns to Clovis. (12) In the following year, Clovis sends Aurelian again to Gundobad to obtain his agreement to the marriage. When Gundobad learns about this, he is terrified and takes the proposal as a Frankish provocation to war. Aurelian threatens that

Aridius is a historical figure. A letter to him from St. Avitus (Epist. 50) exists and he appears in the Historia Francorum (11.32) as adviser for Clovis and Gundobad during their struggle instigated by Godegisil (also in the Chronica Fredegarii, chapter 22 and in Marius of Aventicum). See Woodruff, p. 132. "Chlodoveoque salutem dicito; licitum non est, Christiana paganum nubere. Vide, ut hac causa nemo sciat. Quomodo iubet dominus Deus meus, quem ego coram omnibus confiteor, sic fiat. Tu vero vade in pace" (Krusch ed. ch. 11. p. 255.26-31).

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Chapter 1

Clovis would come with an army of Franks, but Gundobad takes on the challenge without hesitation. Gundobad's advisers, however, are afraid and suggest trying to find out whether Clovis had sent any bridal gifts earlier. They find the ring in the king's treasury and, although very angry, Gundobad hands Clotild over to Aurelian. The wedding takes place at Soisson in Francia. On their wedding night Clotild asks Clovis to convert to Christianity and to demand for her the estate of her parents, whom Gundobad had killed. Clovis agrees to the latter, but is skeptical with respect to his conversion to Christianity. (13) Aurelian is sent to Burgundy for a third time to retrieve Clotild's treasure. Gundobad is stubborn again, but gives in on the advice of his counselors. The Liber historiae Francorum and the Chronica Fredegarii agree to the extent that in both versions Clovis sends the messenger Aurelian in the disguise of a beggar to Clotild; Aurelian and Clotild meet secretly and make a wedding agreement, which is sealed with Clovis's ring. In the Liber version, however, Aurelian travels to Burgundy (and not to Geneva) in his usual attire with companions (not alone, disguised as a beggar). He changes into his disguise close to Gundobad's court in the woods, where he leaves his companions behind. Instead of meeting Clotild in her private rooms, as in the Chronica Fredegarii, Aurelian meets her in a public place, where he kisses her hand and plucks at her coat (a gesture that remains unexplained throughout the story!). In this way he draws her attention and arouses her curiosity, so that he is invited to a private audience during which he proposes to her on Clovis's behalf. Furthermore, in the Liber version Aurelian brings a sack with a treasure from Clovis as a gift for Clotild, whereas in Fredegar's version, he receives this treasure later from Clotild for Clovis. In both versions Aurelian loses the treasure. While the events are developed in a credible way in Fredegar, where a beggar steals the treasure on Aurelian's journey home, the loss of the treasure in the Liber seems rather unmotivated; Aurelian leaves the sack behind the door when he enters the room, someone takes it, and later the sack is retrieved, although the thief and his punishment are not mentioned. The loss of the treasure in the Liber is confusing, because it is neither clear who would have had access to the treasure behind the door to the princess's room, nor why Clovis should have sent a treasure to Clotild in addition to the ring. In the Chronica Fredegarii, on the other hand, the events are clearly motivated; Aurelian is betrayed by a man accompanying him and the treasure is a present from Clotild to Clovis as a token of the marriage agreement. Another salient change in the Liber is that Gundobad initially refuses to give his niece in marriage to Clovis, whereas he willingly agrees to the wedding in Gregory's and Fredegar's accounts. In the Liber historiae Francorum

Wooers in disguise

33

Gundobad takes the proposal as a challenge to war, which he is willing to engage in, and which is only prevented by the intervention of his advisers. Earlier in the story Clotild insists on keeping the engagement a secret, knowing that Gundobad will not allow it, because a Christian woman cannot marry a heathen. Clotild's concern and her argument are missing in both Gregory's and Fredegar's accounts, but, as could be seen earlier from evidence found in Bede, they certainly refer to a common cultural practice. Another major discrepancy between the Fredegar and Liber versions is that in the latter the character of Aridius is missing and Clotild travels peacefully to Clovis's court. She is not pursued and she does not give orders to burn and plunder Burgundian cities to avenge her parents' deaths, although the thought of revenge is not missing in this version either. In the Liber version, on their wedding night, Clotild begs Clovis to convert to Christianity and she demands that he avenge her parents' deaths. To sum up: Gregory of Tours's account of the marriage of Clovis and Clotild has been transformed in the Chronica Fredegarii and the Liber historiae Francorum into long and self-contained tales. Both chronicles introduce the character of the messenger Aurelian, who disguises himself as a beggar, meets with the bride in secret, and proposes to her. The girl accepts the proposal and the ring as a token of the agreement, and she sends the proxy wooer back with a present for her suitor. On a second mission, the messenger returns to the bride's country and proposes to her relative. After the bride's uncle has consented to the wedding, the messengers lead the woman to the wooer's court where the wedding takes place. In Gregory's earlier account of the same events, the plot develops along the following lines: Clovis's delegates suggest Clotild as a suitable bride after they have seen her; Clovis decides to marry her and he sends the delegates on a wooing journey; the messengers propose to Gundobad; the proposal ends with an official betrothal; the bride travels to Clovis's country where the wedding takes place. In the two continuations the plot has developed into the following, much more complex structure (the motifs that are present in Gregory are italicized):

34

Chapter 1

(1) Decision to marry

I (2) Selection of a suitable bride

I (3) Wooing journey

(3a) Unsuccessful journey (the messengers do not see the girl)

I (3b) 2nd wooing journey (Aurelian in disguise)

(4) Meeting with the bride-to-be

I (5) Secret betrothal and exchange of tokens

(5a) Journey home (to Clovis) and back to the girl

(5b) Official betrothal

(8) Return to the hero's country and marriage

Wooers in disguise

35

It is clear that the two later chronicle writers reworked Gregory's factual account of Clovis's and Clotild's marriage into full-fledged tales by using the bridal-quest pattern: they personalized the figure of the messenger and added a second wooing journey. Furthermore, they added the motifs of disguise, a secret meeting between wooer and girl, and a secret betrothal scene during which the two exchange a treasure. In Fredegar's version the motif of flight and pursuit is added as well (indicated by the dotted line). In both accounts the secret meeting with the girl precedes the official betrothal and it guarantees success for the entire quest, because the girl offers the wooer important advice as to how to proceed with the official proposal. In the Authari story, the other bridal-quest tale that has been singled out as having disguise and trickery at the core of its plot, the events develop slightly different than in the Clovis and Clotild tale. Paul the Deacon tells us that Authari was already officially betrothed to Theudelinda when he decided to meet her incognito. As argued above, the exchange of wine during this meeting can be interpreted as a traditional engagement ritual. This engagement scene is redundant in Authari's wooing story, since the couple is already officially betrothed, but it gains in importance if we read it as a variation of the central motif of bridal-quest narrative; the secret meeting and betrothal, which play such a predominant role in the two continuations of Gregory. Since the author of the later Liber historiae Francorum did not have access to a written copy of the Chronica Fredegarii,26 the similarities in the two versions can be explained in three ways: first, both chronicle writers could have used a common written source which is no longer extant; second, both could have been familiar with the story, because it circulated orally among the Franks; and third, the Liber author could have been familiar with an oral version of Fredegar's account, which may or may not have been based on a written source that is no longer extant. However, if the authors indeed used a common written source in which Clovis and Clotild's story had already been reworked into a bridal-quest tale, the two versions would not contain such marked discrepancies in plot and details. On the contrary, these differences point towards an oral transmission, although it is impossible to determine the nature of the underlying oral tales with certainty. Additional evidence for the oral transmission of the story is the unhistorical addition of the slaying of Clotild's parents at the hands of her

See, for example, Erich Zöllner: "Beide Berichte beruhen auf Gregor, ergänzen ihn aber voneinander unabhängig, durch zahlreiche sagenhafte Details" (Geschichte der Franken bis zur Mitte des 6. Jahrhunderts (Munich: Beck, 1970), p. 35. See also Kusternig, p. 331.

Chapter 1

36

uncle, which, as Carl Voretzsch has pointed out, already indicates the beginnings of the legend ("Ansätze zur Sagenbildung"). 27 The two other examples discussed under the category of successful wooing stories by means of cunning, namely Gregory's tale about Andarchius and Paul the Deacon's Authari and Theudelinda tale, also show influences from an oral tradition that expanded on the historical events to give it the shape and form they have in their chronicle versions. 28 The assumed existence of underlying oral versions of the Clovis and Clotild tale would account for the discrepancies in detail, while the basic outline of the tale remains the same. Fredegar's version has been attributed to no longer extant Burgundian annals from the fifth or sixth century, which allegedly were available to him but not to the Neustrian Liber author. 29 This theory, as well as Bachrach's claim that the Liber author used a written epic that circulated in Northern France, must remain purely speculative, since no traces of such written sources have been discovered. 30 Later Northern French versions of the Clovis and Clotild tale, such as in the Historia Francorum (or Libri IV de gestis Francorum) by Aimoin of Fleury (ca. 960/51008/10) and the Gesta gentis Francorum (before 1131), are much closer to the Liber version than to the Chronica Fredegarii (where the role of Aridius is reduced or eliminated and the role of Aurelian is expanded). 31 Since these later works come from the same geographical area as the Liber historiae Francorum—Paris and St. Denis—the Liber historiae Francorum most likely served as their direct written source, especially since most of its manuscripts were copied in exactly that area. Fredegar's chronicle, on the other hand, was mainly copied and transmitted in the Austrasian realm and considered Austrasian history, and it could not have influenced the historiographical tradition in Northern France to the same extent as the Liber Carl Voretzsch, Die Composition des 'Huon von Bordeaux' nebst kritischen Bemerkungen über Begriff und Bedeutung der Sage (Halle/Saale: Niemeyer, 1900), p. 304. 28

Compare the additions made to the Brunhild tale in Fredegar and the Rosamunde tale.

29

Kurth, p. 253.

30

Bachrach, Liber historiae Francorum, pp. 17-8.

31

Woodruff (p. 132) furthermore mentions the Gesta Francorum of Rorico and the Life of St. Clotild. Parts of the Clovis and Clotild tale are also recounted in the Chronicle of Ado (finished around 870), the Chronicle of Hermannus (d. 1054), the Chronica universalis of Sigibert (before 1111), and in Hincmar of Reims's Vita Remigii (archbishop in 845). All these works are included in Martin Bouquet, Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, vol. 1-2 (Paris: Victor Palme, 1869).

Wooers in disguise

37

account. Unfortunately, the transmission history of the Clovis and Clotild tale is not quite as clear-cut as we might wish, since some motifs in the later French chronicles contain elements only known from Fredegar's version. The most important of these motifs is Clotild's revenge and the burning of the Burgundian cities, which occurs in the Chronica Fredegarii, in Aimon of Fleury's Historia Francorum (I.XVI), and in the Chronicles of St. Denis (I.XVII).32 These two chronicles, however, are relatively late, stemming from the early eleventh and twelfth century, respectively. Therefore it cannot be ruled out that the French authors had access to a version of the Chronica Fredegarii, which by this time had been widely copied and circulated in Northern France, whereas earlier chronicle writers relied solely on the Liber version or rather on the shape of the tale that mainly circulated and possibly even originated in Northern France in the early eighth century. Overall, this early (Liber) version of the Clovis and Clotild tale remained more influential in the tradition of chronicle writing in Northern France, as it was also the source for the account in the Grandes chroniques de France. The Grandes chroniques, written in Latin in St. Denis around 1250, and translated into French in 1274, are a compilation of Merovingian history based on most of the later chronicles from Northern France mentioned above. The Clovis and Clotild tale in this late French version follows the Liber plot exactly, with only minor stylistic differences and a stronger emphasis on romance. 33 Later ninth- to eleventh-century chronicles contain very little evidence of wooing stories. Einhard's Vita Caroli Magni (ca. 830-33), Notker's Gesta Karoli (begun 883) and Nithart's Historiarum libri IV (or: Histories, begun 841) do not contain any wooing tales.34 The Royal Frankish Annals (.Annales regni Francorum), which were contemporary to the continuations of Fredegar (covering the time from 741 to 829), contain only two short

See Woodruff, pp. 128-9. The page numbers in the text refer to the Bouquet edition. Les grandes chroniques de France, ed. Jules Viard (Paris: Klincksieck, 1920). For a translation of the corresponding passage see Robert Levine (France before Charlemagne. A Translation from the Grandes Chroniques [Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990]), pp. 36-8. Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni, ed. Georg Η. Pertz and Georg Waitz, 6 lh ed. by Oswald Holder-Egger, MGH: Scrip, rer. Germ. (Hanover and Leipzig, 1907, rpt. 1947); Notker Balbulus, Gesta Karoli, ed. and tr. Reinhold Rau, Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsageschichte 3 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966), Nithard, Historiarum libri IV, 3rd ed. E. Müller, MGH: Scrip, rer. Germ. (Hanover and Leipzig: Hahn, 1907).

38

Chapter 1

accounts of a king's wooing efforts. 35 In the first story (787), Emperor Constantine the Fourth sent ambassadors to ask for the hand of Charles's daughter Rotrude (Hruodtrud), which was granted him, although she was never sent to Byzantium. The second account deals with the marriage of Charles and Judith, the daughter of Count Welf, in 819. This wedding was apparently of special interest to the chronicle writers, because it is the only wooing story in the two lives of Louis, Theganus's Gesta Hludowici imperatoris (ca. 835-38) (ch. 26) and Astronomus's Vita Hludowici imperatoris (ca. 840) (ch. 32).36 The detail that is emphasized in all these works is that Louis, after having looked over many daughters of the nobility, selected Judith because of her great beauty. The so-called Annals of St.-Bertin, a continuation of the Royal Frankish Annals from 830 to 882, which were written in close proximity to Louis the Pious and his court, contain the first example of an elopement tale.37 The annals report under the year 862 that Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bald, had run away with Count Baldwin of Flanders and that Charles had punished this elopement by anathematizing Judith and Baldwin. In 863, however, Charles consented to the lawful marriage between the two runaways. Additionally, the Annals of St-Bertin contain a short reference to Engeltrud's elopement with one of her husband's vassals in 863, although we do not learn the details of the elopement. The contemporary Annals of Fulda (from 838 to 901) records an incident of bridal abduction for the year 846: Giselbert, a vassal of Charles, had abducted and married the daughter of King Lothar, an act that resulted in bad relations between the two brothers. 38 The only other reference to a wooing story in the Annals of Fulda is an entry under the year 887, which Annates regni Francorum 741-829, ed. F. Kurze, MGH: Scrip, rer. Germ. (Hanover: Hahn, 1895). Translation: Bernhard W. Scholz and Barbara Rogers, Carolingian Chronicles: "Royal Frankish Annals" and Nithard's "Histories" (Ann Arbor: Michigan UP, 1970). Both works, Theganus's Gesta Hludowici imperatoris and Astronomus' Vita Hludowici imperatoris are edited and translated by Ernst Tremp (MGH: Scrip, rer. Germ. 64 [Hanover: Hahn, 1995]). Les Annales de Saint-Bertin, ed. Felix Grat, Jeaunne Vielliard, and S. Clemencet (Paris: Klincksieck, 1964). English translation: Janet L. Nelson, The Annals of StBertin, Ninth-Century Histories 1 (Manchester and New York: Manchester UP, 1991). Annales Fuldenses, ed. and trans. Reinhold Rau, Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsgeschichte 3 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966). English translation: Timothy Reuter, The Annals of Fulda, Ninth-Century Histories 2 (Manchester and New York: Manchester UP, 1992).

Wooers in disguise

39

reports that Liutward, ruler of Alemannia, carried off all the daughters of the noblest men in Alemannia and gave them to his relatives in marriage. The evidence of later wooing stories in chronicles outside of the German area is no more extensive. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (871/99) contains only brief entries on royal marriages, and Widukind's Res gestae Saxonicae (completed 967-68) contains only one very short reference to a wooing (3.9).39 Dudo of St. Quentin's Histojy of the Normans (960s and before 1027) contains an example of bridal abduction, namely Rollo's abduction of his later wife Popa, the daughter of Prince Berenger (2.16). 40 A little more developed is the following account of the marriage of Charles's daughter to Rollo, although it hardly qualifies as a wooing tale (2.25): Charles, who is counseled by his advisers to seek peace with the Normans by means of establishing a political alliance with them through marriage, sends the archbishop of Rouen to Rollo. Dudo relates the details of their negotiations and the marriage agreement they eventually make. The only other two tales worth noting are the account of the marriage of William, whose counts advise him to take a wife for himself and to secure his succession (3.42), and the story about William of Poitou, who had traveled to the court of William of Rouen in order to ask for the hand of his sister in marriage (3.47).41

Typical entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are along the lines of the one for the year 789: "In this year King Brihtric married Offa's daughter Eadburh" or 853: "King /Tithe 1 wul f gave his daughter in marriage to King Burgred, from Wessex to Mercia" (The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle According to the Several Original Authorities, ed. B. Thorpe [London: Longman, 1861]; Translation: Dorothy Whitelock, David C. Douglas, and Susie I. Tucker, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A Revised Translation [New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1961]). Widukind gives a very short account of Otto's marriage to Adelheid in Italy (ca. 950), which was agreed upon after Otto had given many treasures to the queen (Widukind, Res gesta Saxonicae, ed. and trans. Albert Bauer and Reinhold Rau. Quellen zur Geschichte der sächsischen Kaiserzeit [Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977]). De Moribus et Actis primorum Normanniae ducum, ed. Jules Lair (Caen 1865-72); Translation: Dudo of St. Quentin: History of the Normans, trans. Eric Christiansen (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1998). William justifies his personal wooing with the words: "As you are so worthy a count, I was unwilling to send envoys to you and have chosen to negotiate as my own envoy." Besides these slightly longer accounts, the chronicle mentions marriages only briefly, for example, the negotiations between Duke Hugh and Richard about the marriage of Hugh's daughter and duke Richard's nephew (4.93).

40

Chapter 1

Summary The chronicles cover a period of approximately five hundred years and deal with the histories of such Germanic peoples as the Goths, the Franks, the Saxons, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Normans, although the majority of the works deal with Merovingian and Carolingian history. All these chronicles contain references to marriages, which are mainly mentioned only in the form of short remarks. A closer look at the instances in which a marriage takes the form of a longer tale reveals that these wooing tales fall into the following five categories: 1. unsuccessful wooing; 2. successful wooing based on a condition; 3. successful wooing by means of force; 4. successful wooing without resistance; and 5. successful wooing by means of cunning. There are few examples of stories falling into the first three categories, an observation that clearly runs counter to the idea that a bridal quest in the Germanic world is always accompanied by war and battle and that the bride is forcefully abducted. The chronicles contain only a few undeveloped examples of bridal abduction and the threat and actual use of force. Although bridal abduction was certainly a common practice in medieval Germanic societies, such abductions apparently did not interest medieval authors and did not lend themselves to a broader literary expansion. This last observation also holds true for such wooing tales in which the bride elopes with her wooer (the only examples of such accounts occur in Dudo of St. Quentin and in later Carolingian annals). Tales in which the wooing fails or the wooer must fulfill a condition to be successful are also few in number. Wherever these wooing stories are included in the chronicles, their purpose is to foreshadow further events, such as the conversion of the wooer and his subjects to Christianity or the discord between political leaders. The examples of wooing efforts that succeed without any resistance or by means of cunning, on the other hand, seem to be included in the chronicles as tales for their own sake. All the successful wooing stories by means of cunning and the use of disguise are fully developed tales, which are self-contained and seem to be part of a lively oral tradition. With the exception of Andarchius's story in Gregory of Tours, which is a wooing story in which the hero wins his bride by means of cunning but without meeting or eloping with her, the tales about Authari and Theudelinda and especially the "Clovis and Clotild" tale are full-fledged bridal-quest narratives. Therefore, the date for the earliest occurrence of bridal-quest narrative in which cunning is used must be pushed back to the mid-seventh century. Furthermore, since these tales first occur in Franconian chronicles that were written in two different parts of the realm, one in Burgundy (Metz) and one in the region of Paris, we must assume that the bridal-quest scheme was known at

Wooers in disguise

41

least in parts of the Germanic world as early as the seventh century. Most importantly, this bridal-quest scheme already contained the motif of disguise and guile. The motif of the wooer in disguise must have circulated in the Germanic world at that time and was clearly not imported from the Mediterranean world as late as the twelfth century, as Frings and Braun have claimed. On the contrary, the chronicles contain ample evidence of the use of guile among Germanic kings and their retainers. The use of trickery is presented in a positive light and as a desirable characteristic, and certainly not as an "un-Germanic" or "un-heroic" feature. As Wallace-Hadrill points out, "trickery, indeed, was a commonplace of Frankish feuding", which could happen at any stage of the feud "and nobody thought any the worse of it".42 In the chronicles trickery is not only part of ongoing feuds but rather occurs in all kinds of situations. The use of disguise in the wooing tales is just one form of trickery that has been discussed in detail above. It is clear then that, contrary to what has been claimed in earlier scholarship, bridal-quest narratives in which disguise and cunning are used were part of Germanic tradition as early as the sixth century. This comparison of wooing stories in the earliest Franconian chronicles has furthermore shown that the decisive motifs to distinguish simple wooing stories from bridal-quest narratives are the secret meeting between wooer and girl and the secret betrothal, as the two reworkings of Gregory's Clovis and Clotild tale demonstrate. In Gregory's account, the messengers see Clotild but they do not talk to her. They instead propose directly to the girl's uncle on Clovis's behalf. After the official betrothal, they lead the girl home into Clovis's country where the wedding takes place. In the two continuations, a secret meeting and betrothal scene has been added to the plot. It is this secret meeting that requires the wooer to travel in disguise and act shrewdly. Even the Authari tale relates such a meeting between wooer and girl, even though the official betrothal has already taken place in this account. In this story, and much more evidently in the two Frankish continuations of Gregory, the secret meeting between wooer and girl and the subsequent secret betrothal distinguish bridal-quest narratives from simple wooing stories on the one hand and mere accounts of abductions on the other.

Wallace-Hadrill, The Long-Haired

Kings, p. 132.

Chapter 2 Walter Elopes With Hiltgunt The bridal-quest stories told by the authors of the Liber historiae Francorum and the Chronica Fredegarii, as well as by Paul the Deacon in the Historia Langobardorum, are full-fledged bridal-quest narratives dating from the middle of the seventh to the end of the eighth century. Most of these tales are based on historical facts, and in the course of subsequent centuries they developed into self-contained narratives engaging oral and written circulation. Since the earliest and most famous example of a bridalquest romance, the Middle High German König Rother, is usually dated to the middle of the twelfth century, at least 500 years lie between the earliest inclusion of bridal-quest tales in the chronicles and the first full-fledged Middle High German bridal-quest narrative. Unfortunately, we do not have any written evidence of the existence and circulation of bridal-quest narratives in the Germanic world during these 500 years, but we must assume that this tradition lived on, either in lost written texts or, more likely, in oral storytelling. Oral tradition must have been responsible for the transmission of the early bridal-quest tales in the Franconian chronicles, and it is also very likely that the later German bridal-quest romances are derived from this very same Germanic and, in particular, Franconian, bridal-quest tradition. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that bridal-quest romance is an exclusively German development for which immediate foreign sources are lacking. Bridging the gap between the earliest bridal-quest tales in the chronicles and the later bridal-quest epic is a Latin work in hexameters, Waltharius, which was written in Germany sometime in the ninth or tenth century. This work, in my opinion, is a bridal-quest narrative that is embedded in the Germanic bridal-quest tradition. In brief, Waltharius recounts the elopement of Walter of Aquitaine and Hiltgunt of Burgundy from King Attila's court, where they were kept as hostages together with the Frank Hägen. 1 The first part of the poem relates Walter's change of status at Attila's court, from hostage to leader to the army. After a successful military campaign, In this study I use the forms generally used in English for the names of the characters: Waltharius is Walter, Hagano is Hagen, Guntharius is Gunther; the forms of Hiltgunt and Attila remain unchanged.

Walter elopes with Hiltgunt

43

Walter meets privately with Hiltgunt, who was betrothed to him as a child, and they plan their escape. At a feast, Walter makes Attila and his men so drunk that they fall asleep, and then the hero escapes with his bride-to-be. The second part of the poem relates Walter's battles. During their journey to Aquitaine, Walter and Hiltgunt are attacked by King Gunther and his men, one of which being Hägen, their former fellow-hostage who had escaped earlier from Attila's court. During the ensuing battle, Walter defeats eleven attackers in single combats. In the concluding battle, Gunther and Hägen attack Walter. The three heroes fight a fierce battle and injure each other severely, before they reach a peace agreement and part as friends. In Aquitaine, Walter and Hiltgunt get married and take over the rule. Waltharius continues to be the object of lively scholarly debate concerning its dating, authorship, and provenance, as well as its form and contents. The only consensus scholars have reached is that the poem was not composed around the year 930 by Ekkehard I. of St. Gall, as had long been assumed. 2 All we know with certainty is that the poem was composed in a German monastery by at least one German cleric. The time and place of composition, as well as possible Germanic or non-Germanic sources, however, remain unknown and debated. With regard to its form and content the poem is a peculiar mixture of classical Latin and Germanic literary traditions. The classical tradition is represented by the use of Latin hexameters and a multitude of allusions to, as well as citations from, classical authors, mainly Virgil, Prudentius, and Statius, but also others. These citations and references have given rise to the assumption that Waltharius is in fact an original composition that does not have a single source and does not go back to a Germanic poem. The most influential representatives of the thesis that no earlier source existed for the poem are Friedrich Panzer and Felix Genzmer. Panzer claimed that Waltharius is an "Urlied" that was composed according to the model of Statius and Ovid, and Genzmer supported that thesis with the argument that the poem is so "ungermanisch" in its ethos that it cannot be based on a Germanic heroic poem but rather must be the product of a German monk. 3 Arthur Haug, who also regards Waltharius as an original composition, argued that the German monk did not rely on a

Rudolf Schieffer surveys the discussion on the poem's authorship, dating, and provenance ("Miszellen. Zu neuen Thesen über den 'Waltharius'". Deutsches Archiv 36 [1980], 193-201). Friedrich Panzer, Der Kampf am Wasichenstein. Waltharius-Studien (Speyer: Verlag des historischen Museums, 1948), and Felix Genzmer, "Wie der Waltharius entstanden ist", GRM35 (1954), 161-78.

44

Chapter 2

pre-existing Germanic tradition but is instead influenced by Oriental and Irish traditions. 4 Based on strong arguments offered in opposition to Panzer, Genzmer, and Haug, it is today generally assumed that Waltharius is not an original composition, but rather stands within the literary tradition of Germanic poetry.5 This view is supported by the observation that the classical sources mostly influenced the characterization of the protagonists and the composition of the battles, especially in the modification of certain motifs such as the hero's behavior after a victory, while the poem's ethos is clearly Germanic. 6 Of particular importance for the understanding of Waltharius and the question whether it is based on Germanic sources is the Old English poem Waldere, which is extant only in two short fragments. Levin Schiicking interpreted Waldere as a later reworking of the original Waltharius poem, a theory which Genzmer and Panzer later subscribed to as well, in keeping with their view of Waltharius as a clerical creation. 7 Schücking's hypotheses, which, for the first time, questioned the traditional claim that Waldere is the more original (older) form of the tale—mainly because of its composition in the vernacular and in Germanic long lines, and its more heroic ethos—found convincing support in Ute Schwab's work. 8 There is no compelling evidence as to which of the two poems is older and which of 4

Arthur Haug, "Zur Entstehung und Entwicklung der Walthersage" (Diss. Freiburg, 1965).

3

Wolfgang Regeniter attacks Panzer and Genzmer's hypotheses in detail and successfully proves them wrong by means of his "Schichtkritik" (Wolfgang Regeniter, "Sagenschichtung und Sagenmischung. Untersuchungen zur Hagengestalt und zur Geschichte der Hilde- und Walthersage" [Diss. Munich, 1971]).

6

See the summary of the discussion that is given by Walter Haug and Benedikt Konrad Vollmann, Frühe deutsche Literatur und lateinische Literatur in Deutschland 800-1150 (Frankfurt am Main: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1991), p. 1177. The most important studies with respect to the Germanic sources have been conducted by Hans Wagner, Ekkehard und Vergil. Eine vergleichende Interpretation der Kampfschilderungen im Waltharius (Heidelberg: Bilabel, 1939); Otto Schumann, "Waltharius-Probleme", Studi medievali N.S. 17 (1951), 177-202; Karl Stackmann, "Antike Elemente im Waltharius. Zu Friedrich Panzers neuer These", Euphorien 45 (1950), 231^-8, and Otto Zwierlein, "Das Waltharius-Epos und seine lateinischen Vorbilder", Antike und Abendland 16 (1970), 153-84.

7

Levin L. Schücking, "Waldere und Waltharius", Englische 17-36.

8

Ute Schwab summarizes and attacks the arguments for the older form of Waldere and reaches the conclusion that both most likely go back to a common Germanic source ("Nochmals zum ags. 'Waldere' neben dem 'Waltharius'", PBB 101 [1979], 229-51 and 347-68).

Studien 60 (1925/26),

Walter elopes with Hiltgunt

45

the hypotheses comes closer to the truth: The manuscript containing the Waldere fragments was written around the year 1000, but the poem's time of composition is as uncertain as that of Waltharius. Regardless of this problem, the Waldere fragments comprise the only version of the Walter poem that is approximately contemporary with Waltharius. For this reason scholars have concentrated on attempts to reconstruct a Germanic heroic poem based on the material in these two works in their search for an older poem that predates Waltharius. The three main hypotheses offered with respect to the sources of Waltharius and Waldere will be briefly summarized below. Karl Langosch claims that there existed an alliterative poem closely related to Waldere. According to Langosch, this "source" poem consisted of two older parts; a short heroic poem, the "Hunnenteil", set in Attila's court, and a longer heroic poem, the "Frankenteil". 9 A German monk combined the two poems and modified them by adding a Christian interpretation and giving them a more classical appearance. Langosch claims that these modifications mainly occurred in the first part of Waltharius, where the poet added an introduction (vv. 1-95), the conversation between Attila and Walter (vv. 123-69), and Walter's military success (vv. 170-214). According to him, the first part must be understood as a later "epische Erweiterung". 10 The second hypothesis is closely related to that of Langosch and based on the assumption that several Walter poems must have existed and that the oldest of these poems was set in the land of the Huns. In this oldest lay Walter and Hiltgunt escape from Attila's court and are pursued by Attila's men under Hagen's leadership. They meet and Walter fights with the twelve heroes. In a second layer of transmission this lay was allegedly interwoven with a later Burgundian (Nibelung) form of the Walter poem. In this version, the setting was moved to Franconia. As a result Hägen and Gunther became Walter's main enemies. Wolfgang Regeniter offered the most important and recent contribution in support of this second hypothesis. Regeniter argues that the Walter tale was an independent legend derived from a real historical event, namely the Lombard liberation from the rule of the Huns after Attila's death. Later, a Lombard heroic poem glorified the (historical) escape of the hostages and interpreted the latter in the light of the Hilde legend, in which the main motif was the abduction of the bride with her consent. According to Regeniter, the name of Hilde's father, Hagen, was incorporated into the later Walter Karl Langosch, "Waltharius".

Die Dichtung und die Forschung

senschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1973). 10

Ibid., p. 12.

(Darmstadt: Wis-

46

Chapter 2

legend to designate Walter's enemy, and the female protagonist, Hiltgunt, was stylized according to the very active Hilde figure in the eddic Hilde legend. In a third layer of transmission, the abduction motif was expanded once again. In Regeniter's opinion, the originally Lombard Walter poem in its final form migrated from the Italian Piedmont region, and in particular from the monastery of Novalesca, where a copy of the first part of Waltharins was made, to the Alemanni and even further north to Saxony, where the Nibelung motifs were grafted onto the older material, and Walter's battle with his pursuers was replaced by his encounter with the Burgundians. 11 The third, most recent hypothesis concerning the sources of the Walter tale argues for the existence of a connection between the Walter legend and the Mediterranean folktales and songs of the Gaiferos type. The latter relate the story of Gaiferos, who, while playing a board game with Charlemagne, is slandered by Charlemagne for not freeing his own wife, Melisenda (Charlemagne's daughter), from Moorish captivity. After borrowing a horse and weapons from his uncle Roland and receiving a wondrous sword from Charlemagne, Gaiferos rides to Sansuena. He sees his wife in a window and rides off with her, pursued by the Moorish army. They ride through the night and successfully escape their pursuers. Finally, they meet a knight in the mountains who turns out to be an old friend of Gaiferos. Eventually they return to Charlemagne's court. The most important representatives of this theory, Ramon Menendez Pidal, Peter Dronke, and Victor Millet, claim that an old Walter legend circulated orally in the Mediterranean regions and migrated from there to the German area.12 The oldest layer of this legend was an early form of bridalquest narrative that developed into the bridal-quest portion of Waltharius and lives on even today in the Spanish Gaiferos ballads. According to Menendez Pidal, the Visigoths were responsible for the circulation of this Mediterranean tale that derived from Oriental sources. Millet revised this theory and assumed instead that an independent Urtext circulated in the Mediterranean regions and that this was transformed into the two closely

Regeniter, pp. 3 4 8 ^ 1 3 . See also Maria Lühr's very dense summary of Regeniter's argument ("Hiltgunt", MlatJb 21 [1986], 84-7). Ramon Menendez Pidal, Romancero Hispdnico (Hispano-portugues, americano y sefardi). Theoria e historia (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1953); Peter Dronke, "Waltharius-Gaiferos", in Barbara et antiquissima carmina, ed. Peter and Ursula Dronke (Barcelona, 1977), pp. 27-79; Victor Millet, Waltharius-Gaiferos. Über den Ursprung der Walthersage und ihre Beziehung zur Romanze von Gaiferos und zur Ballade von Escriveta (Frankfurt/Main, Berlin, et al.: Lang, 1992).

Walter elopes with Hiltgunt

47

related traditions of the Walter legend and the Gaiferos romance. Peter Dronke, on the other hand, argued that the German Walter tale traveled to southern Europe, where it was transformed into a bridal-quest romance. The three scholars agree that the oldest layer of the tale was based on the bridal-quest scheme as found in Oriental and Mediterranean tales and that only later a secondary, Burgundian branch was added to the Walter legend. The various hypotheses about the origin of Waltharius contain some very appealing answers to the Walter problem, but they also have some fundamental shortcomings. Langosch and Regeniter attempt to trace Waltharius back to an old Germanic heroic poem while downplaying the bridal-quest motif. Langosch omits the motif completely by concentrating on the battles in the second half of Waltharius, whereas Regeniter assumes that the bridal-quest motif belongs to the second layer of the poem that connected the Walter legend with the Hilde legend. The connection between the Hilde legend and Waltharius has been widely discussed for a long time, and the consensus is that a direct relationship of the two traditions cannot be established. 13 The third, Mediterranean, hypothesis, however, is based exclusively on the bridal-quest elements in Waltharius. This explanation of the origin of Waltharius is promising because it emphasizes the bridal-quest motifs; nonetheless, it neglects the strong Germanic elements in the Walter legend by placing its origin in the Mediterranean sphere or even the Orient. Although close similarities between the Mediterranean Gaiferos romance and Waltharius cannot be denied, it is doubtful that the two traditions indeed go back to a common source (an Ur-Walther). It seems rather that the relationship among all these tales which fall into the broad category of bridal-quest narrative, such as the Hilde legend, the Gaiferos romances, and Waltharius, are held together by the general bridal-quest pattern, while their direct connection and dependence remain difficult to establish. 14 Support for a connection between Waltharius and the Hilde legend can be found in older scholarship, for example in L. Beer, "Zur Hildesage", PBB 14 (1889), 52272 and Richard C. Boer, "Untersuchungen über die Hildesage". The most influential contributions opposing this view stem from Hendrik Wilhelm Kroes, "Die Walthersage", PBB 77 (1955), 77-88, and Anthony van der Lee, "Einiges zu den stofflichen Grundlagen der Walthersage", Studio litteraria Rheno-Traiectina 4 (1959), 69-85. A good summary of the problem can be found in Walter Haug, "Andreas Heuslers Heldensagenmodell: Prämissen, Kritik und Gegenentwurf', ZDA 104 (1975), 287. The Hilde legend will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 5. Compare Theodor Frings, Herbort, p. 25: "Die besondere internationale Wirkung des deutschen Walther ist nur schwer abzuschätzen."

48

Chapter 2

The hypotheses offered to determine the source of Waltharius are all based on the assumption that the poem contains at least two layers of transmission. Langosch and Regeniter place a Germanic heroic poem at the beginning, whereas Millet and his predecessors assume a Mediterranean bridal-quest narrative as the oldest layer. All scholars claim that the connection with the German(ic) Nibelung tradition was established much later. However, that connection is obvious and, since it is also evident in Waldere, it must be so old that it is surprising that so few scholars have argued for an original connection between the Nibelung elements and the Walter legend. Only in older scholarship have such attempts been made, but unfortunately with scant success. Karl Droege's claim that the Waltharius poet had access to an old Latin Nibelung poem, for example, was rightly rejected since the existence of such a poem has never been proven. 15 Gustav Neckel proposed that the old Germanic Walter legend, which was influenced by no longer extant Nibelung poems from the outset, was altered by secondary influence from a "Spielmannslied", that is, a "minstrel lay". 16 Neckel understood Waltharius as a "Denkmal der deutschen Heldensage", whose oldest form can still be seen in Waldere, and he attributed the burlesque and satirical elements in Waltharius to the secondary influence of minstrels ("Spielmänner"). 17 The influence of "Spielmannsdichtung" on Waltharius, however, cannot be proven; it is missing in Waldere and all the later versions of the Walter story. Rather, it would appear that the humorous and satirical elements in the Latin poem are later additions inserted by the German cleric who wrote down the Walter tale in the form extant in the Waltharius poem. 18 Whereas in older scholarship a heroic poem was believed to be the sole source of Waltharius, more recent scholarship has paid closer attention to the escape motif in the poem. Kroes, for example, interprets Waltharius as a "Fluchtsage", modified by the influence of the Nibelung legend and in

L

Karl Droege, "Nibelungenlied und Waltharius", ZDA 52 (1910), 193-231.

16

Gustav Neckel, "Das Gedicht von Waltharius manu fortis", GRM 9 (1921), 13949, 209-21, 277-88. Thus also Hermann Schneider, Germanische Heldensage I (Berlin and Leipzig: de Gruyter, 1928), p. 336, and Andreas Heusler, "Die Sage von Walther und Hildegund—Ein Basler Aulavortrag (1935)", in Kleine Schriften, vol. 1, ed. Helga Reuschel (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1943), pp. 12-25.

17

Neckel, pp. 139, 146-7, 282.

18

See for example Langosch, "Waltharius", p. 6: "Aber verschiedentlich ist eine andere Welt hineinprojeziert, die sich von der alten distanziert und kritisch absetzt und ihr mit einer anderen Moral entgegengehalten erscheint, die christliche des Mittelalters."

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particular by the reconstructed earlier heroic lays preceding the extant epic version. 19 A similar approach is taken by scholars of the Menendez Pidal school who postulate a Mediterranean bridal-quest narrative as the original layer which later merged with the heroic material. This rather lengthy overview of scholarship has been necessary to show that, up to this point, at least one of the alleged layers of the transmission of Waltharius and Waldere has been traced back to a Germanic heroic poem. Whenever Waltharius has been interpreted as a bridal-quest story, its subject matter and especially the origin of the bridal-quest scheme have been traced to Mediterranean and Oriental influences. It has not yet been argued, as I propose to do, that the Walter tale goes back to a tradition of Germanic bridal-quest narrative, and that the motifs and names known from the Germanic heroic tradition as well as from the Burgundian or Nibelung tradition could very well have been part of this old bridal-quest story. Waltharius

and the Germanic (Heroic) Tradition

How deeply embedded Waltharius is in the Germanic literary tradition can be seen from the several allusions to and quotations from contemporary Germanic works in the poem. The specification "contemporary" is, of course, very problematic, since the dating of all these early Germanic works remains debated and uncertain, but we are nonetheless dealing with the oldest written manifestations of Germanic literature. The works under discussion are the Old High German Hildebrandslied, generally dated to ca. 830; Hlöösk\>ida, sometimes dated as early as the ninth century;20 the oldest eddic poem Atlakvida (ninth century?); Hamdismdl, which has been dated variously from the tenth to the twelfth century, but comprises material that was known by the poet Bragi inn gamli (the Old) in the ninth century; and Völundarkvida, which, although dated to the twelfth century, also contains older material in as much as scenes from the lay are depicted on the Franks casket (early eighth century).21 The episodes in Waltharius that bear the most salient resemblance to contemporary poems have frequently been noted by scholars. The first such scene contains the speech Attila delivers after he discovers Walter and

19

Kroes, p. 84.

20

Hlödsk\'iöa is about the eight-day battle between the Goths and the Huns; the names appear in the OE Widsid poem (7th century) and details are found in Atlak\'iöa. See Karl Hauck, "Auzon, das Bilder-und Runenkästchen", Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 1, ed. Heinrich Beck et al., 2"d ed. (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1973), p. 514.

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Hiltgunt's successful escape {Waith, vv. 402-6). That speech closely resembles not only Angantyr's promise of appeasement for Högni in Hlööskvida (st. 13, l-3), :22 but also the speech Kriemhild gives in the 34th äventiure of the Nibelungenlied (st. 2025). 23 The second major similarity, the references to Weland's work in Waitharins ("Wielandia fabrica" [v. 965]) and in Waldere ("Welandes wore" [I, 2]), has been discussed by Panzer and Kroes, who argue that this reference is taken either directly from Völundark\>ida or from a well-known Weland legend. Evidence for the existence of such legends can also be found in Beowulf, which contains a very similar alliterative half-line ("Welandes geweorc" [v. 455]). 24 Wilhelm Lenz studied the similarities between Walter's battle with Camalo and the scenic development in the Hildebrandslied, emphasizing especially the offering of red-golden rings and the proceedings of the battle as typical elements of Germanic heroic poetry. Alfred Wolf furthermore interpreted the scene in which Walter beheads Trogus—"His dictis torquem collo circumdedit aureum"—This he spoke and put a red-golden necklace around his neck [Waith, v. 1059])—"als eine blutig-ironische Kenning für: 'Er hieb ihm mit dem Schwert den Kopf ab.'" 25 It should be added that the circumlocution Wolf discovered is reminiscent of a scene in the Heimskringla version of "Olafs saga Tryggvasonar", which, despite its being a

Reference is to Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten ed. Gustav Neckel, rev. ed. Hans Kuhn (Heidelberg: Winter, 1962).

Denkmälern,

Ref. is to Das Nibelungenlied, ed. Helmut de Boor, rev. ed. Roswitha Wisniewski (Munich: Brockhaus, 1988). Hans Geurts discusses this scene in more detail ("Der lateinische Waltharius und die deutsche Walthersage. Untersuchungen zur Verfasserfrage und zum Einfluß der Antike, des Christentums und der germanisch-deutschen Heldensage auf den Waltharius" (Diss. Bonn, 1969). Strecker concluded: "eine entsprechende Stelle muß dem [ Waltharius] Dichter bekannt gewesen sein" (Waltharius, ed. Karl Strecker, MHG: Poet. Lat. VI/1 [Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1951], p. 40). Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Fr. Klaeber (Boston, New York, Chicago: Heath, 1922). See also Panzer, Der Kampf am Wasichenstein, p. 87; Kroes, p. 78 and Regeniter, p. 238. Wilhelm Lenz, Der Ausgang der Dichtung von Walther und Hildegunde (Halle/ Saale: Niemeyer, 1939), p. 15. See in addition the article by George F. Jones ("The Ethos of the Waltharius", in Middle Ages—Reformation—Volkskunde, Festschrift John G. Kunstmann, University of North Carolina studies in the Germanic languages and literatures 26 [Chapel Hill: UP of North Carolina, 1959], pp. 1-20).

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much later work (early 13th century), places Waltharius more firmly in the Germanic literary tradition.26 Additional parallels that have been suggested between Waltharius and the Germanic tradition, however, must be rejected as being too general and strained. One such parallel is the motif of Walter losing two of his locks in battle, which several scholars want to trace back to a Germanic "Liedquelle". 27 This parallel remains within the realm of speculation, which can also be said for the suggested equation of I lagen's dream in Waltharius with Kriemhilt's dreams in the Nibelungenlied. Similar animal dreams are, as Regeniter points out, familiar from the classical tradition and they cannot be taken as proof of the Germanic roots of the poem. 28 Most striking and best known are the similarities between the feasts in Waltharius and Atlakvida. Guörün's revenge against Atli in Atlakvida (st. 34-41) takes the same shape as the trick Walter uses to escape with Hiltgunt from Attila's court {Waith, w . 318-23): 29 Taliter in seram produxit bachica noctem M u n e r a Waltharius retrahitque redire volentes, D o n e e vi potus pressi somnoque gravati Passim porticibus sternuntur humotenus omnes.

"Hann segir: 'ek var ηύ ä Hlööum ok lagöi Öläfr Tryggvason gullmen ä hals mer.' Jarl svarar: '!>ar mun Oläfr lata hring blöörauöan um hals f)er, ef Jjii finnr h a n n ' " — He says: "Now I was at Hlaöir and Oläfr Tryggvason laid a golden necklace around my neck." The earl answers: "Oläfr will place a ring that is red from blood around your neck, if you meet him" (Heimskringla, ch. 49). Quoted from Snorri Sturluson: Heimskringla. Noregs konimga sögur, ed. Finnur Jönsson (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1911, rpt. 1966), p. 142. See, for example, Lenz, p. 16 and Gerhard Eis, "Waltharius-Probleme. Bemerkungen zu dem lateinischen Waltharius, dem angelsächsischen Waldere und dem voralthochdeutschen Walthari", in Britarmica. Festschrift für Hermann M. Flasdieck, ed. Wolfgang Iser and Hans Schabram (Heidelberg: Winter, 1960), p. 100. Regeniter, p. 239. The dream comparisons were made by Georg Baesecke, Vorund Frühgeschichte des deutschen Schrifttums, vol. 1 (Halle: Niemeyer, 1940), p. 433, and Karl Schickedanz, "Studien zur Walthersage" (Diss. Würzburg, 1949), p. 16.

All ref. to Waltharius are to Karl Strecker's edition. The translations are mine. The similarities between the two texts have been worked out in detail most recently by Roswitha Wisniewski, "Die Hunnenexpansion im Spiegel des Waltharius und des Alten Atliliedes", in Studien zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters, ed. Rudolf Schützeichel (Bonn: Bouvier Verlag, 1979), pp. 76-85. References to the connection can also be found in Neckel (p. 215) and Langosch, "Die Vorlage des 'Waltharius'", Festschrift Bernhard Bischoff ed. Johanne Autenrieth and Franz Brunhölzl (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1971), p. 239.

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Et licet ignicremis vellet dare moenia flammis, Nullus, qui causam potuisset scire, remansit. (Thus Walter had served the gifts of Bacchus until late into the night, and Walter held back those who wanted to go home, until, overcome by the strength of the drink and oppressed by fatigue, throughout the hall they all fell to the ground. And even if he had wanted to surrender the hall to consuming flames, no one remained who could have known the reason for what was happening.)

In Atlakviöa Guörün receives Atli with a golden cup after he has captured and killed her sons and returns home to his court, and she arranges a big feast for him at which she serves him his dead sons and plenty of wine (st.

35-36.1-2): Umöo ölskälir Atla vinhöfgar, er ί höll saman Hünar tölöuz, gumar gransiöir. gengo inn hvatir. Skasvaöi Jjä in skirleita veiga Jjeim at bera, (Atli's ale-cups rang heavy with drink, as in the hall together the Huns assembled their host, long moustached men. Brisk warriors entered. With gleaming face she darted to bring them drink.)

Atli is too drunk to understand Guönin's intention and is killed as he lies on his bed. Guörän then sets fire to the hall around the peacefully sleeping Huns and servants. 30 In addition to the textual parallels mentioned above, the central characters of Waltharius and Waldere include some of the most famous characters from heroic Germanic poetry. In Waltharius we encounter Attila, Gunther, and Hagen, and in Waldere also Dietrich of Bern (Deoderic) and Witige, Weland's son. There is no reason why these characters should not have been part of the Walter legend from the beginning, just as the similarities shared with contemporary heroic poems could be original in the tale of Walter and Hiltgunt and need not necessarily be literary borrowings. So far, these similarities, especially the ones Waltharius shares with Atlakviöa (the ruse and the allusion to the burning of the hall) have always been interpreted to the effect that the German Waltharius poet knew a version of the

See Dronke, The Poetic Edda I, p. 29.

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Old Norse eddic poem Atlakvida,31 Since it is highly unlikely that the poet had access to this poem in written form—it is extant only in one late medieval manuscript (the Codex Regius from the late 13th century)—he was probably familiar with its oral versions. If we do assume a widespread oral circulation of the eddic tales, however, we should also consider the possibility that Waltharius goes back to an old oral tale about the escape of Walter and Hiltgunt, which originally contained motifs that are otherwise only known from the Nibelung epic and the eddic material. Furthermore, the similarities between the few preserved heroic Germanic poems on the one hand and Waltharius and Waldere on the other need not necessarily be due to direct literary borrowings. Since the characters involved, especially Attila, Dietrich, Gunther, and Hägen, are known from three different literary cycles (the Nibelung tradition, the Dietrich tradition, and, less importantly, also the Hilde legend), it is quite likely that these famous heroes were part of the Walter legend as well. This assumption would also explain Walter's presence in most of the later German works belonging to the Nibelung and Dietrich material. Though Walter is a rather minor character in these works, he nevertheless appears in all of them, especially in connection with great battles and enumerations of other important heroes known from the Germanic heroic tradition. It is therefore much more likely that his name was transmitted along with this material rather than that all the later German works borrowed the character from Waltharius or other Walter tales. As far as the motivic similarities are concerned, it is impossible to establish a chronological order of textual dependence. It rather seems that all these extant works incorporated common Germanic motifs independently. A good case in point is the much-discussed affinity between the feast scenes in Waltharius and Atlakvida. There is no evidence that the scene in Waltharius was derived from the eddic poem. On the contrary, overindulgence was a common motif in early Germanic literature. It plays an important role in Hamdismäl and Völundarkvida and it is frequently mentioned in early Franconian sources. In Hamdismäl for example, the brothers Hamöir and Sörli are on their way to Iörmunrekkr's court in order to avenge their sister's death. At Iörmunrekkr's court merriment prevails in the hall and all men are glad with ale ("Glaumr var i höllo, / halir ölreifir" [18.1-2]). 32 A guard enters the hall

See Neckel, p. 215, Langosch, "Die Vorlage", p. 239, and Panzer: "Unser [mönchischer] Dichter war...mit deutscher Heldendichtung in ziemlichem Ausmaße bekannt" (Der Kampf, p. 88). Reference to Ursula Dronke, The Poetic Edda I.

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and tells the king the news of the arrival of his enemies. This news seems to please lörmunrekkr (st. 20): Ηΐό )iä lörmunrekkr, hendi drap ä kampa, beiddiz at bröngo, böövaöiz at vini, skök harm skör iarpa, sa ä skiöld hvitan, let hann ser ί hendi hvarfa ker gullit. (Then lörmunrekkr laughed, with his hand stroked his whiskers, spurred himself to wildness, grew battlesome over his wine, flung back his brown hair, glanced at his white shield, made the golden cup swing in his hand.)

The actual slaying of the Goths is told in four half-lines which allude for the third time to the presence of alcohol in the hall (st. 23): Styrr varö ί ranni, stukko ölskälir, ί bloöi bragnar lägo, komit or briösti Gotna. (Tumult rose in the hall, ale-cups bounded, warriors lay in blood poured from the breasts of Goths.)

In Vöhmdark\>iöa alcohol again plays the same role as in Waltharins, where it is used to sedate an opponent. As part of his revenge, Völundr puts Niöuör's daughter to sleep with beer he serves her, and then he rapes her (st. 28.1-4): Bar hann hana biori, Jrviat harm betr kunni, svä at hon ί sessi um sofnaöi. (He bemused her with beer, for he was more knowing than she, so that on the couch she fell asleep.)

