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90-415: Wolfdietrich is closely associated with another heroic epic poem of the same period, Ortnit . The two stories have distinct (if disputed) origins but they were combined at an early stage, possibly by a single author, and appear together in most sources. In the earliest surviving version of the first story, Ortnit is killed by two dragons sent by his father-in-law after he abducts and marries his daughter; in

180-587: A "Dark Age" that set Europe back a millennium. In contrast, German and English historians have tended to see Roman–Barbarian interaction as the replacement of a "tired, effete and decadent Mediterranean civilization" with a "more virile, martial, Nordic one". The scholar Guy Halsall has seen the barbarian movement as the result of the fall of the Roman Empire, not its cause. Archaeological discoveries have confirmed that Germanic and Slavic tribes were settled agriculturalists who were probably merely "drawn into

270-623: A "primeval urge" to push into the Mediterranean, the construction of the Great Wall of China causing a "domino effect" of tribes being forced westward, leading to the Huns falling upon the Goths who, in turn, pushed other Germanic tribes before them. In general, French and Italian scholars have tended to view this as a catastrophic event, the destruction of a civilization and the beginning of

360-666: A castle called Garte His equal was not to be found He was called Lord Otnit As I have heard tell You could find in those days No prince so praiseworthy. Migration Period The Migration Period (circa 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions , was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and

450-467: A child, who can only be seen by the one wearing the ring. After they have argued and fought - the child is unexpectedly strong - the child reveals himself to be the dwarf Alberich and Ortnit's natural father (having stepped in when Ortnit's parents were unable to conceive). He gives Ortnit a suit of golden armour with magical properties and vows to accompany him. III. (213–287) Ortnit and his army set sail from Messina and, after 10 days at sea, arrive off

540-556: A common identity and ancestry. This was the Romantic ideal that there once had been a single German, Celtic or Slavic people who originated from a common homeland and spoke a common tongue , helping to provide a conceptual framework for political movements of the 18th and 19th centuries such as Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism . From the 1960s, a reinterpretation of archaeological and historical evidence prompted scholars, such as Goffart and Todd, to propose new models for explaining

630-415: A day and night wandering at random without finding the dragon, he sits down to rest but is overcome by sleep. When the dragon approaches, Ortnit's hound attempts to wake him, but without success. The dragon gulps him down whole, and, returning to its lair, feeds him to its young, who suck Ortnit out through his armour. VIII. (576–597) The hound returns to court, and the queen eventually realises that Ortnit

720-476: A different birthplace. The fourth, D, is a compilation of material from versions B and C. Wolfdietrich A ("Wolfdietrich of Constantinople") is the oldest version, written around 1230, though only surviving in a much later manuscript, the Ambraser Heldenbuch (MS A). The first 505 strophes (A1) are probably written by the same author as the version of Ortnit which precedes it in the manuscript, but

810-450: A further, unknown version. Version D survives in four different variants from the 15th and 16th centuries: A verse drama in rhyming couplets by Jakob Ayrer published in 1618, Vom dem keiser Ottnit, was er biss and sein Endt erstritten und ausgericht, auff das Getreulichst der Histori nach is based on Ortnit D. Wolfdietrich B is not accompanied by a separate Ortnit tale. Instead,

900-659: A geographical origin in Northwest Germany, but the story seems to have been constructed from a variety of elements, not simply retelling an "Ortnit-saga". It is unclear whether the bride-quest and dragon-killing stores first became linked in the Northwest or in Southern Germany, though it seems possible that Ortnit's failure to kill the dragon was necessitated only when his story was linked with Wolfdietrich . Ortnit and Wolfdietrich are both written in

990-419: A grown son to be his heir. Meanwhile, he sends food and wine to her in the tower. The story concludes with the remark that we will have to wait a long time for the dragon to be killed, as the killer has not yet been born, he who will later be the grandfather of Dietrich of Verona. This version follows that of Ortnit A up to the point where the dragons are terrorising the country, at which point it concludes. It

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1080-406: A heathen king. In spite of the fact that Machorel kills any suitor for his daughter, intending to marry her himself once his wife is dead, Ortnit sets his heart on her. II. (70–212) Delayed from setting out by winter weather, he is given a ring by his mother, who tells him it will lead to adventure. Following her instructions, he rides off into the wilderness until he encounters what he takes to be

1170-536: A messenger from (the Christian) God but even so cannot persuade the girl to marry Ortnit, until she challenges him to prove he is stronger than her gods, whereupon he shatters her shrine and throws it into the moat. The princess relents in order to spare her father, and sends her ring to Ortnit. Battle ceases and the heathens withdraw into the castle. Alberich sneaks in and brings out the princess to Ortnit, who rides off with her. As soon as her father discovers she

1260-581: A mighty king. In virtue or honour or manliness he was not left wanting By his lord and creator, who gave him these qualities He was lacking in nothing except that he was a heathen. The strophes are marked in the manuscripts by a Lombardic capital . In the printed Heldenbücher, the Hildebrandston is transformed into the Heunenweise , an eight-line strophe: the long-line is split at the caesura and unrhymed line-endings are given rhymes, with

