Waltharius
Encyclopedia
Waltharius, a Latin poem founded on German
popular tradition, relates the exploits of the west Gothic
hero Walter of Aquitaine
.
, a monk of St. Gall
, is due to a later Ekkehard, known as Ekkehard IV
(d. 1060), who gives some account of him in the Casus Sancti Galli (cap. 80). If Ekkehart IV's account, much discussed among scholars, is true, which seems to be confirmed by another monk of St. Gall, Herimannus, the author of the later (ca 1075) life of St Wiborada of St Gall
where he cites verse 51 of the Waltharius, the poem was written by Ekkehard, generally distinguished as Ekkehard I, for his master Geraldus in his schooldays, probably therefore not later than 920, since he was probably no longer young when he became deacon (in charge of ten monks) in 957. He died in 973.
Waltharius was dedicated by Geraldus to Erchanbald, bishop of Strasbourg (fl.
965-991), but manuscripts of it were in circulation before that time. Ekkehard IV stated that he corrected the Latin of the poem, the Germanisms of which offended his patron Aribo, archbishop of Mainz
. The poem was probably based on epic songs now lost, so that if the author was still in his teens when he wrote it he must have possessed considerable and precocious powers.
, which in the 5th century, when the legend developed, was the centre of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse. When Attila invaded the west, the western princes are represented as making no resistance. They purchased peace by offering tribute and hostages. King Gibicho
, here described as a Frankish king, gave Hagano
as a hostage (of Trojan
race, but not, as in the Nibelungenlied
, a kinsman of the royal house) in place of his infant son Guntharius
; the Burgundian king Herirīcus, his daughter Hiltgunt; and Alphere, his son Waltharius.
Hagano and Waltharius became brothers in arms, fighting at the head of Attila's armies, while Hiltgunt
was put in charge of the queen's treasure. Presently Guntharius succeeded his father and refused to pay tribute to the Huns
, whereupon Hagano fled from Attila's court. Waltharius and Hiltgunt, who had been betrothed in childhood, also made good their escape during a drunken feast of the Huns, taking with them a great treasure. The story of their flight forms one of the most charming pictures of old German story. They were recognized at Worms, however, where the treasure excited the cupidity of Guntharius. Taking with him twelve knights, among them the reluctant Hagano, he pursued them, and overtook them at the Wasgenstein in the Vosges mountains
(Vosagus). Waltharius engaged the Nibelungen knights one at a time, until all were slain but Hagano, who held aloof from the battle, and was only persuaded by Guntharius to attack his comrade in arms on the second day. He lured Waltharius from the strong position of the day before, and both Guntharius and Hagano attacked at once. All three were incapacitated, but their wounds were bound up by Hiltgunt and they separated friends.
was originally the father of Hiltgunt, and that the tale was a variant of the saga of Hild as told in the Skáldskaparmál
. Hildr
, daughter of King Hǫgni, was carried off by Heðinn, son of Hjarrandi (A.S. Heorrenda). The fight between the forces of father and lover only ceased at sundown, to be renewed on the morrow, since each evening Hildr raised the dead by her incantations. This has been interpreted as a form of the old myth of the daily recurring struggle between light and darkness. The songs sung by Hiltgunt in Waltharius during her night watches were probably incantations, a view strengthened by the fact that in a Polish version the glance of Helgunda is said to have inspired the combatants with new strength. Hiltgunt has retained nothing of Hild's fierceness, but the fragment of the Anglo-Saxon Waldere
shows more of the original spirit. In Waltharius Hiltgunt advises Waltharius to fly; in Waldere she urges him to the combat.
There are two fragments of a 9th-century Old English version, known as Waldere
, consisting of 15 lines each, discovered in 1860, edited by George Stephens.
(Lateinisches Gedichte des Mittelalters (Göttingen, 1838); R. Peiper (Berlin, 1873); V. Scheffel
, A. Holder (Stuttgart, 1874), Marion Dexter Learned (Baltimore 1892, the entire corpus of texts concerning the Saga of Walther of Aquitaine), and Karl Strecker (Weimar 1951); there are German translations by F. Linnig (Paderborn, 1885), H. Althof (Leipzig, 1896), and Karl Langosch (Darmstadt 1967.
's novel Ekkehard
(Stuttgart, 1887); B. Symons, Deutsche Heldensage (Strassburg, 1905).
With Waltharius compare the Scottish ballads of "Earl Brand
" and "Erlinton
" (F.J. Child
's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, i. 88 seq.).
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
popular tradition, relates the exploits of the west Gothic
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
hero Walter of Aquitaine
Walter of Aquitaine
Walter of Aquitaine is a legendary king of the Visigoths. He figures in several epic poems and narratives in medieval languages:* Waldere, an Old English fragment* Waltharius, a Latin epic written by the monk Ekkehard I of St Gall...
.