This episode in Vöhmdarkviöa seems to be particularly old, because it is depicted on the eighth-century Franks casket. Gregory of Tours's Historia Francorum also contains various references to the feasts of the early Franks and tales that are connected with overindulgence. As was noted in the preceding chapter, Gregory recounts the bridal-quest adventures of Andarchius to inform his readers about the protagonist's peculiar death. The servants of his father-in-law kill Andarchius

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after he and his men have fallen asleep, and they then burn the hall (Greg. 4.46.6-16): Turbata ergo familia, praeparatur caena, abluetur hie aquis calidis, inebriatur vino et se collocat super stratum. Erant autem cum eo septem pueri tantum. Cumque non minus somno quam vino sepulti altius obdormissent, con/gregata familia, ostia domus, quae erat ex ligneis fabricata tabulis, claudit; [...] Tunc inmisso per partes diversas igne, cum iam super hos infelices materia aedificii exusta deruerent, excitantur, emissas voces, sed non fuit qui exaudiret, donee, totam domum adustam, ipsus pariter ignis absorberit. (Though the household was in disorder; the meal was provided, he [Andarchius] bathed in hot water, he got drunk with wine, and he stretched himself on the couch. There were also only seven servants with him. And when they had gone to sleep, weighed down no more by slumber than by wine, the household gathered, locked the doors to the house, which was built from wooden boards; [...] Then the fire was ignited in different places and only after the beams of the house burned up and collapsed on top of the unlucky ones, these awoke and began to cry out; but there was no one who listened to them until, finally, the fire swallowed the entire house and them as well.)

Additional examples in the Historia Francorum show that overindulgence, especially if it precedes killings, must have been a common phenomenon in Merovingian Franconia. Queen Fredegunde, for example, has three Franks, who were unable to settle an earlier dispute with each other, killed in the following manner (Greg. 10.27.28-2): Invitatis etenim ad epulum multis, hos in unum tres fecit sedere subsellium; cumque in eo prandium elongatum fuisset spatio, ut nox mundum obrueret, ablata mensa, sicut mos Francorum est, illi in subsellia sua, sicut locati fuerant, resedebant. Potatoque vino multo, in tanto crapulati sunt, ut pueri eorum madefacti per angulos domus, ubi quisque conruerat, obdormierit. Tunc ordinati a muliere viri cum tribus securibus a tergo horum trium adsteterunt, illisque conloquentibus, in unum, ut ita dicam, adsultu puerorum manus libratae, hominibus perculsis, ab epulo est discessum. (For having invited so many to a feast, she ordered the three to sit on one bench; and now, as the meal was prolonged until the night covered the world, they remained, according to the custom of the Franks, seated on the bench assigned to them after the table was cleared. And they drank so much wine and became so drunk that even their servants drenched themselves in all corners of the house and slept wherever they fell down. Then three men, who had been commanded by the woman, positioned themselves with axes behind the three [Franks] and, even while talking to each other, they swung their hands in one stroke as it were and cut the men down; then the feast was ended for the guests.)

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In yet another tale Gregory relates how Ambrosius, a citizen of Tours, is murdered by the lover of his wife after he has fallen asleep from drinking too much wine (Greg. 6.13.22-27): Cumque hi germani pariter epulantes et nocte usque ad ebrietatem vino maduissent, in uno strato pariter quieverunt. Tunc moechus uxoris Ambrosii nocte veniens, quiescentibus cunctis et vino depressis, accensis igne paleis, ut videret quid ageret, extracto gladio, Ambrosium in capite librat, ita ut descendens per oculos gladius cervical 33 capitis amputaret. (Now that the brothers had feasted and drenched themselves in wine together until the coming of the night, they lay down together to sleep on one bed. Then the lover of Ambrosius' wife came at night, when they were all deep asleep from the wine, lit some straw, in order to see what he was doing, drew the sword, (and) swung it against Ambrosius' head in such a way that it descended by the eyes and cut off the neck.

If we compare these late sixth-century tales with the account in Atlakvida, the similarities are surprisingly close. In the eddic poem Guöran serves Atli and the Huns cheerfully and when Atli is too drunk to show any resistance, she kills him and burns down the hall. In the Franconian tales, as well as in Atlakvida and Waltharius, a feast precedes a killing or, as in Waltharius, the protagonists' escape. The protagonists and their servants fall asleep because of too much wine, and they are either slain or burned to death. The motif of alcohol as a sedative and fire to destroy a hall are not restricted to Atlakvida or even the eddic tradition. They are documented as early as in the sixth-century chronicle of the Franks in connection with events that date from the fifth to the sixth century. Based on the evidence found in Gregory, we must conclude, therefore, that this particular kind of tale was well known among the Frankish people. The feasting scene in Waltharius and the allusions to the burning of the hall need not be attributed to a particular source, such as Atlakvida, but rather represent a motif widespread in early Franconian storytelling and history writing. Another well-known allusion in Waltharius and Waldere that cannot be traced back to a particular source is that to Weland the smith and the sword and breastplate fashioned by him. 34 Scholars have argued that the WalIn his edition of the Historia Francorum, Rudolf Büchner changes "cervical", which means pillow, to "calvaria", which he translates with "Hirnschale" (Historiarum Libri Decern, p. 31). I would suggest "cervicem" and translate the word as "neck" or "head joint" (from "cervix"). It has often been suggested that in Waldere the phrase "Weland's work" has to be understood as a reference to the sword as it is common practice in other OE texts,

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tharius poet had access to a version of the eddic poem Völundarkviöa or similar written tales about Weland. This claim is difficult to prove, because stories about Weland must have circulated widely in a variety of shapes in the Germanic world. How famous the story was can be seen in the various allusions to it in the poems. Waldere, for example, also contains a reference to Witige, and in Wal tharius the narrator mentions Weland's escape from captivity by means of his wings {Waith, v. 803). These references need not necessarily have been taken from Völundarkviöa. The phrase "Weland's work" also occurs in Beowulf, and it is more likely that all these works allude to oral tales about Weland the smith. Elements of this tradition have then been connected and mixed with other traditions. A closer look at Völundarh'iöa reveals that it contains a similar mix of elements, some of which are clearly derived from the Nibelung tradition, such as the reference to the treasure of the Nibelungs. 35 Since the eddic poem also contains motifs that are much older, as the illustrations on the eighth-century Franks casket shows, it obviously combines older material with more recent motifs and tales. The same observation may hold true for the Walter tale. To sum up: The occurrence of the same or very similar motifs in Waltharius, the Hildebrandslied, Waldere, Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon Franks casket, Völundarkviöa, the oldest Eddic poems (Atlakvida and Hamöismäl), and Hlööskviöa points to a lively exchange of legends and stories between Germany, the British Isles, and Scandinavia that is attested in literature from the eighth century onward. Since the motif of overindulgence and the burning of the hall after a feast is also documented in Gregory of Tours's Historia Francorum, we can move the date for the earliest occurrence of these motifs back by another two centuries. It is therefore most likely that a Walter poem or tale that was deeply embedded in the Germanic literary and mythological tradition circulated in the German area, Scandinavia, and England as early as the sixth century. More specifically, and that the reference to the byrnie in Waltharius is very unusual. However, a close look reveals that in Waldere "Weland's work" does not necessarily describe the sword but could just as well refer to the hero's armor. This reading is supported by verse 455 in Beowulf ("Welandes geweorc"), which clearly refers to the byrnie. Ute Schwab comes to the same conclusion (p. 235). "Gull var f)ar eigi ä Grana leiöo, / fiarri hugöa ec värt land fiollom Rinar" (Völundarkviöa 14). The allusion to Grani's road has been explained as referring to Grani, the hero Sigurd's horse, on whose back he bore off the treasure-hoard of Fäfnir, the Rhinegold. It might be too far-fetched to see a connection here between the horse Grani carrying off the treasure and Walter and Hiltgunt's voyage on a single horse with two chests filled with the treasure, but some similarity cannot be overlooked.

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the motif of overindulgence during a feast is known from Franconian chronicles and is associated with the court of the Huns in Atlakviöa, Waltharius, and Waldere and with the Gothic court in Hamdismäl. Furthermore, the character of Högni is known from both Hlööskviöa and Waltharius. The allusions to Weland's work occur in Beowulf, Waltharius and Waldere and the offering of red-golden rings as an appeasement to prevent battle is a motif in Waltharius, the Hildebrandslied, Hlööskvida, and other eddic poems. The connection of Waltharius to the Nibelung material, especially by way of some of its main protagonists (Hagen, Gunther, Attila), the localization of the events at the Rhine, and also the emphasis placed on the treasure Walter and Hiltgunt carry off, is so prevalent throughout the poem that the Walter legend must have contained these elements already in its original form and did not acquire them later by accrual. Additional support for this claim comes from the fact that it is generally believed that Atlakviöa and Völundarkviöa originated in Germany before they began to circulate throughout northern Europe. As Ursula Dronke suggests, Atlakvida "must have originated in Burgundy, [...] and its traditions must have lived on under Frankish rule". 36 This theory accords well with the mainly positive image of Attila in both Waltharius and the Nibelungenlied, which could go back to the Frankish tradition and the stories that developed and circulated after the historical Attila's death. The legend of Weland, on the other hand, is attested in poems and carvings in Germany, Anglo-Saxon England, and Scandinavia from the eighth century on, whereas the earliest attestations of the names of the main characters are found in the German realm in the seventh century. 37 Combined with the evidence from the early Germanic chronicles, it seems safe to conclude that Waltharius and Waldere are products of a long literary and oral tradition, which originated or at least peaked in Franconia before it spread to the neighboring regions and countries. Waltharius

as Bridal-Quest Narrative

The preceding discussion has shown that Waltharius is rooted in the Germanic tradition, most likely in its original form, that is, in its so-called double structure with the Hunnish and the Burgundian part of the poem (i.e., elopement from Attila's Hunnish court and the attack by the Burgundian King Gunther and Hägen). For this reason, the hypotheses that place the Dronke, The Poetic Edda I, p. 34. Ursula Dronke, The Poetic Edda II: Mythological 1997), pp. 269-72.

Poems (Oxford: Clarendon,

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origins of the Walter tale in the Mediterranean and Oriental sphere must be rejected. While I concur with Regeniter's conclusion that Waltharius is by no means an original poem composed by a German monk, and also that Waldere is more than just a copy of this German poem, I disagree that the Walter poems go back to a heroic lay which was gradually expanded until it reached its present shape. I shall argue instead that the Walter tale is an old bridal-quest narrative. Though the Walter tale is closely connected with heroic tradition, especially through the inventory of main characters, the emphasis on the battles in the second half of Waltharius, and Hagen's conflict of loyalties, it also contains several elements that strongly contradict the heroic model. The poem's predominant divergences from the heroic scheme are the positive outcome of the battles and the unheroic portrayals of the main characters, especially Attila's hang-over and suffering after he notices Walter's escape and also the details of the battle between Walter, Hägen, and Gunther. While the latter divergence can easily be attributed to the influence of its author, the German monk, the first divergence remains problematic, especially since the Waldere fragments also do not contain any hints of a negative ending. Other aspects that speak against reading Waltharius as a heroic poem have been neglected in previous scholarship, namely, the key role played by Hiltgunt and the protagonists' escape from Attila's court, both of which serve as the motivation for the subsequent battles. As Ute Schwab points out: "Das Mädchen ist aus der Geschichte nicht wegzudenken; Hiltgunt gehört zu jenem Kern, der die konstitutiven Elemente des Stoffes enthält: Es gibt keine Form der Waltersage, die ohne die Gestalt des Mädchens als solche anzusprechen wäre." 38 The role the girl and the couple's escape play in the poem, however, is not rooted in the Germanic heroic tradition, but rather in the tradition of bridal-quest narrative. This observation was already made by adherents of the Menendez Pidal school, but their conclusions are misleading, in as much as they claim that the bridal-quest scheme is of Mediterranean origin and not indigenous to the Walter poem. The evidence in the Franconian chronicles demonstrates however, that a Germanic bridal-quest tradition existed before the two Walter poems were composed. Even if we take the earliest suggested dating, the early ninth century, as the correct date for the composition of the oldest extant versions of the Walter tale, the bridal-quest tales in the early chronicles predate their composition by at least a hundred years.

Schwab, p. 231

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The bridal-quest story in Waltharius develops as follows: the hero Walter and his bride-to-be Hiltgunt are both of noble birth and live together at the court of Attila. Walter has a very high military position at court and Hiltgunt has a status similar to that of a daughter. Walter and Hiltgunt were betrothed as children but, owing to the special situation they live in, Walter must find a way to talk with Hiltgunt so that they can plan their escape from Attila's court and contract their marriage. In order to be successful, Walter must proceed cautiously and devise a workable plan without arousing Attila's suspicion. The secret meeting between Walter and Hiltgunt, which may well be called a wooing scene, is preceded by several prerequisite events, notably his demonstration of military prowess and his loyal service to Attila. After Hägen has escaped from Attila's court, however, the queen is concerned about Walter's loyalty and convinces Attila to make a deal with him (vv. 123-41). Attila follows his wife's advice and suggests to Walter that he take a Hun for a wife. Walter cleverly eludes this offer, arguing that a wife would distract him from his duties as a warrior and thus affect his good service to Attila (vv. 142-69). Attila, touched by such loyalty, does not insist, and Walter distinguishes himself further in a large battle against Attila's enemies (vv. 170-214). Walter returns from the battlefield, on which he has accomplished great deeds, and goes directly into the royal suite, where he finds Hiltgunt all by herself. He takes her in his arms, kisses her tenderly, and then asks for a drink (Waith, vv. 224-6): Ilia mero tallum complevit mox pretiosum Porrexitque viro, qui signans accipiebat Virgineamque manum propria constrinxit... (She at once filled a precious cup with wine and offered it to the man, who, making the sign of the cross, took it and squeezed the maiden's hand with his own).

Now Walter proposes his plans for their escape (vv. 231-34). Hiltgunt is disturbed by this proposal because she doubts the seriousness of Walter's words (vv. 237-39). This is especially peculiar, since she knows about their earlier betrothal. Walter convinces her of the seriousness of his intentions however, and she falls at his feet and pledges him her obedience and love. Walter then explains his plan for their escape and gives Hiltgunt distinct orders about what to take from the Hunnish treasury in her charge (vv. 261-71). A week after this meeting, the plan is carried out: Walter gives a sumptuous feast at which he takes great care to serve everybody wine so that all the guests become drunk and fall asleep. Walter then fetches his horse, Leo, attaches the two treasure chests to its sides, and equips himself with Attila's armor and two swords (vv. 326-40). Hiltgunt leads the horse

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and holds a fishing rod in her hand, whereas Walter is fully armed and ready to fight (vv. 341-6). The apprehensive couple flees without rest during the days and hides in the woods at night (vv. 347-9). Attila and his retainers do not notice their escape until the next day at noon, when everybody finally awakes from the drunken sleep of the preceding night. Ospirian is the first to discover what has happened and, being very sad and distressed about the events, she complains to Attila. She criticizes him for not listening to her earlier warnings and also because the entire court was so easily tricked (vv. 371-9). Attila now breaks into fierce anger and great agony. He rips apart his cloak and goes into facial contortions, torn by anger and distress. Moreover, Attila does not speak, eat, or drink the entire day, and at night he is unable to sleep (vv. 380-401). Only the next morning is Attila able to act again; he summons the senior members of his court and offers a large reward to the man who returns Walter to him (vv. 4027). All of Attila's men, however, fear Walter's strength and fighting ability, and no one is willing to pursue him despite the reward. Walter and Hiltgunt travel chastely for forty days until they reach the Rhine (vv. 426-7). They pay the ferryman with fish Walter had caught earlier in the Danube and cross the river. These fish are eventually served to King Gunther in Worms, who in this way discovers that Walter and Hiltgunt are in his country. Hagen, also in Worms, rejoices that his former fellow-hostage has escaped, but Gunther is only concerned with obtaining the treasure the couple has with them (vv. 467-72). Gunther selects twelve of his heroes and prepares himself to approach Walter in battle. In the meantime, Walter and Hiltgunt reach the Vosges Mountains (Vosagum) and find a suitable place to rest. Walter disarms for the first time and places his head in Hiltgunt's lap (vv. 503-4). Hiltgunt keeps watch and wakes Walter when she sees and hears the attackers approaching. When the latter have come very close, she cries out in surprise that the Huns have come, sinks down onto the ground and begs Walter to behead her so that she would not be forced into the arms of another man in the event that the marriage with Walter should no longer be possible (vv. 543-7). Walter, however, relies on his strength and God's support (he looks up into the sky) and suddenly discovers that not the Huns but rather the Franks are approaching (vv. 54856). He is delighted when he recognizes Hagen's helmet, says that he will defend the treasure, and reassures Hiltgunt, who is standing farther back, that he will be victorious in the battles. Walter then wins eleven combats so that only Hägen and Gunther escape. In a final encounter he fights against both of them with the result that all three heroes are maimed. After Hiltgunt has dressed their wounds and served them wine, the heroes joke about their future handicaps and part as friends. Walter and Hiltgunt return home to

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Aquitaine where they marry and, after the death of Walter's father, take over the rule. The bridal-quest narrative can be summarized as follows:

(1) Decision to marry (and to escape with the girl from captivity)

(2) Secret meeting with the bride-to-be

(3) Secret betrothal (or rather: renewal of the earlier betrothal)

(4) Elopement

(5) Battle

(8) Return to the hero's country and marriage

The key scene in Waltharius, as in the bridal-quest stories in the chronicles, is the wooer's secret meeting with the girl during which the betrothal takes place (or, in the case of Waltharius, a renewal of the engagement), and during which the plans for the future proceedings are made. It is important to note that Walter does not abduct Hiltgunt. She willingly elopes with him and is actively involved in carrying out their plan. Although Waltharius clearly develops according to the bridal-quest scheme, it seems to lack some important motifs that are common to bridalquest narratives. First of all, Walter's decision to marry is not addressed,

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nor is he advised to marry during a council scene; secondly, he does not travel to the girl's court to woo the girl, but rather lives as a hostage with Hiltgunt to whom he had been betrothed as a child. Thirdly, Walter does not fight against the girl's protector and/or his army (i.e., the Huns) who have pursued the runaways. Instead the Franconian King Gunther and his former fellow-hostage and friend Hägen attack him. The sparse information in the Waldere fragments indicates that here, too, Walter is engaged in a battle with Gunther. Because of the fragmentary character of the work, it remains unclear whether Hägen is also involved in the battle and how the battle ends. It is not even possible to reach a consensus on who is speaking in Waldere or in which order the fragments should be read. A comparison with the additional versions of and allusions to the Walter tale, however, will show that most of the peculiarities of the bridal-quest scheme in Waltharius can be explained as additions or alternations by the German Waltharius poet. Waltharius

and the Medieval Walter Tales

In addition to its oldest versions in Waltharius and Waldere, the Walter tale also occurs as an independent story in two Middle High German fragments (Graz and Vienna), in the tale of Valtari and Hildigunnr in the Old Norse Pidreks saga, as well as in Latin chronicle entries from Italy and Poland. Allusions to the story occur furthermore in several later medieval German epics, such as the Nibelungenlied and the epics of the Dietrich cycle (.Biterolf and Dietleib, Alpharts Tod, Der Rosengarten, Dietrichs Flucht, and Die Rabenschlacht). Finally, scholars have suggested a connection of the Walter tale to characters, stories, and ballads, mostly in traditional Romance material, such as the character of Gautier de Γ Hum in the Song of Roland, the Gaiferos and Escriveta ballads, and some Anglo-Norman lays. The version of the Walter tale that is closest in age to Waltharius and Waldere is found in the eleventh-century Italian Chronicon Novaliciense. That chronicle contains in its second book (ch. 7-12) a peculiar mix of the story of the legendary Walter and a historical hero by the same name who decides to join a monastery after spending many years as a knight. The account begins with information on the monk's arrival in the monastery, his extraordinary piety, and his taking of vows (ch. 7). It then proceeds to tell the story of the monk's past, which parallels verses 93-577 of Waltharius, partly in the form of direct quotation and partly in prose summary. The account breaks off shortly before the confrontation between Walter and Hägen and ends with a twenty-line summary of the concluding events. The chronicle then develops into a third part, which recounts the deeds the he-

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roic monk performs during his stay at the monastery. Although the Chronicon Novaliciense does not present a different version of the Walter tale, it at least gives good evidence for the age of Waltharius. The fact that the chronicle writer had access to a Waltharius manuscript in the early eleventh century proves that the poem circulated in European monasteries at this time. Since the monastery, which was founded in 726 by the Frank Abbo, was protected and endowed by the Carolingian kings, we even know who was most likely responsible for the circulation of the story.39 The most important sources of the Middle High German Walter tradition are the two fragments of the so-called "Mittelhochdeutsches Walterlied" and the Nibelungenlied. According to the Nibelungenlied, the two noble children Hägen and Walter were both hostages at Attila's court. Hägen, who is said to be the son of Attila's retainer Aldrian, was knighted by Attila and received many treasures from him. Attila sent him home, whereas Walter escaped with Hiltgunt (st. 1755-6): 40 "Wol erkande ich Aldriänen: der was min man. lob unde michel ere er hie b! mir gewan. ich machete in ze ritter und gap im min golt. Helche diu getriuwe was im inneclichen holt. Da von ich wol erkenne allez Hagenen sint. ez wurden mine gisel zwei waetlichiu kint, er und von Spänje Walther, die wuohsen hie ze man. Hagenen sande ich wider heim: Walther mit Hiltegunt entran." ("I knew Aldrian well; he was my retainer. He achieved praise and great honor here at my court. I knighted him and gave him my gold. The faithful Helche was very devoted to him. For this reason, I know Hägen very well. Two noble children became my hostages, he and Walther from Spain, who grew up here to become men. Hagen I sent back home; Walther ran away with Hiltgunt.")

Another reference to the Walter tale occurs when one of Attila's retainers refuses to engage in any kind of battle with Hägen and Volker: "der mir gaebe türne von rotem golde guot, / disen videlasre wold ich niht bestän" ("Even if someone would give me towers of good red gold, I would not do battle with this fiddler" [st. 1795.3]). He remembers Hägen and his valor in battle from his time at Attila's court (st. 1797-98.2):

See Millet, p. 37; The Chronica di Novalesa has been edited by Gian Carlo Alessio (Cronaca di Novalesa [Turin: G. Einaudi, 1982]). All quotations from the Nibelungenlied follow de Boor's edition. The translations are my own.

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Er unt der von Spänje träten manegen stic, dö si hie bi Etzein vähten manegen wie ze eren dem künege; des ist vil geschehen. dar umb muoz man Hagenen der eren billiche jehen. Dannoch was der recke siner jär' ein kint. daz dö die tumben wären wie grise die nu sint! (He and the one from Spain [Walter] went on many a conquest, while they were fighting here at Attila's court many a battle in the king's honor. This often happened. For this, one must accord honor to Hägen. At that time, the thane was still a child in years. How gray they now are, who were young at that time!)

The final allusion to the Walter tale occurs during Hagen's battle with Dietrich and Hildebrand. The latter replies to Hagen's accusation of being a coward with a reference to the battle as described in WaUharius (st. 2344): Des antwurte Hildebrant: "zwiu verwizet ir mir daz? nu wer was, der üf einem Schilde vor dem Waskensteine saz, dö im von Spänje Walther sö vil der friunde sluoc? ouch habt ir noch ze zeigen an iu selben genuoc." (To this Hildebrand answered: "Why do you accuse me of that? Now, who was the one, who was sitting on a shield in the rocky Vosges, when Walter of Spain killed so many of your friends? You have enough to blame yourself for.")

A comparison of these excerpts with the account in Waltharins reveals noteworthy analogies and differences. In both versions, Hägen and Walter have been hostages at Attila's court; they fought successfully for Attila; Walter escaped with Hiltgunt; Walter killed several of Hagen's friends in a battle, while Hägen did not engage in the battles. The most important difference in the Nibelungenlied account is that Hagen was sent away by Attila and did not escape from the court. Furthermore, Hagen's father is said to have been one of Attila's retainers. However, we do not gain more detailed information on some of the most debated questions, namely whether Walter and Hiltgunt were indeed betrothed as children and whether Attila's men pursued them. The reference to Hagen's cowardice in the battles with Walther rather seems to allude to the version in Waltharius in which Hägen was allied with Gunther. The two Middle High German fragments, which have been dated to the early thirteenth century, have some motifs in common with the allusions to Walter and Hiltgunt in the Nibelungenlied. The latter was clearly known to the author of the fragments, because characters from the epic have been included in the Walter tale. The highly damaged Graz fragment contains nine incomplete stanzas, which have been arranged in varying order by dif-

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ferent scholars.41 The information we can glean from the twenty-four verses is sparse and may be summarized as follows: Hägen leaves Attila's court amicably. Before he leaves, he gives precious gifts to Walter and advises him to marry Hiltgunt. Hägen knows about Walter and Hiltgunt's betrothal as children because he was present at the ceremony. Walter, who wanted to accompany Hägen, regrets that he did not know about his betrothal to Hiltgunt earlier. The Vienna fragment (154 verses) relates the events that take place during Walter and Hiltgunt's journey home. Volker and sixty of his men escort them through the "Wasechen wait" (Gunther's land) on their way to Lengres (Langres), the country of Walter's father Alpker (Walter, however, is called "voget von Spanyge" [Spain] and Hiltgunt is a princess from Aragon). They avoid the city of Metz because they are afraid of being attacked by Ortwin. Walter sends a messenger to his father announcing his homecoming. To Alpker's question how Walter had fared in Attila's land, the messenger answers as follows (Vienna fragment I, st. 12d—13d): "Walther ist von dem kunige so gescheiden,

daz es die Hiunen immer muzen klagen

Ir ettelicher drunder, daz si im wären holt, er hat an sumelichen vil wol daz versolt, daz si im immer fluchen, wände er hat in erslagen an siner verte vil ir lieben mage." ("Walther parted from the king in such a way that the Huns must always lament it. There were many among them who favored him; for this he has rewarded many of them, so that they will always curse him, because on his journey he has killed many of their dear kinsmen.")

The second part of the Vienna fragment contains information on the preparations for the wedding to which many kings are invited. Among the invited guests are Gunther (from the Rhine), Volker (from Burgundy), as well as Attila and his wife. The latter two, however, are invited only after Walter holds council with his retainers, whom he asks whether Attila might receive the invitation "übelen muotes", but none of the retainers discourages him. Regeniter has discussed the problematic nature of this account. First of all, Attila's invitation to the wedding leads to the conclusion that Walter and Hiltgunt left the Hunnish court with the king's agreement, while, on the other hand, the fragment earlier contains an obvious reference to Walter's The two versions suggested by Müllenhoff and Heinzel are printed in W. Eckerth, Das Waltherlied. Gedicht in mittelhochdeutscher Sprache. Mit einem Anhange über die Schriftdenkmale zur Walthersage und die Walthersage (Halle/Saale: Niemeyer, 1909), pp. 70-2.

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slaying of several pursuing Huns. 42 Secondly, the hero's heritage is confused in the fragment, because it is said that Walter's father resides in his capital city Langres, whereas Walther carries the epithet "from Spain". As far as the latter inconsistency is concerned, Regeniter concludes that two different traditions of the Walter legend have met ("[...] dann stoßen hier offensichtlich zwei verschiedene Uberlieferungsströme zusammen" ).43 It is, however, also possible that the Middle High German author of the fragment merely confused geography at this point. The most notable information in the Middle High German Walter fragments is that Walter and Hiltgunt's escape from Attila's court results in a battle with Hunnish pursuers, whereas they travel peacefully through Gunther's land. Furthermore, the battle cannot have taken place in the Vosges, since we learn that Volker and his men have guided them through this part. As in the Nibelungenlied, Hagen leaves Attila's court amicably. Since he claims to have been present at the betrothal of Walter and Hiltgunt, he must be considerably older than Walter. That contradicts the account in the Nibelungenlied and Waltharius, where both are referred to as having been young men during their stay with the Huns. In the Middle High German Walter fragments, Walter and Hiltgunt had been betrothed as children but, unlike the Waltharius version, they do not know about it until Hägen encourages them to escape together from Attila's court. The remaining German textual evidence for the Walter tale stems entirely from the epics belonging to the Dietrich cycle. The most detail is given in Biterolf and Dietleib, where Walter is actively involved in the events. He engages in battle with his uncle Biterolf, but no harm is done, and later he fights together with Hägen on Gunther's side against the Huns and their allies at the Rhine. Walther is addressed as "Alpkeres kint" (v. 9952) and as king from Spain ("Walther von Spanjelant" [v. 11689]), but also as a king from Kärlingen (v. 2105) who ruled over ten kingdoms (v. 11691).44 He is furthermore referred to as the man who escaped from the Huns ("der was von Hiunen her bekomen, / als ir wol habt e vernomen" [vv. 576-7]), and who fears Attila's wrath ("wan Etzel wolde smen haz / allen rechen ane mir" [vv. 9592-3]). Of particular interest are three small passages that have frequently been overlooked by scholars. The first of these contains an allusion to Walter's

Regeniter, p. 297. Regeniter, p. 299. All quotations are from Biterolf und Dietleib, and Zurich: Weidmann, 1866).

ed. Oskar Jänicke, DHB 1 (Berlin

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battles at the Rhine ("und wie sich des heldes hant / ervohten an dem R m " [vv. 716-7]) and the second to several of the events told in Waltharius and the Nibelungenlied, respectively (vv. 756-775.1): daz Etzelen golt rot mac er geben swem er wil. er hast mir ouch wol also vil gegeben unde mere; Helche diu here, diu böt mir tugentliche kröne unde lant riche. So bedähte ich mich baz: ich wiste äne zwivel daz, daz ich selbe hete lant. Etzelen unde Heichen hant heten mir und Hildegunde verlihen in der stunde swes wir heten da gegert. von Etzelen wir nämen swert, bede ich unde Hagene. umb uns eilenden degene liez sichz der künic here kosten michels mere, ze tüsent marken oder baz, und tete vil willichlichen daz. (Attila's red-gold he may give to whomever he wants to give it to. He also has given to me so much and even more; Helche, the praiseworthy, she virtuously offered to me a crown and prosperous possessions. Yet, I decided against it: I knew without any doubt that I, myself, had a kingdom. Attila and Helche would have given to me and Hiltgunt at once whatever we had requested. We, Hägen and I, took the sword from Attila. For the sake of us two foreign warriors, the noble king went through many expenses, a thousand marks or more, and he did that of his own free will.) Walter's little speech confirms several scenes in Waltharius, such as the high position Walter held at Attila's court and the wedding offer Attila made to Walter on the advice of the queen {Waith, vv. 760-2), which Walter rejects because he wants to return to his own land {Waith, vv. 764-5). When Walter claims that Attila and his wife would have given everything to him and Hiltgunt, he most likely refers to the fact that both have been treated like children and that they could have lived a very prosperous life at Attila's court. The reference to the knighting of Hägen and Walter at Attila's court, on the other hand, is a parallel to the account in the Nibelungenlied.

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The third passage in Biterolf and Dietleib that is of special interest occurs in a speech by Hiltgunt to Rüdiger (vv. 12633-7): der helt gedähte ninder min, wie ich im schänkte mmen win, dö ich von den Hiunen reit, den ich vil eilende meit Etzelen und sinen recken truoc. (The hero did not remember me, how I served him my wine when I rode away from the Huns—the wine, which I, the very foreign maid, served to Attila and his heroes.) In this speech Hiltgunt clearly refers to the banquet at Attila's court that preceded her escape with Walter. The novelty of this passage is that Hiltgunt herself serves the wine and not Walter, as is the case in the Waltharius version. Scholars concluded from this passage that the original Walter legend must have contained the motif of the w o m a n serving the wine. If this was indeed the case, the scene corresponds to feasting scenes in the Historic*ι Francorum and Atlak\'iöa, where the w o m a n also serves wine to her guests. It is very possible that the author of Biterolf and Dietleib was familiar with a different version of the Walter tale than the one told in Waltharius. In this no longer extant version of the tale Hiltgunt serves the wine at the feast and Attila's wife has her historically correct name, Helche. The version of the tale that the author alludes to in Biterolf and Dietleib also contained the central feast scene and the trick used by Walter, because the memory of the couple's escape f r o m the Huns is twice accompanied by laughter that refers to the trick the couple played on Attila. In verse 6273 Walter laughs, thinking about his escape: Her Walther lachende gie da er den marcman enphie: er gedähte an diu maere wie er geschieden wasre von hiunischem riche: (Sir Walter went laughingly to receive the man of the district. He thought about the adventure of how he parted from the Hunnish kingdom.) In verse 12,638 the entire court laughs at Hiltgunt's account of her serving wine to Attila and his men. Last but not least, Biterolf and Dietleib contains an ever so slight reference to Walter's combats at the Rhine (vv. 716-7). The author makes only brief allusions to the Walter tale, most likely because he is convinced that his audience is familiar with the details of the tale, including Walter and Hiltgunt's situation as hostages (they are called "eilende"), their escape after Attila and his retainers are intoxicated f r o m

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too much wine, and Walter's encounters at the Rhine. Though Biterolf and Dietleib does not contain any detail, it is quite probable that this encounter was with the Huns, whom Walter in this work also fights on the side of Gunther and Hägen. The hero Walter appears in all the remaining works belonging to the Dietrich cycle. InAlpharts Tod Walter, who is one of Dietrich's warriors, is usually referred to as a king from Kerlingen. 45 In one instance, however, Walter refers to himself as being born in Germany ("ich bin geborn üz Diutschlant" [v. 4264]). In Der Rosengarten D Walter, who again fights on Dietrich's side, is said to be from Kerlingen, whereas in Der Rosengarten A he is exclusively entitled Walther von dem Wasgenstein, who "ist an dem Rine der künesten fürsten ein". 46 In Dietrichs Flucht, Walter is alternately called Walther von Lengers (vv. 5902, 9244) and Walter von Kerlingen (v. 8634), whereas in the Rabenschlacht, he is exclusively referred to as "Waither von Lengesaere" (vv. 223, 286), the commander of the Hunnish forces at Etzel's court.47 The evidence found in the Dietrich epics indicates that Walter was an important hero in the world of German heroic literature. The attribute "von dem Wasgenstein" that is added to his name in the Rosengarten A, the fact that he is introduced as the leader of Attila's army in the Rabenschlacht, as well as the explicit allusions in Biterolf and Dietleib, clearly reveal that the tale of Walter and Hiltgunt was widespread in thirteenth- and fourteenthcentury Germany and transmitted in some detail. Walter's heritage, on the other hand, seems to have been confused and/or altered; he is said to have come from Spain and Kerlingen (France), but refers to himself as having been born in Germany. In Waltharius he is a prince from Aquitaine, whereas his father's hometown in some of the Dietrich epics is said to be Langres in Burgundy. The only consensus we can find is that Walter comes from some place west of the Rhine, which he had to cross on his flight from the Hunnish court and on the banks of which he gets involved in combat. Considering the allegiances Walter has in the Dietrich epics, his battle most

43

Vv. 772, 3071, 3171, 3341, 3563, 3732, 4003, 4293, 4341, and 4481 in the Heldenbuch edition (Alpharts Tod, Dietrichs Flucht, Rabenschlacht, ed. Ernst Martin, Deutsches Heldenbuch II [Dublin and Zurich: Weidmann, 1866; rpt. 1967]).

46

Rosengarten D stanzas 44, 4; 393, 1; and 396, 4 and Rosengarten A: "Walther von dem wasgensteine" stanzas 8, 3; 50, 3; 105, 3; 123, 3; and 263, 1; "und ist an dem Rine der künesten fürsten ein" stanzas 8, 4; 50, 4; 123, 4; 263, 2. In stanza 105, 4 the verse is slightly altered ("fürsten" is replaced by "recken"). Quoted from Die Gedichte vom Rosengarten zu Worms, ed. Georg Holz (Halle/Saale: Niemeyer, 1893).

47

Ref. to DHB II.

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likely took place against the Huns, but, unfortunately, the works do not elaborate on this in any detail. In the highly abbreviated Old Norse-Icelandic version of the Walter tale found in Pidreks saga (II. 105-9) the hero Valtari (Ermanrik's nephew) is Attila's foster son who frequently spends time with Attila's hostage Hildigunnr, the daughter of Illias of Greece. 48 At a feast, the two youngsters are holding hands as usual and are conversing quietly about the possibility of their escape from Attila's court. As in Waltharius Hildigunnr reacts with surprise and reproach when she finds out about Valtari's plans, because she thinks that he is playing a joke on her. Valtari convinces her of the seriousness of his proposal, whereupon she agrees to flee, admitting that she has loved him since she was four years old. After their secret betrothal, the two agree to meet the next morning at dawn outside the castle gates. They ride away on one horse and carry off a great treasure that Hildigunnr has taken from Attila's treasury. As soon as Attila becomes aware of their escape he sends twelve men, led by Högni, after them. Valtari wins eleven individual combats until only Högni is left. The latter flees but attacks Valtari a little later in the woods. Valtari, who had earlier prepared dinner and eaten a boar, throws a boar's bone at Högni who loses an eye and flees back to Attila's court. Valtari and Hildigunnr travel to Ermanrik's court where they live happily ever after. Most notable in the Norse account is that it does not mention an earlier betrothal of Walter and Hiltgunt—even though it is mentioned that Hiltgunt had been in love with Walter since she was a child—and that only Hiltgunt lives as a hostage at Attila's court. This version of the tale could corroborate the Middle High German Graz fragment, in which, according to Müllenhoff s reading, Walter wants to leave the court with Hägen and seems to have been able to do so. In the fragment version Walter stays after Hiltgunt has addressed him as her "trütgespil" and after Hägen has revealed their earlier betrothal to him. The second, important variation in the Norse tale is that, as in some of the Middle High German sources, Hunnish forces led by Hägen pursue the two fugitives and that no mention is made of an attack by the Franks and/or King Gunther. These changes in the Pidreks saga version cause the Walter tale to resemble a bridal-quest narrative much more closely than the version of the tale in Waltharius. In the former, the two protagonists are not previously betrothed to each other; they are pursued by the girl's protector, namely Attila, who has kept her as a hostage and is playing the father's role; the hero defeats the pursuers and sucPidreks saga af Bern, ed. Henrik Bertelsen, 2 vols., Samfund til Udgivelse af Gammel Nordisk Litteratur 34 (Copenhagen: Moller, 1905-11).

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cessfiilly returns home. One important motif is missing in the Pidreks saga account: the couple does not have to use a ruse to escape f r o m the court. This motif is, on the other hand, central in the allusions to the story in Biterolf and Dietleib and in the account in Waltharius. A summary of the various versions of the Walter tale results in the follow49 mg picture: Walter's heritage

Earlier betrothal

Hunnish attack

Frankish attack

Waltharius

Aquitaine

Yes

No

Yes

Waldere

Not mentioned

Not mentioned

Not mentioned

Probably attacked by Gunther (Burgundian)

MHG fragments

Langres

Yes, but unknown to Walter

Yes

No

Biterolf und Dietleib

Spain (Kerlingen)

N/A

Probably

N/A

Dietrichs Flucht

Langres, Kerlingen

N/A

N/A

N/A

Rosengarten A

Wasgenstein

N/A

N/A

N/A

Rosengarten D

Kerlingen

N/A

N/A

N/A

Alpharts Tod

Kerlingen (Germany)

N/A

N/A

N/A

Rabenschlacht

Langres

N/A

N/A

N/A

Nibelungenlied

Spain

N/A

N/A

Probably

Valtari and Hildigunnr

Wasgenstein

No

Yes

No

The Chronica di Novalesa has been excluded from this comparison since it does not contain any new information.

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Scholars have also frequently connected later medieval tales with the Walter tradition. 50 Clearly related to this tradition are the four Polish Walter stories. The earliest version is contained in the Latin Cronicon Poloniae, which was written sometime in the second half of the fourteenth century, under the entry for the year 1135.51 The oldest version in the vernacular stems from the year 1584, with additional versions from the years 1597, 1743, 1827 and 1837, respectively. 52 Although all these versions vary slightly in detail, the plot remains a typical love-triangle story and can be summarized as follows: Wdaly Walcerz, Count of Tyniec (Walter the Strong) is educated to become a knight at the French court. Also present is Arinaldus, a German prince who woos Heligunda, the daughter of the French king. Heligunda, however, rejects his suit because she has fallen in love with Walcerz. The latter plays the lute and sings under her window every night without revealing his identity. Eventually, the girl finds out that the nocturnal bard is Walcerz and in a secret conversation they decide to escape from the court together. Arinaldus gets word of their plan and returns home to Germany to arrange an ambush for the couple, Some scholars have tried to establish a connection between the Walter of Walthcirins and Gautier de l'Hum, one of Roland's warriors in the Song of Roland. Wilhelm Tavernier was the first to make this connection, which he bases on an alleged misreading of "des Hums" ("of the Huns", as in v. 3254 of the Song of Roland), which would refer to Walter's hostage situation at the Hunnish court, as "de l'Hum" "Waltharius, Carmen de prodicione Guenonis und Rolandsepos" in Waltharius und Wallhersage, ed. Emil Ε. Ploss [Hildesheim: Olms, 1969], pp. 172— 213). Though Gautier is one of Roland's most valiant heroes and his name is translated as Walther in the German version of the poem, there is no proof that this Walter is indeed connected in any way with the Walter of the Walter tales. Since the Song of Roland does not contain any additional references or allusions to the Walter tale, the similarity of the names, if we subscribe to Tavernier's theory, is probably nothing more than coincidental. The tale from the Wielkopolska Kronika is reprinted in Richard Heinzel, Über die Walthersage. Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Philosophisch-historische Classe (Vienna: Tempsky, 1888), pp. 28-32, and in Marion Dexter Learned, The Saga of Walther of Aquitaine (Westport: Greenwood, 1892, rpt. 1970), pp. 105-9. See also the translations in F. P. Magoun and Η. M. Smyser, Walter of Aquitaine: Materials for the Study of his Legend (New London: Connecticut College Press, 1950), pp. 56-62. The versions are Bartosz Paprocki, Herby Rycerstwa Polskiego ("The Heraldic Arms of the Polish Knighthood") (Cracow 1584); Marcin Bielski, Kronika Polska (Cracow 1597); Kasper Niesiecki, Korona Polska (Lwow, 1743); K.W. Wojcicki Klechdy starozytne podania i powiessludu polskiego i Rusi (Warsaw 1837) and an excerpt in Przybyslaw Dyjamentowski, Chronicon slavosarmaticum (Warsaw, 1827).

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knowing that they have to cross through his country on their way to Poland. After the couple crosses the Rhine, Arinaldus attacks Walcerz, who is victorious and returns home to Poland. The second part of the tale relates how Heligunda commits adultery with an incarcerated prince while Walcerz is away on military campaigns. This part of the story is no longer related to the Walter tale and can therefore be omitted here. It is not clear how and in which way the Walter material traveled to Poland and it is also impossible to establish the exact sources of the Polish accounts. Since they are so late, they could have been influenced by any of the written German or Scandinavian versions discussed above or they could derive from a different, possibly oral, version. 53 It is important to note, however, that the Polish accounts treat the Walter tale clearly as a bridal-quest romance, from which the heroic motifs have been entirely lost. Moreover, the Polish versions share motifs with the later German bridalquest romances, such as the motif of the singing wooer, which is familiar from the Middle High German Kiidrun epic and from the closely related Yiddish Dukus Horant, both of which are rather late. 54 At this point a discussion is in order of the hypotheses proposed in regard to the relationship between Waltharius (and the Walter tale in general) and the texts belonging to the Gaiferos and Escriveta type. The Gaiferos romance, which is still in circulation in Spain, Portugal, and Catalonia and also among the Sephardic Jews, tells the story of the knight Gaiferos, who plays chess with Charlemagne until the latter urges him to leave and to free his (Gaiferos's) wife from the Moors. Gaiferos receives weapons and a horse from his friend Roland and rides out alone. After a long journey he meets a Moorish peasant who tells him that his wife, Melisenda, is kept in the palace and is soon to be married to the Moorish king. Gaiferos rides into the palace and sees Melisenda, who does not recognize him but gives him a message for her husband. When Gaiferos offers to help her escape, Melisenda jumps on his horse. The Moors notice their attempt to flee and prepare to attack them. Gaiferos is in despair, but Melisenda encourages him and informs him about the miraculous horse he is riding. They flee on the horse until they take a rest in a forest. Gaiferos sleeps while Melisenda keeps watch. When the Moors approach, Gaiferos fights them bravely. Then a mighty knight appears who turns out to be the friend whose earlier

See Heinzel, p. 89 and Willy Krogmann, "Die polnische Walthersage und ihr Verhältnis zur germanischen Überlieferung", ZfslPh 32 (1965), 132-65. The second part of the Polish tale is very closely related to the Middle High German Salman and Morolf.

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offer to accompany Gaiferos had been rejected. The two defeat the Moors, Melisenda dresses Gaiferos's wounds, and the couple returns home. The Escriveta ballad, which mainly circulates in Catalonia, the Languedoc, Provence, and Piedmont, also relates how a knight liberates his wife from Moorish captivity. In some of the versions the husband builds a ship and travels across the sea until he receives more information from washerwomen on the beach. When he has reached the Moorish palace, he disguises himself as a pilgrim and approaches his wife, Escriveta. He is admitted to the palace and, while the Moorish king is asleep, Escriveta recognizes her husband during the meal she serves him. She fetches clothes and gold from the treasury and a horse for her husband (two in some versions). They flee on the horse(s) and are pursued by the Moorish king, who, however, is unable to catch up with them. Millet argued that the Gaiferos romance and Escriveta ballads do not go back to the same tradition, but rather show some accidental similarities that are common to a large portion of texts following the bridal-quest scheme. 55 This observation is certainly correct and should be expanded to explain the similarities between these Mediterranean tales and those belonging to the Walter tradition, for a direct relationship between these tales cannot be established. On the whole, the Gaiferos and Escriveta tales seem to be rather far removed from the Germanic Walter tradition. 56 There is no agreement in the protagonist's names and the plots differ on significant points. In the Mediterranean versions, the protagonists are a married couple, the wife has been capUired, and she is subsequently freed by her husband. The only motifs the romance and the ballad share with the Walter tradition is that the couple takes a treasure with them, escape on one horse (or two in some versions), are pursued and, in some versions, attacked while resting in a forest. This last motif, which occurs in some versions of the Gaiferos ballad, is the only motif that closely resembles Waltharius, whereas the other motifs are common bridal-quest motifs. A direct connection between the traditions cannot be established and, even more importantly, there is no evidence at all to support the contention that the Germanic tradition was influenced by the Mediterranean tales. On the contrary, the Mediterranean tales show a variety of possible influences from the Germanic tradition, such as the mo-

55

Millet, p. 97.

36

Before Millet, Michael Heintze argued for a connection between Gaiferos romance and Walter legend. His argument, and especially his comparison of the two traditions (p. 98), however, is based on very weak arguments ("Gualter del H u m im 'Rolandslied'—Zur Romantisierung der Walther-Sage", MlatJb 21 (1986), 9 5 100.

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tif of the washerwomen on the beach (which also occurs in Kudrun and Dukus Horant) and the hero's disguise as a pilgrim (which is known from Frankish chronicle entries). Additional motifs, such as the setting at Charlemagne's court and the figure of Roland, most likely are derived from the Old French Song of Roland, which in turn revolves around one of the most important Franconian kings. The similarities in the two traditions can best be explained by Peter Dronke's hypothesis that the Walter legend traveled through France to Spain where it developed into the Gaiferos romance, or, as I would maintain, influenced the narration of the Gaiferos romance. 57 Since almost no traces of the Walter legend can be found in France, however, Dronke's hypothesis leaves room for some doubt. He is certainly correct in asserting that the Walter legend traveled southward, since it is too firmly embedded in the Germanic tradition to be of Mediterranean origin. The tale that traveled southward, however, must already have had the shape of a bridal-quest narrative so that it cannot have received this structure from a Mediterranean bridal-quest tradition.58 The various versions of and allusions to the Walter tale have been discussed in such great detail to demonstrate that it was composed as a bridalquest story and circulated as such throughout the Middle Ages. 59 The exPeter Dronke, "Waltharius-Gaiferos", pp. 55-65. See also Heintze: "Auf welchen Wegen auch immer der germanische Sagenstoff in die Romania gelangt sein mag, eines kann nach obigen Darlegungen wohl keinem Zweifel mehr unterliegen: Die romanischen Völker des Mittelalters, in denen nicht nur unendlich viel germanisches Volkstum aufgegangen ist, sondern die ihre gesamte Heldendichtung den nordischen Völkern verdanken, waren vertraut mit der Walther-Sage und haben sie romantisiert" (p. 100). Millet (p. 133—4) additionally mentions the tale of Amicus and Amelius, whose oldest Western version (ca. 1100) is the Latin verse poem by Rodolphus Tortarius. Except for the existence of a second sword that the champion receives f r o m the girl, this tale has nothing in common with the Walter legend. The elements that the tale shares with the Gaiferos romance, such as the name of the hero, the fact that Beliardis is often referred to as Charlemagne's daughter, and the allusions to Roland's sword, could be taken as evidence for the circulation of the Gaiferos romance in France and/or for the general popularity of the story. The Amicus and Amelius tale, a tale of friendship, does not even fall into the category of bridalquest narrative and must therefore be dismissed from our discussion. A rather late, but very popular tale that has been connected with the Walter tradition is the narrative "Bueve de Hanstone", which is extant in four versions: the oldest, AngloNorman version (3850 verses), which was the source for a thirteenth-century English romance, a fifteenth-century Irish prose version, and the Scandinavian Bevers saga', and three Continental versions (10,614; 19,127; 16,391 verses). Lit.: Carla Cremonesi and Marc-Rene Jung, "Bueve de Hanstone", in Lexikon des Mittelalters, ed. Robert-Henri Bautier et al., vol. 2 (Munich and Zurich: Artemis, 1983),

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amination of the plot of Waltharius has shown that Walter's elopement with Hiltgunt is related as a bridal-quest narrative. As in the chronicle stories, the Walter story entails a secret meeting between the wooer and his well-protected bride-to-be during which they develop a plan for the next step in the quest. In the chronicles the wooer proceeds to publicly betroth the girl to his lord, whereas in the Walter tale, the couple plans their secret elopement, which is made possible by means of deception and a ruse in which the girl is actively involved. Additional motifs are the couple's escape during the night; the caretaker's rage after he has learned about the elopement; and the dispatching of pursuers with orders to kill the man and return the woman. Waltharius lacks some motifs that are common though not essential bridal-quest motifs: the council scene (which is also absent from the chronicle stories), the wooer's or proxy wooer's ride to the girl's

pp. 906-7. See also Heintze, p. 99. The lay is edited by Albert Stimming, Der anglonormannische Boeve de Haumtone (Halle: Niemeyer, 1899). See also Stimming, Bueve de Hantone I-V, Gesellschaft für Romanische Literatur 25, 30, 34, 41, and 42 (Dresden: Gesell, f. rom. L i t , 1911, 1912, 1914, 1918, and 1920); Bevers Saga has been edited by Christopher Sanders (Bevers saga, [Reykjavik: Stofnun Arna Magnüssonar ä Islandi, 2001]). The similarities between "Bueve de Hanstone" and Waltharius are the couple's involuntary presence at a heathen court; their secret engagement; escape with a treasure after the court is asleep from too much wine; and a battle with the pursuing army. The very same motifs occur in the tale "La Prise et de Sebille" from the border region between Lotharingia and Champagne, which is generally dated to the end of the twelfth century. Finally, in the "Ballad of Earl Brand", which has been ascribed to the communities of Scandinavian descent in Angevin Britain and has been dated to around 1100, Earl Brand courts the daughter of the king of England, elopes with her, and is pursued and attacked by several warriors whom the hero slays one by one (Henry Goddarch Leach, Angevin Britain and Scandinavia [Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1921], p. 350; see also Robert L. Surles, Roots and Branches. Germanic Epic/Romanic Legend [New York et al.: Lang, 1987], p. 22). The three tales summarized above obviously share several motifs with the Walter legend and serve as interesting links between the German, Anglo-Saxon, and Norse bridal-quest traditions. Although these stories do not contain any of the names familiar from the Walter tradition, some of the motifs are so similar to it that a certain connection must be assumed. Since Waltharius and Waldere predate these tales by at least one or two centuries, it is quite possible that the Walter legend directly influenced them and served as their source for particular scenes. Motifs that were taken from the Walter tradition could have been incorporated into the later tales, such as the escape on a single horse with a treasure or the trick Walter plays on Attila. It is also possible, however, that all these tales independently borrowed these motifs from a motif corpus of Germanic bridal-quest narrative that must have existed and circulated in the Germanic world, including, as I have frequently pointed out above, the motif of overindulgence and the escape on a horse with a treasure.

