Hildebrandslied

HILDEBRANDSLIED. - "Song of Hildebrand": a fragment of an Old German heroic poem from the 8th century, consisting of 68 alliterative verses (Stabreim). It is the oldest surviving monument of Germanic epic poetry, written in Old High German, with Low German elements mixed in.

Hildebrand, a follower of Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths, followed him into exile among the Huns. Thirty years later, Theodoric 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 Hildebrand strives to avoid the impious combat (a well-known theme, this, of the Ostrogothic cycle — with which the fragment begins — of the duel between father and son): Hadubrand, convinced as he is of his father's death, wants the fight and accuses the other of cowardice, awakening in him the sentiment of heroic honor (another of the most important elements of Germanic paganism; from Saxo Grammaticus and from 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, plastic art.