History
Our knowledge of the author, EkkehardEkkehard I
Ekkehard I , called Major , was a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall. He was of noble birth, of the Jonschwyl family in Toggenburg, and was educated in the monastery of St. Gall; after joining the Benedictine Order, he was appointed director of the inner school there...
, a monk of St. Gall
Abbey of St. Gall
The Abbey of Saint Gall is a religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in present-day Switzerland. The Carolingian-era Abbey has existed since 719 and became an independent principality during the 13th century, and was for many centuries one of the chief Benedictine abbeys in Europe. It was...
, is due to a later Ekkehard, known as Ekkehard IV
Ekkehard IV
Ekkehard IV was a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall and the author of the Casus sancti Galli and Liber Benedictionum.-Life:...
(d. 1060), who gives some account of him in the Casus Sancti Galli (cap. 80). If Ekkehart IV's account, much discussed among scholars, is true, which seems to be confirmed by another monk of St. Gall, Herimannus, the author of the later (ca 1075) life of St Wiborada of St Gall
Wiborada
Saint Wiborada of St. Gall was a member of the Swabian nobility in what is present-day Switzerland. She was an anchoress, Benedictine nun, and martyr, as well as the first woman formally canonized by the Vatican. Her vita was written ca...
where he cites verse 51 of the Waltharius, the poem was written by Ekkehard, generally distinguished as Ekkehard I, for his master Geraldus in his schooldays, probably therefore not later than 920, since he was probably no longer young when he became deacon (in charge of ten monks) in 957. He died in 973.
Waltharius was dedicated by Geraldus to Erchanbald, bishop of Strasbourg (fl.
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
965-991), but manuscripts of it were in circulation before that time. Ekkehard IV stated that he corrected the Latin of the poem, the Germanisms of which offended his patron Aribo, archbishop of Mainz
Aribo, Archbishop of Mainz
Aribo was the Archbishop of Mainz from 1021 until his death. He was Primate of Germany during the succession of Conrad II.Aribo disputed with the Diocese of Hildesheim the jurisdictional right over Gandersheim Abbey, but Pope Benedict VIII found in favour of Hildesheim, a ruling which Aribo...
. The poem was probably based on epic songs now lost, so that if the author was still in his teens when he wrote it he must have possessed considerable and precocious powers.
Argument
Waltharius was the son of Alphere, ruler of AquitaineAquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
, which in the 5th century, when the legend developed, was the centre of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse. When Attila invaded the west, the western princes are represented as making no resistance. They purchased peace by offering tribute and hostages. King Gibicho
Gjúki
Gjúki was the King of the Burgundians in the late 4th century until his death in or around 407. He was the father of Gundomar I, Giselher, and Gunther....
, here described as a Frankish king, gave Hagano
Hagen (legend)
Hagen or Högni is a Burgundian warrior in tales about the Burgundian kingdom at Worms. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half-brother of King Gunther .In the Nibelungenlied, he is called Hagen of Tronje...
as a hostage (of Trojan
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
race, but not, as in the Nibelungenlied
Nibelungenlied
The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge....
, a kinsman of the royal house) in place of his infant son Guntharius
Gunther
Gunther is the German name of a semi-legendary king of Burgundy of the early 5th century...
; the Burgundian king Herirīcus, his daughter Hiltgunt; and Alphere, his son Waltharius.
Hagano and Waltharius became brothers in arms, fighting at the head of Attila's armies, while Hiltgunt
Hildegund
Saint Hildegund can refer to* Hildegund , c.1130-1178* Hildegund , died 1188...
was put in charge of the queen's treasure. Presently Guntharius succeeded his father and refused to pay tribute to the Huns
Huns
The Huns were a group of nomadic people who, appearing from east of the Volga River, migrated into Europe c. AD 370 and established the vast Hunnic Empire there. Since de Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu, who had been northern neighbours of China 300 years prior to the emergence of the Huns,...
, whereupon Hagano fled from Attila's court. Waltharius and Hiltgunt, who had been betrothed in childhood, also made good their escape during a drunken feast of the Huns, taking with them a great treasure. The story of their flight forms one of the most charming pictures of old German story. They were recognized at Worms, however, where the treasure excited the cupidity of Guntharius. Taking with him twelve knights, among them the reluctant Hagano, he pursued them, and overtook them at the Wasgenstein in the Vosges mountains
Vosges mountains
For the department of France of the same name, see Vosges.The Vosges are a range of low mountains in eastern France, near its border with Germany. They extend along the west side of the Rhine valley in a northnortheast direction, mainly from Belfort to Saverne...
(Vosagus). Waltharius engaged the Nibelungen knights one at a time, until all were slain but Hagano, who held aloof from the battle, and was only persuaded by Guntharius to attack his comrade in arms on the second day. He lured Waltharius from the strong position of the day before, and both Guntharius and Hagano attacked at once. All three were incapacitated, but their wounds were bound up by Hiltgunt and they separated friends.