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court, and the final battle with the girl's relatives. Most of these motifs, however, are contained or modified in later versions of the Walter tale. The accounts in Piöreks saga and the Middle High German fragments of the tale contain the hero's battle with Attila's Hunnish army, which clearly fulfills the same function as engagement in combat with the girl's father and his army in the later bridal-quest narratives. Conversely, the allusions to an earlier betrothal of Walter and Hiltgunt as well as the fact that both of them live as hostages at Attila's court are weakened or omitted in the later versions of the tale. Only the Middle High German fragments contain a reference to their earlier betrothal, which, however, was unknown to Walter. In all these later versions only Hiltgunt lives as a hostage with Attila and his wife, whereas Walter stays there voluntarily and is able to leave the court at any time. Furthermore, it is important that, though a previous betrothal may have existed, the couple nevertheless has to meet in secret to reaffirm and renew their previous engagement. The engagement character of this meeting is especially evident in Waltharins, as will be argued below in more detail. The existence of the Polish versions and additional later narratives, ballads, and lays that have been connected with the Walter tale indicates that the story circulated throughout Europe and spread as far as Poland, England, France, and, probably, also Spain. Most important, however, is the observation that the tale was transmitted as a bridal-quest narrative. Millet concluded that all three traditions, namely the Walter legend, the Gaiferos romance, and the Escriveta ballad, are secondary and go back to a lost preBurgundian Urtext.60 I would rather like to suggest that these texts must be understood on the basis of the Franconian bridal-quest tradition that was disseminated during the Carolingian era and under Carolingian influence. As was mentioned earlier, at least one written copy of Waltharius circulated as early as the eleventh century in northern Italy, where it was copied and included in the Chronicon Novaliciense produced in a monastery maintained by the Carolingians. The Gaiferos romance may be understood as a work that built upon the Carolingian legacy, considering that the hero stays at Charlemagne's court, is married to the emperor's daughter, and is equipped by Roland, the king's most famous legendary hero. Furthermore, the two Franconian chronicles that contain the earliest bridal-quest narratives, the Liber historiae Francorum and the Chronica Fredegarii, circulated mainly in the Carolingian realm and through Carolingian patronage (all three continuations of Fredegar's chronicle were commissioned by

60

Millet, p. 138.

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members of the Carolingian family). Last but not least, Paul the Deacon spent a portion of his life at the Carolingian court. Charlemagne's interest in the collection and probably also in the dissemination of Germanic poetry is well known and there is no reason why the texts collected at his court should not also have included bridal-quest tales and, in particular, the story about Walter and Hiltgunt, which, as will be shown below, derives from the tradition of Franconian bridal-quest narrative.

The Bridal Quest in the Walter Tale and the Chronicle Tradition Since the key scene in Waltharius contains the ruse by which Walter escapes from Attila's court, the poem relates a dangerous bridal quest and should be included in the category "Successful bridal quest by means of cunning" outlined above. It can therefore be compared with the chronicle tales that fall into the same category. The Andarchius tale from the Historia Francorum will be excluded from this discussion, because it does not contain the central bridal-quest scenes, the meeting between wooer and girl and their elopement from the girl's court. 61 In its place I will include another of Gregory's tales, namely the Attalus tale, which contains a bridal-quest scheme, as was first pointed out by Joaquin Martinez Pizarro in 1978. 62 Also to be included in the comparison are the versions of the Clovis and Clotild tale from the Chronica Fredegarii and Liber historiae Francorum, and the tale of Authari and Theudelinda in the Historia Langobardorum. A comparison between Waltharius and the earliest bridal-quest stories shows that their most striking similarity is the description of the first meeting of wooer and bride-to-be (i.e. the secret meeting and secret betrothal). In these tales the bride-to-be offers a cup of wine to the wooer who then grasps or touches her hand and sometimes even kisses it. The scene in Waltharius is so close to Paul the Deacon's account of Authari's wooing and to the wooing in the Chronica Fredegarii that the Waltharius poet must either have been familiar with these tales or, perhaps more likely, intentionally made use of a very common bridal-quest motif that is deeply rooted in the Germanic tradition. 63 The corpus of Germanic literature contains sev-

It has been included in the earlier discussion mainly because it demonstrates the use of cunning to win a bride. It also contains the motifs of killing after too much wine and the burning of the hall. Joaquin Martinez Pizarro, "A 'Brautwerbung' Variant in Gregory of Tours: Attalus' Escape from Captivity", Neophilologus 62 (1978), 109-18. Serving wine also plays an important role in Salman and Morolf, more precisely, in the second bridal-quest tale during Princian's wooing of Salme, where the latter

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eral examples in which the consumption of wine is an important factor in engagement scenes, as was mentioned earlier in connection with Theudelinda's engagement to Agilulf (Hist. Lang. 3.35). Hans Fromm lists similar examples from Scandinavian sources, such as the drink Gerör offers Skirnir who woos her on Freyr's behalf in Skirnismal (st. 37), and the drink Sigrdrifa serves Sigurör in Sigrdrifomal (st. 2).64 In Völsunga saga Brynhildr offers Sigurör a drink on both of his visits. The second of these scenes is again very close to those in Waltharius and the Authari tale (ch. 25):65 Siöan reis hon upp ok fjörar meyjar meö henni ok gekk fyrir hann raeö gulker ok baö hann drekka. Hann rettir ί mot höndina ok tok hönd hennar meö ok setti hana hjä ser. Hann tok um hals henni ok kyssti hana ok meelti: "Engi kona hefir ber fegri foezk." (Then she got up and the four maidens with her and she went before him with a golden cup and bade him drink. He stretched his hand out to take the cup and he also seized her hand and made her sit with him. He embraced her and kissed her and said: "No woman has been born more beautiful than you are.")

Regeniter concludes from these parallels that the scene in Waltharius is an old engagement scene that was later modified into a "Verlöbniserneuerung". 66 He goes on to argue that the scene in Waltharius contains more elements typical of Germanic betrothal rituals, such as the fact that the two are alone during the meeting, that the man asks for some wine and touches her hand, that he hugs and kisses his bride, and that he declares his love for her and vice versa.67 Regeniter rightly assigns these elements to the typical betrothal ceremonies encountered in early Germanic writings—the strongest evidence for this ritual is found without a doubt in the two examples told by Paul the Deacon. It is also very likely that this scene used to be the initial wooing and betrothal scene of the Walter tale. As mentioned before, Waltharius and, with modifications, also the Graz fragment, are the only two versions of the Walter tale that contain an earlier betrothal of the couple, and this element could indeed be an addition by the German

places a miraculous ring in the goblet of wine he and Salme drink from. The ring in the wine results in Salme's falling in love with Princian. 64

See also the additional examples Fromm mentions (pp. 248-9).

65

Quoted from Völsunga saga, ed. Uwe Ebel (Frankfurt/Main: Haag und Herchen, 1983). See also Regeniter, pp. 230-1.

66

Regeniter, p. 231.

67

Ibid., p. 231.

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monk. 68 However that may be, there can be no doubt that the events in Hiltgunt's chamber are central for the further development of the plot and the key scene of the bridal-quest story, which may well have developed from a Germanic engagement ritual. Hiltgunt's initial resistance to Walter's proposal is another typical element encountered already in the oldest bridalquest tales: in the Historia Langobardorum it is Theudelinda's nurse who removes the maiden's doubts, and in Fredegar's account, Aurelianus, who meets with Clotild in her chamber, reveals the identity of her suitor by giving her a ring as a token and sign of the seriousness of the wooing. The ring as a love token or sign, by means of which the maiden and the wooer can identify each other later, is missing in Walter's and in Authari's wooing. Although the ring (or other tokens) is one of the most important elements of the secret betrothal in bridal-quest narratives, it is not necessary for the wooing of Walter and Authari. In both cases the wooer talks to the maiden in person and not by means of an intermediary. Other common bridal-quest motifs in Waltharius are the hero's escape with the bride, the treasure, and a single horse; the fact that they travel at night and hide in the woods during the days; the hero's involvement in a battle; and the return and marriage in the hero's home country. The earliest bridal-quest tales do not contain these elements, since in all of them the girl's father or uncle eventually agrees to the wedding and an official betrothal takes place. Therefore, the couple does not have to elope from the court and is not pursued by the girl's family (or by her father's retainers). 69 The Walter tale is not the first to introduce the elopement motif, however, as it occurs already in the Attalus tale of the Historia Francorum, which can be summarized as follows (Greg. 3.15): Attalus, the nephew of St. Gregory, lives as a hostage in the house of a noble Frank in Trier. His uncle's retainer Leo disguises himself as a cook and is taken in by the Frank whose trust he slowly gains. After a year has passed, Leo

Thus also Regeniter, p. 232 and John O. Ward, p. 91: "It is therefore possible that the betrothal element, mentioned for the first time in Attila's palace, is a (later) variant of the love-story version, effected because the latter gave offence to some audiences who may have worried because of the lack of legitimization for the alliance between the hero and the heroine" ("The Function of the Epic in Latin Culture: The 'Waltharius' and Carolingian Attitudes Towards Marriage", in The Epic in History, ed. Lola S. Davidson, S.N. Mukherjee, and Z. Zlatar [Sydney: SASSC, 1994], pp. 66-111). Only in the Chronica Fredegarii is it the bride (and not the couple) who is pursued by her uncle's adviser. She escapes, however, before he is able to catch up with them.

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approaches Attalus in a secret conversation during which both men lie with their backs to each other in a meadow. After a banquet they use the excuse of alcohol to fetch Attalus's sword and weapons and ride away on two horses. They are attacked while they are trying to cross the Moselle, but escape successfully and eventually return home to St. Gregory. The most striking similarities between the Attalus tale and Waltharius are the events that follow the protagonist's escape: in both tales the fugitives hide in the woods at night and travel during the day. The betrayed lord wants either to retrieve the former hostage in fetters (Waltharius) or to have him killed (Attalus), but in both cases the pursuit fails: in Waltharius because Attila cannot convince his retainers to pursue the couple and in the Attalus tale because the fugitives successfully hide in the woods and at a priest's house. Moreover, both stories contain an attack when the protagonist crosses a river, the Rhine and Moselle, respectively. In the Attalus tale the (unspecified) attackers stop Attalus and Leo from crossing the river. The two heroes can escape by leaving behind their horses and clothes and crossing the river lying on their shields ("Venientes autem ad Musellam fluvium, ut transirent, cum detenerentur a quibusdam, relictis equitibus et vestimentis, enatantes super parma positi amnem" [Greg. 3.15. pp. 166.36168.2]). 70 After the successful crossing Attalus and Leo flee into some woods and spend the night there. The following day they hear horses and hide behind a bush with their swords drawn so as to be in a good defensive position, but, since the approaching lord does not discover them, the battle never takes place. Walter and Hiltgunt, on the other hand, cross the Rhine without encountering any problems, but the fish they use to pay the ferryman gives them away and provoke the subsequent attack by Gunther and his retainers. The ensuing combats take place in the woods where Walter and Hiltgunt, like Attalus and Leo, find a good hiding and resting place for themselves after crossing the river. Another central motif common to both stories is the escape of hostages after a great feast at their lord's court. In the Attalus tale, the motif of the feast is not developed very well, but it seems to have played a more prominent role in the tale at some point. If Waltharius were not at least two centuries later than the Attalus tale, the reference to a feast on the night of the

It is not clear why Attalus's lord comes from the city of Reims and not f r o m Trier from where the hostage fled. This is a major discrepancy in the Attalus tale, since on the night of the escape a great feast was given at the lord's house, which, according to the beginning of the tale, is situated in Trier. Moreover, the crossing of the Moselle only makes sense if the hostages indeed come from Trier, because Reims and Langres both lie west of the river.

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escape could even be interpreted as an allusion to the Walter tales and/or similar stories. The feast as such is not elaborated in much detail; the only information provided is that the Frank has his son-in-law and many of his other relatives invited to a meal ("ad aepulum" [Greg. 3.15]). At midnight the meal is over and the guests go to bed. Leo serves a drink to his lord's son-in-law, who jokingly asks him when Leo will steal his lord's horses in order to ride back home ("...quando enim voluntatem adhibibis, ut, adsumptis equitibus eius, eas in patriam tuam" [Greg. 3.15. p. 166.20-22]). Leo answers him truthfully, saying that he would do so the same night, whereupon the son-in-law replies, again in a joking tone, that his servants better watch his possessions so that Leo could not steal from him ("Utinam, inquid, costodiant me famuli mei, ne aliquid de rebus meis adsumas" [Greg. 3.15. p. 166.24-25]). Later that night, Leo enters his lord's chamber to fetch a sword and shield for Attalus. When the Frank awakes and inquires what Leo is doing, the latter answers that he is on his way to wake up Attalus, since he is supposedly drunk and remiss in his duties as a stable boy. The whole episode looks as if it had been developed with the Walter tale in the back of the narrator's mind. Especially the short, witty dialogue between Leo and the son-in-law recalls Walter and Hiltgunt's escape with horse and treasure. Furthermore, Leo lies to his master when he steals the latter's sword and shield, and the lie he uses is again related to overindulgence in alcohol, which seems to have been a very common problem, since the master is not at all surprised that his stable boy should be drank. Moreover, the narrator places much emphasis on the sword and the shield. Leo goes back inside after he finds out that Attalus is unarmed, and he even risks discovery. In Waltharins and Waldere, Walter's sword plays a very important role in the subsequent battles. In Waltharius the hero defeats his attackers successfully with Attila's sword and he protects himself by means of Attila's byrnie, which, as is made explicit twice, has been fashioned in the famous smithy of Weland. In Waldere, both fragments refer to a sword. In the first fragment it is called Weland's work, Mimming, and in the second fragment we learn that Dietrich (Deodric) intended to have this sword sent to Widia. If scholarly interpretation of the Waldere fragments should be correct, the sword enables its bearer to be victorious and, depending on the meaning of Welandes wore (1.2), either it or the hero's byrnie have been fashioned by Weland. 71 As Frederick Norman pointed out, "throughout the fragment there is constant reference to swords and armor, and to their com-

Compare also the discussion above to the problem of the reference in Waldere.

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parative excellence." 72 In Waltharius, Walter gives explicit orders to Hiltgunt concerning the sword, and its future importance is already introduced in the preparations for their escape. However, in the Attalus tale the two heroes are not involved in any battles. They escape from their first group of attackers by leaving their horses and clothes behind and only the shield is of some significance because they lie on it while crossing the river. The sword is mentioned again when the two fugitives hide behind a bush with their swords drawn after they have heard the Frank and his men approach. In both cases, the young men avoid an armed confrontation. The sword is never used and it seems unnecessary that the tale should tell us that Leo had to fetch it by means of cunning. Other motifs in the Attalus tale seem redundant as well, but they are clearly modeled after the bridal-quest scheme, such as Leo's stay at the Frank's court for one year before he first meets with Attalus (both are working men at the court and could easily get in contact without making themselves conspicuous). Their meeting is only possible because Leo has gained the master's trust by preparing an outstanding meal to prove his loyalty to his lord. The meeting takes place in secret in a meadow, where the two lie down in the grass with their backs to each other so that no one notices that they are having a conversation. All the above scenes could be taken straight out of a later bridal-quest narrative. To mention two examples: in Wolfdietrich Β the hero Hugdietrich, in his disguise as Hildegunde (!), makes an especially nice honbet for king Walgunt after he has stayed and worked at the court for a half year, which gains him the king's trust as well as access to his daughter, and in the tale of Attila and Erka (Pidreks saga), Attila's messenger stays at court for two years before he has a conversation with Erka in the garden. As Martinez Pizarro correctly observes, Gregory tells his Attalus tale according to the bridal-quest scheme. The story's structure and especially some of its motifs resemble later, thirteenth-century bridal-quest stories so closely that we can safely conclude that the tradition of bridal-quest tales in Franconia and Germany existed as early as the sixth century. The bridalquest scheme developed further during the subsequent centuries, as it was applied and expanded in the Chronica Fredegarii, in the Liber historiae

Frederick Norman, "The Old English Waldere and Some Problems in the Story of Walther and Hildegunde", Milanges pour Jean Fourquet: 37 essais de linguistique germanique et de litterature du moyen äge frangais et allemand, ed. Paul Valentin and Georges Zink (Munich: Hueber, 1969), p. 267.

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Francorum, and by Paul the Deacon in his Historia Langobardorum.73 The main area for which we can verify the existence of early bridal-quest narrative is the Merovingian realm, which included Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy. The only exception is the bridal-quest tale in the Historia Langobardorum, since the related events take place in Bavaria. All the other tales, however, have Franks and Burgundians as their main protagonists and are explicitly located in Franconia. In Waltharius Gunther is not referred to as the Burgundian king, as is common in the Germanic heroic tradition, but rather as a Frank, which also holds true for Hägen, and the main confrontation takes place on Franconian soil. Hiltgunt, on the other hand, is a Burgundian princess, as is Clotild. The connection between this Franconian bridal-quest tradition and the Walter tales can be easily established. Waltharius contains the secret betrothal scene that is known from the stories in the chronicles, it shares various motifs with the Attalus tale (most predominantly the attack in connection with a river crossing), and, last but not least, the trick Walter plays on Attila is a popular motif in Franconian tales. The old Germanic Walter tale lived on in various versions and was well known throughout Europe. Indeed, the Walter tale serves as the bridge between the Franconian and Middle High German bridal-quest literature, as will subsequently be demonstrated on the basis of later German bridalquest narratives transmitted in Scandinavia but clearly deriving from the Walter tale and the Franconian bridal-quest tradition.

73

Note that the Attalus tale takes place during the reign of the Kings Theuderich (511-33) and Childebert (511-58), the sons of Clovis and Clotild, who are the protagonists of the oldest extant bridal-quest tale.

Chapter 3 Catching Her Eye The Old Norse Pidreks saga which purports to relate the legendary life of Theoderic the Great, as suggested by the title, is a compilation transmitting unrelated tales. The majority of these tales most likely originated in the northern regions of Germany. They go back to written and oral traditions that are only sparsely documented and today only transmitted in the Norse saga, and, to a lesser extent, in Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum, as well as in a few manuscripts from southern Germany. It is generally assumed that the saga was composed during the rule of King Häkon Häkonarson (1217-63), who commissioned various translations from the French, notably Thomas de Bretagne 's Tristan and Chretien de Troyes's Yvain. Although Pidreks saga was most likely composed in this environment, it is in many respects exceptional. The saga is a compilation of narratives belonging to a variety of genres, including heroic poetry, folktale, fairytale, and bridal-quest narrative. There is no evidence that King Häkon commissioned Pidreks saga, as is the case with some translations of French romances; nor is it clear whether the saga was indeed composed under the influence of the newly developed Norwegian interest in Continental subject matter. The most controversial aspect of Pidreks saga and the object of lively scholarly discussion is the question of the saga's origin and composition. 1 According to the prologue, Norwegian men collected a certain section of the saga, parts of which were in verse: "Nomener menn hafa samann fsert nockurt part soghunnar. Enn sumt med kvedskap" (Ps. 1.2.5—7).2 The material incorporated into the saga is said to be of German origin (1.2.13-21):

Pidriks saga is extant in a Norwegian vellum manuscript dated to ca. 1275-1300 (Stockholm perg. fol. no. 4), two complete Icelandic paper manuscripts (AM 177 fol. and AM 178 fol.) dating from the seventeenth century, additional Icelandic paper manuscripts which have no independent textual value, and a Swedish translation (Didrikskrönikan) from the fifteenth century. See R. G. Finch, "f>iöreks saga af Bern", in Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, ed. Philip Pulsiano et al. (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 662-3. All references are to Henrik Bertelsen, ed., Pidriks saga af Bern. The translations are my own.

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l>esse sagha samansett epter S0gn Jjydskra manna, enn sumt a f Jjeirra kuasdum er skemta skal rikumm monnum og fornort voro J)egar epter tij)indum sem seiger j jjessare soghu og JJO ath JJU taker einn mann vr hverre borg v m m allt Saxlannd ]pa munu Jjessa S0ghu aller eina leid seigia enn Jmi vallda J)eirra hin fornu kuasde, enn J^eirra kuedskapur er settur epter Jiui sem vier meigumm vid kiennast ath kuseda hattur er j vorre tunngu. (This saga has been composed according to the account o f German men, in part from their poems which are composed for the entertainment o f noble men and which were composed right after the events that are told in this saga, and even i f you take a man from each town in Saxony, they will all tell this story in the same way, because o f their old poems, and their poetry is composed in a way that we know to have been composed in our tongue.) A s u b s e q u e n t s t a t e m e n t c o r r o b o r a t e s this a c c o u n t g i v e n in t h e p r o l o g u e . A t the e n d o f " N i f l u n g a s a g a " , the n a r r a t o r i n f o r m s us that h e h a s l e a r n e d t h e s e t a l e s f r o m m e n w h o w e r e b o r n in B r e m e n o r M ü n s t e r , w h o i n d e p e n d e n t l y o f o n e a n o t h e r t o l d the s a m e t a l e that is a l s o t o l d in o l d G e r m a n

poems

(11.327.14-17; II.328.5-11): Her ma nu haeyra frasogn jjyöasrskra manna huasrso farit hafa Jjsessi tidinde jiasira nockorra er fasddir hafa vasrit i susat f)ar er Jjaessir atburdir hafa oröit [ . . . ] E>aeir menn hafa oss oc sagt ifra jjesso er fosddir hafa vasrit i brimum eöa masnstr borg oc engi J>asira vissi dseili a adrom oc sagöu allir a asina lseiö fra. oc er Jsat meest epter Jmi sem sasgia fornkveeöi i J)yöeerskri tungu er gort hafa storir menn um Jjau stortiöine er i Jjaesso landi hafa oröit. (Here you can hear the account o f German men, how these events took place, some o f whom [the men] were born in Susat [Soest], where these events took place. [ . . . ] Also men, who were born in Bremen or the city o f Munster, have told us o f this. None o f them knew anything specific o f the other and yet they all told it in the same way. And most o f what they say agrees with old poems in the German tongue, which were composed by great men about great tidings that took place in that country.) T h r e e h y p o t h e s e s h a v e b e e n p r o p o s e d w i t h r e g a r d to the s a g a ' s o r i g i n . T h e p r o p o n e n t s o f the first h y p o t h e s i s m a i n t a i n that the s a g a w a s c o m p i l e d in the G e r m a n a r e a a n d e x i s t e d in o n e or m o r e m a n u s c r i p t s that w e r e b r o u g h t to N o r w a y a n d t h e n t r a n s l a t e d into O l d N o r s e . A c c o r d i n g to the s e c o n d h y p o t h e s i s , the G e r m a n t a l e s w e r e t o l d b y G e r m a n m e r c h a n t s in

Bergen,

w h e r e a m e m b e r o f the a u d i e n c e r e c o r d e d t h e m a n d in this w a y c o m p i l e d the s a g a . S u p p o r t e r s o f the third h y p o t h e s i s a r g u e that a N o r w e g i a n

col-

l e c t e d the m a t e r i a l in G e r m a n y , b r o u g h t it b a c k to N o r w a y , a n d t r a n s l a t e d a n d c o m p i l e d it t h e r e . T h e last t w o h y p o t h e s e s are l i n k e d b y the a s s u m p t i o n

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that the saga was written down for the first time in Norway, whereas the first hypothesis claims the existence of at least one northern German Pidreks saga manuscript that was later translated. Some of the most important proponents of an original Norwegian composition of Pidreks saga include Gustav Storm (1874), Helmut de Boor (1923), Horst P. Pütz (1971), Heiko Uecker (1996), and Susanne KramarzBein (1996 and 2002). Gustav Storm suggests that German stories were told by merchants and later written down by a Norwegian scribe.3 Helmut de Boor agrees with Storm but adds the possibility that the sources could also have existed in written form and that both the written and the oral tales were collected by a Norwegian scribe at the court of the Norwegian king. 4 Horst P. Pütz, on the other hand, assumes that a Norwegian cleric traveled throughout Europe to collect oral and written stories from Germany, and especially from France, which he combined after his return to Norway. 5 Pütz supports his claim by arguing that certain episodes in Pidreks saga are influenced by French sources. In recent scholarship the emphasis has shifted more towards linguistic and syntactical analyses of the saga. Heiko Uecker, for example, investigated the names in the saga and discovered that they show German as well as Norse forms. 6 All the names in "Niflunga saga" appear in the Norse forms that are attested in Völsunga saga and the eddic poems. Even though Uecker refrains from drawing a final conclusion, he tends more towards placing the saga in a Norwegian context. Uecker's study shows, however, that additional work on the linguistic and stylistic features of the saga may shed new light on the saga's origin. The most vigorous proponent of a Norwegian composition of the saga is Susanne Kramarz-Bein, who bases her argument on a comparison of Pidreks saga and Karlamagnüs saga. She emphasizes that saga compilation has a long tradition in Norwegian-Icelandic literature, as the compendia of

Gustav Storm, Sagnkredsene om Karl den store og Didrik af Bern hos de nordiske Folk. Et Bidrag til Middelalderens littercere Historie, Den nordiske historiske Forening (Copenhagen, 1874), pp. 89-99; 104-31. 4

Helmut de Boor, "Die Handschriftenfrage der i>iörekssaga", ZDA 60 (1923), 8 1 112.

5

Horst P. Pütz, "Heimes Klosterepisode. Ein Beitrag zur Quellenfrage der Thidrekssaga", ZDA 100 (1971), 178-94. Roswitha Wisniewski, Die Darstellung des Niflungenuntergangs in der Thidrekssaga. Eine quellenkritische Untersuchung (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1961).

6

Heiko Uecker, "Nordisches in der 'i>iöreks saga'", in Hansische Literaturbeziehungen. Das Beispiel von 'Pidreks saga' und verwandter Literatur, ed. Susanne Kramarz-Bein (Berlin and N e w York: de Gruyter, 1996), pp. 175-87.

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Kings' Sagas, such as Morkinskinna or Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla, and also the Icelandic Family Sagas illustrate.7 According to Kramarz-Bein, Pidreks saga and Karlamagmis saga stand in this tradition of sagas that were composed around the lives of their protagonist. She claims that in the same way that ΟΙά/s saga focuses on the life of King Oläfr, Pidreks saga and Karlamagmis saga tell the life stories of Theoderic and Charlemagne, respectively. The main shortcoming of Kramarz-Bein's comparison of the latter two sagas is that the date of composition of Karlamagmis saga is rather difficult to establish. Since the Α-version of the saga is dated to around 1250, the author's claim that this saga predated Pidreks saga and served as a model for its compilation leaves some room for doubt. 8 Another difficulty with Kramarz-Bein's argument lies in the very different textual material treated in the two sagas. Karlamagnus saga mainly consists of material from the French chansons de geste and other written French sources that doubtlessly came to Norway during Häkon's reign. The material that has been incorporated in Pidreks saga, however, most likely comes from northern German sources, which, assuming that the saga was composed in Norway, must have been to a large extent oral. The most important proponents of the hypothesis that Pidreks saga goes back to a lost written German source are Roswitha Wisniewski (1961), Heinrich Hempel (1960/61 etc.), and Theodore M. Andersson (1980, 1986, 1994, etc.). Mainly based on the Heimir episode towards the end of the saga, Roswitha Wisniewski concludes that Pidreks saga was composed by a cleric with the name Ludwig in a monastery at Weddinghausen between 1210 and 1230. She argues that "Wadinciisan", the name of the monastery in which Heimir spends the last years of his life, must be the Low German form for Weddinghausen in Arnsberg on the Ruhr, which is in close proximity to Attila's capital city, Soest (Susat), in the saga.9 Kramarz-Bein ar-

Susanne Kramarz-Bein first presented her argument in "'£>iöreks saga' und 'Karlamagmis saga'", in Hansische Literatlirbeziehungen. Das Beispiel von 'Pidreks saga' und verwandter Literatur, ed. Susanne Kramarz-Bein (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1996), pp. 186-211. She later expanded that argument in her recent monograph, entitled Die 'Pidreks saga' im Kontext der altnoi-wegischen Literatur. Beiträge zur nordischen Philologie 33 (Tübingen and Basel: Francke, 2002). Kramarz-Bein (Die 'Pidreks saga', p. 162-163) addresses this dating problem in greater detail in her recent monograph and reaches the conclusion that the exact chronology of the two works cannot be established, neither by means of their proposed time of composition nor by their contents. Wisniewski, Die Darstellung des Niflungenuntergangs, pp. 261-6. Wisniewski's claim has been refuted by several scholars. Compare among others William J.

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gues instead that the Heimir episode is set in Lombardy, where all of the final events in the saga take place (and also the moniage episode in Karlamagmis saga)}0 Based on Heinrich Hempel's work, Theodore M. Andersson argues for the German origin of Pidreks saga (before 1200), mainly by means of a close analysis of the sources that have been incorporated into the saga." He maintains that all these sources originated in Western Germany, more specifically in the Rhenish regions. The only exceptions are the (reconstructed) Bavarian "Ältere Not" and one Norse literary source, a citation of a halfstanza by Hallfreör found in the prologue of Pidreks saga}2 Of great importance for Andersson's argument are the bridal-quest narratives in Pidreks saga, which he regards as literary inventions that are "based primarily on the proto-Rother, the story of Walter and Hildegund, and the motivic stock of minstrel epic versions." 13 He goes on to argue that "since neither Rother nor the other German bridal-quest epics ever made headway in Scandinavia", the stories in the saga were most likely composed in Ger14

many. Andersson's argument returns us to the question of the origin and development of bridal-quest narrative. It will be argued that the bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga are indeed of German origin, and that contrary to Andersson's assertion, these tales are not literary inventions that are based Pfaff, "Rezension zu Wisniewski", JEGP 61 (1962), 948-52, and Pütz, pp. 17982. 0

Kramarz-Bein, "'i>iöreks saga' and 'Karlamagniis saga'", pp. 197-203.

11

See for example Heinrich Hempel, "Zur Datierung des Nibelungenliedes", ZDA 90 (1960/61), 181-97 and "Sächsische Nibelungendichtung und sächsischer Ursprung der Thidrikssaga", in Edda, Skalden, Saga: Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Felix Genzmer, ed. Hermann Schneider (Heidelberg: Winter, 1952), pp. 138-56, rpt. in Heinrich Hempel, Kleine Schriften. Zur Vollendung seines 80. Lebensjahres am 27. August 1965, ed. Heinrich Matthias Heinrichs (Heidelberg: Winter, 166), pp. 209-25. Theodore M. Andersson's articles on this topic are "An Interpretation of 'fnöreks saga'", in Structure and Meaning in Old Norse Literature. New Approaches to Textual Analysis and Literary Criticism, ed. J. Lindow, L. Lönnroth, and G. W. Weber (Odense: Odense UP, 1986), pp. 347-77; "Composition and Literary Culture in 'Möreks saga'", in Studien zum Altgermanischen. Festschrift für Heinrich Beck, ed. Heiko Uecker, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde 11 (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1994), pp. 1-23. See also The Legend of Brynhild (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1980), pp. 128-50.

12

Andersson, "Composition and Literary Culture", p. 21.

13

Ibid., p. 21.

14

Ibid., p. 21.

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on the proto-Rother or the tale of Walter and Hiltgunt. Instead, they should be understood in the context of the Franconian bridal-quest tradition. The Textual Corpus Pidreks saga contains six tales that are generally assigned to the bridalquest genre.15 They are "Samson and Hildisviö" (1.8-13), "Osantrix and Oda" (1.49-56), "Attila and Erka" (1.57-73), "Herburt and Hildr" (11.4760), "Apollonius and Herborg" (11.109-142), and "Iron and Bolfriana" (11.147-157). Additionally, the saga contains four well-known tales that are unproblematic wooing stories without a conflict: "Sigmundr and Sisibe" (1.282-286), "Gunnarr and Brynhildr" (11.37-43), "I>iörekr, Fasold and t>ettleifr's marriages with three of Drusian's daughters" (11.60-63), and "Attila and Grimhildr" (11.275-279). Although the latter four stories relate some of the most important marriages in Pidreks saga—the marriage of the saga's protagonist tnörekr and two of the central marriages in "Niflunga saga"— these tales are not told according to the bridal-quest scheme, but straightforwardly as successful wooing stories and, in the case of "Sigmundr and Sisibe", as a successful wooing that is based on a minor condition, as Sigmundr is asked to woo Sisibe in person and not through a proxy wooer (1.283.11-12). The formerly mentioned six bridal-quest narratives in Pidreks saga seem to have been almost exclusively independent tales that are only loosely connected to the plot and the saga's main protagonists. The first bridal-quest tale, "Samson and Hildisviö", is found only in the later paper manuscripts, and it is missing in the oldest vellum manuscript. These later manuscripts have the remaining bridal-quest stories arranged in the order given above, which is also the order in Bertelsen's edition. Osantrix and Attila's quests, which belong to "Vilkina saga", are recounted fairly early in the saga, whereas "Herburt and Hildr", "Apollonius and Herborg", as well as "Iron and Bolfriana", are incorporated as a block in the middle of the work. In the oldest vellum manuscript, however, "Vilkina saga" is placed right after Herburt's quest, so that all of the bridal-quest stories are grouped together, whereas the Samson tale is missing in this manuscript. The order in this manuscript is as follows: "Herburt and Hildr", "Osantrix and Oda", "Attila and Erka", "Apollonius and Herborg", and "Iron and Bolfriana". 16 b

16

Andersson, for example, discusses and translates only these six tales in his A Preface to the Nibelungenlied, pp. 214-51. See also Kramarz-Bein, Die 'Pidreks saga', pp. 57-59.

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The number of bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga is astonishing and has puzzled scholars in the past since their inclusion seems rather unmotivated and not connected to the main plot of the work. Thomas Klein is the only scholar who has offered an interpretation of Pidreks saga that attempts to integrate these stories into the structure of the whole saga. According to Klein, the sequence of the stories in the oldest vellum manuscript is original and forms the middle part of a proposed tripartite structure that is divided into youth, marriage, and death ("Jugend—Heirat—Tod"). 1 7 If this interpretation is correct, the question remains why no more than two of the bridal-quest stories in Pidreks saga are connected with the saga's hero I>iörekr, namely "Samson and Hildisviö" and "Herburt and Hildr". 18 The first tale, "Samson and Hildisviö", gives some genealogical background information about Mörekr's alleged grandparents, telling us about Samson's elopement with Hildisviö from her father's court. "Herburt and Hildr" is the story of I>iörekr's bridal quest gone awry, since his messenger Herburt elopes with the bride himself. With the exception of his initiative in the quest, tnörekr does not intervene in the events, which are not further elaborated. Herburt and Hildr disappear from the saga and the failed bridal quest does not have any consequences for Herburt or t>iörekr. On the contrary, immediately after this quest has failed the tale about f>iörekr's marriage with one of King Drusian's daughters follows. If we again consider the number of bridal-quest narratives in the saga, it is surprising that I>iörekr's marriage is not told in a bridal-quest scheme but is merely mentioned en passant.

Thomas Klein, "Zur i>iöreks saga", in Arbeiten zur Skandinavistik: Sechste Arbeitstagung der Skandinavisten des deutschen Sprachgebietes: 26.9.-1.10. 1983 in Bonn, ed. Heinrich Beck (Frankfurt/Main, et al.: Lang, 1983), pp. 521-25. Klein regards the order of the tales in the oldest vellum manuscript as original and intended by the saga composer. He argues that this order was no longer understood by later copyists and redactors of the work so that they moved some of the stories. Henrik Bertelsen argued instead that the order in the later paper manuscripts represents the original order ( O m Didrik af Berns sagas oprindelige skikkelse, omarbejdelse og händskrifter [Copenhagen: Romer, 1902], p.147). Dietrich von Kralik, on the other hand, claims that "Vilkina saga" has been added to the saga only later and that the scribe moved its position from the beginning of the saga to the middle part (Die Überlieferung und Entstehung der Thidrekssaga [Halle/Saale: Niemeyer, 1931], pp. 11, 89). Susanne Kramarz-Bein made a similar observation in " Z u m Dietrich-Bild der ί>ίδrekssaga", in Arbeiten zur Skandinavistik: Zehnte Arbeitstagung der deutschsprachigen Skandinavistik: 22.-27.9.1991 am Weißenhäuser Strand, ed. Bernhard Glienke and Edith Marold (Frankfurt/Main, et al.: Lang, 1993), p. 113.

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The saga's other bridal-quest stories are even more loosely connected with I>iörekr: "Ösantrix and Oda" and "Attila and Erka" are part of "Vilkina saga", while the last two tales, "Apollonius and Herborg" and "Iron and Bolfriana", seem to have been independent stories that were included in the saga for no apparent reason other than their entertainment value. The former received the name of its protagonist from the Greek romance Apollonius of Tyre that was already famous in the early Middle Ages and, for example, influenced some of the episodes in the German Kaiserchronik (ca. 1150). The saga's bridal-quest tale, however, does not bear much resemblance to the romance. It merely borrows the names of the protagonists, which might have been meant to allude to and thus play with the audience's knowledge of the classical story. The last story included above, "Iron and Bolfriana", is linked to the saga only through the guest list at the feast during which the love-story evolves, and through the fact that I>iörekr finds the dead Earl Iron at the end. This story is not a bridal-quest narrative but rather a typical love-triangle story that shares elements with fabliaux, and therefore it will be excluded from our discussion as well, thus reducing the number of bridal-quest tales in the saga to five. "Samson and Hildisviö" (1.8-13) This first bridal-quest story in Piöreks saga relates how Hildisviö, the daughter of Earl Roögeirr, elopes with Samson, who lives as a retainer at her father's court. One day, the king orders Samson to serve food to his daughter in the tower where she lives protected from all men. During this visit, Samson informs Hildisviö of his plan to escape with her from the castle. Though initially sad about this, the woman consents out of fear that her father could be injured, because Samson might use force. Samson carries Hildisviö in his arms out of the tower to the two horses his page has prepared in the meantime. The couple rides off on one horse, while the second horse carries a great treasure, which consists of Samson's weapons and unspecified goods, as well as Hildisviö's most valuable possessions. Roögeirr reacts with grief to the news of his daughter's elopement and, after he has regained control of his senses, rides after the couple along with fifteen knights. In the ensuing battle, Samson kills his pursuers and later also Roögeirr's brother, who had set out in revenge. After a while, Samson meets his own uncle, is made a count, and eventually becomes the ruler of Salerno.

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"Herburt and Hildr" (11.47-60) King i>iörekr sends his messenger Herburt to King Arthur to woo his daughter, Hildr, but Arthur rejects the proposal because t>iörekr does not woo her in person and because nobody is permitted to see her. He does, however, allow Herburt to stay at court, where he gains an increasingly important position, first as the king's cupbearer and later as his steward. Since Hildr is very well protected, Herburt has to wait before he can finally approach her during a church service. He lets two mechanical mice run in the church to catch her eye and draw her attention to himself. The trick is successful and he has a first secret conversation with her behind the church door. Several other secret meetings follow. One day, when Hildr drinks with her father, she urges him to grant her a request. Arthur, who is rather drunk, agrees and is forced to make Herburt Hildr's steward. During their frequent meetings, Herburt draws a portrait of his uncle tnörekr. in which the latter is depicted as a very ugly man, and eventually proposes to Hildr himself. The woman confesses her love for him and the couple elopes from the court on two horses. Arthur sends twelve men after them into the woods, led by the knight Hermann. Herburt consummates his union with Hildr when he hears the pursuers advancing, and then defeats all of them in single combat. After the battles, Hildr binds Herburt's wounds and they join another king's retinue.

'Osantrix and Oda" (1.49-56) Osantrix sends six knights to King Milias with a letter, in which he explains his marriage plans to him. Milias rejects the proposal and incarcerates the messengers. The same fate awaits Osantrix's second envoys. His nephew Hertniö and twelve other knights offer the king a great treasure, but they are incarcerated as well. In a third attempt, Osantrix himself appears before Milias accompanied by a small army and some giants. He introduces himself as £>i5rekr, a former retainer of Osantrix, who is seeking refuge at the king's court. Before Milias gets a chance to respond to the request, Osantrix's giants attack him in revenge for their incarcerated companions and relatives. Milias escapes from the court and Osantrix meets for the first time with Oda. He puts first a silver and then a golden shoe on one of her feet, she recognizes him, and happily rides off with him and his men. Eventually Osantrix and Milias settle their dispute and the couple lives in peace.

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"Attila and Erka" (1.57-73) Attila's quest for King Osantrix's daughter Erka develops in four steps. First, Attila sends his messengers, his nephew Osiö, to ask Osantrix formally for his daughter's hand in marriage. Osantrix dismisses this proposal and also the next one, which is made by Attila's second messenger, Margrave Roöolfr. Even though Roöolfr offers many treasures to Osantrix, the king rejects the offer, because Attila had unrightfully claimed the land and the crown of the Huns. Next Attila and Roöolfr march with their armies into Jutland and engage in a battle with Osantrix's retainers, but they are defeated. In a final effort to reach his goal, Attila sends Roöolfr a second time to Osantrix's court, this time under false pretense. Roöolfr calls himself Sigurör, claims to be a great enemy of Attila, and expresses his wish to kill his former king. By these means he establishes for himself a position of great trustworthiness at court and eventually becomes the king's closest counselor. After several months have passed, Attila sends Sigurör to propose to Erka on behalf of King Noröungr from Swabia. During this meeting, Sigurör accomplishes his initial mission and proposes to her on behalf of Attila. Erka reacts with rage but relents after the intervention of her sister Berta, who is in love with the messenger. Sigurör lies to Osantrix about the outcome of his conversation with Erka and, once more under false pretense, he rides into the nearby forest to fetch his companion Osiö, who had waited there in the meantime. A week after their return to the court, Sigurör and Erka flee on one horse and also Osiö and Berta, one evening when the king and all his men had fallen asleep after drinking much wine. The run-aways meet Attila's army in the woods and escape with them into a nearby castle. Osantrix pursues them and besieges the castle but retreats when he learns that Attila and his army are approaching. Attila and Erka get married in Susat, the capital city of Hünaland. Attila and Osantrix remain enemies.

"Apollonius and Herborg" (11.109-142) Apollonius, the earl of Tyra, sends a messenger to woo Herborg, whom her father, the Frankish king Samson, loves so much that he refuses to give her to any man. Samson receives Apollonius's first messenger well, but he rejects the proposal. Then Apollonius himself appears before the king. He is accompanied by his brother Iron, while his army hides in a nearby forest. Samson rejects the second proposal as well, because Apollonius is only an earl and not a king, and he upholds this decision even after Apollonius threatens him with war. However, during his stay at Samson's court, Apollonius has a secret conversation with Herborg, and he hands a magic ring to

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her. Herborg falls in love with Apollonius and sends him a love letter hidden in an apple in which she outlines a plan for their elopement. Following her instructions, Apollonius disguises himself as a woman and enters the women's chambers a few days later. Here he receives another letter in an apple, in which Herborg announces that she would meet him the following day in the forest. She does so and accompanied by Apollonius's men, the couple rides back to Tyra. The wedding never takes place, however, because Herborg insists that Apollonius and her father first settle their differences. Before such an agreement can be reached, Herborg dies. Comparison of the Tales There can be no doubt that these tales follow the bridal-quest pattern, each in a different and unique manner, some in closer adherence to the scheme familiar from the Middle High German bridal-quest epics, such as "Attila and Erka", others to a lesser extent, such as "Samson and Hildisviö". In "Herburt and Hildr", "Apollonius and Herborg", and "Osantrix and Oda", the wooer knows from hearsay about the girl he is going to court. Conversely, Samson knows Hildisviö because he lives as a retainer at her father's court. Attila knows Erka because she is the daughter of his enemy Osantrix, the legitimate heir of the Hunnish kingdom whom Attila conquered after the death of Milias, his father-in-law. The special circumstances under which the wooing takes place explain why Osantrix opposes Attila's marriage proposal so vehemently. Furthermore, Attila's intended marriage to Erka seems to be clearly motivated by his political ambitions, namely to legitimize his rule over Hiinaland, and not by his love or the qualities of the woman. These observations might explain why the story of "Attila and Erka" is the only one in which the girl is not described in any detail. In "Samson and Hildisviö" we learn that the girl is loved by all for her beauty, courtliness, kindness, generosity, and artistry, and she lives well protected in a tower. Also well protected and locked away is Hildr, who is known to people as being most beautiful and well-educated and who can be seen only by her father's closest friends. Herborg is described as very beautiful as well, and because of her beauty many men court her. Since her father loves her too much, however, none of her suitors has succeeded in his wooing effort. Likewise, Oda's beauty and courtliness are praised, but she is also over-protected by her father, who loves her too much to give her in marriage to any man. "Samson and Hildisviö" is the only tale in which the suitor does not dispatch messengers to woo the girl on his behalf. Samson already lives at the girl's court and he also knows that his proposal would be in vain because

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he is a retainer of the earl and thus not an eligible candidate to marry Hildisviö and inherit the rule over the earldom. In all the other tales, however, a proxy wooer arrives at the court of the girl's father. The proposals are rejected in all cases. The main divergences from tale to tale are in the events following the initial proposal. In "Herburt and Hildr", I>iörekr's messenger Herburt fails in his task, but he nevertheless remains at the king's court, where he eventually gains a position of trust and thus also access to the girl. In "Apollonius and Herborg", the first messenger is well received, but his proposal is rejected so that he returns home. Apollonius himself undertakes the second wooing attempt. He appears before the king together with his brother, while his army lies in wait in the woods. In "Osantrix and Oda", the wooing is repeated three times. The first group of ambassadors is incarcerated and likewise the second, which had offered Milias a great treasure. In a third attempt, Osantrix himself appears before the king, albeit under the cover of a false name and pretense. A very similar multi-part structure occurs in Attila's wooing of Erka. The first group of ambassadors, Attila's nephew Osiö and his retainer Roöolfr, is well received by Osantrix but sent away without any success. In a second attempt, the ruler of Bakalar, Roöingeirr, presents himself as a very generous man and comes with many treasures for Osantrix, but he is rejected as well. In a third attempt, Attila tries to win Erka by force and therefore engages in a battle with Osantrix's army in the forest that separates their two kingdoms, Hünaland and Denmark/Jutland/ Vilcinaland, but he is defeated and has to retreat. In a final attempt, Roöolfr travels once more to Osantrix's court, this time under a different name and false pretense. The use of cunning is important for the successful wooing in all the tales except in "Samson and Hildisviö". In "Attila and Erka" and "Osantrix and Oda" the last suitor (or his messenger) introduces himself under a pseudonym to the king and pretends to be his ally. Similarly, in "Herburt and Hildr", the messenger successfully distracts the king from his true intentions by offering him good and loyal service. He additionally uses a trick to arrange for a first secret conversation with the woman. During a church service he gets her attention by means of two mechanical mice and is thus able to meet with her briefly in secret afterwards. In "Apollonius and Herborg", the suitor hands a magic ring to the girl. She falls in love with him and arranges their escape. 19

Apollonius's disguise as a woman and his entering the w o m e n ' s chambers to receive another apple and love letter in which the plans are spelled out in detail are rather unmotivated for the development of the plot.

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In all tales, the girl elopes either with her suitor or with his messenger(s) on horseback, frequently with a treasure and most often through a forest. In "Samson and Hildisviö", the couple rides off on one horse, while a second horse carries a treasure. They ride through the forest and hide in a hut. In "Attila and Erka", the messenger Roöolfr shares a horse with Erka, while his helper Osiö rides on a second horse with Erka's sister Berta. They meet the men in the woods and flee to a castle. Herburt and Hildr also ride into the woods, each of them on a single horse. Herborg meets Apollonius and his men in the woods from where they ride together to Tyra, and Osantrix and Oda also ride back into the wooer's country accompanied by an army. The father's reaction to his daughter's elopement is once more unique in "Samson and Hildisviö", because Roögeirr first reacts helplessly to the news. After he has regained his senses, however, he pursues the couple along with fifteen of his knights. They are all killed by Samson. If a pursuit occurs in the remaining tales, the girl's father reacts without any hesitation. Erka's father, Osantrix, equips himself immediately after he learns the news and besieges the castle in which Erka and Roöolfr are hiding, but he has to retreat when Attila's army approaches. In "Herburt and Hildr", Arthur sends thirty knights in pursuit of the couple. Herburt kills twelve of them in single combat and the remaining knights retreat. In "Apollonius and Herborg" and "Osantrix and Oda", the run-aways are not pursued. In the former, the events following the elopement are highly abbreviated. We learn that Herborg refuses to agree to the wedding until Apollonius and her father, Samson, have reached a peace agreement, and the woman dies before they can settle their dispute. The situation in "Osantrix and Oda" is very different, because Milias has fled from his court after Osantrix's giants had attacked him. He was therefore not able to pursue the couple, but we are told that he later settled his dispute with Osantrix. In the following table the presence of narrative elements in each tale is indicated:

99

Catching her Eye "Samson + Hildiviö" Girl known from hearsay Description of the girl's beauty and virtues Girl over-protected because of her father's love Girl kept in a tower or separate chambers Number of wooing efforts The suitor appears in person An army is hidden in the woods Use of disguise (pseudonym) Help of magic or devices 2 0 Escape on a shared horse Escape on two horses; one each Escape on several horses with an army Pursuit of the run-aways Suitor and pursuer fight Hiding in a building and siege

"Attila + Erka"

X

"Apollonius + Herborg"

"Osantrix + Oda"

Χ

Χ

Χ

Χ

Χ

Χ

Χ

Χ

2

3

Χ

Χ

Χ

X

1

"Herburt + Hildr"

4

1

X

Χ

Χ

Χ

Χ χ X

Χ

Χ

χ

χ

χ χ

X

χ

χ

X

X

χ

χ

Apollonius uses a magic ring, Herburt two mechanical mice, and Osantrix a gold and a silver shoe, although they are of no immediate use for the wooing.

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A detailed comparison of the tales clearly shows that their plots are based on a general bridal-quest scheme, that consists of the following general motifs: (1) the hero's decision to marry; (2) the selection of a suitable bride; (3) wooing journey(s); (4) secret meeting of wooer and girl; (5) secret betrothal; (6) elopement; (7) pursuit and battle; (8) return to the hero's country and marriage. The motifs found in the stories in Pidreks saga are already present in their predecessors, the chronicle stories and the Walter tale, but here all of the motifs are combined for the first time. In the chronicles, the elopement and battle sequence was absent, whereas in the Walter tales the hero's initial decision to marry, his selection of a suitable bride-tobe, and his wooing journey are omitted. In the Pidreks saga tales, however, all the bridal-quest motifs are present. The bridal-quest scheme, however, serves only as the basic outline for the individual stories which can differ significantly in details. The fact that some tales show quite astonishing parallels in the way they deal with particular motifs however, has led scholars, such as Theodore M. Andersson, to claim that the tales in Pidreks saga have been modeled after a prototype. Based on the apparent similarities between Osantrix's wooing and the German epic König Rother, Andersson suggests that a proto-Rother version served as their primary model.21 König Rother and "Osantrix and Oda" The story about Osantrix's wooing of Oda is doubtlessly closely related to the German bridal-quest epic König Rother. Scholars have advanced divergent hypotheses concerning the relationship.22 The main problem of establishing the connection between the two stories derives from their transmission. The saga tale is only transmitted in rather late Scandinavian manuscripts and the main Rother manuscript, the Heidelberg manuscript Η that dates to the end of the twelfth or the first quarter of the thirteenth century, presents the reader and scholar with a peculiar mixture of dialects. The presence of three dialects in the manuscript, Low Franconian, Middle Franconian, and High German (Oberdeutsch), has led to two different explanations as to the origin of the text. A. Edzardi maintains that the German epic originated in the border regions of the Middle and Low German territory and was later revised in Bavaria, where the High German features entered

Andersson, "Composition and Literary Culture", p. 21. For a summary of the current scholarship see Ferdinand Urbanek, Kaiser, Grafen und Mäzene im 'König Rother' (Berlin: Schmidt, 1976), especially pp. 14-21, and Curschmann, ''Spielmannsepik", pp. 4 5 8 - 6 7 .

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the text.23 Karl von Bahder, on the other hand, claimed that a scribe from the northern regions of Ripuaria composed the epic in Bavaria and that later a copy of his text was made on the lower Rhine. Another copy of this latter version was then the source for the Heidelberg manuscript. 24 Jan de Vries gave a detailed comparison of the dialectal peculiarities of the Rother manuscript in his edition of the text and reached a conclusion that is similar to that of Edzardi. According to de Vries, the epic originated in the Low German area, more specifically in the Rhenish regions, from where it traveled along the Rhine into more southern areas, where additional copies were made. 25 De Vries divided the Rother epic into two parts and argued that the first part, Rother's bridal quest proper (R.I) was composed by a Low Franconian author, while the second part, the abduction of the bride by a minstrel, and Rother's Rückgewinnung (R.II) were added by a Middle Franconian author, who deliberately included dialect features that would please a southern German audience. 26 De Vries's argument was greatly influenced by his views on the development of the epic's subject matter and by his Schichttheorie, which will be discussed below, but in general his claim that the text originated in the Low Franconian region is upheld even today. 27 More recently, G. Kramer has argued that the base text of König Rother was written in a southern Middle Franconian dialect. According to Kramer, a second layer of the text, however, shows the scribe's northern Middle-Rhenish dialect and influences from Low Franconian, so that the work could have most likely been written in Cologne. 28 Nevertheless, as Michael Curschmann emphasizes, the Bavarian and High German (Oberdeutsch) elements in the language have yet to be explained. 29 Based on A. Edzardi, "Untersuchungen über König Rother", Germania Karl von Bahder, "Zum König Rother", Germania 300.

