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HELDENBUCH, DAS

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 219 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HELDENBUCH, DAS , the See also:title under which a large See also:body of See also:German epic See also:poetry of the 13th See also:century has come down to us. The subjects of the individual poems are taken from See also:national German sagas which originated in the See also:epoch of the Migrations (Volkerwanderung), although doubtless here, as in all purely popular sagas, motives borrowed from the forces and phenomena of nature were, in course of See also:time, See also:woven into events originally See also:historical. While the See also:saga of the Nibelungs crystallized in the 13th century into the See also:Nibelungenlied (q.v.), and the See also:Low German Hilde-saga into the epic of See also:Gudrun (q.v.) the poems of the Heldenbuch, in the more restricted use of that See also:term, belong almost exclusively to two cycles, (I) the Ostrogothic saga of Ermanrich, See also:Dietrich von See also:Bern (i.e. Dietrich of See also:Verona,Theodorich the See also:Great) and Etzel (See also:Attila), and (2) the See also:cycle of Hugdietrich, See also:Wolfdietrich and See also:Ortnit, which like the Nibelungen saga, was probably of Franconian origin. The romances of the Heldenbuch are of varying poetic value; only occasionally do they rise to the height of the two See also:chief epics, the Nibelungenlied and Gudrun. Dietrich von Bern, the central figure of the first and more important See also:group, was the ideal type of German See also:medieval See also:hero, and, under more favourable See also:literary conditions, he might have become the centre of an epic more nationally German than even the Nibelungenlied itself. Of the romances of this group, the chief are Biterolf and Dietlieb, evidently the See also:work of an See also:Austrian poet, who introduced many elements from the See also:court epic of See also:chivalry into a milieu and amongst characters See also:familiar to us from the Nibelungenlied. Der Rosengarten tells of the conflicts which took See also:place See also:round See also:Kriemhild's " See also:rose See also:garden " in See also:Worms—conflicts from which Dietrich always emerges See also:victor, even when he is confronted by Siegfried himself. In Laurin and der kleine Rosengarten, the Heldensage is mingled with elements of popular See also:fairy-See also:lore; it deals with the adventures of Dietrich and his henchman Witege with the wily See also:dwarf Laurin, who watches over another rose garden, that of the Tyrol. Similar in See also:character are the adventures of Dietrich with the giants Ecke (Eckenlied) and Sigenot, with the dwarf Goldemar, and the deeds of chivalry he performs for See also:queen See also:Virginal (Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt)—all of these romances being written in the fresh and popular See also:tone characteristic of the wandering singers or Spielleute. Other elements of the Dietrich saga are represented by the poems Alpharts See also:Tod, Dietrichs Flucht and See also:Die Rabenschlacht (" See also:Battle of See also:Ravenna "). Of these, the first is much the finest poem of the entire cycle and worthy of a place beside the best popular poetry of the See also:Middle High German epoch.

Alphart, a See also:

young hero in Dietrich's See also:army, goes out to fight single-handed with Witege and Heime, who had deserted to Ermanrich, and he falls, not in See also:fair battle, but by the treachery of Witege whose See also:life he had spared. The other two Dietrich epics belong to a later See also:period, the end of the 13th century—the author being an Austrian, Heinrich der See also:Vogler—and show only too plainly the decay that had by this time set in in Middle High German poetry. The second cycle of sagas is represented by several See also:long romances, all of them unmistakably "popular" in tone—conflicts with dragons, supernatural adventures, the wonderland of the See also:East providing the chief features of See also:interest. The epics of this group are Ortnit, Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich, the latter with its pathetic See also:episode of the unswerving See also:loyalty of Wolfdietrich's See also:vassal See also:Duke Berchtung and his ten sons. Although many of the incidents and motives of this cycle are See also:drawn from the best traditions of the Heldensage, its literary value is not very high. This collection of popular romances was one of the first German books to be printed. The date of the first edition is unknown, but the second edition appeared in the See also:year 1491 and was followed by later reprints in 1509, 1545, 156o and 1590. The last of these forms the basis of the See also:text edited by A. von See also:Keller for the See also:Stuttgart Literarische Verein in 1867. In 1472 the Heldenbuch was adapted to the popular tastes of the time by being remodelled in rough Knittelvers or doggerel; the author, or at least copyist, of the MS. was a certain Kaspar von der Roen, of Munnerstadt in See also:Franconia. This version was printed by F. von der See also:Hagen and S. Primisser in their Heldenbuch (1820-1825). Das Heldenbuch, which F. von der Hagen published in 2 vols. in 1855, was the first See also:attempt to reproduce the See also:original text by collating the See also:MSS.

A See also:

critical edition, based not merely on the See also:oldest printed text—the only one which has any value for this purpose, as the others are all copies of it—but also on the MSS., was published in 5 vols. by O. Jdnicke, E. See also:Martin, A. Amelung and J. Zupitza at See also:Berlin (1866-1873). A selection, edited by E. Henrici, will be found in Kiirschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. 7 (1887). See also:Recent See also:editions have appeared of Der Rosengarten and Laurin. by G. Holz (1893 and 1897). All the poems have been translated into See also:modern German by K. See also:Simrock and others.

See F. E. See also:

Sandbach, The Heroic Saga-Cycle of Dietrich of Bern (1906). The literature of the Heldensage is very extensive. See especially W. See also:Grimm, Die deutsche Heldensage (3rd ed., 1889); L. See also:Uhland, " Geschichte der deutschen Poesie See also:im Mittelalter," Schriften, vol. i. (1866); O. L. Jiriczek, Deutsche Heldensage, vol. i. (1898); and especially B. See also:Symons, " Germanische Heldensage," in See also:Paul's Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (2nd ed., 1898).

End of Article: HELDENBUCH, DAS

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