1350-583: A military campaign against his brothers but it fails and he is besieged in Lilienport. After four years he breaks out and makes his way to seek help from King Ortnit. He eventually makes his way to Garte, where he finds Ortnit's widow lamenting her husband's death. He defeats the dragons, marries Liebgart, and becomes King of Lambarten. Disguised as a pilgrim, Wolfdietrich reconnoitres Constantinople, where Berchtung's sons are being held captive by his brothers. After recovering his wife, who had been abducted in

1440-646: A number of self-contained bride-quest stories, based ultimately on the Frankish King Clovis I 's wooing of Clotilde in 492. All involve a hero travelling to a foreign country to win a bride. The name Ortnit is cognate with the name Hertnið shared by five different characters in the Þiðreks saga , one of whom is defeated in a battle against a dragon. This suggests a variety of possibly unconnected Ortnit/Hertnið stories were circulating in Northern Germany. The figure of Ortnit's uncle, Ilias,

1530-411: A popular adventure story. With their motifs of the bride-quest, inheritance regained, faithful and faithless vassals, dragon-killing, magic suits of armour, and encounters with dwarves, witches and giants, this pair of stories remained continuously popular, repeatedly re-cast, copied and, later, printed until the early 17th century. This makes it one of the most long-lived and popular German narratives of

1620-514: A progressive Romanisation of barbarian society, but also an undeniable barbarisation of the Roman world." For example, the Roman Empire played a vital role in building up barbarian groups along its frontier. Propped up with imperial support and gifts, the armies of allied barbarian chieftains served as buffers against other, hostile, barbarian groups. The disintegration of Roman economic power weakened groups that had come to depend on Roman gifts for

1710-468: A range. IV. (288–346) That night Alberich steals hundreds of small boats from the harbour and the army uses these to land. At dawn, the alarm is given in the city and fierce fighting ensues. Alberich notices that all the city gates are open and the heathens may escape and burn the ships. Leaving Ilyas to continue the main battle, Ortnit gives chase. Returning, successful, he finds that Ilyas has lost all his men, and he re-engages to avenge their deaths. With

1800-433: A result of such an accommodation and were absorbed into Latinhood. In contrast, in the east, Slavic tribes maintained a more "spartan and egalitarian" existence bound to the land "even in times when they took their part in plundering Roman provinces". Their organizational models were not Roman, and their leaders were not normally dependent on Roman gold for success. Thus they arguably had a greater effect on their region than

1890-443: A rich and powerful king. In his day there was no king his equal in all the lands of Italy. This is shown by the fact that as long as he lived he was powerful ruler. The strophes are marked in the manuscripts by a Lombardic capital . In the printed Heldenbücher, the Hildebrandston is transformed into the Heunenweise , an eight-line strophe: the long-line is split at the caesura and unrhymed line-endings are given rhymes, with

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1980-784: A strophic form called the Hildebrandston (similar to the Nibelungenstrophe used in the Nibelungenlied and Kudrun ). It consists of four long-lines: each long-line has three feet with a feminine ending , a caesura , then three feet with a rhymed masculine ending . Ortnit A 3. Iz wuhse in Lambarten || ein gewaltich kunec reich dem waz bei den zeiten || dehein kunec gleich uber elle lant ze Walhen || daz bezaichent daz die wuile und das er lebte || daz er gewalticlichen saz . There grew up in Lombardy

2070-471: Is a German word, borrowed from German historiography, that refers to the early migrations of the Germanic peoples. In a broader sense it can mean the mass migration of whole tribes or ethnic groups. Rather than "invasion", German and Slavic scholars speak of "migration" (see German : Völkerwanderung , Czech : Stěhování národů , Swedish : folkvandring and Hungarian : népvándorlás ), aspiring to

2160-557: Is born as third son to Hugdietrich, King of Greece . The king's evil counsellor Sabene persuades him that the child is the spawn of the devil, and Duke Berchtung of Meran is ordered to kill him. But Berchtung saves the child and brings about the banishment of Sabene. After Hugdietrich's death, Sabene returns to Constantinople and persuades the two elder brothers to banish the queen and deprive Wolfdietrich, now living in Berchtung's castle Lilienport, of his inheritance. Wolfdietrich leads

2250-481: Is followed in the manuscript and prints with the story of Hugdietrich's bride quest, which then leads into the story of Wolfdietrich, which, in this version, includes Ortnit's pursuit of the dragon and his death. After telling of Wolfdietrich's youth, the story introduces the emperor Ortnit, who is told by one of his courtiers of Hugdietrich, King of Greece, and his three sons, who do no fealty to Ortnit. Ortnit sends twelve counts to Hugdietrich to demand tribute. Although