18 (1873), 385—453.

29 (1884), 2 2 9 - 4 3 and 2 5 7 -

Jan de Vries, "Einleitung zur Ausgabe von König Rother", in Rother, ed. Jan de Vries, Germanische Bibliothek, 2. Abteilung, vol. 13 (Heidelberg: Winter, 1922), pp. x v m - x x x . Jan de Vries, "Einleitung", p. XXXV. See Curschmann, "Spielmannsepik",

pp. 4 5 8 - 6 2 .

Curschmann, " S p i e l m a n n s e p i k " , p. 460. Compare G. Kramer, " Z u m König Rother: Das Verhältnis des Schreibers der Heidelberger Hs. (H) zu seiner Vorlage", PBB (Halle) 82 (1960), 72-82. The remaining Rother fragments have as of yet not been studied carefully. These are mainly manuscripts from southern Germany. The Munich fragment M, which diverges significantly from H, seems to date from the end of the twelfth century. If this assumption proves to be correct, it would predate H. The fragments BE (Baden-Niimberger-Fragmente) have been dated to the second half of the thirteenth

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rhyme studies, scholars at last seem to have reached the conclusion that the Rother epic must date back to the first half of the twelfth century. 30 Diverse hypotheses have been proposed with regard to the origin of the Rother-epic and its connection with the "Osantrix and Oda" tale. Friedrich Panzer, for example, argued that König Rother's subject matter was supplied by fairy tales, especially by the so-called Wundermärchen.3I Only a few years later, however, de Vries showed that Panzer's theory oversimplifies the matter and disregards the fact that all the medieval literary genres made use of an accumulation of motifs, so that the occurrence of particular motifs in such diverse genres as fairy tale, heroic and mythological poetry, as well as in an epic like König Rother, does not allow any conclusions about the origin of a particular text.32 As mentioned above, de Vries divided the Middle High German epic into two parts: a short epic about Rother's wooing proper (R.I) and the abduction of Rother's wife by a minstrel and her retrieval (Riickentfiihrung) (R.II). He claims that R.I presents the older and original stage of the epic, whereas R.II was composed later with the help of motifs from the Solomon tradition. 33 He went on to argue that the author of this second part most likely also inserted changes in the text of R.I and that these changes are still visible in a comparison of the German epic with the alternate version that is extant in Pidreks sagaM According to de Vries, the subject matter of both works developed in several stages. The version in "Vilcina saga", which encompasses both stories, "Osantrix and Oda" and "Attila and Erka", presents the oldest extant stage of the tale ("die älteste erreichbare Fassung der Sage"), which originated in Germany. 35 He furthermore offered an explanation for the two slightly different versions of "Osantrix and Oda" in the manuscripts, suggesting that one is a retelling of a Saxon short lay, and the other a Franconian retelling of this earlier Saxon lay. In a subsequent step these lays were reworked into a short epic, the so-called Ur-Rother, which underwent several additional recentury. The Arnswaldtisches manuscript.

Fragment

(A) belonged to a fourteenth-century

G. Kramer, "Die textkritische Bedeutung der Reime in der Heidelberger Hs. des König Rother, ", P B B (Halle) 79 (1957), 122. Friedrich Panzer, Hilde-Gudrun

(Halle: Niemeyer, 1901).

Jan de Vries, "Betrachtungen zum Märchen. Besonders in seinem Verhältnis zu Heldensage und Mythos", Folklore Fellows Communications 150 (1954), 154. De Vries, "Einleitung", p. Liii. Ibid., pp. LIII—LIV. He also compares the plot of V.l and V.2 respectively with König Rother, pp. L X X X I I I - L X X X I X . De Vries, "Die Brautwerbungssagen", GRM9

(1921), 332.

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workings until it reached the stage that is present in the Middle High German Rother epic.36 De Vries's argument became very popular and ended the discussion about a possible direct literary connection between the Authari tale in the Historia Langobardorum and the Rother-epic.37 The exact connection between the Norse and German versions of the subject matter, however, remains open to debate. De Vries claimed that a Low German lay was the immediate source from which first the "Osantrix and Oda" tale, then the Ur-Rother, and finally the Rother epic developed. Conversely, Theodor Frings proposed that both extant versions of the wooing story go back to a single literary source and that this source, the Ur-Rother, also marks the beginning of a German bridal-quest tradition and the German minstrel epics in general. Frings argued furthermore that the Ur-Rother is the first combination of the two bridal-quest schemes he detected, namely a Germanic scheme, in which the bride is abducted by force, and a Mediterranean scheme, in which cunning and trickery are used. 38 He went on to state that these two schemes were combined in the twelfth century on the Rhine. According to Frings, the "Germanic bridal-quest scheme" entered the UrRother through the material that is today mainly present in the saga version and which is old and influenced by Russian bylines, whereas the motif of cunning and disguise is of Mediterranean origin. Both extant versions of the text, König Rother and the Osantrix tale, go back to this now lost twelfth-century Ur-Rother. In more recent scholarship, de Vries's and Fringe's "Ur-Rother-hypotheses" have been received more critically, and scholars clearly tend more towards assuming a less regulated and fixed transmission of the subject matter. Ferdinand Urbanek, for example, supported the argument that Ibid., p. 332. He argues in more detail in "Het Epos van Koning Rother", Die Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde 39 (1920), 1-74. Willy Krogmann, for instance, argued that King Authari's wooing served as the historical source for the Middle High German narrative and that the name of the wooer was changed to Rother in analogy to the famous Langobardian King Rothari who was especially well known in Bavaria ("König Rother", in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon, ed. Wolfgang Stammler et al., vol. 2 [Berlin and Leipzig: de Gruyter, 1936], p. 852). Helmut de Boor argued against this thesis (Die deutsche Literatur von Karl dem Großen bis zum Beginn der höfischen Dichtung 770-1170, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, ed. Helmut de Boor and Richard Newald, vol. 1, 9"1 ed. by Herbert Kolb [Munich: Beck, 1979], 238-43). De Vries argued similarly in "Einleitung", p. LXXXXIX. Theodor Frings, "Die Entstehung", p. 318.

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König Rother goes back to an oral Rother story or episode, which was based on an early lay or a short epic. He supposed that this source was probably oral and could have contained either a one-tier bridal-quest plot, as is assumed for the Ur-Rother, or already the assumed double structure of König Rother,39 In his interpretation of König Rother, Christian Gellinek treated the problem rather vaguely by simply asserting that no immediate literary connection between König Rother and "Ösantrix and Oda" can be established. 40 He did not discuss the several hypotheses proposed so far, but rather addressed another important issue that has frequently been brought up, namely the possible influence of the Solomon tradition (.Salomonsage), which de Vries had suggested underlay the composition of the second part of the Rother epic.41 Parallels between these traditions have been established mainly on the basis of the Middle High German epic Salman und Morolf. Although the existence of some similarities between that epic and König Rother cannot be denied, they are by no means so prevalent that a direct literary connection between the two texts or even a conscious inclusion of motifs that belong to the stories about Solomon in the Rother epic can be postulated. Most of their shared motifs are supplied by the bridalquest scheme and also occur in other such tales. One motif that has been frequently used as evidence can illustrate the problem. Gellinek, for example, argued that the trick Rother uses during his return to the court—his disguise as a pilgrim—is taken directly from the Solomon tradition. 42 However, the motif of a wooer disguised as a beggar or pilgrim is already present in the two chronicle versions of Clovis's wooing for Clotild (Liber historiae Francorum and Chronica Fredegarii). The use of disguise is also found in Gregory of Tours's Attalus tale, where Leo disguises himself as a cook. This motif cannot be used as evidence for Oriental influences that allegedly entered the Rother epic by way of the Solomon tales. On the contrary, the motif roots the epic deeply in the Franconian bridal-quest tradition. The above example leads directly to one of the main problems persisting in many older studies of the German bridal-quest epics. Scholars tried to trace the origins of individual motifs in order to determine the exact connections and literary borrowings between the texts. Such an approach not

Urbanek, p. 16 and Michael Curschmann, Der Münchener Oswald, p. 106. 40

Christian Gellinek, König Rother: Studie zur literarischen Deutung (Bern and Munich: Francke, 1968), p. 49.

41

Ibid., p. 47.

42

Ibid., pp. 47-8.

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only excludes the influence of oral transmission on the development of the tales, it also disregards the fact that most of these motifs are already determined by their narrative schemes. Another major problem in older scholarship is the freely applied subjective evaluation of the tales' quality, age, and literary value. Statements such as "in der gesamten Überlieferung hat mithin die Attila-Episode der I>s. wenig Wert, denn sie gibt wenig selbständige Motive" 43 have marginalized certain stories. Other conclusions scholars have reached are not supported by any textual evidence, but they are nevertheless still in circulation and remain unchallenged. Boer, for example, claimed that the "Attila and Erka" story was influenced by the older Osantrix story, without giving any textual support.44 The direction of these borrowings, however, could certainly have been the other way around, if we assume direct borrowings at all. Of much more value for our discussion of the bridal-quest narratives in Pidreks saga and the Rother epic is de Vries's observation that the crossing of motifs ("die Kreuzung der Motive") in these works points toward a very close connection among the minstrel epics in general. 45 This observation serves as an apt conclusion to the discussion of the relationship between König Rother and "Osantrix and Oda" and also between the other bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga. We are left with the unsatisfactory outcome that, at this point, no results have been reached that can solve the question of whether the tales borrowed motifs, episodes, and details directly from each other or whether the parallels that exist between them must be attributed to a common literary and oral tradition in which certain motifs were used freely to flesh out the bridal-quest scheme. If we assume that direct borrowings existed, however, we still do not know which work must be regarded as the giver and which the receiver in this process. The latter problem is especially apparent in a comparison of "Osantrix and Oda" and König Rother. Both works are clearly related in some way. They deal with the same subject matter and contain some very close parallels, but they nevertheless present two versions. Neither text can be regarded as the direct source of the other nor is it possible to prove that they go back to a single literary source. The proto-Rother, which has been proposed as their common ancestor, is, after all, only a reconstruction based on the two ex4j

De Vries, "Die Brautwerbungssagen", p. 38.

44

"Es ergibt sich, dass Osantrix' Werbung die ältere erzählung ist. Attilas Werbung ist nicht ohne den einfluss von Osantrix' Werbung entstanden, wird zum guten teil auf das vorbild des Osantrix zurückzuführen sein." R. C. Boer, Die Sagen von Ermanarich und Dietrich von Bern (Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1910), p. 287.

45

De Vries, "Die Brautwerbungssagen", p. 41.

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tant versions, and its existence is more than doubtful. As is the case with the several versions of the Walter tale, we cannot establish a connection between two or more medieval texts based on proposed and reconstructed literary versions or an exclusively written transmission. We must also consider that several oral versions of tales dealing with the same subject matter circulated, either parallel to the extant texts or preceding them. It is quite possible that König Rother and the Osantrix tale are just two such versions that survived in written form. Since the existence of a single literary source for König Rother and "Osantrix and Oda" is doubtful, and in any case impossible to prove, the assumption that the various bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga are not independent stories but rather versions of the proto-Rother stands on shaky ground as well, as the evidence that might have led to such a claim is weak at best. At first glance, the two tales with the greatest similarities are "Attila and Erka" and "Osantrix and Oda", which tell of the wooing efforts of two generations. The most obvious motivic parallel is that three groups of wooers appear at the court of the woman's father and employ identical strategies. In both cases the first delegation makes a formal proposal that is refused; the second delegation offers a treasure to the king but is rejected as well; and, in a final attempt, the suitor or his messenger appears before the king under a false name and pretense. Although the basic outline of the wooing episode is the same in both tales, they differ in some of the details. Osantrix's messengers are incarcerated, whereas Attila's men leave the court as free men. Furthermore, in "Attila and Erka" the tripartite structure is interrupted by Attila's failed military campaign, and the messenger and not the suitor himself appears before the king in the final wooing attempt. After the arrival of the last wooer at the king's court, the tales clearly develop in two different directions. In "Osantrix and Oda" the wooer's disguise is of no practical use and the motif is not developed. Osantrix's army attacks Milias, who runs away, and the wooer leaves the court with Oda. The couple is not required to use a ruse to arrange a secret meeting and to elope from the court. The most striking discrepancies between the Osantrix tale and the remaining bridalquest stories occur in the events following the elopement. Osantrix elopes with Oda but he is not pursued and does not engage in battle. This motif is also missing from König Rother, where Rother uses cunning to lure the

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woman onto the ship and to sail away with her, but he is not pursued, nor does he engage in battle with the girl's father. 46 In "Attila and Erka", on the other hand, the wooer's disguise is essential to his success. As in "Herburt and Hildr", he stays at the king's court and gains his trust, has an intimate conversation with the girl, plans the escape with her, elopes, and is pursued by her father. In "Apollonius and Herborg", two groups of wooers are dispatched as well and the escape is secretly planned by the couple, although in this story the woman takes on a much more dominant role in the planning process. The one motif "Samson and Hildisviö" shares with "Attila and Erka", "Herburt and Hildr", and "Apollonius and Bolfriana" is that the girl agrees to escape with Samson during a private meeting and prepares herself for the elopement. Therefore we cannot speak of bridal abduction against the girl's will. The ensuing battle between her father and Samson is very similar to the events in "Herburt and Hildr" and, to a lesser extent, also to those in "Attila and Erka". In "Apollonius and Herborg" and "Osantrix and Oda", the girl's father does not pursue the couple at all. This brief comparison shows that, although certain similarities exist between the stories in Pidreks saga, none of them can be singled out as the source for all of them. If we assume that the tales have all been modeled on one source text or at least on several versions of such a text, this text and its versions must have contained the following motifs and episodes: la. The wooer knows the girl because he lives at the girl's court. lb. The wooer knows the girl because she is the daughter of his enemy. lc. The wooer knows the girl from hearsay. 2a. The wooer's delegates are incarcerated. 2b. The wooer's delegates are sent away. 2c. The wooer's delegate(s) stay(s) at the king's court either under the real name or in disguise. 3. One to four wooing efforts are made. 4a. The girl is approached in her chamber. 4b. She is approached in a public space. 4c. She is approached in the presence of her father. 5a. A magic device is used. 5b. No magic device is used.

The "Rückgewinnung" in König Rother cannot be compared to the pursuit and battle. Note also that the trick Rother uses to lure his bride-to-be onto the ship is very similar to the abduction of the young Tristan on a merchant's ship.

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6a. The couple elopes in secret. 6b. The couple elopes after the girl's father has fled the court. 7a. The pursuers, either the father or his men, fight with the suitor. 7b. The pursuers besiege a castle into which the couple has fled. 7c. The couple is not pursued at all. 8a. Father and suitor settle their dispute in the end. 8b. They do not settle their dispute. 8c. They settle their dispute but the girl dies before the wedding. These variations are so manifold that they cannot be explained as variations or versions of one source text (or oral tale). They rather demonstrate quite clearly the many ways in which stories that are based on the bridal-quest scheme can be narrated, and subsequently the variety permitted by the scheme. If we assume, however, that these tales go back to an oral bridalquest tradition that was very lively and productive already in early medieval times in Northwest Germany, certain parallels are not surprising. It is, of course, also very probable that direct borrowings between the stories occurred. These borrowings were limited to individual parts and episodes of each of the tales and they would not necessarily have taken place in a literary setting, but could have entered the narratives in the process of their oral transmission and composition. It is not possible to determine which tale delivered and which tale borrowed certain motifs and details. Two stories that share the design and details of a motif could have also received it from one or more other tales that are no longer extant. That the stories in Pidreks saga borrowed motifs, episodes, and details from other works and even from other literary traditions and genres is quite evident. Andersson emphasized some of these parallels in his article on the eddic poem "Helgakviöa Hjörvarössonar". 47 He observed, for example, that the tale of "Herburt and Hildr" shares an important parallel with the Tristan tradition, because in both of them the proxy wooer takes the bride for himself. The influence of courtly romance on Pidreks saga is also evident in many other instances, especially in the names of some of the characters, such as Mörekr's sister, Isolde (11.43.6), and her son Tristram (11.43.17), or Artus, Erka's father in one of our bridal-quest tales. The magic ring that Apollonius uses to coerce Herborg resembles in its effect the love potion Isolde drinks. If we take into consideration that the Tristan story was most likely the first Continental romance to be translated into Old Norse at the

Theodore M. Andersson, '"Helgakviöa Hjörvarössonar' and European BridalQuest Narrative", JEGP 84 (1985), 74. Andersson also includes the later Icelandic fornaldarsögur, which contain many bridal-quest plots in his discussion.

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Norwegian court, these parallels could have been established in this context. It also possible, however, that our stories were directly influenced by the stories about King Arthur and his knights, since the subject matter of Arthurian romance had attained a dominant position in the literary production at the time Pidreks saga was composed. This influence could have taken place both on the Continent and in Norway. It is furthermore clear that some parallels can be established between the bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga and the German bridal-quest epics. The motif of the overprotected girl whom the father loves too much to give her in marriage to any man ("Attila and Erka" as well as "Osantrix and Oda"), for example, also occurs in König Rother. It is developed even further in Der Münchner Oswald and Ortnit,in which the father wants to marry his daughter himself. Another motif that is specifically shared between König Rother and the two saga tales is that the wooer appears at the king's court under an assumed name and pretense. There are additional similarities between "Herburt and Hildr" and "Attila and Erka" on the one hand and Der Münchner Oswald and Wolfdietrich Β on the other. In all these stories, the wooer stays at the king's court, gains his trust, and finally approaches the girl to propose to her and plan the escape. Herburt does this under his own name, whereas Attila's messenger Roöolfr is disguised. Oswald disguises himself as a goldsmith and Hugdietrich (in Wolfdietrich Β) as a woman. 49 The motif of disguise, however, already occurs in the Franconian chronicles and it appears again in Tristan's wooing for Isolde under a pseudonym. Additional parallels are that Apollonius' magic ring resembles the love potion in the Tristan story, and it has an even stronger parallel in the two magic rings that are used in Salman and Morolf Fore gains Salme's love through a magic ring he puts on her finger, whereas Princian places his magic ring in the wine Salme is drinking. It is obvious that the bridal-quest stories in Pidreks saga share motifs with the German bridal-quest tradition, the Tristan material, and other romances. Since the latter works all seem to predate the composition of the saga, they could easily have influenced our tales. It remains to be seen where and when the tales and the saga were composed, where and when these influences entered the tales (Norway or Germany), and, finally, whether the stories were originally independent tales that were incorporated into the saga, either in their present shape or as modified versions in order "Ortnit." in Ortnit und die Wolfdietriche, DHB 3. Zurich: Weidmann, 1871.

ed. Arthur Amelung und Oskar Jänicke.

"Wolfdietrich Β", in Ortnit und die Wolfdietriche, ed. Arthur Amelung and Oskar Jänicke, DHB 4 (Dublin and Zurich: Weidmann, 1873), st. 134 and 210-59.

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to connect them with the saga plot and possibly also with the intentions of the compiler or author of the work. T h e Tale of " V a l t a r i and H i l d i g u n n r " (11.105-109) Before addressing the manuscript questions, we must take up once more the story of "Valtari and Hildigunnr" in Pidreks saga, a bridal-quest tale already discussed in the context of Waltharius in the previous chapter. As far as the structure of Pidreks saga is concerned, the bridal quest in "Valtari and Hildigunnr" plays the same role as the two bridal quests in "Vilkina saga". It follows Osantrix's and Attila's quests in all the manuscripts, so that it appears fairly early in the later paper manuscripts, whereas it is part of the block of bridal-quest tales in the oldest vellum manuscript (where it stands between "Vilkina saga" and the Apollonius tale). The placement in the oldest manuscript might be a first indication that the tale of "Valtari and Hildigunnr" was indeed considered to be a bridal quest, once more assuming that Klein's structural analysis of the saga is correct. Additional support for this hypothesis is supplied by the tradition of the narrative's subject matter. As was demonstrated in the preceding chapter, the version of the Walter tale in Pidreks saga conforms more closely to the bridal-quest scheme established for the German epics than the other variations of the story. In the saga version the two lovers also live together at Attila's court, but we do not find any indication that they had been betrothed earlier. They have a secret conversation at a great feast during which Valtari proposes his plan to escape with Hildigunnr. The woman, having overcome her immediate skepticism, agrees to the plan and goes on to admit her love for Valtari. The next morning at dawn the couple flees on one horse, which is laden with the great treasure Hildigunnr has taken from Attila's treasury. As soon as Attila learns the news, he sends twelve men in pursuit of the couple. Valtari kills his first eleven attackers in individual battles and maims the twelfth, Högni. He then rides home to the court of his uncle Ermanarik, where he continues to live with his wife Hildigunnr. The Walter tale in Pidreks saga is an independent example of what I have called the Walter tradition. Most important in this version are two motifs. First, the couple was not betrothed in their childhood and only Hildigunnr lives as a hostage at Attila's court, while Valtari lives there in a high social position as Attila's foster son. Second, the couple is pursued by Attila's men and Attila clearly takes on the role of the girl's father, in the shape and form that is familiar from other bridal-quest narratives discussed so far. If we include "Valtari and Hildigunnr" in the list of bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga, we can add a few more details (in bold) to the comparison so that the following picture unfolds:

111

Catching her Eye Valtari + Hildigunnr

Samson + Hildisviö

Attila + Herburt + Apollonius + Osantrix + Oda Erka Hildr Herborg

Girl known from hearsay Suitor and girl live at the same court

X

X

X

Number of wooing efforts

1

1

The suitor appears in person

X

X

3

X

Use of disguise (pseudonym)

X

Help of magic

1

Alcohol contributes to success

X

Meeting outside the castle gates

X

X

2

3

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

An army is hidden in the woods

The wooer has gained the father's trust during his stay at the court

X

X

Girl overprotected because her father loves her so much Girl kept in a tower or separate chambers

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

(X)

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Escape on a shared horse

X

X

X

Escape on two horses; one each

X

Escape on several horses with an army

X

Escape with a treasure

X

X

X

Pursuit of the runaways

X

X

X

Battle suitorpursuers

X

X

Hiding in a building and siege

X

X

X

X

X

X

Earlier it was observed that the story of "Samson and Hildisviö" differs in many respects from the other bridal-quest narratives in the saga. Yet it shares two apparent parallels with the Walter tradition: in both stories the couple is already present at the girl's court and the girls' fathers react in a very similar way to their elopement. Hildisviö's father, Roögeirr, feels grief when he learns the news, but he is unable to react to the events, while in Waltharius Attila is torn between sadness and anger and remains passive for a day. In both tales, the father eventually regains his senses and either pursues the couple himself ("Samson and Hildisviö") or sends an army after them ("Valtari and Hildigunnr"). Moreover, the second part of the "Herburt and Hildr" tale seems to be modeled on the Walter tale:50 To develop a plan for their escape, Herburt and Hildr use a trick in which alcohol plays a major part: Hildr makes her father drunk and then obtains his promise to make Herburt her steward so that he can spend all his time close to her, which shows that, as in Waltharius, alcohol is of utmost importance for the couple's escape. Eventually, Herburt and Hildr ride away into the forest on two horses. Hildr's

Compare also de Vries, "Die Brautwerbungssagen", p. 39. He also adds that Herburt's approach in the church resembles the Clovis and Clotild tale quite closely.

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father sends his retainers after them (led by the knight Hermann) and gives orders to bring back Herburt's head (Attila gives the same orders in "Valtari and Hildigunnr"). When Herburt hears the pursuers approaching, he does not suspect any danger but rather assumes that Hildr's father has sent knights to accompany the couple on their journey. This feeling of safety, which may also be called naivete, is familiar from Waltharius, where Walter initially also assumes that the approaching Franconian army will not do him any harm. In both stories it is the woman who convinces the hero of the seriousness of the events. Both heroes defeat twelve attackers and have their brides dress their wounds before they continue their journeys. All the tales in Pidreks saga and in the Walter tradition have two motifs in common that set them apart from the corpus of the German bridal-quest epics: the first is the importance of alcohol for the couple's successful elopement, and the second is the couple's escape on horseback. In the Waltharius poem, the trick that allows the couple to escape is based exclusively on overindulgence. The motif is weakened in the saga version, but here Valtari still proposes his escape plan to Hildigunnr during a banquet when the king is distracted: "})at er i dag at veizla rik er i grasgarj)i attila konungs oc danz rikr" (It happens one day, that there is a great festival in Attila's garden and also much dancing. [As. II. 106.5-7]).' 51 In "Herburt and Hildr", Hildr drinks with her father to win Herburt as her steward, and in one of the versions of "Attila and Erka" the girl elopes with Attila's messenger: "ok aeitt kvaslld er konongr war sofnaör ok aör miok drukkin af vini ok aller hans mcenn" (one night after the king and all his men had fallen asleep after drinking much wine [Ps. 11.70.21-22]). Even though the story of "Iron and Bolfriana" is not a bridal-quest story, it must be mentioned in this context, because here alcohol is used in a very similar manner. The secret conversation between the two lovers is only possible because Iron drinks moderately, whereas all the other guests at the feast have fallen asleep from too much wine: "hann gair litt at drecka um kuelldit...allir menn aörir drecka oc eru katir oc um sidir legiaz allir dauö drucknir niör n m a jron jarll oc bolfriana" (He drank little that evening.. .all the other men drank and were cheerful and later they all lay down dead-drunk except for Earl Iron and Bolfriana [As. II. 148.7-11]). The image that is invoked in this scene is strikingly similar to the description of Attila's hall in Waltharius.

As has been pointed out in the preceding chapter, the allusions to the tale in the Middle High German epics also contain references to the banquet and the particular shape of Walter and Hiltgunt's trick.

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The second motif that is shared between the Walter story and all of the bridal-quest stories in Pidreks saga is the couple's escape on horseback and, more specifically, on one horse. The only other occurrence of this motif is in the Middle High German Ortnit epic, which is in many respects closely related to the Walter tradition and will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter. In the remaining German bridal-quest epics this motif does not occur. Whenever an elopement takes place, the couples escape on ships, but never alone on one or two horses. In Orendel, Bride does not flee because she is an orphan and, as the queen of Jerusalem, she does not have to elope from her home with her suitor. In Salman und Morolf, Salme's first elopement succeeds by means of a trick. She eats from a magic root, which makes her seem dead, and she is carried out of the castle in a coffin. 52 For her second elopement, this time together with King Princian, she escapes over the ocean ("über den wilden se" [v. 609.4]). The bridal-quest plot in Wolfdietrich Β—the "Hugdietrich" part—ends without the couple's escape from the girl's court. The suitor leaves without his bride-to-be, who follows him later with her father's permission. Finally, in the bridal-quest plots in the Nibelungenlied, Kudrun, and Dukus Horant, the couples also do not escape together. In the texts belonging to the Walter tradition, the couple elopes on a single horse, often also carrying a great treasure. In Waltharius, Walter and Hildegunde lead one horse, which is laden with a splendid treasure, and in "Valtari and Hildigunnr", the couple rides on a single horse, carrying a treasure with them. In the bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga, the escape also takes place exclusively on horseback. In "Attila and Erka", Attila's messenger Roöolfr shares a horse with Erka, while his helper Osiö shares a horse with Erka's sister Berta. The two couples take Erka's and Berta's most valuable treasures with them. Samson and Hildisviö escape with two horses; they ride on one of them and carry a great treasure on the other. Likewise, Herburt and Hildr escape on two horses, but they each ride one. Osantrix also escapes with his bride-to-be and a treasure on horseback, though in this case he is accompanied by his army. Finally, in "Apollonius and Herborg", the woman rides away with the hero's army as well after she has met up with them in the forest. In all instances, the couple's escape begins by a ride through a forest, often during day and night. The two motifs shared by the bridal-quest stories in Pidreks saga and the tales belonging to the Walter tradition guide our attention once more in the direction of the Franconian chronicle tradition. The consumption of al-

Salman und Morolf, ed. Alfred Karnein (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1979), vv. 122-45.

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cohol as a means of distracting one's opponents and diverting their attention is familiar from several tales in Gregory of Tours's Historia Francorum, for example, the slaying of the Frank Andarchius (Hist. Franc. IV.46), the slaying of three Franks at Queen Fredegunde's order (Hist. Franc. X.27), and also the killing of Lupus (Hist. Franc. VI. 13). The Attalus tale also alludes to the importance overindulgence plays for the protagonists' escape. More importantly, the Attalus tale also contains the motif of an escape on horseback and pursuit by the king. In Fredegar's account, where Clotild is carried away from her father's court on a litter carrying a great treasure with her, she mounts a horse when her pursuer, Aridius, approaches on horseback. Some of the similarities that the bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga share with the German minstrel epics have been pointed out earlier in this chapter. Their comparison with the Walter tradition, on the other hand, has singled out certain motifs that are lacking in the German epics, but are firmly rooted in the Franconian bridal-quest tradition. Especially the couple's escape on horseback establishes a very firm connection between the saga's tales and the Walter tradition. It therefore seems most likely that these stories were composed in an environment in which this motif in particular and bridal-quest narrative in general were alive and well established, either in writing or, more likely, in oral tradition. The only area that fulfills these requirements would be Northwest Germany. It cannot be a mere coincidence that this is precisely the area that is mentioned in the prologue and in a few other instances in Pidreks saga as the home of the stories that were compiled in the saga. It is much more likely that the tales originated and circulated individually in Northwest Germany before they were incorporated into the saga than that they were composed by a German or Norwegian, who may or may not be identical with the compiler of Pidreks saga. The latter possibility not only contradicts the accounts given in the prologue, but also suddenly assumes the existence of an author of the saga who deliberately created the tales for his work. Several reasons speak against this hypothesis. First, the tales are scattered throughout the saga in an inconsistent order and with no visible arrangement, one that differs in each of the manuscripts. Second, it cannot be explained why only the wooing efforts of minor and sometimes even marginal characters are elaborated into bridal-quest narratives, while the marriages of the main protagonist i>iörekr are mentioned only en passant. Third, some of the tales, for example "Valtari and Hildigunnr" and "Apollonius and Herborg", are only connected in a very superficial manner with the saga proper, so that a deliberate composition of these tales for the purpose of the saga narrative must be excluded. We must rather conclude

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that the compiler of the saga was familiar with independently circulating bridal-quest narratives. He arranged these stories according to his intentions—maybe indeed in the way Klein assumes—and altered them whenever he felt the need to do so. He most certainly changed some of the names in the tales and established new family relationships to fit the stories into his work, as is most obvious from the additions he made to the tale of "Valtari and Hildigunnr". Valtari is introduced as Ermanarikr's nephew and Hildigunnr as the daughter of King llias of Greece, both characters that appear again in the saga. The aspect that characterizes the bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga most significantly is that they for the first time present a complex bridal-quest scheme that incorporates all the motifs found in the chronicle stories and in the Walter tales. The bridal-quest scheme in the saga tales follows certain motifs but also allows for a great degree of variation, as the following graphic depiction shows:

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Catching her Eye

(1) Decision to marry

I I

(2) Selection of a suitable bride

(3) Wooing journey

(3a) Unsuccessful Wooing

I

(3b) 2nd/3rd Wooing Journe;

(4) Meeting with the bride-to-be

(5) Secret Betrothal

(6) Elopement

(7) Pursuit and battle

1 (8) Return to the hero's country and marriage

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In both "Samson and Hildisviö" and "Valtari and Hildigunnr", the suitor is already located at the girl's court. The couple elopes after a secret meeting and the hero is pursued and fights a battle. It is noteworthy that in the "Samson and Hildisviö" tale, the secret betrothal motif is missing. The story of Herburt and Hildr follows the pattern with the exception that the proxy wooer, Herburt, elopes with the girl. He stays at the court after his unsuccessful wooing journey. In the "Attila and Erka" tale, the wooing journey is repeated three times until the proxy wooer meets with the girl, betroths her and his lord, elopes with her, engages in battle, and returns home to his lord's court. Apollonius's quest follows the same scheme, albeit with two wooing journeys and no battle. In the Osantrix and Oda" tale, the motifs occur in reversed order; after three wooing journeys, the suitor appears at the court, it comes to a battle, and afterwards to a secret meeting and betrothal with the girl. The couple does not elope because Oda's father had been defeated earlier. Summary The bridal-quest narratives in Pidreks saga may be divided into stories that are simple and unproblematic wooing tales and dangerous ones that are told according to the bridal-quest scheme, namely "Samson and Hildisviö", "Osantrix and Oda", "Attila and Erka", "Herburt and Hildr", and "Apollonius and Herborg". The comparison and discussion of these tales revealed that they cannot be attributed to a single source and, although some of them share some important parallels with the Middle High German epic König Rother, we cannot conclude that the tales in the saga and the German epic go back to a no longer extant proto-Rother. The five stories in Pidreks saga differ too greatly to be mere variations of a single story. The majority of their similarities can be attributed to the bridal-quest scheme in general which determines their structure and supplies the main motifs of the narrative, which are formed and elaborated independently in the individual tales. All the stories share similarities with other literary genres and traditions, most predominantly with romance tradition and the German bridal-quest epics. The similarities with the former can be explained best by the fact that the subject matter of Arthurian romance had attained a dominant position in the literary production at the time Pidreks saga was composed. However, the parallels we established between the tales and the German bridal-quest epics cannot be explained in this way. By including the tale of "Valtari and Hildigunnr" in the discussion, it could be shown that the saga's narratives share many motifs and details with the Walter legend and subsequently the Franconian bridal-quest tradition, especially the motifs of a couple's escape

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on horseback and the importance of alcohol in their escape. The Walter tradition, however, also does not qualify as a direct or intermediate source for the composition of the narratives in Pidreks saga, because the stories differ in too many ways. It seems much more likely that the tales were composed and transmitted in a region in which bridal-quest narrative was alive and familiar to the audience. That would explain the similarities between individual tales in Pidreks saga and some of the German bridal-quest epics. Therefore, it is much more likely that these stories circulated independently in Northwest Germany before they were incorporated in the saga. 53 The one question that has still not been answered, namely whether the saga was composed in Germany or Norway, will have to remain unanswered, since the evidence deduced from this study of the bridal-quest narratives in Pidreks saga does not allow any definite conclusions. Nor does the apparent influence of courtly literature on the stories help to answer this question. These influences could have occurred in the original German tales, or they could have been later additions made by a German in Germany to more ancient German stories. If we take into consideration that the Tristan story seems to be the romance that influenced the stories the most and that this was most likely the first romance to be translated into Old Norse at the Norwegian court, the parallels could have been established just as well in Norway.

Dietrich Hofmann reaches similar conclusions in his article "Zur Lebensform mündlicher Erzähldichtung des Mittelalters im deutschen und niederländischen Sprachgebiet: Zeugnisse der t>iöreks saga und anderer Quellen", in Niederdeutsche Beiträge. Festschrift für Felix Wortmann zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. Jan Goossens (Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau, 1976), pp. 196-97.

Chapter 4 Anchors Aweigh The majority of studies on medieval bridal-quest narrative, especially those concerned with the bridal-quest scheme itself, focus exclusively on the German bridal-quest epics. Curschmann and Schmid-Cadalbert 1 published detailed introductions to and summaries of these works, and thus the following discussion will be limited to three main points, first among them, the possible connection between these German epics and the earlier Franconian bridal-quest tradition and the more or less contemporary bridalquest narratives in Pidreks saga. An examination of the bridal quest in Ortnit will demonstrate the advantages of including the earlier bridal-quest tradition in the interpretation and discussion of the German minstrel epics. Secondly, the transmission history of the German epics will be considered and their place of origin, and thirdly it will be argued that the bridal-quest scheme in the medieval German epics is not distinguishable from earlier and contemporary narratives but rather part of a much older tradition.

The Literary Corpus Four epics—König Rother, Orendel, Der Münchner Oswald, and Salman und Morolf— are traditionally included in studies of the German bridalquest epics. The most influential early studies of this kind are de Vries's "Die Brautwerbungssagen" (1921) and Frings 's "Die Entstehung der deutschen Spielmannsepen" (1939-40). The same corpus was the basis for Curschmann's important study of Der Münchener Oswald (1964). In 1985 Schmid-Cadalbert persuasively argued that Ortnit should also be included in the works belonging to the category of German bridal-quest epics. Other epics containing bridal-quest plots but not included in these comprehensive studies of German bridal-quest narratives are Kudrun, Dukus Horant, Das Nibelungenlied, Tristan, Dietrichs Flucht, and Wolfdietrich Br

See Curschmann, "Spielmannsepik" and Der Münchener Schmid-Cadalbert, Der Ortnit A W.

Oswald,

as well as

Compare the list of narratives containing bridal-quest plots in Schmid-Cadalbert, pp. 79-80.

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The main reasons for distinguishing between a group of four works— that is, König Rother, Orendel, Der Münchner Oswald, and Salman und Morolf— and the latter, extended corpus of German bridal-quest epics, are their assumed time of composition and their traditional assignment to different literary genres. The first four works are assigned to the so-called Spielmannsepik or minstrel epic genre and considered to be early medieval, pre-courtly epics. Based on linguistic and socio-historical evidence their time of composition is generally assumed to have been between the middle and second half of the twelfth century, although the manuscript transmission begins considerably later. The other medieval German epics that contain bridal-quest stories are usually excluded from the discussion of this literary type because they do not fall in the (much-debated) category of minstrel epic, but rather in the categories of courtly romance (Tristan) or heroic poetry (Das Nibelungenlied, Kiidrun, Wolfdietrich, etc.). Another important distinguishing criterion is the function of the bridal quest: whether it defines and motivates the plot, as is the case in the four so-called German minstrel epics, or whether the bridal quest is merely one narrative element among others, rather than the sole motivation of the plot. Bridal-quest plots of the latter kind occur in Tristan, Nibelungenlied, and Dietrichs Flucht, and therefore these works will also be excluded from this discussion. 3 The remaining epics, Kudrun, Dukus Horant, Ortnit, and the Hugdietrich story in Wolfdietrich Β (Vorgeschichte), however, are clearly composed and structured as bridal-quest narratives and are therefore of interest for this study, although traditionally these works are not regarded as being early. The four epics are best assigned to the genre of heroic poetry. Kudrun and Dukus Horant, which are unquestionably rather late compositions (between the middle of the thirteenth and the fourteenth century) will be discussed in more detail in the following chapter on Scandinavian bridal-quest narrative, since their subject matter is closely related to the so-called Hildesage. The remaining two heroic epics, Ortnit and Wolfdietrich, however, will be included in the present discussion and examined carefully, because at least parts of the Ortnit epic share important features with the Franconian bridalquest tradition and especially with the Walter tales. Such a claim may seem rather premature, considering the fact that until recently the work was not even considered a bridal-quest epic. The main reason for the exclusion of Ortnit from studies of this literary type is its peculiar subject matter and structure, which result in a bi-partite structure. While the first part is a more A discussion of the bridal-quest plots in these works is very desirable, but this study had to be limited to works in which the bridal quest motivates the plot.

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or less standard bridal-quest narrative, the second recounts the very peculiar circumstances that lead to Ortnit's death; he is killed by two dragons that his father-in-law had sent as an alleged wedding gift to avenge Ortnit's elopement with his daughter. The hero's death at the end of the epic is furthermore the point of departure for the Wolfdietrich epic, which follows directly after Ortnit in all of the manuscripts. 4 Among other adventures, this epic relates Wolfdietrich's slaying of the dragons and his succeeding of Ortnit as husband and king. Owing to the fact that the two epics are transmitted together in all of the manuscripts and that they are closely connected by their content, Ortnit is typically included in the category of heroic poetry, and this undoubtedly applies for Wolfdietrich. In more recent scholarship, however, doubts about this classification of Ortnit have been raised. In his 1979 article "Der 'Ortnit'-Heldendichtung oder?" Heinz Rupp points to the many problems involved in assigning the epic to a particular genre. 5 Rupp argues that Ortnit does not quite meet the criteria of minstrel epic and bridal-quest narrative, because of the negative ending. Attempts to include the work in the category of Kreuzzugsdichtung fall short as well, since the epic's main focus is not on the battle between Christians and heathens. Even though fierce battles against the heathens are fought, these battles do not lead to their conversion or extinction. Very puzzling are furthermore the parts of the work that are clearly influenced by Arthurian romances, such as the Alberich äventiure. Rupp also considers the classification of Ortnit as heroic poetry problematic, mainly because of the unheroic death of the protagonist. 6 Schmid-Cadalbert's careful examination of Ortnit has demonstrated, however, that the bridal quest plays such a dominant role in this epic that it is crucial for its interpretation. His study of the bridal-quest plot and comparison with the other Middle High German bridal-quest narratives enabled him to conclude that the second part of the epic is part of the original com4

The only exception is Ms. W, but since several empty leaves follow Ortnit, it can be assumed that Wolfdietrich was to follow in this manuscript as well.

5

Heinz Rupp, "Der O r t n i t ' - Heldendichtung oder?" in Deutsche Heldenepik in Tirol. König Laurin und Dietrich von Bern in der Dichtung des Mittelalters, ed. Ε. Kühebacher (Bozen: Athesia 1979), pp. 2 3 1 - 5 2 .

6

In agreement with the traditional view, Carola Gottzmann argues that, regardless of some inconsistencies, Ortnit belongs to the genre of heroic poetry (Heldendichtung), arguing that other representatives of this genre also contain features that occur in Ortnit. Wolfdietrich, for example, also contains references to the crusades, while the heroic epics Das Nibelungenlied and Kudrun also have bridal-quest plots (.Heldendichtung des 13. Jahrhunderts: Siegfried-Dietrich-Ortnit [Frankfurt/Main: Lang, 1987],

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position and the logical consequence of the preceding bridal quest.7 He argues that Ortnit failed to establish an emotional relationship with his brideto-be in the course of his quest. This eventually leads to the hero's death, as the bond between daughter and father was never broken and the quest and conflict between wooer and father remains unsolved. According to SchmidCadalbert, the dragon episode occupies the place in the bridal-quest scheme of the retrieval sequence (Riickentführimgshandhmg) in the other German epics, for example in König Rother.8 The second important conclusion Schmid-Cadalbert draws from his reading is that the hero's future is decided during the events that occur during the pursuit and battle, and that these events and scenes differ significantly from all other battles in the medieval German epics: 9 The four main differences between the scenes in Ortnit and the remaining bridal-quest epics are the following: 10 1. In Ortnit the battle ensues after both armies are weakened from previous fighting. 2. Ortnit has to begin the battle alone because his helper Yljas and his army do not arrive to support him until he is exhausted and believes himself to have lost his case. 3. The battle is characterized by the ambivalent attitude of the girl, who vacillates between fear for her father's life and affection for her suitor. 4. Ortnit, although victorious in his military campaign, fails in the end, since he neither gets reconciled with his father-in-law nor kills him. In the only other extensive study of the epic, Wolfgang Dinkelacker focuses more on the narrative of the six different manuscripts and concludes that each of the versions was independently composed. Although he is the first to deal with the work in its own right, he does not provide an interpretation (Ortnit-Studien: Vergleichende Interpretation der Fassungen [Berlin: Schmidt, 1972]). "So scheitert Ortnit an der durch fehlende Minnebeziehung und nicht genutzten Möglichkeit einer 'echten' Bekehrung unüberwindbaren Vaterbindung seiner Braut und läßt den Brautvater unversöhnt am Leben. Damit bleibt der Konflikt im öffentlichen Bereich (Werber/Brautvater) der gefährlichen Brautwerbung, trotz des militärischen Sieges des Werbers, ungelöst. Dieser ungelöste Konflikt wirkt im Brautwerbungsschema als offene Valenz, welche im Falle einer kampflosen Listenwerbung durch eine Rückentführungs-Rückgewinnungs-Handlung besetzt wird (so ζ. B. im König Rother)" (Schmid-Cadalbert, p. 180). "Der Verfolgungskampf im Ortnit A W unterscheidet sich auf signifikante Weise von den Verfolgungskämpfen bzw. den Kämpfen zur Wiedererringung der geraubten Frau in den übrigen mittelhochdeutschen Brautwerbungsdichtungen" (SchmidCadalbert, p. 177). See Schmid-Cadalbert, p. 177.

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Schmid-Cadalbert's main thesis is that Ortnit fails in the end because he is the only suitor in all of Middle High German bridal-quest epic who is challenged to a rear-guard battle (Verfolgungskampf) before he has completed his private wooing efforts. 11 Machorel's revenge is a result of the still unbroken emotional bond between father and daughter. Schmid-Cadalbert bases his comparison exclusively on the Middle High German bridal-quest epics to the exclusion of additional sources and traditions that could have influenced the shape of the scenes in Ortnit. As will be shown, however, at least the second part of Ortnit's bridal-quest, the rear-guard fight (Verfolgungskampf), must be read in the context of the Franconian bridal-quest tradition and the Walter tales. The Pursuit and Battle in Ortnit and the Earlier Bridal-Quest Tradition The Verfolgungskampf as Schmid-Cadalbert calls this part of the epic, begins at the moment when the couple and Alberich notice the approaching Saracen forces. Ortnit, being aware of the unavoidable battle, is desperate and asks his dwarf-father, Alberich, for advice (st. 450.1-4): 12 ' N u rät uns zwein daz beste, vil lieber Alberich. ouwe, wem sol ich läzen die maget wunneclich? nu müezen liehte ringe von bluote werden rot. e ich mich von ir scheide, ich gelige bi ir tot." ("Now advise as is best, very dear Alberich. Woe, to w h o m shall I entrust the lovely maid? N o w bright rings must become red with blood. Before I part from her, I would rather lie dead at her side.")

Alberich suggests to the fugitives that they should escape to the other side of a river, upon which the following dialogue between Ortnit and his brideto-be ensues (st. 453-54): 'Ich rate dir daz beste' sprach daz magedin, 'daz du vil dräte entrinnest dem argen vater min. Er ziuht dir üz din äder, und erwischet dich sin hant. Ich mac dir niht gevolgen: setz mich nider üf daz lant. Ich hän verlorn min ere, und tuot mir am libe niht; Doch klage ich immer mere, ob dir schade von mir geschiht.'

"Ortnit ist der einzige Werber der mittelhochdeutschen Brautwerbungsdichtung, der zum Verfolgungskampf gefordert wird, bevor die Werbung im privaten Bereich entschieden ist" (Schmid-Cadalbert, p. 177). All quotations from Ortnit are from Ortnit und die Wolfdietriche, ed. Arthur Amelung und Oskar Jänicke. The translations are my own.

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Do sprach der Lamparte 'daz wil ich dir widersagen: Ε ich dich hiute läze, ich lig e bi dir erslagen.' ("I advise you for the best", said the maiden, "that you escape very quickly from my angry father. He will pull your intestines out of your body, if his hand should get hold of you. I cannot follow you; set me down to the ground. Although I have lost my honor, nothing will happen to me; 1 3 but I will lament it evermore, if harm comes to you because of me." Upon this the Lombard spoke: "I will deny you this request: before I leave you behind today, I would rather lie dead at your side.")

Now Ortnit rides to the river as fast as possible, lifts the woman off the horse, carries her across the river, and sets her down in the sand. Shortly afterwards the Saracen army crosses the river (st. 457) and Ortnit begins to fight. Since he is soon overcome by great fatigue, he attempts to reach a peaceful solution of the conflict. He offers his service and his sword to Machorel in exchange for his life (st. 460). Machorel declines the offer and instead announces that he intends to kill Ortnit on behalf of his daughter. Ortnit answers that he is not guilty of any sin because the girl has not yet become his wife: "Ich enweiz wes ir mich zihet, si wart noch nie min wip" (st. 461.2), and he continues to fight until his uncle Yljas arrives with his army. A comparison of these scenes with similar ones in Gregory of Tours's Attalus tale, the Walter stories, and the narratives in Pidreks saga, reveals close parallels between these works. In Waltharius, for example, Hiltgunt encourages Walter to kill her and save his own life as soon as she becomes aware of the approaching army, which she believes to be Huns (vv. 54247): Comminus ecce coruscantes mulier videt hastas Ac stupefacta nimis: "Hunos hie" inquit "habemus", In terramque cadens effatur talia tristis: "Obsecro, mi senior, gladio mea colla secentur, 14 Ut, quae non merui pacto thalamo sociari, Nullius ulterius patiar consortia carnis." (Close by the girl sees the flashing spears, and numbed she says: "The Huns have arrived." And, sinking to the ground, she says with a saddened heart: "I implore you, my lord, to cut through my throat with your sword so that I will never have to suffer any fleshly union, since I cannot consummate marriage with you.")

The verse "und tuot mir am libe niht" could also be translated as "he won't kill me." The plural form of the verb could be a relict of an earlier German version of the poem. In German it would then be the formal personal pronoun.

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However, Walter does not comply with this request. Instead he calls upon God's help, confident that he will defeat the enemies (vv. 553-54): "Qui me de variis eduxit saepe periclis, Hie valet hie hostes, credo, confundere nostras." ("He, who has often led me out of manifold dangers, I am confident that he will be able to destroy our enemies here as well.") A comparable scene occurs in the tale of "Valtari and Hildigunnr" in Pidreks saga. Here Hildigunnr implores Valtari with tears in her eyes to save his life by riding away (Ps. 11.107-08). Valtari, unlike Walter in WaJtharius, who relies on God's help, instead relies on his own strength, which has saved him in several battles in the past (Ps. 11.108.3-8): Fru ssegir hann grat aeigi set hasvi ec fyr hialma klofna skiolldu skipta bryniur sunöraöar. Oc menn stceypaz af sinum hsestum havuö lausa. Oc allt J^etta hasui ec gort minni henndi oc scki er mer Jjetta ofrefli. (He said: "Woman, do not cry; I have seen split helmets, broken shields, [and] cut armor before. I have also seen men fall off their horses without their heads. All this I have done with my own hands and it seems to me that this is not too much for me.") In the "Herburt and Hildr" tale in Pidreks saga, Herburt sees the pursuers, but he does not expect that they have come with evil intentions. He assumes that Hildr's father has sent them to accompany him on his journey. Hildr, however, warns him: "herra annat asrendi munu Jjeir haua en getijD Jdvi at (icir munu vilia haua yöart lif'—Lord, they must be on a different mission than what you think, because they most likely want to take your life (11.58.10-12). Herburt reacts to this new situation by preparing himself for battle. Like Walter in Waltharins, he relies on God's help and emphasizes his innocence (11.58.12-17): £>a suarar hann fru hvi munu Jjeir vilia haua lif saclauss mannz. En ef Jsat er |Deira asrendi sem öer ssegiö J^a hialpi mer sua guö at alldrigi skal ec sua dceyia firir Wessum monnum at ek havi osnga soec til. En alldrigi skal ec renna eöa rida vndan lengr. (Then he answers: "My lady, why should they want to take the life of an innocent man? And if that should be their mission, as you say, then God help me so that I will not have to die at the hand of these men with whom I have no quarrel. But I shall never run or ride away.") In all these examples an army that the girl's father has sent pursues the couple. As soon as the girl becomes aware of them, she urges the hero to save his life. The parallels are especially obvious in Ortnit and "Valtari and

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Hildigunnr", because in both versions the woman explicitly begs the m a n to leave her behind and escape alone. In all the versions the hero is prepared to fight without delay, and in Ortnit and "Herburt and Hildr" he also emphasizes his willingness to die for his bride-to-be. In Waltharius, Hiltgunt expresses her wish to die because the marriage with Walter has not been consummated, and she fears that this will never happen. The marriage motif is missing f r o m the version in Pidreks saga, but it is present in a very unusual way in "Herburt and Hildr". In the latter, Herburt lifts Hildr off her horse and has intercourse with her as soon as they notice the attackers. Before the battle, this issue is again brought up in Herburt's dialogue with Hermann, the messenger of Hildr's father (II.58.22-59.7): En hermann suarar at alldrigi skal han griö fa. Oc asnn masllti Hermann segdu enn illi hunör aör en {m doeyr. Oc sua hialpi guö Jjer at Jm lygr seigi huart hsevir hilldr halldit sinum moeydomi herburt suarar j morgin er sol rann upp. t>a var hon maer. En hon er nu kona min. Jja reö hermann at honum oc legr sinu spioti firir hans briost. (And Hermann answers, that he will never obtain quarter, and he continues to say: "Tell me, you wicked dog, before you die—and may God help you if you should lie—if Hildr has preserved her virginity." Herburt answers: "This morning, when the sun rose, she was still a virgin, but now she is my wife." At this Hermann rode toward him and thrust his spear at his chest.) The issue of the h e r o ' s guilt and thus the question whether the marriage has been consummated or not, is also addressed in Waltharius and "Valtari and Hildigunnr". In Waltharius, the narrator emphasizes that Walter remained chaste during the entire escape: " N a m q u e fugae toto se tempore virginis usu / Continuit vir Waltharius laudabilis heros"—During the entire escape the praiseworthy hero Walter refrained from having contact with the virgin {Waith, vv. 4 2 6 - 7 ) , and, as mentioned above, in the Pidreks saga version, Valtari also emphasizes his innocence (Ps. 11.58.12). The same motif also plays a crucial role during Ortnit's and Machorel's battle. In an attempt to end the battle, Ortnit mentions that he has not committed any sin and that his bride-to-be has kept her virginity: "Ich enweiz wes ir mich zihet, si wart noch nie m m wip" (v. 461.2). Machorel ignores this statement however, and, as happens in all the other narratives, the battle continues. One other scene in Ortnit raises the issue of the h e r o ' s innocence, and at the same time the close relationship that has developed between the couple. Shortly after Ortnit's companions have arrived on the battleground, Ortnit hands over his weapons and rests in the girl's lap (st. 466): Si sprach 'mir ist vil swaere, daz ir in miner schoze liget. Ir müget da von wol sterben, ob min vater iu an gesiget.'

