!!!Dietrich-Epen

Dietrich Epen: Dietrich Epics. Theodoric the Great, King of the 
Ostrogoths (d. 526), known as Dietrich von Bern (= Verona), 
is the most famous hero of the German-speaking area in the Middle 
Ages. The earliest written mention of the Dietrich saga, which was 
mainly passed on orally, is found in the "Hildebrandslied" heroic epic 
from the 9th century. In the Middle High German era, Dietrich appeared 
for the first time in the  Nibelungenlied. The first truly literary 
form of the Dietrich saga first appeared in the 13th century with the 
D. E. which originated in Bavaria and Austria and were mainly passed 
on anonymously. The Dietrich epics are divided into historical and 
more adventurous versions. The historical versions include "Dietrichs 
Flucht" (Dietrich's Escape), "Die Rabenschlacht" (The Battle of 
Ravenna) and "Alpharts Tod" (The Death of Alphart); they deal with 
Dietrich's expulsion from Italy by Ermenric (d. 375) from where 
he fled to the court of Attila the Hun ( Etzel) (d. 453) and his 
attempts to return to Italy. The incongruent dates are not the only 
elements that demonstrate a lack of historical correctness typical of 
( Epics); Dietrich was not driven out of Italy, but murdered his 
historical enemy Odoacer. The structure of the adventurous Dietrich 
epics demonstrates the influence of the courtly narrative ( Courtly 
Epics) and has features similar to those of fairy tales: Dietrich 
battles against giants ("Eckenlied" and "Sigenot"), dwarves 
("Goldemar", "Virginal", "Laurin", the last one a Tyrolean fairy-tale 
figure) and the heroes of the Nibelungen saga ("Rosengarten", 
"Biterolf und Dietleib"). The Ortnit and the Wolfdietrich sagas are 
also related to the Dietrich Epics.

!Literature
J. Heinzle, Mhd. Dietrichepik, 1978; J. Bumke, Geschichte 
der dt. Lit. im hohen MA, 1990.


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