[gothic-l] Re: Danparstadir - Reidgotaland

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Hi Dirk!
Thank you for refreshing my memory. I now recall reading
something about it a while ago. Interestingly, the same
story is also related as an Icelandic poem. I wonder how
many centuries these two stories lived a separate existence.
What I find curious, is that the names have been so well preserved,
in that the names in the Icelandic poem are almost exactly the same
as in the German poem. This might then indicate that names
can be transmitted over very many generations without much
distortion in oral tradition.

They also had pictures. Or rather series of pictures,
sometimes carved, other times painted. Sometimes on
shields, other times on woven rugs, sometimes on doorposts
or walls. Sometimes they also had poems that "explained"
such pictures. I suppose such images might help to keep
the poems from changing. They would, metaphorically
"nail the poems to the wall".

Have you heard the music composed by Ravel, called "Pictures
at an exhibition"? In it he varies the musical theme, so
that each theme describes a different picture at the
exhibition. Maybe the old shield poems were a little bit
like that.

Chears,
Keth


>>
>> I am not all that familiar with the Hildebrandslied.
>> Was that the song about "Hadubrand u. Hildibrand"?
>> Isn't that only a fragment? How do you know it is distorted?
>>
>
>Hi Keths,
>
>yes, the Hildebrandlied is the oldest Germanic heroic poetry that
>survived. It is only a fragment in that the end is missing in the
>earliest manuscript. But it survived completely in other later
>manuscripts that were written in the following centuries so that we
>know the outcome (although some version report a completely different
>outcome!).
>
>It reports about a warrior who fought with Theoderic against Odoacer.
>Interestinly the Hildebrandlied tells that Odoacer was victorious and
>that Theoderic had to flee to the East and spend many (30?) years
>there. The Hildebrandlied also brings in the Huns and reports that
>Hildebrand had once received a golden bracelet from the king of the
>Huns. If this was supposed to be Attila or one of his sons we have
>another impossibility, because that would have made Hildebrand far too
>old.
>
>The Hildebrandlied starts with "Ik gihorta dat seggen ...", i.e. "I
>heard them say...", which makes it clear that the story was passed on
>(and distorted) from mouht to mouth.
>
>The same is true for the Nibelungenlied. It also start by reporting
>that "Uns ist in alten maeren wunders vil geseit ....", i.e. "
>wonderous things have been told in old tales...".
>
>Especially the Nibelungenlied incorporates historical characters of
> several centuries, e.g. Gunther/Gundahar (Burgundian king at Worms in
>the 5th century), Brunhilde (Visigothic/Frankish princess in the 6th
>century), Gero (Saxon Markgraf in the 9th century or so), Eckehard
>(Saxon Markgraf in the 10th century or so) and Siegfried is even
>thought to incorporate some memory of Arminius of the 1st century
>(although this is rather doubtful).
>
>
>cheers,
>
>Dirk
>
>
>
>
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