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'mirst leit deich dir niht nashner noch bin bi gelegen.' 'nu erge mir, swie got welle, ich hän mich sin gar verwegen.' (She said: "It distresses me very much that you are lying in my lap. You might very well die if my father should see you like this." "I regret that I did not lie any closer to you. Now it may happen to me, as God wishes. I will have to give him up.") This scene is debated among scholars, who disagree about the correct punctuation, the assignment of the verses to their respective speakers, and the translation of the verses. Schmid-Cadalbert subscribes to the punctuation suggested by the editor and explains that Ortnit speaks the third verse and expresses his regret that the marriage has not been consummated. According to Schmid-Cadalbert's interpretation, the girl then speaks the final verse, in which she refers to her lost relationship with her father and thus expresses her distress about the entire situation.' 5 Conversely, Wolfgang Dinkelacker argues that Ortnit speaks the final two sentences, and declares that he gives himself into the will of God ("Was Gott auch fügen möge, ich will es auf mich nehmen"). 16 Following Dinkelacker's punctuation and distribution of the verses, I propose that Ortnit's final remark, "ich hän mich sin gar verwegen", should be interpreted as a reference to the preceding events, and in particular to the moment at which Ortnit found out that Machorel denied him a truce. The "sin" in the last sentence ("I have to give him up") would then refer to Machorel and could be interpreted as an indication that Ortnit no longer believes in a peaceful settlement of the conflict, but rather leaves the outcome of the battle to God's will. 17 The latter translation and interpretation of the scene agrees with the analogous dialogues in Waltharius and "Herburt and Hildr", in which the heroes also explicitly 15

Schmid-Cadalbert, pp. 178-79.

16

Dinkelacker, Ortnit-Studien,

17

According to my interpretation of the sentence, the pronoun "sin" refers to Machorel, who is mentioned in verse 2b. Lexer's Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch contains several examples for the usage of the verb "verwegen" with the genitive of the person. In these cases it means "von j e m a n d e m ablassen." In reflexive usage the verb means "sich auf die Glückswaage legen, sich frisch wozu entschließen", which does not apply to this verse (Matthias Lexer, Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch [Stuttgart: Hirzel, 1979]). Jacob Grimm mentions a verse from Wilhelm von Österreich by Johann von Würzburg ("des rosses het er sich verwegen" [v. 11,770]). He suggests that this verse can be translated as "sich mit dem Verlust abfinden, etwas verloren geben", which was a common meaning of the verb "verwegen" in the later Middle Ages (Deutsches Wörterbuch, rev. by E. Wülcker, R. Meiszner et al., vol. 12, I [Leipzig 1956], p. 2153). It is likely that the verse in Ortnit can be interpreted in a similar way.

pp. 6 4 - 6 6 .

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mention that they rely on God's help. Further support for this thesis and the close connection between Ortnit and the Walther stories is supplied by the situation in which these words are spoken; Ortnit has placed his head in the girl's lap and she unties his helmet. In Waltharius, Walter also rests unarmed in Hiltgunt's lap immediately before the combat takes place {Waith. vv. 498-504). As mentioned above, Schmid-Cadalbert interprets the couple's dialogue in Ortnit and also the preceding events as an indication of Ortnit's failure to establish an emotional relationship with the girl, which eventually leads to Ortnit's death and hence to the failure of his bridal quest. However, the comparison between these scenes in Ortnit and earlier bridal-quest narratives reveals that the opposite is true. The epic contains several clear indications of the existence of such an emotional relationship between the two. The scenes and events that illustrate their love contain obvious parallels to earlier bridal-quest tales and they seem to be composed according to an established narrative pattern. The most important motifs of this pattern are that the girl wants to save the hero's life and therefore requests that he leave her behind so that he can ride away faster. The girl is willing to accept the consequences it will have for her own life. In Waltharius, she is willing to die for her love, and in the other narratives she is prepared to live with her diminished honor. The same applies to Ortnit, where the girl explicitly comments on the loss of her honor, which she regards as less important than saving Ortnit's life. She expresses her concern and her fear for his life once more in the most intimate scene in the epic, namely, at the moment when Ortnit is resting in her lap. Neither is the fact that the conflict between the girl's father and her suitor remains unresolved unique to the Ortnit epic. In Pidreks saga, Attila also fails to reconcile himself with his father-in-law, Osantrix, so that the two engage in further combats and remain enemies (Ps. 1.73). Apollonius's quest for Herborg has a negative ending as well. In this tale the wedding never takes place, because Herborg dies before Apollonius can reconcile himself with her father, as she had requested (Ps. 11.142). An additional parallel between the escape and battle in Ortnit and early bridal-quest narratives is that in Ortnit, the Attalus tale, and Waltharius the hero crosses a river before engaging in combat. In Waltharius, the crossing of the Rhine initiates Gunther's attack. In the Attalus tale, the fugitives are attacked on the banks of the river Moselle, and Ortnit also crosses a river before he faces his attackers. Ortnit leaves his horse behind and crosses the river on foot to find a better position for his defense. The girl stands behind him, and their backs are protected by shrubs and bushes. This strategic setting allows Ortnit to confront his attackers in a series of single combats,

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since each of them has to cross the river on foot. In Waltharius, Walter has selected his location in the same way. Hiltgunt remains standing behind him, protected by the forest ("Hoc heros dicto introitum stationis adibat, / Inferius stanti praedicens sic mulieri" [vv. 559-60]). Walter's battleground is located close to the river in a forest, more accurately, in a ravine that is enclosed by two rocks (vv. 489-99). Later Hägen warns Gunther not to attack Walter because of his favorable military location.18 Even the AngloSaxon Waldere fragments contain references that conform to the situation described in Ortnit. According to Waldere, the battle of the protagonists occurs on foot ("fedewigges" II. 16a), which is also the case in Ortnit. Waldere is tired from fighting, because he has already fought one combat ("ast dus headuwerigan" II. 17a) but the woman urges him to continue the battle for fear of his life ("dy ic de metod ondred" [1.19b). This last situation is very similar to the dialogue between Ortnit and the girl at the moment when the hero rests in her lap. Another parallel between Waldere and Ortnit is even more telling. In Waldere, one of the speakers predicts that the hero will survive the following battle because of the armor he has received from his father, ^Elfher: "standad me her on eaxelum ^ l f h e r e s laf" (11.18) ... "ne bid fah wid me" (II.22b). In Waltharius, the hero's armor, which is called Weland's work, also saves Walter's life from a spear cast: "Et nisi duratis Wielandia fabrica giris / Obstaret, spisso penetraverit ilia ligno"—And if Weland's work, which was made of hardened rings, had not held, he would have pierced him [Walter] through with the hardened wood (vv. 965-66). The Dresden Ortnit manuscript ( K ) also explicitly mentions that Ortnit preserves his life during his battles only because of Alberich's splendid armor (st. 222.3). 19 Hence, as in the Waldere fragment, in Ortnit the father's armor is emphasized. This special armor, which Wolfdietrich wears in the Wolfdietrich epic when he slays the dragons, is also mentioned in later literary references to Ortnit, for example in the Eckenlied L (st. 21 and 91) and Das Liet vom Hürnen Seyfrid (st. 70).20 Two additional, important details of Ortnit's escape place the epic in close proximity to the earlier bridal-quest narratives: firstly, the couple's escape on "Ast ubi Waltharium tali statione receptum / Conspexit Hagano, satrapae mox ista superbo / Suggerit: 'o, senior, desiste lacessere bello / Hunc hominem!'" {Waith. vv. 572-75). See Dinkelacker, Ortnit-Studien, p. 74. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the text of manuscript Κ and therefore I have to rely on the information Dinkelacker gives in his book. See Dinkelacker, Ortnit-Studien,

p. 65.

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a single horse and, secondly, Machorel's reaction to his daughter's elopement. In agreement with the stories belonging to the Walter tradition and the narratives in Pidreks saga, but unlike the Middle High German bridal-quest epics, Ortnit escapes with his bride-to-be on a single horse. Finally, Machorel's reaction to the successful escape of his daughter and her suitor is very peculiar (st. 4 8 4 - 8 5 a ) : Der heiden sich versparte in einen palas, daz niemen in der werlde bi im dar inne was. sus saz er verborgen unz an den dritten tac, daz er von siner erge trinkens noch ezzens phlac. Im getorste niemen ruofen, in getorste niemen sehen, swer in erzürnet hiete, dem wasre schade geschehen, ezzens noch trinkens getorste in niemen biten noch deheines släfes: [...] (The heathen locked himself into a room, so that nobody in the world was there with him. He sat hidden in this way for three days [and] his anger caused him neither to eat nor drink. Nobody was allowed to call him; nobody was allowed to see him. Harm would have occurred to the one who had angered him. Nobody was allowed to offer him food or drink, or to [ask him] to sleep. This reaction is very similar to Attila's reaction in Waltharius

(vv. 3 8 0 - 9 9 )

lam princeps nimia succenditur efferus ira, Mutant laetitiam maerentia corda priorem. Ex humeris trabeam discindit ad infima totam Et nunc hue animum tristem, nunc dividit illuc. [...] Et varium pectus vario simul ore imitatus Prodidit exterius, quicquid toleraverat intus, Iraque sermonem permisit promere nullum. Ipso quippe die potum fastidit et escam, Nec placidam membris potuit dare cura quietem. Namque ubi nox rebus iam dempserat atra colores, Decidit in lectum, verum nec lumina clausit, [...] Taliter insomnem consumpserat Attila noctem. (Then the ruler, full of anger, arouses in a great fury and in the place of the previous happiness steps the distress of the heart. He tears apart his cloak all the way down from the shoulder and turns his sad thoughts now in one direction and now in the other...And, showing his changing mood by means of his changing facial expression, he revealed on the outside what he was suffering inside; however, his anger did not allow him to utter a single word. On this day he refused food and drink and his distress did not grant him the refreshing rest.

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Then, when the dark night had taken the color from the things, he fell down on the bed, but he could not close his eyes. In this way Attila spent the night without any sleep.)

The only medieval German epic that contains a comparable reaction is König Rother (vv. 3005-8; 3015):21 Constantinis gemode sich verwandelode. her begunde sere weinin. inde quelite sich von leide. [...] Her viel von leyde in unmaht. (Constantine's mood changed; he began to weep much and suffered from his distress. [...] Because of this distress he passed out.)

To sum up: An analysis of Ortnit's escape and his battle with Machorel has revealed that at least this part of the Ortnit epic contains several parallels to the oldest written sources of the Walter tradition, and also to Gregory of Tours's Attalus tale and some of the narratives in Pidreks saga. The most important parallels are the following: 1. The couple escapes from the girl's home on a single horse. 2. The girl's father reacts to the escape with great sorrow and despair. 3. The couple engages in a (love) dialogue at the moment they become aware of their pursuers. 4. The girl expresses her willingness to remain behind to save her suitor's life. 5. The hero rests in the lap of the girl before or in the middle of the battle. 6. The question whether or not the hero has had sexual intercourse with the girl and the question of his guilt are emphasized. 7. The battle is preceded by the crossing of a river. 8. The battle takes the form of single combat and often on foot. 9. The hero's special armor is essential for his survival. Schmid-Cadalbert's observation that the escape and battle in Ortnit differ significantly from the battles in the remaining German bridal-quest epics is doubtlessly correct. 22 Although we find the hero's escape and a battle in all German bridal-quest epics, the above mentioned details are indeed specific 21

Quoted from König Rother, ed. Theodor Frings and Joachim Kuhnt, 3rd ed. (Halle/ Saale: Niemeyer, 1968).

22

Schmid-Cadalbert, p. 177.

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to Ortnit. The conclusions Schmid-Cadalbert draws from this observation, namely, that Ortnit has to die at the end because he failed to establish a love relationship with the girl and did not terminate her bonds with her father however, cannot be upheld. First of all, Ortnit and his bride-to-be clearly established a love relationship. The girl's fear for her father's life cannot be interpreted as an indication that her bonds with him are stronger than those with Ortnit. Secondly, the unresolved conflict between the two men is not unique to the Ortnit epic, because it also occurs in earlier bridal-quest narratives, such as the so-called Hildesage and some of the stories in Pidreks saga. Therefore, the second part of Ortnit, more specifically, the father's gift of the deadly dragons, cannot be interpreted as a retrieval sequence (Rückgewinnungshandlung) that is motivated by the unresolved conflict between the wooer and the girl's father, because such a regaining of the bride is not prescribed by the bridal-quest scheme. It occurs in König Rother but not in any of the other German epics and especially not in the earlier tales. The events in Ortnit seem much more conventional if we look at them in the context of the Northwest German bridal-quest tradition. In light of these stories, Ortnit's behavior during the escape and battle is no longer exceptional, but rather follows the narrative pattern that was established in earlier bridal-quest narratives. Furthermore, Ortnit's bridal quest does not fail. It develops in a familiar way and it is concluded with the winning of the bride: Alberich, Ortnit's father and messenger, gains access to the bride in the unusual disguise of an invisible god; Ortnit escapes with the girl on horseback; the couple develops an intimate relationship during the escape; the hero fights with the pursuing troops; he defeats the opponents first alone and then together with his army; and he returns to his homeland where he marries the girl and becomes king. At this point the bridal-quest narrative could and should be completed. Ortnit has won his bride, and thus he has accomplished his quest. However, at this very point, confusion begins for the interpreter, because the epic does not come to a close here, but rather proceeds to relate the dragon episode and Ortnit's death. This break in the narrative and the unusual killing of Ortnit has given rise to the question whether the two parts of the epic were composed as a unit or whether they were independent tales that were connected at a later stage in the transmission of the epic. Assuming that both parts were independent tales, we must also ask, when and where these parts were composed and eventually combined and, last but not least, how we can account for the many parallels the bridal-quest plot in Ortnit shares with the earliest bridal-quest narratives.

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The Origin and Transmission of Ortnit All of the manuscripts of Ortnit date to the fifteenth and sixteenth century, with the exception of one earlier fragment from around 1300. The manuscripts are all written in a Southern German dialect (Oberdeutsch) and, as noted before, all of them also contain one of the versions of the Wolfdietrich epic.23 Based on linguistic criteria and references to historical events, scholars reached the consensus that the extant version of Ortnit was probably composed around the year 1230 and first written down in southern Germany. The hypotheses put forward concerning the origin of the subject matter and the connection between Ortnit and Wolfdietrich, however, are manifold and can only be summarized briefly.24 It has been argued that Ortnit predates Wolfdietrich (Arthur Amelung 1871),25 or that both works were composed at the same time by a single author (Helmut de Boor 19 5 3).26 Dimitri Scheludko (1930), Linde Baecker (1963), and Joachim Heinzle (1999) maintained that Ortnit was composed in the late Middle Ages as an introductory story to the Wolfdietrich epic.27 Based on the theories about the composition of Wolfdietrich, four hypotheses have been offered with respect to the origin of the Ortnit epic. It has been suggested that Ortnit is of Gothic origin and goes back to folktale traditions;28 that it refers to events in the history of the Ostrogoths;29 that it is based on Frankish The dialect of the main manuscripts A W has been regarded as Bavarian or Austrian (Amelung 1871, p. xxi), then as Middle German (mitteldeutsch) (Konrad Zwierzina, "Mittelhochdeutsche Studien [8. und 9.]", ZDA 44 [1900], 208), and then again as Bavarian (Helmut de Boor, Die deutsche Literatur, p. 196), or, more generally, as oberdeutsch (Werner Hoffmann, Mittelhochdeutsche Heldendichtung [Berlin: Schmidt, 1974], p. 134). Dinkelacker (Ortnit-Studien) gives a very detailed overview of these theories on pp. 3 3 - 5 6 . Arthur Amelung, ed., Ortnit, in: D H B III, pp. v - x x x . Helmut de Boor, Die deutsche Literatur,

p. 196.

Dimitri Scheludko, "Versuch einer neuen Interpretation des Wolfdietrichstoffes", ZDP 55 (1930), 35-37; Linde Baecker, "Die Sage von Wolfdietrich und das Gedicht Wolfdietrich A", ZDA 92 (1963), 73, and Joachim Heinzle, Einführung in die mittelhochdeutsche Dietrichepik (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1999), pp. 41-3. Müllenhoff suggests that the story of Wolfdietrich was connected with the Dioskurenmythos (Karl Müllenhoff, "Das Alter des Ortnit", ZDA 13 [1867], 185-92), and Heino Gehrts suggests a connection with the fairytale of the two brothers (,Zweibriidermärchen) (Heino Gehrts, Das Märchen und das Opfer: Untersuchungen zum europäischen Briidermärchen [Bonn: Bouvier, 1967]). Jan de Vnes, "Die Sage von Wolfdietrich", GRMN.S.

8 (1958), 1-18.

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sources, such as the Huon de Bordeaux;30 and that Ortnit is derived from Russian heroic poems that reached southern Germany via the northern German trading cities in the form of Low German heroic poems. 31 Dinkelacker summarizes these theories in great detail and shows that the parallels with Gothic and Frankish myths and historical figures, old fairytales, and more or less contemporary narratives cannot convincingly be shown to be possible sources for Ortnit.32 The main shortcoming of the first three hypotheses is that they are entirely based on the Wolfdietrich epic and therefore do not necessarily apply to Ortnit. The fourth, Russian, hypothesis about the origin of the subject matter, however, focuses exclusively on Ortnit. This hypothesis is also the most recent and the majority of scholars favor it. Its proponents suggest that compelling evidence for the Russian derivation of Ortnit's subject matter is found in Pidreks saga, in particular in the narrative that parallels Ortnit's battle with the dragon (Ps. 11.358-68). In the saga, the dead hero is called Hertniö, King of Bergara. His avenger is the saga's hero f>iörekr himself, and Hertniö's widow and f>iörekr's future wife is called Isolt. Since Willhelm Grimm, scholars have treated the names "Ortnit" and "Hertniö" as being identical and of Russian origin. 33 It has been argued that the epic's subject matter comes from Russia because the name of Ortnit's uncle Yljas allegedly refers to the Cossack Ilya of Murom, who lived at the court of the emperor in Kiev. Moreover, in the later stages of the transmission of the story, the Old Norse word for Novgorod ("Holmgarör") and the word for the realm in Kiev ("Garöariki") were confused with the Italian city Garda, which is mentioned as Ortnit's home in the Middle High German epic. This last hypothesis about the origin of Ortnit is of particular interest to the present study, since it supplies another connection with Pidreks saga and also emphasizes the northern German territory as the geographical center for the transmission of the epic. As has been shown, at least parts of the bridal-quest plot in Ortnit must be read in connection with the tales in Pidreks saga and the Walter tales. Therefore it is quite possible that Ortnit was indeed composed in the same environment as these works, which, at least for Pidreks saga, must be sought in northwest Germany. It is, howSee Carl Voretzsch, Die Composition

des 'Huon von

Bordeaux'.

Müllenhoff, pp. 185-92; Rolf Bräuer, Literatursoziologie und epische Joachim Heinzle, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von den Anfängen Beginn der Neuzeit, vol. 2, part 2 (Königstein/Ts.: Athenäum, 1984). See Dinkelacker, Ortnit-Studien, Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsche telsmann, 1889), p. 250.

Struktur, bis zum

pp. 3 3 - 5 6 .

Heldensage,

3 rd ed. by Reinhold Steig (Gütersloh: Ber-

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ever, debatable whether Ortnit or its sources ultimately go back to Russian heroic poetry. The two names, "Ortnit" and "Hertniö" are doubtlessly of Germanic origin, since the components of their names occur in many other Germanic sources. 34 Support for the popularity of the names in medieval Germany can be found in Frank W. Chandler's Catalogue of names ofpersons in the German court epics. 35 Chandler lists the occurrence of the names "Hertnit von Ort" and "Hertnit von Wildonie" in Ulrich von Liechtenstein's Frauendienst, as well as "Hertnit, künec von Riuzen" in Konrad von Würzburg's Engelhard. Additionally, the first part of the name "Ortnit" is attested in several names in medieval German literature, such as "Ortlieb, Ortwin, and Ortvig". 36 The fact that the counterpart to the epic's hero, Ortnit, has the name Hertniö in Piöreks saga does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the two names are used synonymously in the saga and in the literary tradition in general. 37 Piöreks saga contains five different men with the name "Hertniö" and also one "Ortniö" (Otniö) who is the son of King Osiö in Frisia and the brother of Attila (1.56-7). The first Hertniö in the saga is the king of Russia and the enemy of King Vilcinus in "Vilcina saga". The second is the grandson of Hertniö. He is King Osantrix's nephew and in this role he is involved in his uncle's bridal quest. The third is Osantrix's son, the succesThe first part of the compound in "Ortnit" is attested in OHG ort and ON oddr with the meaning "edge or tip of the spear." The form hert in "Hertniö" most likely comes from Germanic *heru ("sword"), which was used frequently in personal Germanic male names, for example "Herubrand" and "Herbert." The additional -tin "Hert-niö" can be explained as a later development, maybe in analogy to the name "Ortnit." Evidence for this claim can be found in the manuscripts of Piöreks saga, where we frequently find the alternative form "Her-niö". The second part of both names ("-nit") is doubtlessly derived from ON nid, OHG nit, meaning "insult, envy, anger." Frank W. Chandler, A catalogue of names of persons in the German court epics, ed. Martin H. Jones (King's College London: Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, 1992). Baecker (p. 71) also investigated the earliest occurrences of the names "Ortnit" und "Hertnit", and she found that these names are attested since the year 1160, mainly in southern German sources. She mentions that the name "Ortnit" is first attested in the year 1160 in the form "Ortnit de Visha." At approximately the same time the name "Hertnit" occurs without the i-Umlaut as "Hartnit de Sparwaersbach". Baecker further shows that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the names "Ortnit", "Hartnit", and "Hartnidus" were well known in Bavaria. Willy Krogmann is the first one to distinguish between the names in the saga ("Ortnit", Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. Wolfgang Stammler, vol. 5, Nachträge [Berlin: de Gruyter, 1955], 797).

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sor to the throne in the realm of the Vilcins. The fourth Hertniö is a Vilcin who is married to the magician Ostacia, the daughter of King Runi of Austria, who, in the shape of a dragon, supports her husband in his battle against Isung. Finally, the fifth "Hertniö" is the king of Bergara, who is defeated in a battle against a dragon. 38 In the later Stockholm manuscript this Hertniö is referred to as "Ortniö", which could be a redactor's alteration that was based on knowledge of the German epic. This last-mentioned Hertniö and his adventure are clearly connected to Ortnit's story. However, the parallels between these two narratives are limited to the dragon episode and do not include the bridal quest. Another Hertniö in Pidreks saga is involved in Osantrix's quest for Oda, but only in the role of a messenger. Based on the evidence of the saga we can also not conclude that all the Hertniös belong to "Vilcina saga", as has been suggested to support the alleged Russian origin of the name and subsequently also of the German epic. Since the stories in the saga contain several characters with this name, who have various origins, this claim cannot be upheld. As mentioned above, one Hertniö is married to an Austrian princess, and in his adventures a dragon plays a role as well, although in altered form, because here it is the woman who can take on the shape of a dragon. The Hertniö who loses against the dragon is localized in Italy (Bergara). In the German epic, Ortnit also comes from Italy, more specifically, from Garda. The name of this city does not have to be connected to the Old Norse forms of the Russian cities ("Garöariki" and "Holmgarör") but most likely simply refers to the region around Lake Garda in Italy. From König Rother we know that it is not unusual to localize the Christian hero of a bridal-quest story in Italy. Rother comes from the city of Bari. The only hero who is called Ortniö in all manuscripts of Pidreks saga is a Frisian king and the brother of Attila, who resides in Soest. This Ortniö is therefore clearly associated with the Low German territory. In short, the situation in Pidreks saga is too complex to allow compelling conclusions about the heritage of the heroes' names and the subject matter, and there is no evidence that the name Hertniö, and subsequently also the Ortnit epic, go back to Russian sources. 39 Since we can assume that Bertelsen lists the pages on which the individual characters appear in the saga on pages 4 0 5 - 6 . The forms of the names and the role assigned to the characters differ significantly in the manuscripts. I have based the above summary exclusively on Bertelsen's edition without taking the variant readings into account. See Baecker: "Weit verstreut treten in der Thidrekssaga nicht weniger als vier Hertnite und ein Ortnit auf, zwischen denen kein rechter Zusammenhang erkennbar wird, und keiner von ihnen kann uns helfen, die Frage nach der oberdeutschen Ortnitsage auch nur annähernd zu beantworten" (pp. 71-2).

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the tales that were incorporated into Pidreks saga go back to northern German sources, it is much more likely that the names "Hertniö" and "Ortniö" stem from this region as well. Furthermore, the dragon episodes in Pidreks saga and in Ortnit are doubtlessly related and seem to go back to a common source. 40 This source may very well have contained both a bridal quest and a dragon episode, as Heiko Uecker suggests. 41 It is also possible, however, that the two parts of Ortnit go back to two different traditions and tales that were later combined in the extant German epic. This combination could have taken place in southern Germany, whereas the tales may very well be of northern German origin. The bridal-quest plot in Ortnit is complete and self-sufficient and, as Linde Baecker points out, the hero's death does not conform to the logic of the narrative at all. 42 It is even more disturbing that he dies because he is overcome by sleep, without ever getting a chance to prove his valor and to fight the dragon. Considering that Ortnit is the only medieval hero we know who is defeated by a dragon, Baecker concludes that the epic was composed in the later Middle Ages as a prologue to Wolfdietrich. This seems to be a logical solution. However, there is no reason to assume that the epic's subject matter cannot be older and was only later reworked into the extant version. It is quite possible that an older bridal-quest story was later combined and extended with the dragon episode that is also transmitted in Pidreks saga. It is also possible that Ortnit's quest contained a battle with the dragon from the beginning but that he defeated the dragon in this version. The story could have been changed to establish a transition to the adventures of Wolfdietrich. Baecker and other scholars have suggested that Ortnit is a late medieval invention mainly because we cannot determine any evidence for an older tradition of the material: "Die oberdeutsche Ortnitüberlieferung enthält nichts, was sich als Spur einer selbständigen Ortnitsage ansprechen ließe." 43 However, as the discussion of the rear-guard fight {Verfolgungskampf) in Ortnit has shown, at least these parts are composed according to

Roswitha Wisniewski argues that Pidreks saga cannot be regarded as a direct source of Ortnit because the differences between the two narratives are too great, but rather that both go back to an older source. She claims that the older, no longer extant tale about Ortnit is still identifiable in the dragon episode, but no longer in the epic's first part (Mittelalterliche Dietrichdichtung [Stuttgart: Metzler, 1986], pp. 152-3). Heiko Uecker, Germanische Baecker, p. 72. Baecker, p. 73.

Heldensage

(Stuttgart, Metzler, 1972), p. 103.

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an established bridal-quest scheme, which also occurs in Franconian chronicles, the various Walter tales, and the northern German tales in Pidreks saga. There is good reason to believe that Ortnit did not originate in southern Germany and also that an independent version of Ortnit never existed in this region until the thirteenth century. It is, however, quite possible that an independent Ortnit was composed earlier in northwest Germany. Evidence for the assumed northern German origin of the subject matter and the circulation of an earlier narrative in this area is supplied by the occurrence of a version of the dragon episode in Pidreks saga, but mainly by the obvious similarities between the second part of the bridalquest story and earlier Franconian and northern German stories. 44 It is very likely that the transmission of Ortnit's bridal quest began in an area in which bridal-quest tales were familiar and in circulation for centuries. Norbert Voorwinden and Ruth H. Firestone, who examined six different Ortnit versions on the basis of Parry and Lord's oral formulaic theory, also reached the conclusion that the narrative was transmitted orally before it was written down 45 The problem that arises from such claims is that we cannot prove this early transmission of our stories, as Firestone admits: "there is good reason to assume...that 'Ortnit' originated in oral tradition. However, there is little to no reason to believe that this original 'orality' can be demonstrated on the basis of the surviving texts." 46

Edward Haymes argues that at least Wolfdietrich Β is of Frankish origin so that it is even possible that the two epics were combined in Franconia before they were finally written down in southern Germany. Additional evidence for a Franconian origin of Wolfdietrich Β comes from the so-called Vorgeschichte that relates the bridal quest of Wolfdietrich's father, Hugdietrich. This story only occurs in this particular version of Wolfdietrich ("Die 'Wolfdietrich'-B-Überlieferung zwischen Franken und Tirol", in Jahrbuch der Oswald von Wolkenstein Gesellschaft, 2 [1982/83], 89-98). To the assumed independence of the two narratives see Uta Störmer-Caysa, "Ortnits Mutter, die Drachen und der Zwerg", ZD A 4 (1999), 2 8 3 4, and Claude Lecouteux, "Des Königs Ortnit S c h l a f ' , Euphorien 73 (1979), 355. Lecouteux shows by means of a close reading of the scenes that relate Ortnit's death and Wolfdietrich's succession as the dragon slayer that the two narratives initially were independent from each other. See also Edward R. Haymes and Susann Τ. Samples: "It is much more likely that they [Ortnit and Wolfdietrich] were entirely separate until they found their way into the medieval literary versions we k n o w " (Heroic Legends of the North: An Introduction to the Nibelung and Dietrich Cycles [New York and London: Garland, 1996], p. 133). Norbert Voorwinden, "Zur Überlieferung des Ortnit", Amsterdamer Beiträge 6 (1974), 192; Ruth Η. Firestone, "A N e w Look at the Transmission of O r t n i t ' " , Amsterdamer Beiträge 18 (1982), 141. Firestone, p. 141.

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Ortnit has been discussed in such detail here to show that the bridalquest story in this epic is an important key to its understanding, transmission, and age and that this work must be included in the discussions about Germanic and medieval German bridal-quest narrative. Schmid-Cadalbert made the very same claim and discussed the epic as a bridal-quest narrative. He did, however, neglect to include in his discussion the earliest German examples of this type of narrative. Schmid-Cadalbert bases his interpretation of the epic on the rear-guard fight ( V e r f o l g l i n g s k a m p f ) and the observation that the respective scenes differ significantly from the other German bridal-quest epics. Here it has been demonstrated, however, that these scenes are not unique to Ortnit and cannot be regarded as a violation of the bridal-quest pattern. Rather, they are deeply rooted in the early Franconian bridal-quest tradition that is attested by the tales in the Franconian chronicles, the Walter tales, and the stories in Pidreks saga. The Traditional German Bridal-Quest Epics Four German bridal-quest epics, König Rother, Orendel, Der Münchner Oswald, and Salman und Morolf are usually treated as a homogenous corpus. Within this group König Rother is regarded as the most refined and most clearly structured bridal-quest epic, mainly because it contains a duplication of the quest (Riickentfiihrungs- or Riickgewinnungshandlung), which is regarded as a specific characteristic of the bridal-quest epics, according to Volker Mertens: "Das am stärksten nach dem Brautwerbungsschema strukturierte Werk ist der 'König Rother' (Werbung-Brautgewinnung; Verlust-Wiedergewinnung). " 47 In König Rother this double structure indeed prevails. 48 Some time after Rother has won his bride and returned home, the girl is lured aboard a ship by one of her father's minstrels and taken back to her home country. Rother then sets out with a large army on his second quest for the girl and, after many adventures and battles, he regains her and returns home to his kingdom. In his interpretation of Ortnit, Schmid-Cadalbert also refers to the retrieval sequence (Riickentfiihrungshandlung) as an important element of the bridal-quest scheme and he bases his interpretation of the epic to a large

Volker Mertens, "Brautwerberepos", in Lexikon des Mittelalters, ed. Robert-Henri Bautier et al., vol. 2 (Munich and Zurich: Artemis, 1983), p. 592. For a recent detailed interpretation of the double structure in König Rother and a recent summary of the scholarship, see Markus Stock, Kombinationssinn. Narrative Strukturexperiemente im "Straßburger Alexander", im "Herzog Ernst Β" und im "KönigRother" (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2002), pp. 229-280.

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extent on the absence of this motif in Ortnit. One can argue, however, that the bride's return to her father and the hero's subsequent second quest to regain her, are not an essential element of the bridal-quest scheme, but rather a variation of this scheme and, in this case, the inspired work of the author of König Rother. Only in Salman und Morolf do we also encounter a duplication of the plot. In this epic the married Salme elopes twice from her husband's court, each time with a different suitor, and twice she is taken back by her brother-in-law. Although the plot is doubled and the woman is brought back, the premises are not the same as in König Rother. Salme is a married woman who is returned to her husband. Her return does not lead to a second decisive quest by her suitor, but rather to a second elopement with a different man, many years after the first episode. In this epic it would therefore be more accurate to speak of two bridal quests than of one double-structured bridal-quest plot. Neither of the other two epics, Der Münchner Oswald and Orendel, contains a repetition of the quest.49 In Der Münchner Oswald, the fugitives are pursued by the girl's father who engages Oswald and his men in battle, but he does not regain his daughter. Rather, he loses the battle, converts to the Christian faith, and gives his belated approval to their marriage. Orendel's bride. Bride, is fatherless, and as the Queen of Jerusalem she is responsible for her own decisions. She decides to marry Orendel, rules with him for a while in Jerusalem and then sets out on several adventures with her husband. In the course of these adventures, Bride is captured twice, and twice Orendel and his men free her. Her imprisonments, however, occur very late in the epic, are not related to Orendel's quest for Bride, and they cannot be compared to a return and regaining of the bride. 50 In Orendel, Der Münchner Oswald, and Salman und Morolf, we do not encounter a duplication of the bridal quest. Only in König Rother do we find a re-abduction of the bride and her second decisive winning by the hero.51 This particular structure is absent from earlier bridal-quest narraKudrun, Dukus Horant, and Wolfdietrich Β also do not contain a return of the bride and neither do the bridal-quest plots in Tristan and Das Nibelungenlied. Waldemar Μ. Huala's thesis that the quest for Bride must be understood as a symbolic quest for the holy grave and its loss and the second winning of it as a Riickgewinnungshandlung cannot be supported by textual evidence ("Die Kampfschablone in "Orendel." Zur Entstehung des "Spielmannsepos", Comitatus 2 (1971), 59-60. Walter Haug interprets the double structure in König Rother as an indication of the transition from the oral stage of the work's transmission, during which the simple structure prevailed, to the more complex written stage, during which the second part was composed as an interpretation of the first part. Overall, Haug seems to ar-

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tives and, with the exception of Salman und Morolf, it does not occur in the remaining German epics. Salman's attempt to take back his wife after her elopement, however, is a common motif in stories that tell about the loss of a wife and her husband's attempt to gain her back. The motif is very old and already occurs in Germanic territory in the mythological swan-maiden tales. In these stories, the husband follows his wife who has flown away upon retrieving her swan costume, which her husband had hidden from her. The most famous variant of this tale is told in "Völundarkviöa". 52 König Rother is in many respects the most refined of the early German epics and it is the least problematic in terms of the structure and logic of the bridal-quest plot. In Orendel and Der Münchner Oswald, the religious subject matter and the ambiguous nature of the hero's motivation undermine the logic of the bridal-quest plot. This is most readily visible in Orendel, where, after the initial scenes—Orendel's request to marry, the naming of an appropriate bride, and his equipment and departure—the work can no longer be considered a bridal-quest narrative. Rather, the epic evolves into a legend about the acquisition of the Seamless Robe of Christ and its translation to the cathedral in Trier. After Orendel has acquired the robe, the quest for a bride no longer motivates the plot. The bridal quest does not follow any established pattern, perhaps because Orendel does not encounter any resistance from the bride or her relatives, since Bride rules as queen in Jerusalem. In this epic the woman is the stronger character who comes close to herself forcing Orendel to marry her. In Der Münchner Oswald, the bridal-quest plot is developed much more stringently but it contains a serious logical problem. Oswald initiates his quest in order to marry and secure his line and his kingdom, which otherwise would be without an heir (vv. 35-50). 53 However, the final part of the work is entirely devoted to Oswald's sanctity and his chaste marriage. The latter is at odds with the very purpose of his journey, assuming that the bridal quest is indeed his true goal and not the rescue of Pamige, who secretly

gue for the existence of a simple bridal-quest structure ("Struktur, Gewalt und Begierde. Zum Verhältnis von Erzählmuster und Sinnkonstitution in mündlicher und schriftlicher Uberlieferung", in Brechungen auf dem Weg zur Individualität. Kleine Schriften zur Literatur des Mittelalters, ed. Walter Haug [Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1995] pp. 3-16). A critical position is taken by Christian Kiening ("Arbeit am Muster. Literarisierungsstrategien im "König Rother", in Neue Wege in der Mittelalter-Philologie, ed. Joachim Heinzle et al. [Berlin: Schmidt, 1998], pp. 220). See also Stock, pp. 238-243, for a summary of this discussion. See Ursula Dronke, The Poetic Edda II, pp. 258-9. Der Münchner

Oswald, ed. Michael Curschmann.

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believes in the Christian God. The crusade aspect of the quest is addressed in the speech Oswald holds in front of his retainers immediately before the departure to King Aran's land (vv. 1529-52). One can argue that Oswald's true intention is to save Pamige and convert her heathen father and his men to Christianity. In this case the work is more the description of Oswald's crusade and mission. This reading would agree with the legendary and historical facts we have about Oswald, but it would contradict the beginning of the epic where we learn that Oswald is on a quest to win a bride. As mentioned before, Salman und Morolf contains several bridal-quest plots. First we learn that Salman, the Christian King of Jerusalem, has abducted his future wife, Salme, from the heathen King Cyprian. After she is baptized, she becomes his wife. Later Salme elopes twice with a suitor from her husband's court and she is twice taken back by Morolf, Salman's brother. This epic differs significantly from the other stories, because it is not told from the perspective of a male protagonist who sets out on a quest for a bride. The central theme is Salme's outstanding beauty, which provokes the interest of three different men. The first, Salman, abducts Salme from her father's home and keeps her against her will in Jerusalem. Walter Haug refers to this and the following events in Salman und Morolf as "Brautwerbung mit umgedrehten Prämissen". 54 The bridal quests of the other two men, Fore and Princian, are attempts to return the woman into the hands of the heathens. In these two quests, Salme elopes voluntarily after the men have used magic rings to make her fall in love with them. The two characters who would be expected to be the heroes of this epic, Salman and Salme, both remain fairly passive throughout the narrative. The central character is clearly Morolf, who returns Salme twice to her husband, kills her to free his brother of her spell, and furnishes Salman with a more suitable wife in the end.55 The transmission of König Rother can be traced considerably further back than the other German epics, because the first and only complete Rother manuscript dates to the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the Walter Haug, "Brautwerbung im Zerrspiegel: Salman und M o r o l f ' , in Sammlung—Deutung—Wertung. Melanges de litterature medievale et de linguistique allemande offerts α Wolfgang Spiewok, ed. Danielle Buschinger, Universite de Picardie, Centre d'etudes medievales (Stuttgart: Sprint, 1988), pp. 185. Sabine Griese discusses and interprets the bridal quest in Salman und Morolf in great detail and, based on Schmid-Cadalbert's study, lists its alleged Schemabrüche on pages 132-35 (Salomon und Markolf. Ein literarischer Komplex im Mittelalter und in der frühen Neuzeit [Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1999]). See Marion E. Gibbs and Sidney Μ. Johnson, Medieval York and London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 113-14.

German Literature

(New

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thirteenth century. 56 The transmission of Ortnit begins fairly early as well, as the oldest source is a fragment from around 1300. The complete text, however, is only preserved in a manuscript from the early fourteenth century and several fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Heldenbücher,51 The other epics are only extant in later manuscripts. Orendel is transmitted in a manuscript from 1477, which today is preserved only in a nineteenth-century handwritten copy, and additionally in printed versions from the sixteenth century. 58 The written transmission of Der Münchner Oswald does not begin until the first half of the fifteenth century. The work is extant in two metrical versions {Münchner and Wiener Oswald) and a prose version, the former transmitted in manuscripts and the latter in High and Low German imprints. 59 The earliest manuscript of Salman und Morolf stems from around 1420. The epic furthermore is transmitted in three fifteenth-century manuscripts and two printed versions from the following two centuries. 60 In addition to the late transmission of most of these epics, it is peculiar that almost all of the manuscripts are of Bavarian and Austrian origin, whereas it is generally assumed that they were composed as early as the second half of the twelfth century in northwest Germany. In the previous chapter the likelihood that König Rother is of northern German origin was noted. The epic's dialect is a peculiar mix of Low and High German. Based on socio-historical information in the work, such as the names of two influential Bavarian families, it is very probable that the extant version was composed for a Bavarian audience, probably around the years 1160-70. However, the Low German elements in the language are very likely the traces of an earlier version of the epic that originated and circulated in northwest Germany. Additional support for this hypothesis comes from the fact that a version of the story also occurs in the Norwegian Pidreks saga.61 The case is similar for the origin of the bridal-quest narrative in Ortnit. König Rother is furthermore transmitted in three fragments of larger manuscripts that date from the twelfth to the fourteenth century. For a recent overview of the discussion regarding the date and origin of the epic, see Stock, pp. 230-232. Wolfgang Dinkelacker, "Ortnit", Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon, vol. 7, 2"d ed. 1989, pp. 58-67. See Heinz Steinger, "Ausgabe und Überlieferung", in Orendel, ed. Heinz Steinger (Halle/Saale: Niemeyer, 1935), pp. ιιι-νΐιι; and Curschmann, "Spielmannsepik", pp. 14—15. Curschmann, Der Münchener ner Oswald", pp. 169-200. Curschmann, "Spielmannsepik",

Oswald, pp. 196-206; and Baesecke, "Der Münchpp. 19-20.

See Klein, "Zur I>i5reks saga", pp. 521-5.

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That epic is also exclusively transmitted in southern German manuscripts and yet at the same time a version of the story occurs in Pidreks saga. The similarities between the bridal quest in this epic and earlier bridal-quest tales furthermore support the argument that it is of Franconian or northern German origin.62 The only work whose place of origin can be determined with relative ease is Orendel, since its transmission history seems to be closely connected with the history of the Seamless Robe of Christ and hence the church history of Trier. Based on this external evidence, it is traditionally assumed that the epic was originally commissioned and composed in Trier in the late twelfth century. A possible date, as Uwe Meves suggests, would be around the year 1196, when the robe was transferred to the main altar of the newly-remodeled cathedral. We have additional evidence that the robe was in the possession of the church in Trier at least since the middle of the twelfth century. 63 Inseparably linked to the epic Salman und Morolf is the didactic Spruchgedicht entitled Dialogus Salomonis et Marcolfi, which is exclusively transmitted in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Bavarian and Austrian manuscripts. 64 In the fifteenth century, Sc/wa^-adaptations of this work appear in Rhenish manuscripts with the title Markolfs (marolffes) buch. The German epic, however, is probably much older than these two works. An early written allusion to the story occurs in Chretien de Troyes's Cliges, which contains a reference to King Solomon and the trick his wife played on him (her apparent death and the gold that Morolf pours on her hand). Since Salman and Morolf is the only known work in which the motif of the apparent death (Scheintod) is used in connection with King Solomon, we can conclude that around the year 1175, when Cliges was written, a version of Salman and Morolf circulated in Europe and was familiar to Chretien. In her recent book Salomon und Markolf Sabine Griese collects additional evidence that supports the claim that the story circulated orally in Germany before the fourteenth century, when it was finally written down. 65 Moreover, Salman und Morolf is the only German bridal-quest epic for which a manuscript from the Rhenish area is extant (ms. E), and at least one other Voretzsch, pp. 372-4, mentions several other reasons for a Franconian origin of the subject matter, most importantly the similarities to the ballad "Huon de Bordeaux." 63

See Uwe Meves, Studien zu König Rother, Herzog Ernst Rock/Orendel (Frankfurt and Bern: Lang, 1976), pp. 227-42.

64

See Griese, pp. 31-59.

65

Ibid, pp. 77-8.

und

Grauer

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manuscript shows Rhenish dialect features (ms. S).66 Based on this linguistic and also on external evidence, scholars have localized the archetype of the epic in the Frankish area, and, more specifically, along the lower and middle Rhine. 67 Determining a place of origin for the Oswald epic is much more complicated than for the remaining works. The four fifteenth-century manuscripts that transmit the version of the story referred to as Der Münchner Oswald are clearly of southern German derivation and are written in a Bavarian dialect, whereas Der Wiener Oswald is preserved in three fifteenth-century manuscripts that are written in a Silesian dialect. Based on this late transmission of the epic and the fact that we hardly have any additional evidence that would support an early dating of the epic, Gibbs and Johnson conclude that we are not even sure that German versions existed in the Early Middle High German period [...]. Yet most scholars feel that a 12th century version probably did exist because of the bridal quest and other similarities to König Rother,68

Besides the literary similarities to König Rother, which will be discussed later, we have some additional evidence that could corroborate the existence of an earlier Oswald epic.69 We know that as early as the eighth century stories about Oswald were told on the Continent. Bede mentions in this context the Anglo-Saxon archbishop Willbrord of Utrecht (III. 13). In the early eleventh century, relics of Saint Oswald were moved to the monastery of S. Winnoc in Flanders, where in 1038 the monk Drogo composed a Vita St. Oswaldi. This saint's life is mainly based on Bede's version of Oswald's legend, but influences of a possible oral folk tradition are visible as well. Furthermore, Judith of Flanders, the widow of Earl Tostig, brought relics to Weingarten, when she married Welf the Fourth of Bavaria in 1071. We know that the relic of Saint Oswald's head was venerated in Echternach from the year 1138 on.70 Based on this early Oswald cult in the Low Coun-

See Griese, pp. 86-93 and Curschmann, "Spielmannsepik", pp. 19-20. See Hans-Friedrich Rosenfeld, "Salman und Morolf', in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon, ed. Karl Langosch, vol. 4 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1953), p. 10. Gibbs and Johnson, p. 111. See for the following information and additional references Marianne E. Kalinke, "St. Oswald of Northumbria: Continental Metamorphoses. With an Edition and Translation of Osvalds saga' and 'Van sunte Oswaldo deme konninghe'" (in manuscript), pp. 3-6. For this information see Georg Baesecke, "Der Münchner Oswald", pp. 264-5.

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tries it is quite probable that stories about Oswald were composed and told in this very area. Later these stories could have traveled to southern Germany along with the revived interest in the saint that is well attested in Bavaria from the beginning of the fourteenth century.71 Although the majority of the German bridal-quest epics are not transmitted in writing until the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, there are good reasons to believe that their subject matter and maybe also the epics themselves ultimately go back to the twelfth century. This date can be established with certainty only for König Rother, because it is transmitted in a late twelfth or early thirteenth-century manuscript. We furthermore know that a version of Ortnit had been composed at least by around the year 1300, the presumed date of the earliest extant fragments. Since a parallel to the dragon episode occurs in Pidreks saga, we also know that at least part of the epic's subject matter was known in the early thirteenth century in northern Germany, and hence in the same environment as the sources of König Rother. The actual age and derivation of the remaining German epics, however, can only be construed by means of linguistic and sociohistorical information. Based on this evidence we can conclude that Salman und Morolf was composed in the twelfth century, most likely somewhere in Franconia, and that Orendel is probably a late twelfth-century work from Trier. Much more problematic is the dating of Der Münchner Oswald, whose origin and age can only be reconstructed based on the information we have about the worship and popularity of Saint Oswald in the Low Countries. Assuming that all these hypotheses are valid, König Rother, Der Münchner Oswald, and probably also Ortnit come from northwest Germany, Salman und Morolf is of Frankish (Rhenish) origin, and Orendel comes from Trier. If this is indeed correct, the question arises why these originally Rhenish or northwest German epics are almost exclusively transmitted in Bavarian and Austrian manuscripts. A possible answer to that question can once more be sought in the bridal-quest scheme that unites these works. As was shown in the preceding chapters, bridal-quest narratives are attested in writing in the Frankish realm at least since the seventh century. Moreover, it is very probable that these narratives circulated orally in that region. The several versions of the Walter tale attest to this tradition as do the bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga, which go back to oral and perhaps also written northern German stories, which in turn show obvious traces of the Walter tales. Curschmann discusses the southern German interest in Saint Oswald and the transmission of the epic in this area in great detail in Der Münchener Oswald, especially pp. 169-221.

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We have compelling evidence to conclude that at least König Rother, but probably also the other Middle High German epics, were composed in the Frankish area. In this region, where the tradition of bridal-quest narrative had been alive for several centuries, the need to preserve and document the stories in written form must have been scant, whereas the opposite would apply in a region where this type of narrative apparently was not as familiar or at least not as widespread. The transmission of the Oswald epic supports this hypothesis well. Although we know that the English saint was first worshipped on the Continent in the Low Countries and that at least one Latin saint's life about him was written in Flanders, no traces of an early Oswald bridal-quest epic are extant from this area. However, as early as in the eighth century the English historian Bede reports that stories about the saint were told on the Continent. It is quite likely then that these stories were elaborated and altered and eventually combined with the bridal-quest structure that was well established and used productively in northwestern Germany in the twelfth and in preceding centuries. This productivity is best demonstrated by the several bridal-quest tales that were incorporated into Pidreks saga. With the growing interest in Saint Oswald in the south, these tales might have reached Bavaria where they were written down in the fifteenth century. Support for this thesis comes from Marianne Kalinke who argues that an original German Oswald legend, which is today only represented by a sixteenth-century Icelandic translation (Osvalds saga), was the source for Der Münchener Oswald.11 This original German life of St. Oswald, she claims, already contained a bridal-quest narrative and it was inspired by popular legends of King Henry II and Cunegund, especially Henry's bridal quest and the couple's vow to live in a chaste marriage. 73 Scholars have frequently pointed to the obvious parallels that exist between some of the German epics, and they have especially used the recurrence of common motifs to establish a chronology for them. As mentioned above, Gibbs and Johnson note that Der Münchner Oswald contains many similarities to König Rother and therefore scholars "feel" that the former also dates from the twelfth century. 74 Baesecke argues that Ortnit was a source for Der Münchner Oswald, because the raven in the latter is clearly modeled on Alberich in Ortnit.15 Curschmann agrees that Ortnit is at least a partial source for Der Münchner Oswald, but he adds that this source must

72

Kalinke, "St. Oswald", pp. 5 3 - 4 .

73

Ibid., pp. 8 7 - 8 . Gibbs and Johnson, p. 111.

7

"

Baesecke, "Der Münchner Oswald", pp. 2 9 1 - 2 .

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have been a no longer extant earlier version of the epic.76 Griese emphasizes the parallels between Salman und Morolf and König Rother and concludes that the latter influenced the composition of Salman und Morolf at least in some parts. 77 In earlier scholarship, however, the influences are always considered to be the other way round, since the Solomon legends were often regarded as the source for the German epics.78 The German epics have certain motifs in common. Most importantly, in all the epics the wooing is accomplished because the wooer uses cunning and sometimes also a disguise. Furthermore, in all of them a council scene, during which the young hero asks his father or his advisers about a suitable bride, precedes the quest. The recommended princess is renowned for her beauty but is difficult to obtain. In Der Münchner Oswald and Ort nit. it is specified that the girl's father wants to marry his daughter himself and that everyone who attempts to woo her is beheaded. In König Rother, Konstantin also beheads all suitors. The incest motif, however, is not mentioned in the epic, but occurs in "Osantrix and Oda". In Orendel, the situation is very different, because Bride is the Queen of Jerusalem and not guarded or protected by one of her relatives. A different situation also prevails in Salman und Morolf, where Salme is Salman's wife and thus any attempt to woo her is answered by her husband's opposition and rage. In three of the German epics the woman is a Christian and in two she is a heathen. Bride is the Christian queen of Jerusalem (Orendel) and the former heathen Salme lives as a Christian in Jerusalem after her forceful conversion. Rother's bride is the daughter of the Christian King Konstantin. Oswald's bride-to-be, Pamige, is the daughter of the heathen King Aron, but she secretly believes in the Christian God. Ortnit's bride-to-be, the daughter of King Machorel, is a heathen as well. The motif that is unique to the German epics is that the woman always lives in a city that is located in the Near East, so that the heroes have to

"Die mit den oben angestellten Überlegungen vorausgesetzte (Teil-)quelle des Oswald kann nicht der erhaltene Ortnit, sondern nur eine ältere, freilich sehr hypothetische Vorlage gewesen sein. Die Datierung des Oswald auf 1170 oder wenig später...läßt nur diese Möglichkeit offen" (Curschmann, Der Münchener Oswald und die spielmännische Epik, p. 82). Griese, p. 77. See de Boor, Die deutsche Literatur, pp. 248-50. Additional sources and a discussion of this hypothesis is found in Walter Kofier, Der Held im Heidenkrieg und Exil: Zwei Beiträge zur deutschen Spielmanns-und Heldendichtung (Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1996), pp. 131-4.

