HILDEBRANDSLIED. - “Song of Hildebrand”: fragment of an eighth-century German heroic poem, consisting of 68 alliterative lines (Stabreim). It is the oldest surviving monument of Germanic epic poetry, written in High German, with Low German elements intermingled.
Hildebrand, a faithful follower of Teodorico, king of the Ostrogoths, followed him into exile among the Huns. Thirty years later, Teodorico returns at the head of an army to reconquer Italy: and there before Hildebrand stands a warrior, in whom he soon recognizes his son Hadubrand. In vain does Hildebrand strive to avoid the impious combat (the well-known theme, with which the fragment opens, of the Ostrogothic cycle—the contest between father and son): Hadubrand, convinced as he is that his father is dead, demands battle and accuses him of cowardice, thereby awakening in the other the sense of heroic honour (another of the most important elements of Germanic paganism; from Saxo Germanicus and an Irish saga, it is known that the son perishes). Although written in the Christian era, the poem is dominated by Germanic tragic fate and reveals in its author a mature, vigorous art.