Commentary
The essential part of this story is the series of single combats. The occasional incoherences of the tale make it probable that many changes have been introduced in the legend. The Þiðrekssaga (chaps. 241-244) makes the story more probable by representing the pursuers as Huns. There is reason to believe that HaganoHagen (legend)
Hagen or Högni is a Burgundian warrior in tales about the Burgundian kingdom at Worms. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half-brother of King Gunther .In the Nibelungenlied, he is called Hagen of Tronje...
was originally the father of Hiltgunt, and that the tale was a variant of the saga of Hild as told in the Skáldskaparmál
Skáldskaparmál
The second part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Skáldskaparmál or "language of poetry" is effectively a dialogue between the Norse god of the sea, Ægir and Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined...
. Hildr
Hildr
In Norse mythology, Hildr is a valkyrie. Hildr is attested in the Prose Edda as Högni's daughter and Hedin's wife in the legend of Hedin and Högni...
, daughter of King Hǫgni, was carried off by Heðinn, son of Hjarrandi (A.S. Heorrenda). The fight between the forces of father and lover only ceased at sundown, to be renewed on the morrow, since each evening Hildr raised the dead by her incantations. This has been interpreted as a form of the old myth of the daily recurring struggle between light and darkness. The songs sung by Hiltgunt in Waltharius during her night watches were probably incantations, a view strengthened by the fact that in a Polish version the glance of Helgunda is said to have inspired the combatants with new strength. Hiltgunt has retained nothing of Hild's fierceness, but the fragment of the Anglo-Saxon Waldere
Waldere
Waldere or Waldhere is the conventional title given to two Old English fragments from a lost epic poem, discovered in 1860 by E. C. Werlauff, Librarian, in the Danish Royal Library at Copenhagen, where it is still preserved. The parchment pages had been reused as stiffening in the binding of an...
shows more of the original spirit. In Waltharius Hiltgunt advises Waltharius to fly; in Waldere she urges him to the combat.
Manuscripts
- Gemblours MS (Brussels)
- Hirschau MS (Karlsruhe)
- Regensburg MS (Stuttgart)
- Epternach MS (Paris)
- Salzburg MS (Vienna)
- Metlach MS (Trier)
- Engelberg fragment
There are two fragments of a 9th-century Old English version, known as Waldere
Waldere
Waldere or Waldhere is the conventional title given to two Old English fragments from a lost epic poem, discovered in 1860 by E. C. Werlauff, Librarian, in the Danish Royal Library at Copenhagen, where it is still preserved. The parchment pages had been reused as stiffening in the binding of an...
, consisting of 15 lines each, discovered in 1860, edited by George Stephens.
Editions
Waltharius was first edited by F. Ch. J. Fischer (Leipzig, 1780) and Fr. Molter (Karlsruhe). Later and more critical editions are by: Jacob GrimmJacob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy...
(Lateinisches Gedichte des Mittelalters (Göttingen, 1838); R. Peiper (Berlin, 1873); V. Scheffel
Joseph Viktor von Scheffel
Joseph Victor von Scheffel was a German poet and novelist.-Biography:He was born at Karlsruhe. His father, a retired major in the Baden army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the course of the Rhine; his mother, née Josephine Krederer, the daughter of a prosperous...
, A. Holder (Stuttgart, 1874), Marion Dexter Learned (Baltimore 1892, the entire corpus of texts concerning the Saga of Walther of Aquitaine), and Karl Strecker (Weimar 1951); there are German translations by F. Linnig (Paderborn, 1885), H. Althof (Leipzig, 1896), and Karl Langosch (Darmstadt 1967.
Influence
See also ScheffelJoseph Viktor von Scheffel
Joseph Victor von Scheffel was a German poet and novelist.-Biography:He was born at Karlsruhe. His father, a retired major in the Baden army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the course of the Rhine; his mother, née Josephine Krederer, the daughter of a prosperous...
's novel Ekkehard
Ekkehard
Ekkehard was a Germanic given name. Eckard, Eckhard, Eckhart, and Eckart are modern forms. It was the name of five monks of the Abbey of Saint Gall from the tenth to the thirteenth century:*Ekkehard I*Ekkehard II*Ekkehard III*Ekkehard IV*Ekkehard V...
(Stuttgart, 1887); B. Symons, Deutsche Heldensage (Strassburg, 1905).
With Waltharius compare the Scottish ballads of "Earl Brand
Earl Brand
Earl Brand is one of the Child ballads 7 . Legend claims it recounts a historical event.-Synopsis:The hero, who may be Earl Brand, Lord Douglas, or Lord William, flees with the heroine, who may be Lady Margaret. A Carl Hood may betray them to her father, but they are always pursued. The hero...
" and "Erlinton
Erlinton
"Erlinton" is Child ballad 8.One variant features Robin Hood, but this variant forces the folk hero into a ballad structure where he does not fit naturally.-Synopsis:...
" (F.J. Child
Francis James Child
Francis James Child was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of folk songs known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry...
's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, i. 88 seq.).