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travel to the foreign country by ship. In König Rother, SuMh19 and Der Münchner Oswald, the hero sends out messengers to woo on his behalf. Rother sends eleven dukes and his nephew Luppold. Fore also sends a duke, whereas Oswald sends a talking raven. In all three cases the messengers are incarcerated. In Der Münchner Oswald, the raven is freed by Pamige a short time after his imprisonment. She obtains him from her father by threatening to run away with a minstrel if she cannot possess the bird (vv. 1050-54). In König Rother, the princess uses a similar trick to force her father to release Rother's messengers and turn them over to her. She threatens her father with the prospect of becoming a pilgrim and leaving the court, should he not comply with her wishes (vv. 2317^14). In Der Münchner Oswald, the scene occurs early in the narrative, and the imprisoned messenger (the raven) returns to his lord, whereas in König Rother the prisoners are only temporarily released when Rother himself is at the court in order to prove his identity to the princess. In both cases, however, the release of the messengers through the intervention of the girl is essential for the success of the bridal quest. In the remaining works, Orendel, SuM2, Ortnit, and also Wolfdietrich Β, the hero himself sets out on the quest right away and immediately after his arrival in the foreign country, he begins his deception. Rother calls himself Dietrich and claims that he had to flee from his former lord King Rother. Princian in SuMj is disguised as a pilgrim. Oswald pretends to be a goldsmith, Ortnit pretends to be a merchant, and in Wolfdietrich Β, the hero Hugdietrich is disguised as a woman called Hildegunt. Orendel is known as "der graue rock" after his shipwreck. Because the epic no longer follows the bridal-quest scheme from this point on, it will be excluded from the following comparison. The only wooer who does not use a disguise to approach the girl and her father is Fore in SuM!. He sends a messenger to Salman and demands that Salme be delivered to him. In the ensuing battle. Fore is defeated and incarcerated. While the heroes stay at the foreign court, only Princian (SuM 2 ) and Hugdietrich (Wolfdietrich Β) are alone. Ortnit is accompanied by his father, who is the invisible dwarf Alberich, and by his army, which he hides on his boats. Rother and Oswald also arrive with their armies, and Oswald, too, hides his men and appears only with a group of twelve goldsmiths in public.

79

I am distinguishing between the two bridal quests in Salman und Morolf. In the first quest (SuM,) the heathen King Fore woos Salme, and in the second (SuM?) the heathen King Princian.

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As mentioned before, the hero's cunning is essential for the success of his quest, but in some epics, the hero's military strength is important as an additional means to win the bride. Ortnit sends his father with a message to Machorel to woo the princess, but Alberich enrages him by his behavior and eventually hits the king in the face. During the ensuing battle and after many heathens have been killed, Alberich appears before the princess in his invisible state. He pretends to be the Christian God and convinces the woman to leave with Ortnit in order to end the bloodshed of her heathen countrymen. Out of fear for her father's life, the girl eventually agrees to the elopement. In Ortnit, the combination of Alberich's invisibility, his cunning behavior, and the use of military force are responsible for the success of Ortnit's quest. In König Rother, the hero's military accomplishments are also of great importance, because Rother fights together with Konstantin against the heathen Ymelot. Immediately after the battle, he elopes with his bride, while Konstantin and his army are still away on the battlefield. However, Rother's military strength is only the final piece in his quest. First, he gains many friends in Constantinople by his generosity and hospitality. In this way, he also arouses the princess's interest in his person so that he can have a secret meeting with her and win her favor and love. Oswald wins his bride with the help of his raven, who is also the only one to communicate with Pamige. The success of his quest is to a large extent due to heavenly intervention, but also to the active role that the woman plays. After Oswald has distracted the King and his retainers, Pamige dresses in men's clothes and rides out of the castle to meet with him. However, later in the epic Oswald's military strength is required in the battle against Aron and his men who have pursued him on their ships. Oswald and Ortnit have supernatural helpers who contribute considerably to the success of the quest. Both the raven and the dwarf can travel to the girl unnoticed and communicate with her. While the raven in Der Münchner Oswald does not abandon his messenger role, Alberich actively persuades the woman to escape. In the two quests in Salman und Morolf, supernatural devices play a central role, because both Fore and Princian use a magic ring that makes Salme fall in love with them. In SuM), Salme subsequently also eats from a magical root which causes her to fall into a state of apparent death. She is then carried out of the castle in a coffin and elopes with Fore. It is noticeable that all the women are actively involved in the plan for their escape, which they helped develop during the secret meeting with the proxy wooer. Ortnit's bride is the most passive one, but she lies to her father and sneaks out of the castle to ride away with Ortnit. Rother's bride-to-

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be is very passive during the actual elopement when she is lured onto the hero's ship, but earlier she had been actively involved in the preparation of the escape. She was the one who initiated the first meeting with Dietrich/ Rother, and she was also responsible for the temporary release and subsequent cure and escape of Rother's messengers. Salme in Salman und Morolf is also actively involved in her two elopements, although her motivation to do so stems from magic. The most active woman is Pamige. She not only explains to Oswald how to behave in her father's country and which disguises he should use, but she also leaves the castle on her own, without any help from Oswald or his men, and seeks him out. With the exception of Ortnit, all the heroes in the German epics escape with the woman on their ships.80 Rother lures his bride-to-be onto his ships and then sails away with her. Oswald and Pamige ride together to his ships. In SuM/, Salme travels across the ocean together with Fore's messenger and in SuM2 we learn that Salme and Princian fled across the ocean.81 In three of the epics (Ortnit, König Rother, and Der Münchner Oswald) the girl's father hears about his daughter's elopement from a third party. In König Rother and Oswald the queen, who is clearly pleased with the events, reports the news to her husband. In Der Münchner Oswald she is laughing when she talks to Aron (v. 2680). Konstantin's wife also explicitly expresses her appreciation of Rother's deed in the speech she gives to her husband ( w . 2987-3004). Afterwards, Konstantin laments and weeps so hard that he faints. Salman also weeps after Salme's two elopements. Both rulers seem weak and remain passive. They do not make an effort to pursue the fugitives. Rather, both rely on a third person who volunteers to bring the woman back, a minstrel in König Rother and Morolf in Salman und Morolf. In Ortnit and Der Münchner Oswald the heathen kings themselves pursue the fugitives. Machorel summons his army as soon as he discovers his daughter's escape. They ride after Ortnit and attack him. After he has been defeated in battle, Machorel falls into a depression when he returns to his castle. As discussed above, his behavior at that time resembles Attila's reaction in Waltharius and to a certain extent also Konstantin's behavior in König Rother. In Der Münchner Oswald, Aron reacts with great anger to the news of his daughter's elopement, and he too promptly summons his army to sail after Oswald and Pamige. In both epics the hero and the girl's father fight a battle. Oswald defeats the heathen army, converts all heathens 80

81

Ortnit rides away with the girl, fights with his future father-in-law, and later sails away. In Wolfdietrich

Β, Kudrun, and Dukus Horant the couples do not flee together.

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to Christianity, and becomes reconciled with Aron. Ortnit also defeats the heathens, but he does not reach a settlement with Machorel, who has fled from the battlefield. In SuMu Salman, too, fights against a heathen army when he tries to regain Salme. This battle and the events preceding it closely resemble those in the second part of König Rother. In both works the husband of the abducted woman (Rother and Salman) are discovered by the enemy (Fore and Konstantin) and sentenced to be hanged in a forest, but both are saved by their allies and proceed to overcome their opponents in battle. All bridal quests in the German epics have a successful ending. Even though Ortnit's death is a belated consequence of his quest, Ortnit first wins the woman, marries her, and lives with her for many years. Rother, Oswald, and Orendel also win their brides as they had intended. Rother is the only king in these works who has children by his wife to secure his line, which in all cases is the initial reason for the bridal quest. Oswald and Orendel get married, but by divine command they lead a chaste marriage and die a few years after the return to their home countries. The situation in Salman und Morolf is rather more complicated. Both Fore and Princian are defeated and killed after they win Salme and hence their quests cannot be regarded as successful. Since Morolf kills Salme in the end, Salman loses his wife at last, but he quickly finds compensation for the loss by marrying Fore's sister. Morolf s attempts to bring Salme back are also in part made up from bridal-quest motifs. He uses disguises and cunning to enter the heathen courts to retrieve Salme, and he is successful both times. During the two adventures he is disguised variously as a pilgrim, sick man, minstrel, butcher, and merchant. As mentioned before, an open confrontation between the suitor and the girl's father immediately after the elopement occurs only in Ortnit and Der Münchner Oswald. In Salman und Morolf and König Rother, the girl is recaptured and returned to her father (Konstantin) and husband (Salman). Rother takes his wife back, while Salme, after the first incident, elopes a second time with a different suitor. In Ortnit, Machorel sends as an alleged wedding gift two dragon eggs that eventually hatch and cause Ortnit's death, but he does not regain his daughter. Based on this evidence, it is certainly not possible to conclude that the retrieval of the woman is a constitutive element of the German bridal-quest epics. This feature occurs only in König Rother and Salman und Morolf, but in two different ways. Only in the former do we encounter a retrieval sequence. In Salman und Morolf we find a repetition of the scheme, which does not consist of a final and decisive winning of the bride by her initial suitor, but rather leads to a second bridal quest.

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This brief comparison of the German bridal-quest epics shows that certain motifs occur in a very similar fashion in several epics. Many of the similarities can be explained as typical bridal-quest motifs; they are familiar from earlier stories, especially from the narratives in Pidreks saga, and they include: (1) the decision to marry; (2) the selection of a suitable bride—one or both steps are carried out as council scenes—(3) wooing journey(s); (4) secret meeting with the girl; (5) secret betrothal; (6) elopement with the girl; (7) pursuit and in some cases battle with the father of the bride; and (8) return home to the hero's country and marriage. In some cases, however, the similarities between the stories are so precise that one can speculate that the epics are somehow related. As Baesecke and Curschmann have observed before, Der Münchner Oswald and Ortnit share several significant motifs. In both epics a supernatural messenger assists during the quest. Oswald leaves this messenger, the raven, at home when he travels to the heathen country, and Ortnit also forgets to take the dwarf along when he sails away. 82 Another important similarity is that in both epics the girl is a heathen (or the daughter of a heathen king who only secretly believes in the Christian God), and that the hero fights against her father immediately after the escape. Der Münchner Oswald and König Rother share the motif of the incarcerated messengers. In both works the girl uses a similar trick to get them released. In SuM, Fore is also released from imprisonment by the hands of the woman he is wooing. Moreover, in Der Münchner Oswald and König Rother, the couple elopes while the king is absent from his court (in König Rother he is still on the battlefield and in Der Münchner Oswald, he is hunting the golden stag). In both epics, the king hears the news from his wife who is pleased with the developments. The most prominent and closest parallel between König Rother and Salman und Morolf is that in both epics the wooer is sentenced to death by hanging but is rescued by his allies and men after he has sounded a special horn. 83 Furthermore, in Der Münchner Oswald, Orendel, and Ortnit, the description of the ships and the equipment of the heroes are very similar. Orendel leaves with seventy-two ships (v. 23 7), provisions for eight years (vv. 238-9), and among his equipment are golden spurs and crosses that were fashioned by twelve gold smiths (vv. 284-88). In Der Münchner Alberich w a s hiding in the mast and thus present during the f o l l o w i n g events. T h e raven had to b e s u m m o n e d f r o m home. The horn motif is familiar f r o m the Rolandslied, w h e r e a b l o w into a special horn s u m m o n s the support of the remaining army. H o w e v e r , in this epic, the situation is completely different.

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Oswald, the motif of the twelve gold smiths occurs as well as part of the trick to win Pamige, but, more importantly, Oswald also leaves with seventy-two ships (v. 1388) and provisions for eight years (v. 1404). Ortnit leaves with twelve ships, provisions for three years, and a plethora of valuable goods, including gold, furs, and precious textiles (st. 42-3). The preceding makes it apparent that each epic somehow shares important details with at least one other work. 84 It is also clear that Orendel has the least in common with the other epics. Since only the beginning of this epic is told as a bridal-quest story, this observation should not come as a surprise. It seems as if the council scene and the hero's equipment and departure were intentionally composed according to the bridal-quest scheme to motivate the hero's journey to Jerusalem, while the remainder of the epic departed from this pattern. The other German epics have so much in common that it is difficult to determine which work borrowed and which loaned certain motifs and details. It is quite possible that these works copied directly from each other, especially when the similarities reach a certain degree of detail, but since they all seem to come from approximately the same geographical area, it is also possible that they go back to common sources or borrow motifs from one or more common source(s). These sources may well have been oral bridal-quest stories that circulated in northwest Germany. As has been shown, certain parallels exist between Ortnit and the earliest bridal-quest tales, including the stories in Pidreks saga. There are additional parallels between the German epics and the earlier bridal-quest narratives. Most important, all the heroes make use of disguises and deceptions to gain access to the girl, as was already the case in the earliest Franconian stories. The secret meeting of wooer and bride-to-be in the second bridal quest in Salman und Morolf resembles these old tales particularly well: Princian arrives in Jerusalem and when Salman and Salme receive him, he requests a drink from Salme, and the queen complies (st. 603): D i e vil edele kunigin sie hieß ir einen k o p f f dar d r a g e n rot guldin. si n a m ine in ir sne w i ß e hant, sie bot ine d e m k u n i g e Princian, des m u s t e sie r u m e n shiere das lant.

Additional parallels are as follows: In Ortnit and König Rother the girl's father reacts in almost the same way to his daughter's elopement, by being depressed and helpless. In Orendel and Der Münchner Oswald an angel appears before the couple and commands them to live in chastity. Rother and his wife also decide later in their life to enter a monastery in order to save their souls.

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Chapter 4 (The very noble queen ordered that a red-golden cup be brought to her. She took it in her hand, which was white as snow, [and] offered it to King Princian. Because of this she quickly had to leave the country.)

Princian drinks from the cup and afterwards places a magic ring in it so that Salme, who drinks from the same cup a little later, falls in love with him. This scene is almost identical to Authari's story in the Historia Langobardorum and to the scene in which Walter proposes to Hiltgunt in Waltharins. It was argued earlier (Chapter 2) that this motif seems to be especially deeply rooted in the Germanic bridal-quest tradition. Therefore its occurrence in Salman und Morolf could be a clue to the epic's origin. It is furthermore remarkable that Princian enters the court disguised as a pilgrim, and that Morolf also uses this disguise later when he tries to regain Salme. This particular disguise closely resembles Aurelian's costumes in the two versions of the "Clovis and Clotild" tale. In the Chronica Fredegarii version he is disguised as a beggar, and in the Liber historiae Francorum as a poor man. In the latter version, the contact between Aurelian and Clotild is established in church, where he touches her hand. Similarly, in Salman und Morolf, Princian approaches the king and queen after their church service. Even though it is not explicitly mentioned, Princian also seems to leave his twelve companions hidden somewhere, because he approaches the couple alone after having traveled with them to Salman's court. The very same holds true for Aurelian's wooing in the Liber version. There can be no doubt that at least part of the subject matter of Salman und Morolf originated in old Solomon legends of Oriental tradition. 85 These legends tell how King Solomon won a wife and how he was tricked out of the ring that gave him power to rule.86 The German epic, however, is clearly a reworking of these sources into a new tale, and its composition seems to have originated in the context of the Franconian bridal-quest tradition. At least the motifs and the structure of Princian's quest are manifestly composed in the same fashion as the earliest Franconian bridal-quest stories from the seventh century on, for which we can safely exclude Oriental influences and sources. Furthermore, the trick Rother, Oswald, and Hugdietrich use to gain access to the bride already occurs in Gregory of Tours's Attalus tale, where Leo, disguised as a cook, enters the retinue of the Frank who keeps Attalus See Joseph A. Magedanz, "Salman und Morolf. An English Translation with Introduction" (Diss. University of Nebraska, 1994), p. 6. A detailed discussion of the Solomon legends can be found by Samuel Singer, "Salomonsagen in Deutschland", ZDA 35 (1891), 177-87; rpt. in Schröder, ed. Spielmannsepik, pp. 72-84. Magedanz, p. 6.

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hostage. Because of the outstanding meals he cooks for his lord, Leo eventually gains the latter's trust, and after a year has passed, he approaches Attalus for the first time to discuss the plan for their escape. Similar situations are found in the German epics. Oswald is allowed to stay in front of Aron's castle because he pretends to be a goldsmith, and only after twelve weeks and one year have gone by, does he finally have the dream that reveals to him a trick to elope with Pamige. However, he can lure Aron out of the castle with the golden stag only because the king does not suspect that Oswald is in fact wooing his daughter. In Wolfdietrich Β the parallel to the Attalus story is even more prominent. Hugdietrich, disguised as Hildegunt, arrives at the court of King Waltgunt in Salnecke and gains the king's trust by sewing beautiful headdresses. After he has created an especially nice one, he is allowed to meet the king's daughter. Rother also stays in Konstantin's city for a long time and gains the trust of the king before he approaches the princess for the first time. In the preceding chapters, it was shown that similar disguises and approaches occur in the bridal-quest tales in Pidreks saga, and some of the parallels with the German epics were discussed to show that all of these works seem to make use of a common corpus of motifs. Because the dating of the German bridal-quest epics is so speculative, however, it is almost impossible to decide which of the epics loaned certain motifs and which borrowed them.

Summary The German bridal-quest corpus is too large to be examined in greater detail in the context of this study. The bridal quest in Ortnit was chosen for detailed analysis because of its exemplary nature; even so, it had to be limited to certain indispensable scenes. The examination of these episodes demonstrated, however, that the epic must be read in the context of the earlier German bridal-quest tradition. The Verfolgungskampf in Ortnit, far from violating the bridal-quest scheme, as Christian Schmid-Cadalbert argued, instead shows clear connections to earlier Franconian tales and the stories about Walter and Hiltgunt. Schmid-Cadalbert's observation that these scenes are distinct from those in the other bridal-quest epics is correct, but they are neither unique to Ortnit nor can the epic be interpreted on their basis. Nonetheless, there can be no doubt that the epic must be included among the German bridal-quest epics. These epics share many motifs with each other and also with the earlier German bridal-quest tradition. Some of the motifs can be explained as common bridal-quest motifs, for example, the council scene (which is

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comparable to the hero's decision to marry and the bridal selection in the earlier stories), the preparations for the journey, the journey to the girl's country, and the use of a ruse to gain access to the girl, secretly betroth her to the hero, and develop a plan for the elopement from her home. Other shared motifs are so precise and specific that we must assume a closer connection among the German epics. It is quite feasible that they have been copied from lost common sources or directly from each other. It is impossible, however, to decide in which direction such a borrowing took place, but it is very likely that they go back to oral sources. The characteristic that distinguishes these epics from earlier bridal-quest narratives is that the hero always sails to a land or city in the Near East to win a wife. Although the foreign princess is a heathen in only two cases {Der Münchner Oswald and Ortnit), in all the epics a connection to the crusades is established and at least one battle against a heathen army occurs. These battles are important for the success of the quest, so that we cannot maintain that the wooing in the German epics is accomplished exclusively by means of cunning. Rather, both cunning and military strength seem to be closely connected. It is, however, of the utmost importance to note that the same kinds of ruses and disguises used in the German epics already occur in the earliest German bridal-quest stories. We cannot conclude therefore that the epics go back to Germanic lays that developed through the influence of Mediterranean tales in which disguise and cunning are essential motifs. There is no evidence to suggest that our epics were ever short lays in which the bride was abducted by force, as Frings and others have maintained. König Rother is the only epic in which the girl is returned home and then won again by her husband or suitor, and thus it is not valid to argue that the German epics are characterized by a retrieval sequence. A duplication of the plot also occurs in Salman und Morolf, but in this epic the entire bridal quest is repeated, while the purpose of this duplication is not the second and decisive winning of the bride. Salme's second elopement is only a replication of the earlier one, in which many motifs are simply copied and repeated to demonstrate more clearly her adulterous character and Salman's weakness. Although most of the manuscripts transmitting the epics date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it seems safe to conclude that the epics were most likely composed sometime in the last third of the twelfth century in either northern Germany, Trier, or along the middle Rhenish regions. Because the existence of a bridal-quest tradition in Franconia is well attested from the seventh century on, it is very possible that the German epics continued this tradition in the twelfth century. The obvious parallels be-

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tween these epics and the earlier stories support this hypothesis and also indicate that the earlier stories were still alive and in circulation almost five hundred years after they had found their way into the Franconian chronicles. A possible explanation for the renewed interest in this type of narrative in the twelfth century could be the appeal of telling and hearing stories about the crusades and the newly explored lands and peoples. The bridalquest scheme lends itself perfectly to this purpose, since it supplies a compelling reason to move the plot into the foreign country and depict encounters with the heathen population. This practice is especially obvious in Orendel, because only the beginning of the epic follows the bridal-quest pattern. As soon as the hero has reached Jerusalem, the bridal quest is no longer the focus of the narrative. It is remarkable that in the German epics, the heroes always sail abroad and also elope with their brides on ships, whereas in the earlier Franconian tales, in the Walter tradition, and in the stories included in Pidreks saga, the couples always escape on horseback. The latter is especially surprising for Pidreks saga, considering that the saga is extant in a Norwegian manuscript. If these tales were of Scandinavian origin, we should expect that the couples escape on ships, as is common in the bridal-quest stories in Saxo Grammaticus's Gest a Danorum and in other Scandinavian narratives that will be discussed in the following chapter. It is, however, also striking that Ortnit is the only German epic in which the hero does not sail away with his bride, but rather escapes on a horse with her, even though his quest also takes place in a heathen country he has reached by ship. This peculiarity could indicate that this story is even older than is traditionally assumed. It could place the bridal quest in Ortnit in very close proximity to the earliest northwest-German bridal-quest tradition.

Chapter 5 Norse Nuptuals The previous chapters examined the earliest occurrences of bridal-quest narrative in more or less chronological order, beginning with Continental chronicles as well as tales belonging to the Walter tradition, and moving on to the bridal-quest narratives in the Norwegian Pidreks saga and the German bridal-quest romances. Here the earliest Scandinavian bridal-quest narratives will be examined, that is, tales transmitted in the Poetic Edda, Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, as well as Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum. To classify these stories as "early" bridal-quest tales may seem arbitrary, since they are transmitted in thirteenth-century works. At that time the German bridal-quest romances and the German bridal-quest tales found in Pidreks saga most likely had already been composed and were in circulation. As shown in the preceding chapters, the Continental narratives belong to a much older oral bridal-quest tradition. Likewise the two Eddas and Saxo's Gesta Danorum contain oral literature that to a large extent predates the Middle High German minstrel epics and Pidreks saga. The earliest evidence of bridal-quest narrative in Scandinavia will show that there is no such thing as a "Germanic" type of bridal-quest narrative in which the bride is abducted by force, as Theodor Frings and early scholars maintained. 1 Frings bases his argument mainly on the so-called Hildesage or Hildelied (Hilde legend), which he claimed was reworked in the German Rother and Kudrun epics according to the Mediterranean bridal-quest scheme (cunning and disguise). He maintained that the "Hilde-Hetel-Fabel" is based on an approximately 1500 verse-long Rhenish "Hilde epic", which in turn is based on a Germanic "Hilde lay". His main argument was that "die älteste Liedfabel eine gründliche Änderung erfahren hat; es war ein germanisches Brautraub-Entführungslied, während die spätere Hildefabel eine Brautwerbungsfabel ist." 2 The problem is that this old "Lay of Hilde", which Frings dated to around 500, is not extant. Well aware of this fact, Frings admitted that the earliest extant versions, which he regarded as epic

Frings, "Die Entstehung", pp. 306-21. 2

Ibid., p. 311.

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expansions of the ancient lay, already showed influences f r o m the "Mediterranean" bridal-quest scheme: Das alte germanische Lied von der Entführung Hildes muß schon in der frühen Wikingerzeit des 9. Jahrhunderts dem Eingang Spuren eines Werbungsschemas und der Mitte den zur Liebe verlockenden Zaubergesang südlicher Herkunft einverleibt haben. 3 In other words, not a single lay or tale that transmits the so-called Germanic bridal-quest type is extant in its original form. Therefore we m a y ask whether such a type existed in the first place. In the preceding chapters it was demonstrated that the earliest Continental examples of bridal-quest narrative already use disguise and cunning as the central means to win a bride. Therefore, one can conclude that these elements are indigenous to the Germanic literary tradition and cannot be credited to later Mediterranean influences. In this chapter, analysis of the earliest extant Scandinavian bridal-quest narratives will show that the conclusions reached about the Continental material can be extended to the Northern literary corpus and its tradition.

The Hildesage in Scandinavia The oldest written evidence of the so-called Hildesage is found in some stanzas of "Ragnarsdräpa" (9 t h -10 t h century), attributed to the poet Bragi and quoted in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda.4 In these stanzas the poet praises a shield on which the Hjadningavig (the eternal battle) is depicted. The account begins with Hildr's offering a necklace to her father and it continues with his rejection of the offer of appeasement, the battle, and the evocation of the eternal battle. Bragi does not mention the events that led to the battle between Hildr's father, Högni, and the hero Heöinn, and therefore the stanzas do not supply any information about a previous bridal abduction. However, he obviously blames the woman for what happens. He states that Hildr had hostile intentions and deliberately incited the two parties to the battle (st. 2 5 0 - 1 ) : Ok urn beris xda oscran at bat sin til far huga feeri fer veör boga hugbi

j

Ibid., p. 313.

4

Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, ed. Finnur Jonsson (Copenhagen: Nordisk forlag, 1931), p. 150.

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J)a er hristi sif hringa hals en bgls of fylda bar til byriar drausla baug grlygis draugi. BauJja su til bleyjii bgti iDruJjr at moti malma masturn hilmi men drervga benia sva let ey {jott etti sem orrosto letti iofrum ulfs at sina meö algifris lifru. (And the chosen Ran, who had the drying of veins in her mind, intended to bring this storm of bows [battle] against her father with hostile intention, when the necklace-shaking Sif [Hildr], filled with malice, carried a ring onto the wind's horse [ship] to the battle-worker [warrior]. The bloody-wound battleThrud [Hildr] did not offer it for the sake of cowardice in the meeting of metals to the excellent king. Thus she always pretended to prevent the battle, although she incited the princes to join the sister of the very ugly wolf [Hel].)

Snorri Sturluson included this poem in the "Skäldskaparmäl" section of the Edda as authenticating evidence for his explanation of kennings that include the term "Hiadning": "Orosta er kalluö Hiaöninga veör e{ja el ok vapn Hiaöninga eldr ej)a vendir"—Battle is called the Hjaönings' weather or storm and weapons are called Hjaönings' fire or twigs (153.20-21). Since the information in Bragi's poem is much abbreviated, Snorri includes a short prose narrative to clarify the events. His account can be summarized as follows: Hildr, the daughter of King Högni, is abducted in a raid by a king called Heöinn Hjarrandason at the time Högni is away at a meeting of kings. After his return, he sets out to pursue Heöinn and eventually meets him in the Orkneys in a place called Häey (Hoy-Island). Hildr approaches her father and offers him a necklace as atonement on Heöinn's behalf. She also mentions that Heöinn is prepared to fight and will not give way to Högni. Högni replies that he is not interested in a settlement and prepares himself for battle. Before the battle begins, Heöinn makes another offer of atonement to Högni. However, Högni has already drawn his magic sword, Däinsleif (Oöinn's legacy), which can only be returned to its sheath after it has killed someone, and therefore the battle begins. Högni and Heöinn and their troops fight all day and when the kings return to their ships at night, Hildr wakes up all the fallen warriors, so that the battle continues the next day and every day after that. At night the dead warriors and their weapons are turned into stone, and the next morning they continue the battle until the onset of Ragnarök.

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After having read Snorri's informative summary of the events, Bragi's biased account of the same events becomes evident; he emphasizes Hildr's intervention and evil intentions. The poem focuses on the cruelty and tragedy of the eternal battle, especially Hildr's enticing the opponents, rather than on the causes that led to it. Only through Snorri's summary do we know about the events that led to the battle, namely Heöinn's raid in Högni's country and his abduction of Hildr during the king's absence. Unfortunately, Snorri relates the events surrounding the abduction proper in abbreviated form (153.21-154.2): "Konungr sa, er Högni er nefndr, atti dottur, er Hilldr het; hana toe at herfangi konungr sa, er Hejrinn het Hiarandason." (A king who is called Högni had a daughter who was called Hildr. The king who is called Heöinn Hjarrandason took her as booty).

At first glance the Hilde tale appears to offer an example of bridal abduction and thus possible support for Frings's hypothesis. However, in these two accounts the girl plays a very active role before and during the battle, which is especially noticeable in Bragi's poem, where she instigates the two sides to the battle, so that we can surmise that she was not abducted against her will from her home. 5 Further support for this theory is that she meets with her father just before the battle. She does not show any indication that she wants to remain with him, and she does not take his side during the battle. If she had been abducted by force and entirely against her will, we should expect her to take the first opportunity to escape from her abductor. The best opportunity to return to the protection of her father and his army would doubtlessly be at the moment when she presents him with Heöinn's offer of appeasement. 6 If we compare Hildr's behavior with the reaction of Kudrun, who is the female protagonist in the second part of the Middle High German Kudrun epic, we can assume that Hildr's escape from her father's court was not involuntary. Unlike Hildr, Kudrun demonstrate her determination to escape from the court of her abductor Hartwig at the first opportunity. 7

Andersson has already pointed out that there is no evidence for the assumption that Hildr had offered any resistance (A Preface, p. 58). See also Marquardt, p. 4: "Wäre Hild gegen ihren Willen lediglich als 'Heerbeute' von Hedin fortgeschleppt worden, so hätte dieser sie schwerlich als Vermittlerin zu ihrem Vater schicken können." During the many years Kudrun spent at the court of her abductor Hartwig, she resisted his approaches. As soon as her fiance Herwig and her brother Ortwin arrive in Hartwig's country, she wants to escape. The two men, however, seek battle

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By no means can the bridal abduction be regarded as the center of the narrative in the story about Hildr and Heöinn. Snorri's account and Bragi's poem do not focus on a bridal quest by means of force but rather on the mythological significance and the peculiarity of the ensuing battle. Since Bragi's poem is the oldest extant version of the tale and this poem does not contain any reference to a bridal abduction, the claim that the Hildesage is representative of the Germanic bridal-abduction type is entirely based on evidence found in later Scandinavian medieval sources. Those sources are "Sörla Jjattr" (or "Heöins saga ok Högna") in the Flateyjarbok version of Oldfs saga Tryggvasonar; a stanza in Earl Rögnvaldr's poem "Hättalykill"; brief allusions to the events in Göngn-Hrolfs saga and in Bosa saga, socalled fornaldarsögur (sagas of ancient days); the occurrence of the protagonists' names in the thirteenth-century Danish Kimunktallit, the three Helgi lays in the Poetic Edda; Saxo Grammaticus's account that connects the events with the legendary king Frotho the Third; and, in altered form, the Middle High German epics Kudrun and Dukus Η or ant* "Sörla jiattr" The version of the "Hildr and Heöinn" tale in Flateyjarbok ("Sörla ]jättr") places the events in a mythological-Christian context. The pdttr begins with an introductory mythological tale, according to which Oöinn was deeply in love with his concubine Freyja, who gained possession of a golden necklace made by dwarfs. Oöinn ordered Loki to steal this necklace from Freyja. He agreed to return it only if Freyja fulfilled a certain condition (276.23-28):9 nema Jm orkir f)ui at Jjeir konungar .ij. at .xx. konungar ungar {nonar huorom uerde missattir ok berizst med Jjeim alögum ok atkuaedum at Jjeir skulu jafnskiott upp standa ok beriast sem Jjeir adr falla, utan nökkurr madr kristinn verde sua rösk ok honum fylge sua mikil gifta sins lanardrottins at hann pori at ganga til bardaga {jessa ok uega med uopnum Jiessa menn. (Unless you cause two kings, who each have twenty young kings serving them, to fall into disagreement and have between them terrible spells and charms, so with the abductor before they are willing to take her home (Kudrun, ed. Karl Bartsch, 5lh ed. rev. and introduced by Karl Stackmann [Wiesbaden: Brockhaus, 1980], st. 1207-1264). A complete list and discussion of the sources is given by Friedrich Panzer, HildeGudrun, pp. 154-250. Quoted from Flateyjarbok. En samling af norske konge-sagaer, ed. C. R. Unger and G. Vigfüsson (Christiania [Oslo]: P.T. Mailings forlagsboghandel, 1860-8).

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that they shall immediately get up and fight on in the same way as they did before they fell; unless a certain Christian man becomes so bold and the luck and support of his master [liege-lord] becomes so great that he shall dare to go into this battle and kill these men with his weapons.)

Next the viking Sörli from Oppland, King Hälfdan of Denmark, and his two sons Högni and Häkon are introduced. During one of his raids, Sörli provokes a battle with Hälfdan and kills him. Högni avenges his father's death by killing Sörli's father and his brother, but he spares Sörli's life and the two young men become sworn brothers. Later Sörli dies while on a raid. Högni becomes a powerful king who rules over twenty lesser kings. At this point, Hjarrandi, king of Serkland, and his son Heöinn enter the story. One day, Heöinn, who is a ruler of twenty powerful kings in the South (Spain, Greece, etc.), meets Freyja in a forest. Freyja, disguised as an old women named Göndul, suggests that he travel to Denmark to test his strength against Högni. Heöinn travels to the North and Högni welcomes him. In the ensuing contests both prove to be of equal strength and they become sworn brothers. Hildr is introduced as the daughter of Högni and Hervor (279.1517): Hon uar allra kuenna uasnst ok uitruzst. Hann [Högni] unni mikit dottur sinne, ekki atti hann barnna fleira. (She was the most beautiful and wisest of all women. He [Högni] loved his daughter greatly. He did not have any other children).

One day, while Högni is away on a raiding expedition, Heöinn again meets Freyja/Göndul in the woods. This time he drinks from her drinking horn and as a consequence loses his memory and will-power. Freyja entices him to kill Högni's wife and to abduct Hildr, which he does. Before he flees from the country, he has a third meeting with Freyja. He again drinks from the drinking horn and now Freyja casts a spell that will cause the eternal battle. Heöinn regains his senses and immediately regrets his deeds, but sails away with Hildr and his army. Upon his return, Högni learns the news and is full of wrath. He sets out to pursue Heöinn and meets with him on the island of Hoy. Heöinn immediately approaches him, explains the circumstances, and begs for forgiveness, but Högni insists on combat. As soon as one of the men dies in the battle, he rises again. Hildr sits in a grove nearby and watches the events (the "game"): "Hilldr sat j geinum lundi ok sa upp a fienna laeik" (281-82). The spell ends one-hundred-and-forty-three years later through the intervention of a certain Ivarr, who is a retainer of the Christian King Oläfr Tryggvason.

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In this version of the "Helgi and Heöinn" tale the bridal abduction is no longer the reason for the ensuing battle, which is instead motivated by the murder of Högni's wife. Throughout, the narrative emphasizes that Heöinn could have asked Högni for the hand of his daughter without having to fear rejection. Heöinn himself mentions this fact during his second meeting with Göndul/Freyja, after she has told him that Högni can be regarded as his superior because he is married to a woman of noble descent. To this Heöinn replies: "Hogni giftir mer Jjegar Hilldi dottur sina er ek vil bidia ok er ek pa ekki verr kusenir en hann"—Högni will give me his daughter Hildr in marriage at once if I ask him, and then I will not be worse married than he is (279.36-37). The same issue is brought up again by Hildr after she learns about Heöinn's plans: "Hon bad han seigi sua gera J)uiat fadir minn mun gipta mik J^er ef })u uillt bidia min"—She begged him to not act in this way because 'my father will marry me to you if you will ask for my hand' (280.14-15). Heöinn disregards this remark, however, because Freyja has planted the evil seed in him. She had told him earlier that it would be demeaning for him to ask Högni for Hildr. In Heöinn's conversation with Högni before the battle, this issue is addressed for the third time (281.2226): Hogni suarar. ek hefda gift fier Hilldi ef Jju hefdir hennar bedit. nu J30 ok at ]du hefdir hertekit Hillde J)a maetti vid J30 sasttazst firir pat. en nu er pu hefir geort sua mikit vverkan at ]du hefir nizst a drottningu ok drepit hana er asingi uon a at ek vili saettum taka. (Högni says: "I would have married Hildr to you if you had asked for her. And even now that you have abducted Hildr, we could have been reconciled in that matter. But now that you have committed such a great crime that you have disgraced the queen and killed her, there is no hope that I will agree to a settlement.")

Högni's reaction confirms the earlier assessment of the situation by Heöinn and Hildr: Heöinn could have proposed to Hildr, since Högni considered him to be a suitable husband for Hildr. Even more important is Högni's statement that he would agree to a settlement with Heöinn for the abduction of his daughter. In this version the eternal battle is clearly not the result of a bridal abduction but instead the consequence of the killing of Högni's wife. It is furthermore obvious that the protagonists are regarded merely as players in Freyja's plan to regain her necklace from Oöinn. This is well illustrated by the comment the narrator makes immediately after Heöinn has accepted Freyja's evil counsel (280.5-7):

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Sua var Hedinn fanginn j illzsku ok ominne af öli £>ui er hann hafde drukkit at honum syndizst ekki annat rad en Jietta ok ekki mundi hann til at Jieir Hogni vasri fostbrasdr. (Thus Heöinn was trapped in wickedness and forgetfulness because of the ale he had drunk, so that no other plan appeared to him than this one, and he could also not remember that Högni was his foster brother.)

The pattr is not a bridal-quest narrative. Rather, as Stefanie Würth convincingly argues, the tale has been included in the saga of King Olafr Tryggvason as an example of how a curse of the heathen gods can be overcome by the Christian king.10 Although King Oläfr does not end the battle himself, he is present during the events, and it is one of his retainers who kills the warriors, thus terminating the Hjadningavig. "Hithinus and Hilda" in Gesta Danorum (Book V, pp. 132.35-134.22) 1 1 Another version of the "Hildr and Heöinn" tale is related in the fifth book of Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum. In this version, Hithinus, a petty king from Norway, stays at the court of the Danish King Frotho the Third. He falls in love with Hilda, the daughter of the Jutish King Hoginus. Although they had never met before, Hithinus and Hilda are deeply in love (131.39-41): Eidem postmodum cum Hilda, Hogini Iutorum reguli filia, spectatas admodum opinionis virgine, mutuus amor incessit; quippe nondum invicem conspectos alterna incenderat fama. (Afterwards this man and Hild fell in love with each other. She was a girl of most excellent repute, the daughter of Hogin, a Jutish princeling. Although they had never met, each was impassioned by reports of the other.) 12

Hithinus and Hoginus set out on a viking raid and afterwards Hoginus betroths Hithinus to his daughter Hilda. Later Hoginus hears from slanderers that Heöinn had dishonored his daughter before their betrothal (133.41134.1):

Stefanie Würth, Elemente des Erzählens. Die pcettir der Flateyjarbok Frankfurt: Helbing and Lichtenhahn, 1991), p. 97.

(Basel and

Quotations and page numbers from the edition Saxonis Gesta Danorum, Ed. J. Olrik and H. Reeder (Copenhagen: Levin and Munksgaard, 1931). The translations are taken from Peter Fisher (Saxo Grammaticus. The History of the Danes. Books I—IX, ed. and commentary by Hilda Ellis Davidson; trans. Peter Fisher [Cambridge: Brewer, 1979 and 1980, rpt. 1999]).

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Interea Hithinus apud H0ginum quorundam obtrectatione insimulatus est, quasi filiam eius ante sponsalium sacra stupri illecebris temerasset, quod tunc immane cunctis gentibus facinus habebatur. (Meanwhile certain slander brought to Hogin a trumped-up charge that Hithin had dishonored his daughter before the espousal ceremony by enticing her to fornication, an act which in those days was held among all nations to be monstrous.)

Outraged, H0ginus attacks Hithinus but is defeated and flees to Jutland. King Frotho, displeased with the feud that endangers the newly-established peace in his lands, tries to arrange a settlement between the two men. Since Hoginus, however, refuses to be reconciled to Hithinus until he has received his daughter back, Frotho decides that the dispute should be settled by a duel. During the battle, Hoginus wounds Hithinus severely, but spares his life (because he is touched by his opponent's youth and fine appearance). Hithinus is carried back to his ships and the conflict seems resolved. Seven years later, however, they meet again, this time on the island Hithinso. Both men fall in battle but are conjured up again (134.20-22): Ferunt Hildam tanta mariti cupiditate flagrasse, ut noctu interfectorum manes redintegrandi belli gratia canninibus excitasse credatur. (According to popular belief, Hilda's yearning for her husband was so ardent that she conjured up the spirits of the dead men at night with incantations so that they could renew their fighting.)

It is important to note that in Saxo's account Hithinus and Hilda were in love and that they were legally betrothed and married. Hence, in this story the Hjadningavig is also not motivated by a bridal abduction. Rather the reason for the battle is slander of Hithinus's violation of Hilda. Although Saxo's motivation of the events seems rather weak, it is noteworthy that the motif of bridal abduction has been entirely lost in this version.

S h o r t e r R e f e r e n c e s a n d A l l u s i o n s to t h e T a l e Other allusions to the tale in Scandinavian sources are short and abbreviated. The oldest such reference occurs in the p o e m "Hättalykill", assumed to date to the middle of the twelfth century, but extant only in two damaged seventeenth-century manuscripts. 1 3 Based on information in Orkneyinga saga, the p o e m was jointly composed by the Icelandic skald Hallr Porarins-

Finnur Jonsson dates it to around the year 1145 (Den norsk-islcmdske edigtning, vol. A.l [Copenhagen: Nordisk forlag, 1912], pp. 512-28).

skjald-

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son and Rögnvaldr Kali, who was the jarl in the Orkneys in the years 1140— 1150.14 Stanza 23 of this poem contains an allusion to the story of Hildr, Heöinn, and Högni: 15 Huerr red hildi at nema? hueir daglaeingis basriast? huasrir sid aria sasttast? huaerir siclingum atti? Hedinn rasdur hildi at nema. Hiadningar as beriast. i>eir sid aria sasttast. samann Hildi lidi atti. (Who decided to abduct Hildr? / Who fights all day long? / W h o will be slow to get reconciled? / Who instigated the chieftains? / Heöinn decides to abduct Hildr. / The Hjaöningar fight all day long. / They will be slow to be reconciled. / Hildr instigated the enemy hosts against each other.)

The account of the events in this poem agrees with that of Snorri and Bragi. The poet mentions Heöinn's abduction of Hildr and, as in "Ragnarsdräpa", Hildr is held responsible for the Hjadningavig. However, in these verses we again do not receive any information about the circumstances of the abduction or about Hildr's motivation to instigate the eternal battle. In Göngu-Hrolfs saga, a late-medieval adventure romance, Heöinn, the son of Hjarrandi, is mentioned as the one who gave the island Heöinsey its name (207.20-21): 16 Svä er sagt, at milli Garöarikis ok Tattararikis liggr ey ein, er Heöinsey heitir. Hun er eitt jarlsriki. t>at er frööra manna sögn, at Heöinn konungr Hjarrandason taski first land viö \s& ey, er hann sigldi til Danmerkr af Indialandi, ok paöan tok eyin af honum nafn siöan. (Thus it is said that between Garöariki [the Russian empire] and Tattarariki [Tartary] lies an island which is called Heöinsey [Heöinn's island]. That is the domain of a jarl. It is the saying of wise men that King Heöinn Hjarrandason first landed on that island, when he sailed to Denmark from the land of India, and the island later received its name from him.)

Kari Ellen Gade, "Hdttalykill", in Medieval Scandinavia: Philipp Pulsiano et al. (New York: Garland, 1993), p. 270.

An Encyclopedia,

ed.

b

Quoted from Finnur Jönsson, Den norsk-islandske

16

References to Fomaldar sögur noröurlanda, ed. Guöni Jonsson, vol. 3 (Reykjavik: Islendigasagnaütgäfan, 1950).

skjaldedigtning.

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Furthermore, Bosa saga, another late-medieval Icelandic romance, contains a reference to the recital of "Hjarrandaljoö" (Hjarrandi's lay or poem), which may be interpreted as an allusion to the Hildesage.'7 Last but not least, in Kummktallit, a Danish catalog of kings from the year 1300, a King Hithin and his wife Hilde are mentioned as the last members of the Skjöldung family: "Hithin hin houasskas med dronningen Hilde." 1 8 To j u d g e by the above versions and short references to the tale of Hildr, Heöinn, and Högni, there can be no doubt that their story was well k n o w n in medieval Scandinavia. It dates back at least to the ninth or tenth century when Bragi composed his poem. If the traditional dating is correct, Jarl Rögnvald and the Icelander Hallr £>0rarinsson knew the story in the twelfth century in the Orkneys. In the early thirteenth century the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus incorporated a version of the tale, most likely f r o m folklore, into his chronicle of the Danes. The Icelander Snorri Sturluson recounts a version in his Edda in the first third of the thirteenth century. In the fourteenth century yet another version of the same story is recounted in the Icelandic Flateyjarbok and brief references to the events are found in two Icelandic fornaldarsögur, Göngn-Hrolfs saga and Bosa saga. In short, acquaintance with this tale is attested at least f r o m the ninth or tenth century to the fourteenth century, and it extended from Denmark to N o r w a y and Iceland. A comparison of the various versions of this tale has shown, however, that it was not transmitted and retold because it was an interesting or entertaining bridal-quest story, nor because it was a story about the abduction of a bride. Rather, it was the mysterious and legendary battle, the Hjadningavig, that must have fascinated our series of writers. The motivation for this battle varies in the versions. Only Snorri's account and the brief allusion to the events in "Hättalykill" mention that the abduction of Hildr was the cause of the battle. In these two versions, Hildr is also the instigator of the eternal battle. In "Sörla jiättr", the abduction motif has been weakened as the motivating event and the battle is now explained as an intervention by the heathen gods. The abduction of Hildr is still mentioned, but no longer as the cause for the ensuing events. In addition to the contest of the gods, a new motivation for the battle has been added, namely the murder of H ö g n i ' s wife. In Saxo's account, finally, the motif of the bridal abduction is

"Settust menn ηύ til drykkju. Slo hann J)ar Gygjarslag ok Drömbuö ok Hjarrandahljöö" ("Now the men sat down to drink. Then he played Gygjarslag and Drömbuö

and Hjarrandahljoö"). Quoted from Fornaldar sögur nordurlanda, p. 312. See Axel Olrik, Fors0g pa en tvedeling af kilderne til Sakses oldhistorie, vol.1 (Copenhagen: Wroblewskis boghandel, 1892), pp. 104-5.

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lost entirely. Hithinus is betrothed to Hilda and they love each other dearly. The Hjadningavig is caused by slander and lies and instigated by Hilda's love for Hithinus. The "Helgi lays" To gain a complete picture of the tradition of the Hildesage, the Helgi lays in the Poetic Edda will be included in the discussion as well, especially since scholars have maintained that these lays share certain similarities with the stories about "Hildr and Heöinn". Marquardt, for instance, argued that the eddic Helgi lays are directly influenced by the Hilde legend, and Stackmann that both groups are connected by means of the motif of bridal abduction. 19 The narratives were grouped together as early as 1888 in Richard Heinzel's study about the Walter tales, in which he provides a list of early Germanic abduction stories.20 His category "bridal abduction or elopement with a woman" ("Entführung einer Frau oder Flucht mit einer Frau"), lists the eddic Helgi lays and the tales about Hilde and Hetel/Heöinn, albeit without clearly distinguishing between abduction and elopement. The three eddic poems, that relate the adventures of a certain Helgi, appear in the Codex Regius, (late thirteenth-century), in the following order:21 1. Helgakvida Hundingsbana in fyrri (HHj) 2. Helgakvida Hiörvardssonar

(HHv.)

3. Helgakvida Hundingsbana önnur (HH2). In all poems the hero is a young warrior named Helgi ("The Sacred One") who kills a great warrior during his youth and later fights for a valkyrie, his future bride. HH, and HH2 doubtlessly relate the same story and can therefore be regarded as two versions of the same poem. In HH2 the narrator of Marquardt, p. 4; See also Karl Stackmann: "Wichtiger als die Tatsache, daß die Hildesage solche äußeren Spuren in den Helgiliedern hinterlassen hat, ist etwas anderes. Es tritt eine ganz allgemeine Ähnlichkeit zwischen Hilde- und Helgisage hervor, wenn man ein wenig abstrahiert und nur einige Hauptpunkte heraushebt [...]. Die Ähnlichkeit erscheint größer, wenn man sieht, daß auch in diesem Stoffkreis das Entführungsmotiv vorkommt" ("Einleitung", in Kudnm, ed. Karl Bartsch, 5 lh ed. rev. and introduced by Karl Stackmann [Wiesbaden: Brockhaus, 1980), p. LXV. Heinzel, Über die Walthersage. Heinzel's list is quoted, for example, by Frings, "Hilde", p. 397, and Panzer, Hilde-Gudrun, p. 317. Quotations and page numbers follow Hans K u h n ' s edition {Edda. Die Lieder

Codex Regius).

des

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the prose section, who is very likely identical with the editor of the Codex Regius, explicitly refers to the first version of the poem: " M qvaö Guömundr, sva sem fyrr er ritaö ί Helgaqviöo"—Then Guömundr spoke, as was written before in 'Helgakviöa' (HH2 154.8-9). The three poems are furthermore connected through the name of the male protagonist and the basic plot. The prose commentator (editor?) leaves no doubt that he also sees a connection between the stories of the two Helgis. He places HHv. between the two versions of H H and makes an attempt to link the poems by means of his closing remarks in HHv.: "Helgi oc Sväva er sagt at vasri endrborin"—Helgi and Sväva are said to have been reincarnated (HHv. 149). This thought is picked up again in his third commentary to HH2: "hans dottir var Sigriin, hon varö valkyria oc reiö lopt oc lög; hon var Sväva endrborin"—His [Högni's] daughter was Signin, she was a valkyrie and rode through air and sea; she was Sväva reincarnated" (HH2 151). Furthermore, the editor/narrator tells us in HH2 that Helgi was named after the hero Helgi Hjörvarösson: "t>au heto son sinn Helga, oc eptir Helga Hiörvarözsyni"—They called their son Helgi, after Helgi Hiörvarösson (Uli) 150).22 Peculiar to HHv. and HH2 are the extensive prose sections that were added to the poems. The prose commentary is not limited to the beginning of the poems, as is the case in most of the poems in Codex Regius, but it is frequently interspersed between the verses. A comparatively extensive mixture of prose and verse occurs in only two other poems of the codex, namely Reginsmdl and, to a lesser degree, Sigrdrifumäl. In these poems the prose contains summaries of the missing parts of the plot based on other sources, most importantly Völsimga saga. A similar situation may hold true for the Helgi lays, although the comments often hint at underlying editorial intentions. In order to be able to draw any conclusions about the purpose of the editor's intervention, I will briefly summarize each poem and indicate the prose parts. Helgakviöa Hundingsbana in fyrri (HH]) The first poem of Helgi is told exclusively in verse and does not contain any prose: -

Introduction of Helgi, son of the Ylfing Sigmundr and half-brother of Sinfjötli.

Compare Heinz Klingenberg, Edda—Sammlung gart: Helbing and Lichtenhahn, 1974), p. 45.

und Dichtung

(Basel and Stutt-

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-

Prophecies about Helgi's future as an outstanding warrior.

-

Helgi kills Hunding the Hard at the age of fifteen and receives his nickname; he also kills Hunding's sons Hjörvarör, Hävarör, Alfr, and Eyiölfr.

-

After the battle several valkyries appear before Helgi.

-

The valkyrie Sigrnn, daughter of Högni, requests Helgi's help in preventing her marriage to Hööbroddr (the slayer of Isungr), son of Granmarr. She requests that Helgi challenge Hööbroddr to battle or seize her from him.

-

Helgi summons his army; men come from Brandr's island and Heöinn's island.

-

Helgi and his men depart on their ships. They survive a serious storm because of Sigriiivs protection and arrive in Granmarr's country.

-

Flyting between Sinfljöti and Guömundr (Hööbroddr's brother).

-

Hööbroddr, Guömundr, Högni, the sons of Hringr, Atli, Yngvi, and Alfr the Old fight against Helgi and his men.

-

Helgi is protected by Signin who eventually intervenes and ends the battle. Helgi receives armrings, marries Sigrün, and rules in his father's kingdom.

Helgakviöa Hiörvarössonar (HHv.) Prose: King Hjörvarör had three wives and three sons: Heöinn, the son of Alfhildr; Humlungr, the son of Ssereiör; Hymlingr, the son of Sinrjoö. Hjörvarör swears an oath to marry only the most beautiful of women. After he hears about King Sväfnir's daughter Sigrlinn, he sends Atli, the son of Earl Iömundr, as a messenger to Svafnir. Atli spends the winter at the court and proposes to Svafnir on Hjörvarör's behalf. Sväfnir's earl, Fränmarr, however, advises that Sigrlinn should not be married to Hjörvarör. After this, Atli returns home. Later, he stands in a grove and has a conversation with a bird. Verse: The bird and Atli agree on a pact; the bird will receive temples and sanctuaries in return for arranging that Sigrlinn voluntarily marry Hjörvarör. Prose: Hjörvarör sets out on the quest himself. During a pause on top of a hill he sees that Sväfnir's country is burning and also sees the dust of running horses. Hjörvarör's companion Atli rides to a house and

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kills a bird that sits on top of it. Inside the house he finds Sigrlinn and Älof (Fränmarr's daughter) and learns that they had escaped from Sigrlinn's suitor, King Hroömarr, who had killed Sväfnir. Atli marries Älof and Hjörvarör marries Sigrlinn. They have a son who remains unnamed. Verse: Nine valkyries sit down next to the unnamed boy. One of them names him Helgi and predicts his future as a great warrior. Prose: The valkyrie reveals that her name is Sväva, daughter of King Eylimi. She often protects him in future battles. Verse: Sväva entices Helgi to avenge the death of his grandfather Sväfnir. Prose·. Sväva leads Helgi to a special sword and the battle begins. Helgi and Atli kill Hroömarr. Helgi kills the giant Hati. Atli has a dialogue with Hati's daughter Hrimgerör. Verse·. Flyting between Atli and Hrimgerör. Prose·. Helgi asks King Eylimi for the hand of his daughter Sväva, which is granted to him. Helgi goes on raiding expeditions. Helgi's halfbrother, Heöinn, meets a troll-woman in the forest and is cursed by her. In the evening, after much drink, Heöinn vows to obtain Sväva for himself. The next day he is very distressed about this vow and departs to find Helgi. Verse: Heöinn and Helgi talk about the incident. Helgi comforts his halfbrother by telling him that he expects to die in the approaching battle with Alfr, Hröömarr's son. Prose: Helgi explains that the troll-woman Heöinn had met in the woods was probably Helgi's fetch (he recites a verse about the fetch). Helgi receives his death wound during the battle. Verse: Helgi sends Sigarr to Sväva. She talks to the messenger and rides to meet with the dying Helgi. He comforts her and asks her to marry Heöinn. Sväva refuses, because she only wants to be married to the best of all warriors. Heöinn then promises to avenge Helgi's death. Prose: Helgi and Sväva are said to have been reincarnated.

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Helgakviöa Hundingsbana önnur (HH2) Prose·. Introduction of the families and the enmities between the Völsungs/ Yflings and King Hundingr (from Hundland). Helgi, who had been named after Helgi Hjörvarösson, was hiding at Hundingr's court. Now Hundingr sends messengers to look for Helgi at Hagall's court (he is Helgi's foster father). Verse\ Helgi hides, disguised as a woman. Helgi's promising future as a warrior is prophesied. Prose: Helgi escapes and kills Hundingr. Introduction of Högni and his daughter Signin, who is Sväva reincarnated. Verse: Dialogue between Signin and Helgi, who does not reveal his true identity. She recognizes him and knows about his great deeds. Prose·. Introduction of Granmarr. His son Hööbroddr had been betrothed to Signin who flees to Helgi as soon as she finds out about it. In the meantime Helgi kills the four sons of Hundingr. Signin embraces Helgi, kisses him, and tells him about her involuntary betrothal to Hööbrodd. Verse·. Helgi begins to love Signin after she has told him that she has always loved him, even before she saw him for the first time. She describes her conflict: she is in love with Helgi but at the same time she fears her kinsmen for breaking the promise they have given to Hööbroddr. Helgi comforts her and promises help. Prose\ Helgi sails to Hööbroddr's country, and he survives a storm by means of the intervention of the valkyries. Upon arrival Guömundr, Hööbroddr's brother, rides to the ship and addresses Helgi and his men. (A reference to / / / / / is given.) Verse: Flyting between Guömundr and Sinfjötli. Prose: (Reference to the earlier poem.) Granmarr's sons summon their army. They are supported by Högni and his sons Bragi and Dagr. During the battle Granmarr's sons die and so do Högni and his son Bragi. Dagr obtains a truce. Signin finds Hööbroddr on the battlefield and addresses him. Verse: Signin enjoys her victory and ridicules Hööbroddr. Helgi is distressed about the outcome because he has killed Signin's kinsmen. He mentions that Signin's fate is to be the cause of strife among powerful men.

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Prose: Helgi and Sigrun get married. Dagr sacrifices to Oöinn and with his help he avenges the death of his relatives and kills Helgi. After the deed, he rides to inform his sister Sigriin about it. Verse: Sigriin curses her brother. Dagr offers compensation, but Sigrnn is too distressed to accept the offer. Prose: A burial mound is erected for Helgi. In Valhöll Helgi becomes the foremost warrior. He returns to his grave mound. Verse: Sigriin goes into the mound to meet Helgi. They lie together and talk. The next day he does not return to meet her. Prose: Sigriin dies a short time later from her sorrow and grief. (Commentary: in the old religion people believed that the two had been reincarnated. Helgi as Helgi Haddingjascaöi and Sigrun as the valkyrie Kara, Halfdan's daughter. Reference to the "Lay of Kara" [Kärolioöom]). These poems do not relate a quest for a bride but rather the heroic deeds of outstanding warriors.23 In HH U the hero Helgi has gained a great reputation as a warrior after having killed King Hundingr and his four sons. The valkyrie Sigrun pleads for his support against Hööbroddr. Helgi kills Hööbroddr and receives Sigrnn as his bride in return. The plot is not motivated by Helgi's quest for the woman. We are rather presented with a situation that frequently occurs in romance literature: A distressed princess is freed from her unwanted suitor by the hero of the story, who later receives her as a bride. The very same situation prevails in HH2. In this poem the influence of romance tradition seems even more explicit. While the first Helgi poem did not mention any emotions, HH2 contains several references to the love between Helgi and Sigrun. Helgi's love for Sigriin, however, does not begin until after she has requested his help, so that the situation in this poem is not comparable to a typical love-triangle story where the hero sets out to gain his bride. The development of their love relationship takes up considerable space in the poem. 24 After Sigriin has kissed the hero, he begins to love her (st. 14-15):

See Klingenberg, p. 41, and Jan de Vries: "das Helgilied ist vielmehr eine jauchzende Verherrlichung eines jungen Heerführers, dessen siegreiche Taten durch eine romantische Liebe gekrönt werden" (Altnordische Literaturgeschichte, vol. 1, Grundriß der germanischen Philologie 15 [Berlin: de Gruyter, 1964], p. 306). See Eleazar Meletinsky: "Finally, in Helgakviöa Hundingsbana II the better part of the lay is devoted to the love of Helgi and Sigrun. This love is depicted as an individual passion, which in many ways tragically influences their fate and survives death itself' (The Elder Edda and Early Forms of the Epic, trans. Kenneth H. Ober [Triest: Edizioni Parnaso, 1998], p. 182).

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Sotti Sigriin siding glaöan, heim nam hon Helga hönd at scekia; kysti oc qvaddi konung und hiälmi, J}ä varö hilmi hugr a vifi. Fyrr lez hon unna af öllum hug syni Sigmundar, enn hon seö haföi. (Sigrün went to the cheerful king. She took Helgi's hand; she kissed him and greeted the king wearing a helmet (the helmet-clad hero). Then the king turned his mind to the woman. // She said that she already loved the son of Sigmundr with all her heart even before she had seen him.) While the account of the protagonists' love seems familiar from romance tradition, the ending of the poem places it in the context of heroic poetry, in particular of the poems and epics belonging to the Sigurör cycle. In the Helgi poem, Sigrün curses her brother, who is her husband's slayer, and, after having spent a night with her beloved in his grave mound, she dies of grief. The third Helgi poem (.HHv.) is of interest in the context of the present study. It begins with the bridal quest of Helgi's father Hjörvarör. This little tale is told almost exclusively in prose, and it closely follows the bridalquest pattern, albeit in a very abbreviated manner. Hjörvarör, who already has three wives (!), has sworn to marry only the most beautiful woman. After the beauty of Sigrlinn has been brought to his attention, he dispatches a messenger to woo her. The quest fails, the messenger returns, and now Hjörvarör himself sets out on the quest. However, when he arrives in the girl's country, he finds it devastated. His companion Atli discovers the girl and her friend Älof; they have escaped from Sigrlinn's suitor Hroömarr. What follows is a double marriage: the messenger Atli marries Alof and Hjörvarör marries Sigrlinn. The success of this bridal quest is not due to Hjörvarör's military strength, cleverness, or cunning, but rather to an earlier pact between Atli and a bird. The bird agrees to support the quest, if it receives a certain payment in return (st. 4): 'Hof mun ek kiösa, hörgamarga, gullhyrndar kyr frä grams biii, efhänom Sigrlinn sefräarmi oc önauöig iöfri fylgir.' (I choose heathen temples, many altars, golden-horned cows from the king's [warrior's] farm, if Sigrlinn sleeps in his arms and willingly goes with the prince.) It is important to note that the pact emphasizes that Sigrlinn will voluntarily decide to become Hjörvarör's bride. The bird does not promise military

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support in an intended bridal abduction of any kind. The only implicit reference in the Helgi poems to a bridal abduction or rather the winning of a bride by means of force, is Hröömarr's actions in HHv. He kills Sigrlinn's father and doubtlessly would have abducted the woman if she had not fled. The main part of HHv. does not contain a bridal quest at all. Helgi brings his proposal to Sväva's father and marries her. The possible conflict towards the end of the poem—Heöinn's vow to win Sväva for himself—does not develop into a story because Helgi dies, and before he dies he implores Sväva to take Heöinn as her next husband. To sum up: The three eddic Helgi poems do not supply any evidence for the claim that Germanic bridal-quest narratives were stories of bridal abductions. HH, and HH2 do not even contain bridal quests, and in HHv. only the possibility that Svava's suitor would have abducted her by force is implied. The only bridal-quest plot that is of interest for our study occurs in the introductory story of HHv. The girl is won with the help of a mysterious bird and not through the hero's actions, though the bird's intervention is not mentioned again and can only be inferred. The ending of this story is peculiar, for Hjörvarör's messenger also wins himself a bride during these adventures. 25 We have a parallel to this in the "Attila and Erka" tale in Pidreks saga, where Attila's messenger Roöolfr (disguised as Sigurör) marries Erka's sister Berta. Also, in "Attila and Erka" a second suitor, King Noröungr from Swabia, endangers the outcome of Attila's quest. Owing to Roöolfr's shrewd behavior, however, the competitor is deceived, and the initial quest succeeds. The parallels between HHv. and "Attila and Erka" are too sparse to conclude that a direct connection exists between them. Since Hjörvarör's quest for Sigrlinn is mainly related in the prose commentary, however, we can at least speculate ever so carefully that the collector of Codex Regius or maybe an earlier collector added these details in the second half of the thirteenth century, based on the knowledge of earlier Norwegian (and Continental?) bridal-quest stories.26 Assuming that the introductory prose is indeed a later addition to the poems, the collector must have been familiar with another work that related the bridal quest of Helgi's father. That the compiler of the eddic poems worked in this way is well illustrated by the prose introductions and transitional prose parts in other poems. Gustaf Lindblad argued that *Sigurdar saga, which is considered to be the source for the poems from "Frä dauöa Sinfjötla" to "Sigrdrifumäl", was written by the year 1200, whereas the second and third

See de Vries, "Die Helgilieder", ANF 72 (1957), p. 145. Noteworthy is also the similarity to the talking raven in Der Münchner

Oswald.

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Helgi poems were added gradually at a later time, probably by the compiler of the Codex Regius himself. 27 If HHv. was indeed added to the codex of eddic poetry at such a late stage, however, influences from Pidreks saga and maybe even other Continental sources are at least in the realm of possibility. The connection between the three eddic Helgi poems and the versions of the story about Hildr and Heöinn is not easily evident. Nevertheless, scholars have maintained with great confidence that the eddic poems are influenced by the Hildesage. Marquardt supported her thesis that the Helgi lays are directly influenced by the Hildr tradition by arguing that the names Högni and Heöinn occur in the Helgi lays. In HH, and III 12, the valkyrie Sigrün is Högni's daughter, and in HHv., Helgi's brother is called Heöinn. 28 Following Frings, Marquardt also claimed that the reference to a large number of men coming from Heöinn's island to support Helgi in H H j ("halir hundmargir or Heöinseyio" [HHt st. 22.4]) is a direct allusion to the tales about Hildr and Heöinn. 29 Frings furthermore maintained that another direct reference to these tales is found in stanza 29 of HH2 (st. 29.1-2): Μ gret Sigrün. Hann qvaö: 'Huggastu, Sigrün! Hildr hefir öü oss veriö; vinnat sciöldungar scöpom' (Then Sigrün wept. He said: "Be comforted, Sigrün! You have become Hildr [valkyrie/battle] to us; the princes cannot fight against fate.")

Frings and other scholars have interpreted the line "Hildr hefir bu oss veriö" as a direct reference to Hildr in the "Hildr and Heöinn" tales and, more specifically, to her role in these stories as the instigator of the battle between her father and her abductor. 30 Marquardt, however, does not regard "hildr" as a direct reference to the tales of "Hildr and Heöinn", but rather as the name of a valkyrie or a heiti for battle in general. 31 Marquardt's interpretation of the lines in HH2 seems to capture the situation that prevails in the poem much more accurately. Sigrun was the reason for the battle that Gustaf Lindblad, "Poetiska Eddans förhistoria och skrivskicket i Codex Regius", ANF 95 (1980), 142-67. Lindblad's argument is summarized and discussed by Joseph Harris, "Eddic Poetry", in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature. A Critical Guide, ed. Carol J. Clover and John Lindow (Ithaca and London: Cornell UP, 1985), p. 76. 28

Marquardt, p. 4.

29

Frings, "Hilde", p. 406; Marquardt, p. 4.

30

Frings, "Hilde", p. 406.

31

Marquardt, p. 7.

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took place and therefore the heiti "hildr" seems very fitting here. Moreover, the battle in HH2 has no parallels in the Hjadningavig in the tales about Hildr. Although the Helgi lays and the stories about Hildr and Heöinn have in common that a young hero kills the father of his bride-to-be, they differ significantly in the details. In the three Helgi poems, the father is not the antagonist. The father is a supporter of the man who was betrothed to the valkyrie against her will. He does not pursue the hero and his daughter. Rather, the hero Helgi travels to the country of his rival where the father of the bride is also present. In the eddic poems, the battle with the father of the bride is not emphasized and the fact that he is killed is only mentioned en passant. Only in HHv. is the issue addressed more directly, when Helgi explicitly mentions that he cannot enjoy his victory after having killed all of Sväva's relatives (st. 26). The reference to "Heöinsey" in H H , is furthermore not enough evidence to assume a direct connection between the Helgi lays and the tales about Hildr, because the name could simply refer to the island of Hiddensee close to Rügen. The only remaining evidence is then the occurrence of the names Högni and Heöinn in the eddic poems.

The Hildesage in Germany: Kudrun The Kudrun epic is transmitted only in the Ambraser Heldenbuch (completed 1514). The text is described as being "sehr verwahrlost", which can be explained either by a very long transmission history or the possibility that the scribe did not possess a well-structured and complete copy of the epic. 32 Also problematic is the fact that the extant version of the epic is written in the fifteenth-century Early New High German Bavarian/Austrian dialect. Editors have normalized the text into an early Southern German Middle High German dialect (Oberdeutsch). Owing to the peculiar late transmission of the work, it is not feasible to draw conclusions about the epic's origin, dialect, and age based on formal criteria. The information that can be obtained from the plot is not of much greater help, since the epic does not contain any references to historical persons or events that would allow us to date the work more precisely. The only two remaining criteria are the meter of some of the stanzas and the subject matter. The fact that some of the stanzas are composed in the meter of the Nibelungenlied has influenced conclusions about the epic's age and original form. Jean Carles, for example, reconstructed the "Ur-Kudrun" based on the Nibelungenlied stanzas. He argued that this original short epic was composed around the

See Stackmann, "Einleitung", p. Lxxxix.

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year 1210 under the influence of the Nibelungenlied,33 According to Carles, the style and content of the extant Kudrun represent a less valuable and longer reworking of this old epic. Other studies have shown, however, that it is not possible to separate the Nibelungenlied stanzas from the remaining stanzas, since the two types are sometimes even connected by enjambments. 34 Moreover, there is no evidence that the Nibelungenlied stanzas represent an older stage in the transmission of the epic. As Stackmann suggests, it is also quite possible that the author or scribe of the epic switched between the two meters either deliberately or accidentally. 35 Considering the poor and late transmission of the work, we should at any rate be very careful when it comes to arguments that are based on its language and meter, because all of these arguments are ultimately based on speculations about the original form of Kudrun. The epic's terminus a quo, however, can be determined quite easily by the obvious references to and the influences from other medieval works. As Stackmann shows, the work contains evidence that the author was familiar not only with romance literature, such as Hartmann von Aue's Iwein and Erec, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, and Gottfried von Straßburg's Tristan, but also with the Nibelungenlied and König Rother. For these reasons the Kudrun epic cannot predate 1200 or 1210.36 Based on references to socio-historical information, other scholars have argued for an even later terminus a quo (the 1230s and 1250s respectively).37 At what point between the middle of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century the epic was composed, however, remains unknown. The only other evidence that could support an earlier date is the fragmentary Middle High German epic Dukus Horant, which is transmitted in Yiddish in a manuscript from the year 1382. The content of the extant parts of Dukus Horant is a combination of material known from Kudrun and König Rother, so that it is quite possible that the Kudrun epic predates this work. However, it is also possible that both epics go back to one or more common written or oral sources and do not depend directly on each other. Since the structural, formal, and socio-historical analyses of Kudrun cannot solve the many questions about the epic's age and origin, scholars

Jean Carles, Lepoeme res de France, 1963).

de Küdrün: etude de sa matiere

34

Stackmann, "Einleitung", p. XCI.

33

Ibid., p. XLIX.

36

Ibid., p. viii.

37

Ibid., p. x.

(Paris: Presses Universitai-

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have focused their attention on its possible sources. Based on similarities of the names and some of the events, the Hildesage has been posited as most important source of the epic. In Kudrim the bridal-quest theme is repeated eight times: 38 1. Sigebant (of Ireland) successfully woos Ute, a Norwegian princess (1st äventiure). 2. Hagen (of Ireland) marries Hilde, an Indian princess (4th äventiure). 3. Hetel (King of Denmark) successfully woos Hilde, the daughter of Hägen and Hilde, by means of cunning and elopement (end 4th - 8th äventiure). 4. Sifrit of Morlant is unsuccessful in wooing Kudrun, the daughter of Hetel and Hilde (9th äventiure). 5. Hartmut of Ormanie is unsuccessful in wooing Kudrun (10th äventiure). 6. Herwig of Sealand is unsuccessful in wooing Kudrun (11th äventiure). 7. Herwig wins Kudrun by means of military force, which ends in a peace agreement and his betrothal to Kudrun (12th äventiure). 8. Hartmut is unsuccessful in wooing, but subsequently abducts Kudrun (end 14 th - 20th äventiure). The remaining plot, that is, the äventiuren that have been left out so far, relate the following: A. Hägen of Ireland is abducted by griffins and escapes from captivity with three princesses (2nd - 4th äventiure). Β. Sifrit of Morlant attacks Herwig's land; he is defeated by Herwig and Kudrun's father Hetel (13lh - beginning 14th äventiure). C. Kudrun's hardships as a captive in Hartmut's country; plans and fights to release her from captivity; return home and diplomatic ending with two weddings (21st - 32nd äventiure). As this brief outline illustrates, the narrative in the Kudrun epic is entirely based on bridal-quest plots, which show almost all of the possible variations of the bridal-quest scheme, including unsuccessful quests, bridal ab-

Theodor Nolte counts nine wooing efforts, because he distinguishes between Hartmut's second peaceful wooing and the forceful abduction as two independent attempts. Since the unsuccessful, second wooing must rather be regarded as the reason for Hartmut's use of force and both occur during the same stay at Kudrun's court, however, I regard these two attempts as too closely connected to be divided (Das Kudrunepos—Ein Frauenroman? [Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1985], p. 4).

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duction, and difficult quests that succeed through cunning and elopement with the bride. 39 The epic is traditionally divided into three major parts: first, the introductory story of Hagen's abduction by the griffins and his return home; second, the so-called Hilde part (part 1) and, third, the Kudrun part (part 2). The connection between the Hilde part and the Scandinavian tales about Hildr and Heöinn is clearly established through the names of the protagonists. In Kudrun, King Hetel from Denmark woos Hilde, the daughter of King Hägen from Ireland. Hence, the initial constellation is the same as in the Scandinavian tales of Hildr and Heöinn. In the German epic, however, Hetel sends two messengers, the distinguished warrior Wate and the singer Horant, to woo the woman on his behalf. The emissaries meet in secret with Hilde and elope with her from her father's court to Wäleis, where Hetel joins them. Hägen pursues the fugitives and in the ensuing battle, which takes place on a beach, Hägen wounds Hetel and is in return wounded by Wate. Through Hilde's intervention, the fighting ends and the two men reach a peace agreement. The German epic distinguishes itself from the Scandinavian versions in that Hilde is not abducted by force but wooed by means of cunning. She elopes with Hetel's messengers, and the hero himself does not participate in the quest. Furthermore, the battle between Hägen and Hetel does not end fatally. Hilde's role in the events is reversed insofar as she does not incite the two parties to engage in battle, as, for example in Snorri's and Bragi's versions of the tale, but rather brings the conflict to a peaceful end. The second part of the Kudrun epic contains additional parallels to the story of Hildr and Heöinn. The names of the protagonists, however, no longer conform. In the German epic, Hartmut and his father, Ludwig, abduct Kudrun by force after having raided in her father's country. Kudrun's father, Hetel, pursues the fugitives and a battle between the two parties takes place on an island which is called Wülpensant (st. 809.4 and 848.1). Hagen dies in the battle and Hartmut flees with his father and Kudrun. The parallels with the Scandinavian "Hildr and Heöinn" tales are apparent: The woman is abducted by force, the father pursues the abductor and they engage in battle on an island. During this battle the father dies. In the German version, however, the abductor survives the battle and escapes with the woman, who, after many years of suffering, is taken back by her fiance Herwig. Stackmann discusses the scholarship on the epic's structure, content, and possible interpretation in great detail in his introduction to the fifth edition of Karl Bartsch's Kudrun edition ("Einleitung", pp. Xin-XLII).

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Scholars have proposed several hypotheses as to the composition of the Kudrun epic and its connection with the Scandinavian stories about Hildr and Heöinn. Friedrich Panzer, for example, argued that a Southern German author composed Kudrun based on a fairytale model (the Goldnermärchen) while borrowing some names and locations from the Hildesage.40 Conversely, Hertha Marquardt suggested that the German author was familiar with a version of the Hildr and Heöinn story composed by a German minstrel. The German author used this minstrel version for the first part of Kudrun. The second part of the epic was then directly based on ancient lays. 4 ' The obvious parallels between the Kudrun epic and König Rother— especially in the details of the bridal wooing in part one of Kudrun—have found varying explanations. Panzer, who believed in a late composition of the epic, argued that König Rother served as the immediate source for the Kudrun poet. 42 B. Symons, on the other hand, maintained that both epics are based on the same source, which was a German version of the Oriental Solomon story.43 Marquardt also argued that both German epics go back to a common source, but she claimed that this source was an ancient lay of Hilde. 44 Finally, Droege maintained that König Rother depends on an older version of the Kudrun epic.45 These four hypotheses show how little we know about the transmission of the two German bridal-quest epics and also how diverse the theories about their transmission are. The remaining German reflexes of the so-called Hilde tradition complicate matters even more. Dukus

Horant

The fourteenth-century epic Dukus Horant contains apparent parallels to the Scandinavian tales about Hildr and Heöinn and the German epics König Rother and Kudrun. The male protagonist Etene is the King of Germany and ruler of Spain, Italy, Denmark, Hungary, and France. He has three giants as companions (Witolt, Asprian, and Wate) and his closest friend is

Panzer, Hilde-Gudrun, 430-448.

pp. 251, 417. Panzer's arguments are summarized on pp.

41

Marquardt, pp. 9-10.

42

Panzer, Hilde-Gudrun,

43

B. Symons, "Friedrich Panzer, Hilde-Gudrun", Literaturblatt romanische Philologie 23 (1902), 324.

p. 447 für germanische

44

Marquardt, p. 16.

45

Karl Droege, "Zur Geschichte der Kudrun", ZDA 54 (1913), 121-67.

und

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Horant, a duke from Denmark. Etene sends these four men along with Horant's brother, Morunc, as messengers to King Hagen's court in Greece to woo Hilde. Upon arrival in Greece, Horant claims to be a refugee and seeks lodging with a rich merchant. He stays with this merchant and makes gifts to Hagen's retainers. During the ceremonies on the feast of Pentecost, Horant and the giants watch the princess on her way to church and arouse her interest in the foreigners. Later that day Horant sings and in this way lures the queen out of the castle. He proposes to her on Etene's behalf. The princess, who would like to marry Horant because of his musical ability, agrees to the proposal after Horant has promised that he will sing for her at Etene's court as well. Their escape is planned to take place after the Pentecost feast. During the feast, the giants cause trouble by their behavior. Horant has a conversation with Hägen during which he again claims that he is a refugee. He promises to attend the feast the next day and leaves. The text breaks off with Horant sitting outside the merchant's house. The parallels between this text and the German epics and Scandinavian versions are obvious. The names of the protagonists—Etene, Hilde, and Hägen—as well as the name of the messenger Horant are the same as in the tales about Hildr and in Kudrun, whereas the names of the giants Witolt and Asprian and their deeds are known from König Rother and "Ösantrix and Oda". The disguise used by the messengers when they arrive at Hagen's court is a combination of the trick in the first part of König Rother and the trick Horant and Wate employ in the first part of Kudrun 46 These parallels, however, do not allow for the conclusion that the author of Dukus Horant had access to written sources of the extant German epics. As F. Norman points out, we can certainly assume that the poet was familiar with König Rother and also with the tales about Hilde/Hildr and Hetel/Heöinn. We may, however, not automatically conclude that he knew or used the extant versions of the König Rother and Kudrun epics.47 As was established earlier in the comparison of "Ösantrix and Oda" and König Rother, the Rother/Osantrix story must have circulated in several versions, and the same seems to apply for the stories about Hildr and Heöinn. Two other German texts contain references to the tales about Hildr/ Hilde. In the Rolandslied, one of Charlemagne's retainers is the Dane Oigir, who is related to a certain Wate: "unt du helt Oigir, / uil wol getriwe For a more detailed comparison see the introduction to the edition of the text. Dukus Horant, Ed. P.F. Ganz, F. Norman, and W. Schwarz (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1964), pp. 90-123. F. Norman (Dukus Horant), p. 93 and pp. 98-99. Schröbler on the other hand claims that the author of Dukus Horant used the extant Rother epic (pp. 156-61).

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ich dir; / du bist des Waten chunnes, / dune waist nicht übeles"—And you, hero Oigir, I trust you very much; you are from the kin of Wate, you do not know evil deeds (st. 7799). 48 The hero Wate, who is a relative of the Dane Oigir, could well be the Danish hero known from the Kudrun epic. A clear reference to the events in Kudrun and the Hildr tales occurs in Lamprecht's Alexander (vv. 1321-24): 49 man saget von dem stürm der üf Wolfenwerde gescach, da Hilten vater tot gelach, zewisken Hagenen unde Waten: so ne mohter herzö nieth katen. (People tell of the battle that occurred on Wolfenwert [island], where Hilde's father lay dead between Hägen and Wate: that battle could not be equaled to this one [the battle between Alexander and Darius]).

The Straßburg manuscript (vv. 1830-34) contains the same version, albeit with an orthographic variant of the location of the battle, that is, "Wulpinwert", which may well be identical with the "Wiilpinsant" in Kudrun.50 The allusion to the battle and the death of Hilde's father is doubtlessly closely related to the stories about Hildr and Heöinn. However, this excerpt in the Alexander confuses the entire situation even more, because here Hilde's father is not called Hägen. His name is not mentioned, but we learn that he died in a battle lying between Hägen and Wate. None of the extant versions of the story has a similar constellation of characters. In the first part of Kudrun, Hilde's father Hägen fights against Hetel and Wate, so that at least the presence of Wate at the battles in the Alexander version can be explained. However, none of the combatants dies. In the second part of Kudrun a battle takes place on the "Wiilpinsant" and the father of the bride dies, so that both these details agree with the version found in the Alexander. The names in Kudrun are different, however; the female protagonist is Kudrun, her abductor is Hartmut, and Wate is not present during the battle. Dukus Horant breaks off before the elopement from Hagen 's court takes place and hence does not supply any detail about a battle. In the Scandina-

Das Rolandslied des Pfaffen Konrad, ed. Carl Wesle, 3rd ed. Peter Wapnewski (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1985). Lamprechts Alexander, ed. K. Kinzel (Halle/Saale: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1884). Das Alexanderlied des Pfaffen Lamprecht (Straßburger Alexander). Text, Nacherzählung, Worterklärungen, ed. Irene Ruttmann (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1974). Concerning the similarities in the wording see Stackmann, "Einleitung", p. Uli.

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vian versions of the story Wate is not present and Hildr's father is always called Högni. Finally, two Anglo-Saxon sources also seem to refer to the Hilde legend. In the eighth-century poem Deor, the poet Deor of the Hedeningas complains that he has lost his position as court poet owing to the competition of another poet called Heorrenda.51 The "Heodeningas" seem to be identical with ON "Hjaöningar" in Bragi's poem, Snorri's Edda, and other Scandinavian sources, whereas the name "Heorrenda" is the equivalent of ON "Hjarrandi", the name of Heöinn's father in Snorri's "Skäldskaparmäl, "Sörla Jmttr", and Göngu-Hrolfs saga.52 The second Anglo-Saxon source is the seventh-century (?) poem Widsiö that mentions the names and heritage of the heroes known from the Hildr tales. According to this poem, "Hagena" comes from "Holmrygum;" "Heoden" from "Glommum;" "Witta" from "Swasfum:" and "Wada" from "Haslsingum".53 In these verses three men familiar from the Hildr tales appear in close proximity: Hagen, Heöinn/ Hetel, and Wate, and they are located in the Baltic area.54 Summary of the Hildesage Theodor Frings located the extant versions of stories about Hildr/Hilde and Heöinn/Hetel in three geographical areas and suggested that the story originated in Denmark during the Viking Age, whence it was exported to the Northwest (Norway and Iceland) as well as south to Germany.55 To follow Frings's argument, the various versions and their alleged places of origin need to be distinguished. The oldest references to the protagonist of the Hildesage occur in the two Anglo-Saxon poems (Deor and Widsiö) as early as the seventh and eighth centuries. In the ninth or tenth century, the Nor-

'

The Exeter Book, ed. George Ph. Krapp and Elliott van Kirk Dobbie (New York: Columbia UP, 1936), v. 35.

52

See Stackmann, "Einleitung", p. LXVII. Scholars discuss whether "Heorrenda" is identical with the German "Horant" we encounter in Kudrun and Dukus Horant, because in the Anglo-Saxon source he is also referred to as a poet and singer. Proponents of this theory are, inter alia, Frings, "Hilde", p. 410, and Norman, p. 122. Baesecke opposes such a comparison (Der Münchner Oswald, pp. 281-2). "Widsiö", in The Exeter Book, vv. 21-2.

54

Compare Stackmann, "Einleitung", pp. Lxvii-Lxvin. Rudolf Much discusses the meaning of the place names in great detail in his article "Der germanische Osten in der Heldensage", ZDA 57 (1920), 145-76.

55

Frings, "Hilde", pp. 393-4.

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wegian poet Bragi the Old composed his Ragnarsdrdpa, which is transmitted in Iceland in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. Further Icelandic sources are "Sörla t>ättr" in Flateyjarbök, short references in Göngu-Hrolfs saga and Bosa saga, and, traces of this legend can also be detected in the Helgi lays in the Poetic Edda. First and foremost among the Danish works transmitting the names and the tale is Saxo's Gesta Danorum, although his source for the story could very well have been Norwegian or Icelandic. The other Danish source, the Kununktallit, only contains a brief reference. Last but not least, we have two German versions: the thirteenth-century (?) epic Kudrim and the fourteenth-century fragmentary epic Dukus Horant. Additionally, there are shorter references to the names in the mid-twelfthcentury Alexander and possible also the Rolandslied. The German epics relating the story of Hagen's daughter Hilde and Hetel/Etene contain a bridal abduction that occurs in the second part of Kudrun. In this episode and in the brief allusion to a similar event in the Alexander, the father of the bride dies in the battle that takes place on "Wülpensant" (Kudrun) or "Wulpenwert" {Alexander). In the latter version, however, Hilde 's father is not named "Hägen" as in all the other German and Scandinavian sources. Additionally, in the second part of Kudrun the woman is called Kudrun and not Hilde. In the other German versions, that is Kudrun (part 1) and Dukus Horant, Hetel/Etel does not woo the bride himself but rather sends two or more messengers, including the singer Horant and the exceedingly strong warrior Wate, who is a giant in the Dukus Horant version. This Wate appears again in the Alexander, but the bridal-quest plot in Kudrun (part 1) and Dukus Horant also shows close similarities with König Rother and other German bridal-quest narratives: the messengers stay at Hagen's court under false pretenses and woo the woman by means of their cunning. As far as the Scandinavian material is concerned, the eddic poems HHj, HH2, and Helgi Hjörvarösson's quest in HHv. cannot be regarded as bridalquest tales, and they are clearly not examples for bridal abduction. In these accounts the protagonist does not woo a bride nor does he abduct her. On the contrary, his valkyrie-bride-to-be selects him as her future husband. Each woman approaches her respective Helgi and requests his support against her unwanted suitor. Only Hjörvarör's wooing of Sigrlinn in the prose introduction of HHv. follows the bridal-quest pattern; at least the first half of the story, which relates the hero's decision to marry, the dispatching of a messenger, an official proposal which is rejected by the girl's father, and a second wooing journey during which the hero himself travels to the girl's country. This tale has certain parallels with the "Attila and Erka" story in Pidreks saga. In both narratives the wooer dispatches a messenger;

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a rival suitor appears on the scene; and in the end the messenger marries a close confidant of the female protagonist. It is important that in the Helgi poems the male protagonist has to fight against a rival suitor. He is not pursued by the woman's father, but instead sets out himself to challenge the rival in his homeland; and he kills the father of the bride only because the latter fights on the side of the rival suitor. The remaining Scandinavian versions of the tale about Hildr and Heöinn are best summarized as elopement stories in which the quest for the bride per se plays no part. Rather, the focus of these stories is the battle between father and suitor, but also the decisive role the woman plays in the events. In the bridal-quest tales in which the bride is won by means of cunning and disguise, that is Kudrun (part 1), Dukus Horant, and Hjörvarör's quest in the first part of HHv., the events preceding the wooing and the wooing proper play a much larger role. A similar distinction applies to the bridalquest material in the early Franconian and Continental chronicles. Albeit rarely, bridal abductions are mentioned in these chronicles, and the respective stories are very short and never developed into full-fledged narratives. The same holds true for the Scandinavian versions of the Hildr and Heöinn tale. The transmission of this story reveals that the never-ending battle between the two male protagonists and the role the woman plays during its course are of much more interest to the narrator than the bridal quest. This is already apparent in Bragi's stanzas because he elaborates on Hildr's behavior and the fierceness of the battle but not the events that lead up to it. Snorri Sturluson abbreviates his account of the same events to such a degree that he mentions the reason for the battle in one sentence and then focuses on the events immediately preceding the battle and the battle itself. From the extant evidence we cannot deduce whether Hildr was forcefully abducted or whether she voluntarily eloped with Heöinn. The behavior she displays in Bragi's poem seems to point more in the direction of her voluntary elopement with her suitor. The very active role Hildr plays before the battle furthermore recalls the role the valkyries play in the Helgi poems. In this context it is important to bear in mind that the name "Hildr" is a name for a valkyrie found in Norse mythology, a meaning that is supported by the verse in HH:. In the two longer Scandinavian prose accounts of the events, "Sörla J^ättr" and Saxo's story in the fifth book of the Gesta Danorum, it is noteworthy that the authors elaborated mainly those parts that precede the battle between Högni and Heöinn. Both the author of "Sörla J)ättr" and Saxo Grammaticus present the hero Heöinn in a very positive light. In "Sörla J^attr" he is a great and successful warrior and king whose actions are guided and manipulated by Freyja's cunning and deceit. In Saxo's account,

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Heöinn is a positive character throughout. He does not abduct the bride, but rather is betrothed to her and later becomes the victim of slander. The story leaves it open whether or not he was indeed guilty of the deed he is accused of. Considering all the evidence, it is not possible to conclude that the eddic Helgi poems and the several versions of the Hildr and Heöinn tale (Hildesage) represent a specific northern type of bridal-quest narrative in which the bride is abducted by means of force. It is also questionable whether we can trace the versions of and allusions to the story of Hildr and Heöinn back to a single source, stemming from Denmark. Frings and several other scholars assumed that the Hildesage originated in Denmark for two reasons: the location and name of the battlefield and the home of the two kings. Frings maintains that in all the Danish versions of the tale the battle is located on the island Heöinsey/Hiddensee, close to Rügen, whereas in the West Norse versions the battle was moved to the Orkneys, and in the German versions to the Wülpensant, which can be identified as the mouth of the river Scheide. The problem with this distinction is, however, that the only Danish source to mention the location of the battle is Saxo (Hithinso), whereas the other references to this place occur in the Icelandic GönguHrölfs saga (Heöinsey). Since we know that Saxo to a great extent relied on Norwegian and Icelandic sources, we cannot be sure whether he was not subject to outside influences in this case. It is true, however, that in the remaining Norwegian and Icelandic versions the battlefield is located in the Orkneys, more specifically in the place called Hoy/Häey, and that in Kudrun and the Alexanderlied the battlefield is called Wülpensant. The names of the battleground show local preferences but they do not support a Danish origin of the narrative. Frings's other evidence to support his Danish theory is the information concerning the origin of the protagonists. Hagen, in Snorri's version, comes from a place south of Norway. Saxo calls him a Jute, and in the Icelandic sources he is explicitly referred to as a Dane. In the German versions, however, Hägen is either the King of Ireland (Kudrun) or of Greece (Dukus Horant). Heöinn, on the other hand, is included in the list of the Danish legendary kings in the Danish Kununktallit, and in the German Kudrun he also comes from Denmark (Tenelant/Tenemarke). In Saxo's account, however, Heöinn comes from Norway, whereas in the remaining Icelandic sources he either comes from Serkland (land of the Saracens) ("Sörla }}ättr") or India (Göngu-Hrolfs saga). The evidence collected above does not warrant any conclusions about the origin of the tales about Hildr and Heöinn. We cannot conclude that the tale originated in Denmark. The references to Denmark are fairly recurrent

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but not consistent enough to prove a Danish origin of the story. Andreas Heusler and Friedrich Panzer proposed a different hypothesis as to the origin of the subject matter. They suggested that an East Germanic lay about the abduction of Hildr was composed in the fourth or fifth century, and that this lay migrated with the Angles to the British Isles and later on to Denmark and finally to Low Franconia. 56 Such a transmission would explain the early occurrences of the names of the protagonist in the two AngloSaxon poems. Frings and Marquardt, however, claimed that the story was transmitted to the British Isles and Germany during the Viking Age. This latter assumption is well supported by the fact that none of the narratives predates the ninth century and thus the onset of the Viking Age; the references to the names in the Anglo-Saxon poems, however, cannot be explained in this way. The key to all the hypotheses, and here we return to the topic of this study, seems to be the bridal-quest plot in the several versions of the Hildesage. In earlier research the various stories about Hildr were often regarded as the oldest Germanic bridal-quest tales containing an abduction of the bride, but scholars ignored the information provided by the works themselves. They frequently quoted Heinzel's list of early Germanic abduction stories, even though Heinzel treats the sources too freely and without regard to their chronology and origin.57 He mentions as examples of "bridal abduction with a treasure" ("Flucht mit einer Frau und Raub der Schätze") the adventures of Paris and Helena, the tale of "Samson and Hildisviö" in Pidreks saga, and three (late) legendary sagas from Iceland. 58 Heinzel further distinguishes abduction tales in which the woman is abducted and her father pursues the fugitives ("Entführung der Geliebten und Verfolgung"), and gives as examples of this type the bridal-quest stories in Pidrelcs saga. Finally, his third category, comprised of tales in which a woman is abducted or in which a man escapes with a woman, includes, among others, "Die Typen von Helgi Hundingsbani und Sigrun, von Hetel und Hilde". 59 Heinzel does not distinguish between stories in which the woman is abducted against her will and those in which she elopes with her suitor. He also does not pay attention to the events that precede the couple's escape. Nevertheless, the examples he gives for pure bridal abduction by Panzer, Hilde-Gudrun, pp. 437-40. Andreas Heusler, Die altgermanische Dichtung, Handbuch der Literaturwissenschaft 363 (Berlin: Athenaion, 1923), pp. 150-

1. 37

Heinzel, pp. 66-8. Frings, "Hilde", p. 397 and Panzer, Hilde-Gudrun, Heinzel.

58

Heinzel, pp. 66-7.

59

Ibid., p. 67.

p. 317 quote

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force are identical with the ones that have been discussed in this study so far, with the addition of later examples from the Icelandic fornaldarsögur. Heinzel's classification does not contribute additional evidence to the solution of the question whether the earliest Germanic or Scandinavian tales contained bridal abductions instead of bride-wooing plots. On the contrary, since the Hildr tales are the earliest extant works on which we can base our argument about Scandinavian bridal-quest narrative, we must rather conclude that in the earliest extant versions of the Hildr tale, that is, Bragi's "Ragnarsdräpa" and Jarl Rögnvaldr's and Hallr &0rarinsson's "Hättalykill", but also in the later Scandinavian versions of the story, the focus of the narrative was not the abduction of the bride, but rather the eternal battle between the abductor and the woman. In this regard the early stories about Hildr can be compared with the lays about Brynhildr and Svanhildr— Heusler referred to these three as the oldest Germanic bridal-quest stories ("die ältesten germanischen Brautwerbungssagen")—but in all these stories the wooing only initiates the ensuing feud. 60 This observation, however, does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that early Scandinavian or Germanic bridal-quest narratives were exclusively abduction stories. A closer look at the poems and tales that transmit this early tradition has rather shown that Hildr plays such an active role in the events that it is much more likely that she eloped with Heöinn. The hypothesis that the motif of bridal abduction was not regarded as the central motif of the tale is furthermore indicated by the fact that this motif is frequently altered and even lost in later versions. It is nonetheless remarkable that the Hildr tale developed into fullfledged bridal-quest epics in Germany. With the exception of the rare occurrence in the second part of Kudrun, the abduction motif and the motif of the eternal battle are lost. Instead, the hero's wooing efforts are emphasized through the introduction of emissaries and recurring wooing efforts. In Kudrun only the names of the protagonists and the fact that a decisive battle is fought on a beach recall the Scandinavian versions of the story, and Dukus Horant only transmits the same names of the protagonists. However, the German epics were most likely composed at a time when a rich tradition of bridal-quest narrative was alive in Germany, as is indicated by the parallels in the Rother epic and "Osantrix and Oda". The most important result of this extensive comparison and discussion is then that the Scandinavian tales about Hildr are not tales of bridal abduction and they do not represent a specific Northern or Germanic bridal-quest type.

Andreas Heusler, Altgermanische

Dichtung, p. 157. Compare Marquardt, p. 3.

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Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum In Kvinnor och man i Gesta Danorum, Birgit Strand studied the historical roles and narrative functions of women in the Gesta Danorum.61 She accepts the traditional division of the work into two parts: the heathen part (books 1-9) and the Christian part (books 10-16). One of her most important conclusions is that the episodes in the heathen part revolve around the taking and giving of women and the many possible complications connected with this process. 62 A closer look at this part of the chronicle, in which seventy percent of the 176 women who play a role in the chronicle appear, corroborates Strand's observation. The bridal-quest plots in this part can be divided into successful and unsuccessful quests in which the women are abducted by force; elope with the suitor or his messenger; tales in which a rival suitor has to be killed before the woman can be won; and those in which the suitor is supposed to fulfill a certain condition before he can win his bride. The following discussion of these bridal-quest narratives in Saxo is by no means intended to be complete and is limited to the first nine books of the Gesta Danorum, which not only contain more bridalquest plots but are also concerned with older and more legendary material than the second, Christian part. Therefore it is much more likely that the tales in the first part of the chronicle go back to older written and oral sources and thus give an insight into the early Scandinavian tradition of bridal-quest narrative.

Successful Wooing Stories Accounts of the successful wooing of emperors and noble rulers are fairly rare in the first nine books of the chronicle and whenever they occur they do not go beyond very brief statements about the events. In the majority of cases the suitor dispatches emissaries, as for example the Danish king Frotho the First in his wooing of King Andvan's daughter. The suitors accomplish their mission and return home with the bride (II, 39.7-19). Another example of this type of narrative is the courtship of Helgi, king of Halogaland for Thora, the daughter of Gusi, prince of the Finns and Biarmians (III.65.19-36). Here the narrator stresses that it was customary at the

Birgit Strand, Kvinnor och man i Gesta Danorum (Gothenburg: Kompendiet Lindome, 1980). Especially chapter seven is of interest for the present topic. "I den hedniska delen är t/b [i.e., "tagande/bortgivande av kvinnor"] ett central motiv: heia episoder är här uppbyggda kring frieri och avslag, rivalitet, kamp mot jättar, odjur, välsverkare och ovälkomna friare" (Strand, p. 76).

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time for men personally to set out to ask for a woman in marriage. Helgi, however, had a speech impediment and therefore sent an eloquent messenger on his behalf (III.65.21-24). It is furthermore remarkable that in these successful wooing stories the woman is asked for her consent and that the betrothal depends on her acceptance: "...refert Guso mentem filise consulendam"—Gusi answered that he must consult his daughter's opinion (III. 65.32).

Successful Wooing Based on a Condition This type of bridal-quest plot occurs more frequently in the first nine books of Saxo's chronicle. In two of the tales, the Danish kingdom is the center of the condition set by the women. Thyra, the daughter of the English King yEthelred requests Denmark as her wedding gift from the Danish King Gorm the Third (IX.266.18-267.3). In another tale, Gurith, the last heiress to the Danish kingdom, stipulates that her suitor Sivar of Saxony reunite the Danish kingdom if she is to agree to the wedding, for she is secretly in love with Haidan (VII.205.3-206.13). Sivar fails to fulfill the condition but succeeds in bribing Gurith's councilors so that he is betrothed to her. However, Haldan arrives at the wedding feast, kills Sivar and all the other Saxons who are present, and in this way he wins Gurith as his wife. A more successful courtship is recounted in the fifth book: the Swedish champion Arngrim woos Ofura, the daughter of King Frotho the Third, but his initial suit is refused since he has not gained fame. After he has distinguished himself in military campaigns, however, his proposal is granted and the wedding takes place (V.137.34-138.30).

Successful Wooing by Means of Force The first nine books of Saxo's chronicle contain only two short episodes with bridal abductions. In the first episode we hear about the berserk Harthben from Hälsingland who makes it a sport to kidnap and ravish princesses: "...raptas regum filias stupro fcedare glorias loco ducebat"—he abducted the daughters of kings and regarded it a great accomplishment to ravish them (VII. 186.13-14). In the second example, Borkar abducts Drot and kills her husband Gunnar, King of Sweden, who earlier had abducted the woman himself (VII.201.36-40). 63

Borkar and Drot are the parents of the Danish King Haldan the Third.

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Successful Wooing after the Slaying of a Rival Suitor In a surprisingly large number of stories in the chronicle, the protagonist has to overcome a rival suitor. In approximately half of these stories the rival suitor is another king or ruler, as in the tale about the Danish King Skiold and Alvild, the daughter of the King of Saxony (1.12.9-15). After Skiold has fallen in love with Alvhild, he challenges his rival suitor Skat, the governor of the Allamanni, to single combat, kills him, and takes Alvild as his wife. In another story, the Danish King Gram falls in love with Signe, the daughter of his enemy, the Finnish King Sumbli (1.19.3-34). Signe, however, is going to be betrothed to the Saxon King Henry and therefore Gram hastens to the wedding feast to claim the woman for himself. He dresses in poor clothes and recites a poem before the wedding guests in which he praises his own bravery. Afterwards he kills Henry and many of the guests and carries the woman to his ship. Saxo adds a moral to the story: "Igitur nuptiis in exsequias versis, doceri Finni potuerunt alienis amoribus manus inici non oportere"—Thus the wedding was turned into a funeral, teaching the Finns not to lay hands on another man's loved one (I.19.33-34). 64 Another rather complicated story, told in the seventh book, involves Signe and three wooers (VII. 193.9-198.27). In this story, Hildigisl woos Signe, who at the same time is secretly in love with Haki. She then becomes the secret mistress of Hagbarth, who is a close companion of her brothers. Hildigisl and Hagbarth plot several attacks against each other's relatives. Hagbarth, disguised as a woman, succeeds in spending a night with Signe, but is later attacked and hanged. Signe kills herself to be with her loved one. A variation of this type of narrative has a giant as the rival suitor. This is the case in the story of Gram and Gro (1.13.10-17.20) and in the story of Hading and Regnild (1.29.31-30.6). In both cases the noble hero slays the giant and wins the woman for himself. In a similar tale the aging king Haldan the Third wins Thorhild after he has freed her from her suitor, the berserk Grimmi, who has demanded her in marriage under the threat of combat (VII. 186.33-187.17). This latter story recalls similar ones in Arthurian romances, where the woman is promised as a reward to the knight who can defeat her unwanted suitor and thus end the threats to her father's rule.

An additional example of these love triangles is Helgi, King of Norway, and the Danish princess Helga, who at the same time is loved by Angantir. Angantir challenges Helgi to a duel after the wedding, which Helgi wins through Starkather's support (VI.161.15-165.23).

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Successful Wooing by Means of Cunning and Disguise In at least seven stories in the first nine books of the Gesta Danorum, a bride is won by means of the suitors' cunning and disguise. One of the bestknown examples in which the wooer's disguise is essential for the success of the quest is Odin's courtship of Rind although the purpose of his wooing is not to marry Rind but rather to make her conceive a son, the avenger of Baldr (III.70.5-72.12). Odin uses four different attempts and disguises to achieve his goal: he pretends to be a soldier, a metal-worker under the name "Roftar", a skilled warrior, and a female physician by the name "Vecha". Odin's disguises deceive the king and the retainers at his court, but they fail to convince the woman. Therefore, he has to serve a sleeping potion to Rind and take her by force. This tale is obviously embedded in pagan mythology and is not a bridal-quest story per se. However, the narrative is of great importance because it seems to transmit a very old Scandinavian story in which the hero uses his cunning and various disguises to gain access to the woman he is courting. Further references to these events are found in the eddic poem "Hävamäl" (12th or 13th century?) and a tenthcentury skaldic poem by Kormakr (ca. 960?). 65 Oöinn's disguises are of the same kind as the ones that occur in the Continental bridal-quest tales and epics. In König Rother and "Attila and Erka" the wooer pretends to be a great warrior; in Der Münchner Oswald the wooer claims to be a metalworker, and in "Apollonius and Herborg" and Wolfdietrich Β, the wooers dress as women. A narrative that resembles the Continental bridal-quest stories even more closely is the story of Fridlef and Frogerth (VI. 147.3-150.9). This account begins with a council scene in which Fridlef is urged by his advisors to marry in order to continue his line (VI. 143.3). He sends out a group of emissaries to woo Frogerth, but they return without having accomplished their mission. Armundi, the girl's father, kills the second group of emissaries. In a third attempt, Fridlef sets out on a military campaign and kills Armundi in the ensuing battle. Some time later, Fridlef wins Frogerth as his wife; the details of this, however, are not given. In the story about Snio's courtship of the daughter of the King of Götaland, the wooing is motivated by the mutual love of the protagonists (VIII.235.15-236.12). Snio dispatches emissaries to arrange a secret meeting with the girl, but the girl's father kills them. Now Snio sets out himself

Compare Davidson, Saxo Grammaticus, p. 56 n. 38. The poem contains the line "Seiör Yggr til Rindar" which has been interpreted as "Yggr [Oöinn] worked magic on Rind".

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and kills the girl's father. In the meantime the woman has been married to the Swedish king. Snio sends a messenger disguised as a beggar to the Swedish court to bring a message to his loved one. In several secret encounters the girl and the messenger plan her escape. One day she pretends to go for a bath and is carried away by Snio on one of his ships. As a result of this scheme, several indecisive battles between Snio and the Swedish king follow. Several bridal-quest motifs found in German tales are present in this story, namely, the dispatching of messengers who are killed by the girl's father, a military campaign in order to achieve the goal, a messenger disguised as a beggar, and the elopement with the girl on a ship. In the story of Frotho the Third and Hanunda, the Hunnish princess, a love potion plays a significant role in the bride-winning endeavor (V.105.13-107.9). Frotho sends out messengers who threaten the woman's father with war if he should deny their request. The father is willing to concede to the wishes of his daughter because her initial dislike of Frotho has been replaced with love after she was secretly served a love potion. In this story it is once more remarkable that the messenger has to win the woman's favor, rather than the favor of the girl's father. The events that surround Erik the Eloquent's marriage with Gunvara, the sister of Frotho the Third (V.l 17.35-118.7), recall King Authari's visit to his fiancee Theudelinda in Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorian. In Saxo's account, Erik tricks Frotho into betrothing Gunvara to him during a feast. Upon request, Gunvara serves a drink to Erik, who seizes her hand: "Tum soror regis ingenti patera potionem proferre iussa. Cuius Ericus dexteram cum oblato simul cratere corripiens..."—Then the king's sister was told to serve a drink in a large bowl. Erik seized her right hand along with the proffered vessel (V.l 17.35-36). In the following exchange, Erik asks Frotho whether he would receive what he was holding as a permanent gift. Frotho, being unaware that he was also holding his sister's hand, granted that wish. Another story in the Gesta Danorum contains some parallels to the wooing of Hugdietrich in Wolfdietrich Β. In both narratives the hero wears women's clothes to gain access to the girl and after he has accomplished this, the woman gets pregnant. In Saxo's account (IX.256.8-257.2), Regener tries to win the father's favor by making gracious gifts to him and showing great generosity. The father sees through this ploy, however, and guards his daughter even more closely. Regener then disguises himself as a woman and in this way succeeds in entering the girl's chambers and her

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bed. Since the woman is of lower birth than Regener, the two do not get married, and their son Ubbi is raised at the court of the woman's father. 66 The latter tale is just one of many in which the hero dresses as a woman. This motif also occurs in Odin's wooing of Rind (III.70.5-72.12), as was noted earlier, and King Gram disguises himself in old rags to stop the wedding of Signe and Henry of Saxony (IV. 19.3-34). The only other early bridal-quest story in Scandinavian literature is Freyr's wooing of Gerör through his servant Skirnir, which is told in the eddic poem Skimisnu'd and in Snorri Sturluson's Edda. According to the poem, Freyr falls in love the first time he sees Gerör: "Par af fekk hann hugsottir miklar"—From that he received great sickness of heart (prose, line 3).67 However, Freyr is aware that his courtship for Gerör will be of no avail, because "Asa ok älfa / J)at vill engi maör / at vit sat[t] sem"—Not one of the vEesir or elves wants us to be together (st. 7.4-6). Now Skirnir promises his help and equips himself with the necessary devices: Freyr's special horse and sword. His journey ends before the guard dogs of Gymir, Gerör's father, and a shepherd warns him of the dangers involved in his mission (st. 12). Nevertheless, Skirnir enters the court and is discovered by Gerör's maid (st. 15). Gerör orders her to invite the guest in and offer him a drink. Once more, the impossibility of the mission is referred to, since Gerör assumes that he might be the killer of her brother (st. 16). In the following conversation, Skirnir does not reveal his identity to her and proposes on Freyr's behalf by offering gifts. First he offers the apples of immortality ("Epli ellilyfs" [st. 19.1]) and, after she has declined this gift, Baldr's magical ring, Draupnir (st. 21). Since Gerör also declines this second offer, Skirnir alters his strategy and proceeds to threaten her with his sword. Gerör remains calm and answers that her father would gladly fight a battle with him on her behalf (st. 23-24). After this threat has also failed, the messenger strikes her with a magic wand and unfolds an elaborate curse that is "directed against her sanity of mind, her body's growth, and all the social nurture that human life thrives on" (st. 2 6 36). Now Gerör gives up her resistance, welcomes the messenger, and offers him a drink to seal the engagement which, however, she does not anticipate with any feelings of love or warmth (st. 37). The meeting between Gerör and Freyr is scheduled to take place nine nights later and Ubbi's name is also found in the Lindisfarne Annals where he is said to be the son of Ragnar, and Dux of the Frisians. See Davidson, Saxo Grammaticus, p. 156, n. 38. 67

Quoted from Dronke, The Poetic Edda II, p. 376. In stanzas six and seven Freyr's love becomes visible once more in the way he describes Gerör to Skirnir.

68

Ibid., p. 392.

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Skirnir returns home (st. 37-39). Freyr receives the message but is distressed about the long wait (st. 40-42). It is notable how closely this poem, which relates in somewhat altered form the ancient Indo-European myth of the sacred marriage of Sky and Earth, resembles the plot and structure of Continental bridal-quest stories. 69 The beginning of the tale is familiar: Freyr falls in love with a beautiful woman who is almost impossible to obtain. Nevertheless, his messenger takes on the task to help his master and journeys to the girl's country. The special devices he requires to gain access to the girl resemble the disguises and tricks used by the wooers in the Continental stories. After Skirnir's arrival Gerör sends her maid to invite the guest in and to serve him a drink— an aspect that is already present in the early tale of "Clovis and Clotild". Skirnir then woos the girl in four steps; twice he offers precious gifts to the woman, then he threatens her with force, and finally he curses her and threatens her with spells. The girl accepts the proposal and the "wedding" or rather meeting of wooer and bride are arranged. However, the poem also contains some divergences from the kinds of bridal-quest story we have discussed so far. The quest is initiated by Freyr's love for the woman and not by his decision to marry or a council scene. Moreover, the girl's father does not play a role as the opponent of the quest, although he is briefly mentioned as the girl's representative should the courtship have to be decided by means of battle. In the poem, the emissary has to overcome the

Drawing on Siefken's types of bridal-quest narratives, Heinz Klingenberg also argued that the poem is narrated according to the bridal-quest scheme, being a representative of the type in which a proxy wooer is on a dangerous quest: "For Skirnis [...] ist das einzige Götterlied mit einer 'stellvertretenden' zugleich 'schwierigen Brautwerbung" ("För Skirnis: Brautwerbungsfahrt eines Werbungshelfers", Alvissmdl 6 [1996], 32). Interpretations of the poem's underlying meaning as representing a fertility myth or a hieros gamos are quite common. The setup is slightly different than in other Indo-European myths, however, where the Sky-God would get married to an earth-bride. Here the god Freyr woos a giantess from the sea. Traditionally, Oöinn is the husband of Jörö in Norse mythology. See Dronke, The Poetic Edda II, pp. 396-7. Lars Lönnroth and Stephen A. Mitchell propose a different interpretation. Based on sociological and structural approaches, respectively, they read the poem in terms of its cultural background, that is Old Norse marriage norms (Lönnroth) and the two social groups of gods and giants (Mitchell). Lars Lönnroth, "Skirnismäl och den isländska äktenskapsnormen", in Opuscula Septentrionalia: Festskrift til Ole Widding, 10.10.1977, ed. Bent Chr. Jacobsen et al. (Copenhagen: Reitzel, 1977), pp. 154-78; Stephen A. Mitchell, "För Skirnis as Mythological M o d e l f r i ö a kaupd', ANF 98 (1983), 108-22.

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woman's resistance and he succeeds through a combination of magic and threats. 70 Nonetheless, the parallels between Skirnismäl and the Continental and Scandinavian bridal-quest tales are remarkable. The most noticeable similarity lies in the first three steps through which Skirnir proceeds in his wooing. The same three-tiered pattern prevails in König Rother, "Osantrix and Oda", and other early German stories. In all of these, the messengers twice offer treasures before they threaten the father of the girl with war. The very same sequence of events occurs in the poem. However, Gerör's resistance is broken only after the messenger uses magic. The use of magic also occurs in several other bridal-quest tales, such as "Apollonius and Herborg", Salman und Morolf, and Saxo's narrative about Frotho the Third and Hanunda (Book III). In the latter stories, the girl either receives a magic ring or a love potion to overcome her resistance. A similar function can be ascribed to the love spell in the eddic poem, although the curses and threats are unquestionably peculiar to it. They are threats to the girl's sexuality, which brings the tale in the realm of the mythological fertility myth. 71 Since the dating of Skirnismäl is much debated among scholars, it is questionable whether it can be used to deduce information about the early Scandinavian bridal-quest pattern. The poem's subject matter represents an ancient myth and is undoubtedly very old. Even though the poem is only extant in the late thirteenth-century Codex Regius, it must at least antedate the beginning of this century, since Snorri uses it in his Edda. The dating problem is well illustrated by the fact that Ursula Dronke never actually mentions a proposed date for the poem in her chapter "The Dating of 'Skirnismäl'". 7 2 She states that the poem "must have been developed before the imaginative vitality of pagan traditions had died away in Norway and Iceland" and emphasizes that it could have been developed at that time without necessarily having been composed then. 73 She goes on to state: "Whether 'Skirnismäl' might have been composed in its extant form as late as the twelfth or thirteenth century is difficult to determine with solid evidence." 74 Gerör's resistance can be read as a more general social barrier between the giantess and the god, as suggested by Mitchell and Lönnroth. 71

See especially the articles by Mitchell ("For Skirnis as Mythological Model: frid a kaupcT) and Joseph Harris ("Cursing with the Thistle: 'Skirnismäl' 31, 6 - 8 , and OE Metrical Charm 9, 16-17", Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 76 (1975), 2 6 - 3 3 .

72

Dronke, The Poetic Edda II, pp. 4 0 0 - 2 .

73

Ibid., p. 402.

74

Ibid., p. 402.

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Heinz Klingenberg, on the other hand, proposes that the poem was composed around the year 1200. He bases this date on Frings's distinction of bridal-quest narrative, arguing that the type of bridal quest present in Skirnismcil must be seen in connection with the German minstrel epics and consequently the southern bridal-quest type ("Werbungsfabeln des Südens"), which did not spread on the Continent until the twelfth century and only slowly moved northwards to Scandinavia. 75 As this study has shown, however, Frings's distinction cannot be upheld. It is quite possible that bridal-quest stories in which the girl is wooed by a proxy wooer and won by means of disguise and cunning are very old and indigenous to Norse literary traditions as well. Marianne Kalinke even goes one step further: "There is no disputing the existence in Iceland of oral tales about bridal quests prior to the composition of romance—for instance Skirnismal and Snorri Sturluson's account of the myth." 76 Summary The late onset of literary transmission in Scandinavia makes it difficult, if not impossible, to draw conclusions about the exact shape and content of bridal-quest narratives and the possibility of influence from Continental literary traditions. The oldest written source we can consult is skaldic poetry and for this reason skaldic poems were used by medieval scholars, such as Snorri Sturluson, as evidence and support for the age and authenticity of their accounts. For the very same reason modern scholars regard Bragi's "Ragnarsdräpa" as the oldest extant piece of evidence for the Germanic bridal-quest tradition and the Hildesage. Unfortunately, however, Bragi's stanzas that are transmitted in Snorri's Edda do not mention a bridal quest or a bridal abduction. This information is supplied only by various thirteenth-century prose accounts and by a brief allusion in the skaldic poem "Hattalykill" from the twelfth century. With the exception of this single abbreviated reference to a bridal abduction and Bragi's description of the Hjadningavig, all Scandinavian sources that contain bridal-quest tales or allusions to them cannot be dated before approximately the year 1200 when Saxo Grammaticus wrote his Gesta Danorum. Snorri Sturluson wrote his Edda in the first third of the thirteenth century, while the Codex Regius was not compiled until around the year 1270. In the thirteenth century, the German bridal-quest epics were composed and circulated, and at

Klingenberg, "För Skirnis: Brautwerbungsfahrt eines Werbungshelfers", p. 40. Kalinke, Bridal-Quest Romance in Medieval Iceland, p. 64.

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least König Rother was already recorded in a manuscript. There can be no doubt, however, that the Scandinavian material goes back to much older oral sources. Support for this assumption comes from the two Eddas and Saxo Grammaticus's chronicle, which frequently relate different versions of the same mythological tales. The sources of these tales must be sought in oral tradition. It has been shown in this chapter that the extant literary sources do not support the hypothesis that a typical Germanic type of bridal quest existed, in which the bride is abducted by means of force. It has been argued that the poems and tales about Hildr and Heöinn cannot be regarded as abduction stories. The first nine books of Saxo's Gesta Danorum corroborate this, since they contain only two very brief examples of bridal abductions. On the contrary, Saxo's chronicle contains various bridal-quest stories in which the bride is won by means of cunning and frequently also by means of disguise. In many respects the investigation of the first nine books of the Gesta Danorum has yielded the same results as the examination of the early Germanic chronicles in the first chapter. In all the chronicles, unproblematic wooing attempts are never related as elaborate tales but only mentioned briefly. The same observation holds true for the few abduction stories found in these works. Other short narratives tell of successful quests in which the hero has to fulfill a certain condition before he can obtain his bride. In the Continental stories, the condition set for winning the bride was usually that the wooer had to convert to the Christian faith. In the three examples from Saxo, the acquisition of political power and authority are at issue instead. Another significant difference is that in the Danish chronicle the women stipulate the condition and not the father of the girl. As in the Continental chronicles, the majority of wooing stories in the Gesta Danorum relates the successful wooing of a bride by means of a trick. The ways in which the suitor achieves his goal are manifold. As in the Continental bridal-quest narratives the protagonist either woos the woman himself or sends a messenger. The wooing attempts can be repeated, gifts are offered to the father and the girl, and sometimes the wooing is accompanied by the threat of violence. Whereas in the Continental stories violence does not play a role during the wooing per se but only on occasion after the elopement of the couple, in Saxo's tales the use of force is more apparent already during the campaigns to win the bride. In the story of Fridlef s wooing of Frogerth (Book 6), the protagonist sets out to win the woman by force after two sets of messengers fail in their mission; the first one returns without result and the second is killed by the girl's father. In König Rother and some of the tales in Pidreks saga ("Attila and Erka") the protagonists

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also set out to win the bride by force after the first peaceful attempts have failed, but then they decide to leave their armies behind and instead accomplish their task through a trick. In the Gesta Danorum, violence plays a major role in the tales in which the protagonist has to kill a rival suitor in order to win the bride. The killing of the rival suitor often takes place at the wedding feast at which the protagonist appears in disguise. This type of wooing story is absent from the Continental chronicles. However, in most of the Scandinavian bridal-quest stories, just as in the Continental chronicles, the hero's cunning and slyness are the key to his success, as is apparent in Saxo's tales.

Conclusion The earliest examples of German and Scandinavian bridal-quest stories provide manifold evidence that this particular type of narrative was known in Franconia from the late sixth century on. The earliest written occurrence of a bridal-quest plot is the Attalus tale in Gregory of Tours's Historia Francorum (ca. 575-590). This story is rather unconventional, as it relates the escape of two men, but it is clearly composed according to the bridalquest scheme. The first full-fledged "traditional" bridal-quest story is King Clovis's wooing of Clotild, which is found in the two Franconian continuations of Gregory of Tours' chronicle, the Chronica Fredegarii (completed ca. 642) and the Liber historiae Francorum (727). Based on these tales and the additional evidence in some of the earliest German, Lombard, Norman, and Anglo-Saxon chronicles, there can be no more doubt that, at least after the late sixth century, wooing stories were told in Franconia according to a pattern that more than half a millennium later was employed to compose the well-known German bridal-quest epics. Already in these early bridalquest narratives the use of disguise and cunning is the central means to obtain the bride and therefore it can be established that this feature is inherent in the Germanic bridal-quest scheme. However, the Germanic narratives are just one group composed in this particular way, and they are representative of a larger universal literary pattern. As Frings, Braun, and other scholars have shown, during the Middle Ages bridal-quest narratives were especially popular in Serbo-Croatia, Russia, and the Orient. Franconia must be added to this list of regions, because the same type of story was popular in this area in the early Middle Ages. Direct literary influences from Slavic and Oriental sources can be excluded for these early Franconian tales, although we are certainly left with the possibility that some Oriental motifs entered into them via Byzantine and Roman stories. It seems, however, that the written Germanic bridal-quest tales developed out of an oral tradition that was rooted in Franconia, and for this tradition literary influences are doubtful. The remnants of this oral tradition are most evident in the two independent reworkings of the "Clovis and Clotild" tale in the Chronica Fredegarii and the Liber historiae Francorum. There exists, of course, the possibility of influence from classical sources on the earliest Germanic bridal-quest narratives. One can assume, however, that if such influences existed at all, they were minimal. Further-

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more, such influences would have occurred at a very early stage if they predated the earliest Franconian chronicle stories, which already contain all the elements and motifs that shape the medieval German bridal-quest epics and many of the shorter Scandinavian bridal-quest narratives. Common elements include the hero's decision to marry and the selection of a suitable bride (frequently in the form of a council scene); the journey to the girl's country; trickery and often disguise to gain access to the woman, secretly meet with her, betroth her to the hero, and elope with her; the ensuing conflict with the father of the bride; and the eventual return to the protagonist's country. It is beyond doubt that the bridal-quest pattern is indigenous to Germany and Scandinavia. Furthermore, the Germanic bridal-quest narratives are contemporary with the earliest extant written documents in Germany, and they are at least as old as the tradition of Germanic heroic poetry. Some of the bridal-quest tales in the Franconian chronicles even predate the earliest extant heroic poems. Although these stories do not stand alone as they are incorporated into larger compositions (the chronicles), we can nonetheless conclude that bridal-quest stories were told in early Franconia at the time and place that scholarly consensus posits for the composition of the legendary tales (or lays) about the protagonists in the Sigurör cycle. As was most likely also the case with the early heroic poems, the first attested bridal-quest stories were composed around historical events and characters, but the line that separates historical fact and fiction was easily crossed. The "Clovis and Clotild" tale illustrates this development very well. While Gregory of Tours gives a short and objective account of Clovis's marriage with Clotild, which may correspond quite closely to the actual historical events, his account was modified and expanded into a fullfledged bridal-quest tale only half a century later. In Fredegar's version and a few decades later also in the Liber version, the wooing is transformed into a quest narrative. Clovis's emissary disguises himself to meet secretly with Clotild, they develop a plan to obtain her uncle's consent, and her journey to Franconia suggests more an escape from an angry father (or rival suitor) than a peaceful journey to meet with her future husband. The two later accounts of the historical event are clearly influenced by oral tales about Clovis's marriage that must have circulated in Franconia in the seventh and eighth centuries, and in these tales the historical events are transformed into a bridal-quest narrative. Furthermore, Waltharius and the other versions of the Walter tale demonstrate that the heroic and bridal-quest traditions merged at an early time. In the several versions that relate Walter and Hiltgunt's elopement from Attila's court, protagonists otherwise known only from the tradition of heroic poetry are found in a story that clearly conforms to the bridal-quest

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pattern. The two protagonists in this bridal quest, Walter and Hiltgunt, appear in marginal roles in the later medieval heroic tradition, such as Das Nibelungenlied, Dietrichs Flucht, and Biterolf und Dietleib, but in these epics they are connected with the story told in the Walter tales and hardly ever transformed into typical "heroic" characters. Conversely, Hagen, Gunther, and Attila, who appear in the Walter tales, are known from the heroic tradition, and they are some of the central characters in the earliest extant heroic poems, such as Atlakvida and, of course, the Sigurör cycle. The characters Attila and Hagen also appear in later bridal-quest stories. Attila is actively involved in two of the bridal quests in Pidreks saga, once in the role of wooer ("Attila and Erka") and once in a similar role as in the Walter tales, namely, as the father who opposes a bridal quest ("Osantrix and Oda"). Although the role Hägen plays in Waltharius and especially his conflict of loyalty before the battle is undoubtedly one of the most "heroic" moments in the poem, he also appears in the role of the opposing father of the bride in many of the early bridal-quest stories. In the Scandinavian versions of the so-called Hildesage—Bragi's "Ragnarsdräpa", Snorri Sturluson's prose account of the events, the Icelandic "Sörla Jjättr", and the "Hilde and Hithinus" tale in Saxo Grammaticus's Gest a Danorum—Högni is, as Hildr's father, one of the opponents at the Hjadningavig. In the three eddic Helgi poems, Helgakvida Hundingsbana in fyrri (HHi), Helgak\>ida Hiörvardssonar (HHv.), and Helgakvida Hundingsbana önnur (HH?), which are, however, not told according to the bridal-quest pattern, he is the father of the valkyries Sigrün and Sväva, and he dies in battle against Helgi, the man his daughter has chosen as her husband. In the German epics Kudrun and Dukus Horant, the name of Hilde's father is also Hägen, and he is again the adversary in the quest for the hand of his daughter. The fact that Attila and Hagen/Högni are found in many of the earliest German and Scandinavian bridal-quest tales and that they are at the same time some of the central characters in the tradition of heroic poetry, illustrates that a close connection and overlap existed between the two types of narrative from the beginnings of the Germanic literary tradition. It furthermore indicates that these stories were composed in close geographical proximity to each other. The possible connection between heroic and bridal-quest tales is also attested in written sources from the British Isles. The names of the protagonists of the Hildr and Heöinn tale occur in the two Old English poems Widsid and Deor, which date to the seventh and eighth centuries, and, additionally, a version of the Walter tale is transmitted in the Anglo-Saxon Waldere fragment, which probably dates to the ninth or tenth century.

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All of these observations lead to the conclusion that the bridal-quest pattern in which disguise and cunning are the means to obtain a bride are indigenous to the Germanic world. The earliest bridal-quest tales most likely circulated orally, but at least since the late sixth century they found their way into writing. The earliest such stories occur in Gregory of Tours's Historic! Francorum. At least by the beginning of the eighth century these tales had spread throughout Franconia, since the story of "Clovis and Clotild" can be found as a full-fledged bridal-quest tale in two independent Franconian chronicles from Austrasia and Neustria. By the end of the eighth century a slightly altered version of a bridal-quest story is incorporated into Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum. In the ninth or tenth century, the story about Walter and Hiltgunt was composed according to the bridal-quest pattern and began to spread throughout western Europe. Versions of this tale are extant from Germany, Anglo-Saxon England, northern Italy, Poland, and Scandinavia, although the Old Norse version in Pidreks saga most likely goes back to a story from northern Germany. As shown in this study, the Walter tale has to be regarded not only as a bridalquest narrative, but also as an essential link between the earliest Franconian bridal-quest tales, the twelfth-century Middle High German bridal-quest epics, and the many bridal-quest narratives in Pidreks saga. The origin of the subject matter and the beginnings of the transmission of the Walter tale are still unknown, but in light of the present study it seems worthwhile to rethink and examine in more detail the influence that the Carolingian court may have had on the transmission of these early stories and hence also of the Walter tale, since we can assume that bridal-quest tales were known at the Carolingian court. At least the Chronica Fredegarii circulated under Carolingian rule and two of its three continuations were commissioned by members of the Carolingian dynasty—the second continuation by duke Childebrand, the half-brother of Karl Martell, and the third (up to 768) by Childebrand's son Nibelung. We furthermore know that Paul the Deacon, the author of another early bridal-quest story ("Authari and Theudelinda"), spent several years of his life at Charlemagne's court. In recent scholarship it is frequently suggested that the composition of Waltharhts may be connected with the Carolingian court and the literary production during the so-called Carolingian renaissance. 1 In this context it See for example Peter Dronke, "The date and provenance of 'Waltharius'", in Barbara et antiquissima carmina, ed. Peter and Ursula Dronke (Barcelona: Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, 1977), pp. 6 6 - 7 7 ; Alf Önnerfors, Die Verfasserschaft des Waltharias-Epos aus sprachlicher Sicht, Rheinland-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Vorträge G 236 (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1979); Dieter Schaller, "Ist der 'Waltharius' frühkarolingisch?", MlatJb 18 (1983),

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is also important that the version of the Walter tale in the eleventh-century Chronicon Novaliciense reached northern Italy most likely on Carolingian initiative, since the monastery was founded by the Carolingians. If the assumption that the Carolingian court was a center for the transmission of bridal-quest narratives is valid, we can also find a possible explanation for the connection between these stories and some of the characters otherwise known only from heroic poetry. From Einhard's Vita Caroli Magni, we know about Charlemagne's interest in collecting "barbara et antiquissima carmina". 2 At his court, which was the most important scholarly center of that time and at which "ancient songs of the kings of the past were collected", the early Franconian bridal-quest stories could have merged with the heroic material. 3 Whatever the case may be, Franconia was undoubtedly the cradle of the literary production in Germany, since the oldest extant heroic poems, such as Atlakviöa and Hamdismäl, but also the subject matter of the Sigurör cycle, most likely go back to Franconian sources. More light needs to be shed on the early days of literary production in Germany. Nonetheless, our examination of the earliest forms of Germanic narrative has revealed the existence of a large body of bridal-quest narrative that should henceforth take an important place in the corpus of Germanic and early medieval literature. These narratives occur as independent tales, but they are frequently linked to the characters and motifs known from the earliest heroic poems. Theodor Frings's division of medieval bridal-quest narrative into two types—a Mediterranean and a Germanic type—cannot be upheld. The use of disguise and cunning as the means to win a bride in the twelfth-century German epics cannot be explained as a twelfth-century Mediterranean influence that altered ancient Germanic lays in which the bride was forcefully abducted. First of all, the features deemed "Mediterranean" by Frings already occur in the oldest Franconian sources and are indigenous to Germanic bridal-quest narrative, and, secondly, there is no compelling evidence that would allow one to assume the existence of heroic lays centering on the forceful abduction of a bride. On the contrary, the examination of the several versions of the tale about Hildr and Heöinn, which are traditionally

6 3 - 8 3 ; and Ward, pp. 66-111. Of great interest in this context is also Mary Garrison's article "The Emergence of Carolingian Latin Literature and the Court of Charlemagne (780-814)", in Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation, ed. Rosamond McKitterick (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1994), pp. 11 l^tO. Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni, ch. 29. Garrison, p. 136.

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mentioned as evidence for the allegedly older "Germanic" bridal-quest type, does not allow the conclusion that Hildr was abducted against her will. In these stories, the circumstances of the couple's escape from Hagen/Högni's court are not given, and most versions of the story explicitly mention that Hildr/Hilde elopes voluntarily with her suitor. Only in the two German versions, Kudrun and Dukus Horant, is the wooing proper told in greater detail, but in these versions it is accomplished by means of a ruse. None of the remaining early Scandinavian tales contains any indication that earlier Germanic lays were abduction stories. In the eddic poem Skirnismal we find an emissary who woos the bride by means of stratagem and magic. Additional support for the occurrence of ruses in Scandinavian bridal-quest stories is supplied by Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Dcmornm. In this work, abduction tales are scarce, and whenever they occur, the accounts are not full-fledged narratives but rather short, one- or two-sentence reports of the events. The same observation applies with respect to the Continental chronicles, where references to bridal abductions are the exception and the abduction is never developed into a narrative proper. Since Frings's hypothesis about the corpus of medieval German and Scandinavian bridal-quest narrative cannot be sustained, alternative ways to read and understand these early stories must be sought. Based on Frings's work, scholars have used other features to differentiate between the Scandinavian and German corpus. One such trait has been the role played by the hero, who in some narratives sets out on the quest himself, whereas in others he dispatches one or more messengers to woo the girl on his behalf. In accordance with Frings's hypothesis, Hertha Marquardt argued that the former occurs only in the "Germanic heroic" bridal quests and hence in Scandinavian stories, whereas in the later German epics a proxy wooer has been introduced as a borrowing from Mediterranean sources. 4 Marquardt based her argument on the story of Hildr and Heöinn because here the hero himself obtains the woman by means of force. As the present study has shown, however, such a distinction cannot be supported by textual evidence. Stories in which the protagonist woos the woman in person occur throughout the centuries. Heöinn is one of these heroes, but in the eighthcentury Historia Langobardorum Authari also sets out to meet with his bride. Additionally, Samson in Pidreks saga, Orendel, Ortnit, Walter, Hugdietrich in Wolfdietrich Β, and Fore and Princian in Salman und Morolf leave for the woman's court without having sent a messenger beforehand. In each of these stories the protagonist uses a trick to win the bride, and in some also a disguise. In the remaining early bridal-quest stories one or Marquardt, p. 8.

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more emissaries woo on behalf of the protagonist, and in some of them, such as "Attila and Erka", Skirnismc'il, "Clovis and Clotild", and the Attalus tale, the emissaries are successful and win the bride for their lords. Frequently, however, they do not accomplish their task, and the hero himself has to set out to obtain the woman, for instance Rother, Osantrix, and Oswald. Examples of both types of wooing are found throughout the literary corpus, and it cannot be established which of the variations is more ancient. Most importantly, proxy wooers are already present in the oldest extant Germanic stories, such as the tales about Authari's and Clovis's marriages. Marquardt's thesis that in the Germanic lays the bride was won by the wooer himself, and that this wooing was a bridal abduction, which accords with Frings's thesis, is quite clearly the result of a merging of information in literature and history. In Germanic times the abduction of the bride was unquestionably the most common means to obtain a bride. The same holds true for the time period from which our earliest written sources date. As Theodor Nolte states, "in der Zeit der Volksrechte (5. bis 9. Jh.) blieb die Raubehe in der Praxis etwas Selbstverständliches." 5 The examination of the wooing stories in the chronicles attests to this marriage practice, because abductions are mentioned in them, but as stated above, bridal abductions were not material that was expanded into longer narratives. It is a questionable undertaking to project our knowledge of historical marriage practices onto patterns of early bridal-quest narrative, which center around the means the suitor uses to win his bride, either with or without her father's approval. In the "Clovis and Clotild" tale, Clotild's uncle gives his consent to the marriage after the wooer has devised a ruse to win the girl's favor. In this story the terms are negotiated, as was the practice in Germanic "Muntehen". In the majority of the later bridal-quest stories, however, the woman is obtained without prior negotiations and without the consent of her kin, but frequently the marriage is legitimized in a later confrontation and settlement between the two men. 6 In general, however, we have to regard bri-

5

Nolte, p. 15. See also S. Rietschel, "Raubehe", in Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, ed. Johannes Hoops, vol. 3 (Straßburg: Trübner, 1915/16), 4 6 0 - 2 ; Rudolf Köstler, "Raub-, Kauf- und Friedelehe bei den Germanen", Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte, germ. Abt. 63 (1943), 92-136; and Herbert Meyer, "Ehe und Eheauffassung der Germanen", in Festschrift Ernst Heymann, mit Unterstützung der Rechts-und Staatswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin und der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften zum 70. Geburtstag am 6. April 1940 (Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1940), pp. 1 - 5 1 .

6

Paul Mikat points out that in a case where the family of the abducted w o m a n later gave their approval to the match, which most often happened after the abductor

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dal-quest stories as fiction and not as sources of Germanic marriage procedures. Therefore, the various approaches to win a bride, either by the suitor himself or by a proxy wooer, do not allow any conclusions about the age and the derivation of a story. In the chronicles both possible wooing strategies appear side by side and the same also holds true for the bridal-quest corpus in general. Only some of the stories in Saxo's Gesta Danorum contain a detail that seems to be native to the Scandinavian tradition. In these tales the success of the marriage proposal depends on the woman's and not the father's consent. A similar situation prevails in many of the Icelandic family sagas, where the woman is frequently asked for her approval. This detail is absent from medieval German and French literature and also from the Continental bridal-quest tales. As a consequence of the more prominent position of the girl, the suitor in Saxo's stories focuses in his wooing efforts much more on the woman than on her father. In Odin's quest for Rind (III.70.5-72.12), for example, Rind's father gives his consent to the union, but since the girl disapproves of it, Odin has to use many more tricks and eventually magic to break her will. A similar situation prevails in the story of Frotho the Third and Hanunda (V.105.13-107.9), and also in the eddic poem "Skirnismäl". In all of these examples, the wooer deals directly with the woman and has to use a ruse and most often also magic to succeed in his quest. Although the woman's consent is the key to the success of the wooing in the above Scandinavian stories, the women themselves remain very passive during the wooing, and they are eventually conquered by means of magic. In other Scandinavian stories the women play more active roles. In the oldest versions of the Hildr and Heöinn tale, Hildr is the central character in the scenes that precede the battle. She entices her father and Heöinn to fight against each other and she calls up the Hjadningavig. The Helgi poems center on women who take even greater active part. The valkyries initiate the events and their actions motivate the plot. They choose a warrior and future husband for themselves, whom they entice to fight on their behalf against the unwanted suitor. Thus, the women in the earliest Scandinavian stories are not reduced to objects that are abducted by the male heroes, as was traditionally assumed to be the case in Germanic bridal-quest tales. Rather, the women manipulate the events and are difficult to obtain. In the German bridal-quest narratives too, women frequently play central roles and are of utmost importance for the success of the quest. Espe-

had compensated them and paid a fine, the marriage could be legitimized and remain intact ("Ehe", in Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte, ed. Adalbert Erler and Ekkehard Kaufmann, vol. 1 (Berlin: Schmidt, 1971), 809-33.

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daily in the oldest tales they are also actively involved in their wooing. For example, in Fredegar's version of the "Clovis and Clotild" tale, it is Clotild who tells Aurelian how to proceed to receive her uncle's permission to the proposed marriage. During her journey to meet with Clovis in the Liber version, Clotild changes from traveling in a chariot to riding a horse to escape from her pursuers, and she burns and plunders Burgundian cities on the way. Hiltgunt's support in Waltharius is also essential for the successful elopement. She steals Attila's treasure and the necessary equipment for their journey. Furthermore, in some of the versions of the Walter tale it is Hiltgunt and not Walter who serves the wine to Attila and his retinue, and only through this trick does the escape become possible. Other active women can be found in Pidreks saga. In "Herburt and Hildr", Hildr drinks with her father to win Herburt as her steward and to be able to meet with him and develop a plan for their escape. Additionally, Herborg in "Apollonius and Herborg" writes and exchanges love letters and arranges the secret meeting with Apollonius. In the German epics and the remaining stories in Pidreks saga, the wooer lays the foundation for the success of his quest by arousing the woman's curiosity. This feature is already present in Authari's wooing of Theudelinda, where the woman is impressed by the hero's appearance and his performance at her father's court and wants to find out more about him. In this story, however, her curiosity remains a blind motif, since the two are already engaged, but in the later narratives the woman's curiosity makes all of the secret meetings between wooer and bride possible and thus sets the stage for the later elopement. In König Rother, the woman convinces her father to arrange a feast so that she can have a first look at the famous guest. Since she does not actually succeed in seeing Rother at the feast, however, she arranges for a secret meeting with him in her quarters. In Kudrun, Hilde also invites the proxy wooer into her room after she has heard him sing beautiful songs, and the same situation occurs in Dukus Horant. In "Herbert and Hildr", the wooer's mechanical mice excite the girl's curiosity and make their first secret meeting possible. In the remaining German epics the suitor does not meet with the girl in secret before their elopement, but the women are very active. In Orendel, Bride takes the necessary steps to arrange the wedding, and she fights battles at the side of her husband. In Der Münchner Oswald, Pamige develops the plan for her elopement and leaves the castle without Oswald's help. Considering the importance that the women play in these quests, it is even more improbable that at one time Germanic lays told abduction stories in which the women were reduced to mere objects. Especially in the older bridal-quest stories

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the contrary was true, because here the women are very active and often the instigators of the events. Marquardt suggested yet another way to distinguish between the allegedly more ancient Scandinavian and the more recent German bridal-quest stories. She argued that, whereas in the German stories the opponent of the quest is the girl's father and the elopement is carried out by means of cunning, in the Scandinavia stories the quest is accomplished in an open confrontation with a rival suitor.7 Marquardt arrived at this conclusion mainly because the eddic Helgi poems contain a rival suitor and also because Saxo tells several stories in which a rival has to be overcome. However, as mentioned several times already, the Helgi lays are not bridal-quest narratives in the strictest sense of the term, because the male protagonist never sets out on a quest to win a bride for himself. It is moreover remarkable that in most of the tales in Saxo in which a rival suitor is present, the latter is a supernatural being, such as a giant or a berserk, and hence these tales are clearly influenced by mythology and folklore. More importantly, however, some of the German stories also contain the motif of the rival suitor. This is the case in "Attila and Erka" and in the second part of Kudrim, although both of these could be influenced by Scandinavian sources. The former is found in a Norwegian redaction, and the subject matter of Kudrim is undoubtedly in some way related to the Hildesage, but because the Scandinavian tales about Hildr and Heöinn do not contain a rival suitor, Marquardt's entire distinction rests on very weak foundations. 8 Additionally one may ask whether Aridius in the Chronica Fredegarii version of the "Clovis and Clotild" tale, should not be regarded as a rival suitor as well. In this story, Aridius's return to Gundobad's court is regarded as the greatest threat to the success of Aurelian's wooing on Clovis's behalf. Why exactly this is the case remains unclear, but it seems quite possible that Aridius wanted to marry Clotild himself. This reading is supported by the fact that he pursues her as soon as he finds out about her engagement, and Clotild, who is aware of the danger and his approach, rides away as fast as possible to escape from him. In the German Kudrim, epic the role of the rival suitor is maximally expanded. In the epic's second part, three different men woo Kudrun in various ways. She is abducted by Hartmut, one of her suitors, and the bridal quest is accomplished and concluded only after her fiance Herwig has

Marquardt, pp. 12-3. Marquardt's argument that a rival suitor existed at some point but had been lost during the transmission of the tale (p. 13) is pure speculation and not at all supported by the extant versions.

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overcome her abductor and his rival suitor. The situation in the epic is undoubtedly comparable to some of Saxo's stories, and the similarities to the Snio tale are particularly apparent (VIII, 235.15-236.12). However, it is a peculiarity of the German epic that the heroine must languish in captivity for such a long time before she is finally released. The women in Saxo's stories are usually freed from their unwanted suitors shortly after their abductions or involuntary engagements, most frequently during the wedding ceremony. We find additional Continental parallels for rival suitors in bridal-quest stories. Salman und Morolf may well be regarded as a narrative about Salman's attempt to kill his rival suitors Fore and Princian and win his wife back. Furthermore, the "Herburt and Hildr" tale in Pidreks saga plays with this motif as it relates how I>iörekr's emissary turns into a rival suitor who eventually wins the bride for himself. The discussion of the motifs that have been suggested by Frings and other scholars to differentiate between the German and Scandinavian bridal-quest narratives, lets us conclude that the evidence supplied by the texts does not allow for such distinctions. It is furthermore inaccurate to conclude that the Scandinavian bridal-quest stories reflect an older stage of the literary tradition since they more closely reflect the heroic ethos. As discussed in chapter five, the literary transmission begins so late in Scandinavia that it is almost impossible to determine the age and origin of these stories with certainty and to distinguish to what degree earlier Continental sources influenced them. The narratives most closely connected with the heroic Germanic literary tradition are the narratives found in the Franconian chronicles and, most importantly, the Walter tales. The use of disguise and cunning as the means to win a bride in bridal-quest narrative is indigenous to northwestern Europe, and it is not possible to isolate older stories in which the bride was won by force. Rather, force and ruses frequently go hand in hand in the narratives, and often magical devices are added as well. In the Walter tales, for example, Walter distinguishes himself at Attila's court through his military accomplishment so that he gains easy access to Hiltgunt. He then uses a trick to escape from the court. To accomplish the elopement, however, he has to use his military strength and strategies once more when he defeats the pursuing army (or the approaching troops respectively). The very same situation occurs in König Rother, Ortnit, Der Münchner Oswald, "Attila and Erka", "Herburt and Hildr", and Salman und Morolf. In these narratives the hero also wins the woman and elopes with her through a combination of his military strength and various ruses. The main variation among all these stories occurs in the manner in which the suitor applies these two strategies and what kind of a trick he uses to accomplish his task.

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It is furthermore impossible to divide the corpus of early bridal-quest narrative on the basis of the characters and their roles in the stories. Although rival suitors seem to occur more frequently in the Scandinavian tales, they are by no means a typical Scandinavian phenomenon. Indeed, the oldest extant tale (the Hildr and Heöinn story) does not contain this motif. Rather, it seems as if the triangle situation is a later development, which—accidentally or not—has features in common with romance literature and also with later medieval Icelandic bridal-quest romances. Last but not least, we have seen that the bridal quest can be carried out by the wooer himself, by a proxy wooer, or by a combination of both. Although in all these tales the opposing character is the girl's father or a close relative, the women play significant roles. In both the Continental and the Scandinavian tales the wooer has to win the support of the woman before he can continue to contrive the plan for their elopement. Especially in the earliest stories, the women are actively involved in the implementation of this plan and hence in the success of the entire quest. Since it has been demonstrated that it is not possible to distinguish between ancient heroic lays of bridal abductions and later bridal-quest stories in which the bride is obtained by means of cunning and disguise, Frings's hypotheses about the origin of the German minstrel epics and hence the beginning of epic literature in Germany cannot be upheld. The early German epics are not expanded heroic lays that were altered through the influence of Mediterranean notions of love and cunning. This theory about the origin of the German Spielmannsepen is the basis of Heusler's "Heldensagenmodell" and the belief that in the twelfth century minstrels expanded earlier heroic lays into longer epics. Similarly, Frings and scholars before him argued that minstrels were responsible for the creation of the German bridal-quest epics, and they categorized these early works as Spielmannsepen. The origin of the romantic concept of the minstrel who traveled around singing and reciting goes back to a lecture Jacob Grimm held in 1811 that was based on Johann Gottfried Herder's distinction between Naturpoesie and Kunstpoesie.9 Grimm assigned the early German epics, König Rother, Salman und Morolf, Orendel, Der Münchner Oswald, and Herzog Ernst to the category of Naturpoesie. He considered them to be the product of folk traditions and not artful creations by gifted poets. Only a few years after Grimm's lecture, scholars argued that minstrels transmitted these stories which ultimately derived from oral tradition. After the publication of the

Jacob Grimm, "Vorrede", in: Jakob Grimm, Ueber den altdeutschen sang (Göttingen: Dieterich, 1811), rpt. in Schröder, ed., Spielmannsepik,

Meistergepp. 1-7.

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first studies on the style, form, and content of the bridal-quest epics, scholars sought to find an explanation for their less sophisticated form, and come to regard the bridal-quest epics as the work of untalented minstrels who deliberately transformed the old Dichtung into texts that served purely as entertainment for the lower classes. 10 Additional support for this hypothesis came from the fact that in some of these German epics minstrels appear in central roles (in König Rother, for example, a sly minstrel abducts Rother's bride and returns her to her father), and also because they contain references to the craftiness of minstrels and the class of traveling entertainers. As this study has shown, however, an oral bridal-quest tradition existed in Franconia many centuries before the German epics were composed. Some of the parallels between these epics and earlier tales were discussed in chapter four, but especially the more detailed examination of the scenes relating the pursuit and battle in Ort nit revealed that the German epics must be read as a continuation of the Franconian tradition. For this reason it is not feasible to claim that minstrels were solely responsible for the composition and transmission of these epics in the twelfth century. There is no evidence to the effect that minstrels indeed composed literature in early medieval Germany. All we know with certainty is that they were entertainers, musicians, and actors. It is also likely that they recited poetry and tales and maybe even epics, but they are not necessarily the authors of these literary works. To claim that the Germanic epics are expansions of heroic lays presupposes that they are the products of an exclusively written tradition. This claim, however, cannot be upheld since we have to include the Franconian bridal-quest tradition, which was to a large extent based on oral transmission. The theories about the origin of the German epics that Frings and his contemporaries proposed are based on the belief that the use of guile and trickery, which is a central feature in these works, is "ungermanisch". This claim is derived from an understanding of "Germanic" found in much of scholarly writing in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century and is illustrated well by the following statement by Frings: Ketten, Motive und Formeln des Listschemas erreichen den Norden erst in der Zeit der deutschen Spielmannsdichtung, sie sind literarische Einfuhr, Zierstü-

Friedrich Vogt, Leben und Dichten der deutschen Spielleute im Mittelalter. Vortrag, gehalten im wissenschaftlichen Verein zu Greifswald am 29. November 1875 (Halle: Niemeyer, 1876), rpt. in Schröder, ed., Spielmannsepik, pp. 18—48. Paul Piper, "Allgemeines über die Spielmannsdichtung", in: Piper, Die Spielmannsdichtung. Erster Teil: Die reine Spielmannsdichtung (Berlin und Stuttgart: Verlag von W. Spemann, 1887), pp. 3-31, rpt. in Schröder, ed., Spielmannsepik, pp. 49-71.

Conclusion

217

eke der romantischen Saga...Auch die Briinhild der Spielmannsdichtung, vor der dem Mann die Kraft schwindet und die erst vom Helfer bezwungen wird, gehört in diese Reihe; es sind ungermanische Szenen, an denen sich der Sinn eines pöbelhaften Spielmannes entzündet hat."

This concept of Germanic stands in the Wagnerian tradition and in the tradition of a cultural "Germanism" that began in the late nineteenth century and reached its peak during the Nazi era. The Germanic ideal is deduced from the ethos underlying Germanic heroic poetry such as the Nibelungenlied and the heroic eddic poems of the Sigurör cycle. It is defined by the concepts of honor, duty, courage, kinship, and revenge, which are defended and upheld by strong and brave warrior-heroes. Love, sentiment, disguise, trickery and the use of guile do not fit into this ethos or image. Their appearance in the Germanic literary tradition had to be explained by means of other, non-Germanic sources, as Frings states with respect to the bridal quest: "an der Stelle, wo die Liebe wächst, zeigen sich sogleich die Bindungen an den Süden." 12 The examination of the early bridal-quest tales has shown, however, that disguises and ruses are present in these stories as early as the late sixth century and are found in indigenous Germanic bridalquest narratives that circulated in oral and written form at the same time as the first heroic poems. The possibility of an earlier oral transmission of the subject matter that found its way into the extant literary texts, however, is absent from Heusler's and Fringe's theories about the beginnings of the epic tradition in Germany. One of the few attempts to challenge Heusler's theory is Hans Kuhn's article "Heldensage vor und außerhalb der Dichtung" (1952), in which he claimed that an oral tradition of heroic poetry existed, both preceding and parallel to the written tradition. 13 In 1975 Walter Haug proposed a "Gegenentwurf' to Heusler's model in which he rejected the "Geschlossenheit des literarischen Typus". 14 Unlike Heusler, Haug sees the long heroic epics as products of a critical reflection on a specific "heroisches-historisches Bewußtsein". 15 Kuhn's and Haug's articles are important in that they allow for oral influence on the literary corpus and acknowledge a diverse non-linear oral and written transmission of literary

Frings, "Die Enstehung", p. 315. 12

Ibid., p. 314.

13

Hans Kuhn, "Heldensage vor und außerhalb der Dichtung", in Edda, Skalden, Saga. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Felix Genzmer, ed. Hermann Schneider (Heidelberg: Winter, 1952), pp. 262^78.

14

Walter Haug, "Andreas Heuslers Heldensagenmodell".

15

Ibid., p. 292.

Conclusion

218

works, stories, and tales. 16 As a result of this diverse transmission, the role usually assigned to the minstrels in the transmission process must be reduced as well. In his book Spielregeln für den Untergang that once more deals with the question of the transmission of the Nibelungenlied, Jan-Dirk Müller summarizes the ongoing scholarly debate about the transmission of that epic and recommends disposing of Heusler's model. 17 He refers to Heusler's theory as "das ursprungsmythische Modell", since the search for the Urtext and the assumption that this text is not only the oldest but at the same time also the most valuable and best work in an ongoing tradition, obstructs detailed and objective studies and the appreciation of the extant versions as literary products. 18 The very same conclusions can be drawn with regard to the German bridal-quest epics. First steps towards a reevaluation have been taken by Schmid-Cadalbert, who bases his interpretation of Ortnit on an approach similar to that which Müller used in his study of the Nibelungenlied. Both scholars focus on specific motifs and structural features that distinguish the extant works of a specific literary tradition or subject matter from each other. Schmid-Cadalbert looked at Ortnit in the context of the remaining German bridal-quest epics and based his interpretation of the epic on the parts that differ from the medieval bridal-quest scheme. In this way he attempted to read the peculiarities that occur in Ortnit as deliberate authorial interventions and creations that can serve as the basis for its interpretation. Such an approach is without a doubt a step in the right direction toward an appreciation and understanding of the bridal-quest epics as individual literary works. The main shortcoming of SchmidCadalbert's interpretation is his exclusion of the earlier bridal-quest tales from the discussion and the fact that he compares Ortnit only to the remaining German epics. As the discussion in chapter four has shown, however, this limited view leads to wrong conclusions, since at least the pursuit and battle in the epic are composed in the same way as in earlier Franconian tales. Therefore the respective scenes in Ortnit do not violate the bridalquest scheme, but rather place the epic in closer proximity to the Franconian tradition.

Hermann Reichert reaches a similar conclusion in his study of the transmission of the Brynhild material ("Die Brynhild-Lieder der 'Edda' im europäischen Kontext", in Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle Ages, The Seventh International Saga Conference 1988 [Spoleto: Presso la sede del Centra studi 1990], pp. 572-96). 17

Jan-Dirk Müller, Spielregeln für den Untergang. Die Welt des (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1998).

18

Ibid., p. 21.

Nibelungenlieds

Conclusion

219

Most significant is Schmid-Cadalbert's discussion of the question whether the German epics were written or oral compositions. His conclusion that "die mittelhochdeutsche Brautwerbungsdichtung [ist] als Teil einer jungen vulgärsprachlichen Literatur zu verstehen, die sich aus der oralen Erzähltradition entwickelt hat" is of great importance for the understanding of the German epics and the bridal-quest tradition in general. 19 The German bridal-quest epics must be understood as part of a mainly oral and partly written bridal-quest tradition that is documented in Franconia from as early as the late sixth century. It is quite possible that, in connection with the crusades and with the growing interest in the Orient, this narrative pattern was revived in the twelfth century to relate the adventures of a hero abroad. The advantage of the bridal-quest scheme is that, as part of the pattern, a male protagonist travels to a foreign country to win a bride. In the German epics the hero always travels to the Near East, either to Constantinople, Jerusalem, or to a fictitious place in the Orient. The fact that bridal-quest stories are native to Franconia can possibly also explain why bridal-quest epics were so popular in twelfth-century Germany, whereas they are absent from contemporary literary traditions in neighboring areas. In France, for example, the crusades entered into the literary tradition in the form of chansons de geste, but bridal-quest epics in which the protagonist wins for himself a heathen or Christian bride in the Near East do not occur. German(ic) fiction—in the form of bridal-quest narrative—has its roots in sixth-century chronicle writing. The latter provided the patterns that were to bloom in twelfth-century pre-courtly German epic and that are also evident in northern Germanic, that is, Scandinavian narrative. Whereas the majority of the protagonists in these medieval stories sought their brides in foreign countries—often beyond the wild sea—medieval bridal-quest narrative originates much closer to home in an indigenous literary tradition in the Franconian realm that is attested in writing as early as the sixth century.

Schmid-Cadalbert, p. 231.

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Abbreviations Α NF

Arkiv för

ATB DHB DVjs

Altdeutsche Textbibliothek Deutsches Heldenbuch Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift Monumenta Germaniae Historica Auetores antiquissimi Poetarum Latinorum Medii Aevi Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Literatur und Sprache, begründet von Hermann Paul und Wilhelm Braune Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur

GRM MGH Auct. ant. Poet. Lat. Scrip, rer. Germ. Scrip, rer. Lang. Scrip, rer. Merov. MlatJb PBB

ZD Α

nordiskfilologi

ZDG

Zeitschrift für deutsche

Geisteswissenschaft

ZDP

Zeitschrift für deutsche

Philologie

ZfslPh

Zeitschrift für slavische

Philologie