2340-461: Is missing he rides in pursuit of Ortnit with his army. In the ensuing battle, the heathen army is completely destroyed, though Machorel escapes to the safety of the castle. Ortnit sets sail and, after the princess has been baptized, they marry. VI. (484–526) Machorel is visited by a huntsman, who has stolen two eggs from a dragon's cave and offers to take them to Lombardy to hatch so that they can then devastate Ortnit's land. Machorel agrees and sends

2430-435: Is no consensus on these theories, and it can be argued that the many anti-historical elements essential to the story (rescue by wolves, magic armour, giants, dragons) suggest it combines a variety of legendary and fantastic sources divorced from any specific historical personalities. In this view Wolfdietrich is essentially a montage, which draws on not only the heroic epic, but also the chanson de geste , crusade literature,

2520-407: Is not following it and must be dead. This is confirmed when a vassal follows the hound to where Ortnit was killed. For two years the queen mourns and, is spite of the urging of the court, refuses to remarry unless it's to the knight who avenges Ortnit. For her refusal she is deprived of her wealth and imprisoned in a tower. The margrave takes pity on her and offers to avenge Ortnit, but only once he has

2610-649: Is partly documented by Greek and Latin historians but is difficult to verify archaeologically. It puts Germanic peoples in control of most areas of what was then the Western Roman Empire . The Tervingi crossed the Danube into Roman territory in 376, in a migration fleeing the invading Huns . Some time later in Marcianopolis , the escort to their leader Fritigern was killed while meeting with Roman commander Lupicinus . The Tervingi rebelled, and

2700-512: Is thought to be derived from the Russian folk hero Ilya Muromets . Northern Germany is the obvious location for the integration of such a character into an Ortnit story. A parallel with the chanson de geste Huon de Bordeaux has also been noted: in Huon the hero is aided by Auberon , a dwarf with supernatural powers, whose name is cognate with Alberich . Taken together, all these suggest

2790-521: Is true There ruled a wealthy king He was mighty indeed His name was Hugdieterich From his earliest youth The king lead a good life Through God and his own virtue Both giving and receiving. The four versions of Wolfdietrich survive in 11 complete manuscripts and several fragments of a twelfth. In many cases Wolfdietrich (and Ortnit ) form part of a larger collection under the title of Heldenbuch ("Book of Heroes"). The MSS of Wolfdietrich B do not include Ortnit . Ten manuscripts from

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2880-476: The Völkerwanderung may illustrate such [a] course of events, but it misleads. Unfolded over long periods of time, the changes of position that took place were necessarily irregular ... (with) periods of emphatic discontinuity. For decades and possibly centuries, the tradition bearers idled, and the tradition itself hibernated. There was ample time for forgetfulness to do its work. Völkerwanderung

2970-701: The Brittonic chieftains (whose centres of power retreated westward as a result). The Eastern Roman Empire attempted to maintain control of the Balkan provinces despite a thinly-spread imperial army relying mainly on local militias and an extensive effort to refortify the Danubian limes . The ambitious fortification efforts collapsed, worsening the impoverished conditions of the local populace and resulting in colonization by Slavic warriors and their families. Halsall and Noble have argued that such changes stemmed from

3060-663: The Ostrogoths , led by Theodoric the Great , who settled in Italy. In Gaul , the Franks (a fusion of western Germanic tribes whose leaders had been aligned with Rome since the 3rd century) entered Roman lands gradually during the 5th century, and after consolidating power under Childeric and his son Clovis's decisive victory over Syagrius in 486, established themselves as rulers of northern Roman Gaul. Fending off challenges from

3150-1004: The Vikings , the Normans , the Varangians , the Hungarians , the Arabs , the Turks , and the Mongols also had significant effects (especially in North Africa , the Iberian Peninsula , Anatolia and Central and Eastern Europe ). Germanic peoples moved out of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany to the adjacent lands between the Elbe and Oder after 1000 BC. The first wave moved westward and southward (pushing

3240-626: The 6th century. They were later followed by the Bavarians and the Franks, who conquered and ruled most of the Italian peninsula. The Bulgars, originally a nomadic group probably from Central Asia , occupied the Pontic steppe north of Caucasus from the 2nd century. Later, pushed by the Khazars , the majority of them migrated west and dominated Byzantine territories along the lower Danube in

3330-653: The 7th century. From that time the demographic picture of the Balkans changed permanently, becoming predominantly Slavic-speaking, while pockets of native people survived in the mountains of the Balkans. Croats settled in modern Croatia and Western Bosnia, bringing with them the Serbs who settled in Rascia, an area around Montenegro - South-West Serbia. By the mid seventh century, Serb tribes were invading northern Albania. By

3420-628: The Alemanni, Burgundians, and Visigoths, the Frankish kingdom became the nucleus of what would later become France and Germany. The initial Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain occurred during the 5th century, when Roman control of Britain had come to an end. The Burgundians settled in northwestern Italy, Switzerland and Eastern France in the 5th century. Between AD 500 and 700, Slavic tribes settled more areas of central Europe and pushed farther into southern and eastern Europe, gradually making

3510-861: The Bulgars. During the Khazar–Arab Wars , the Khazars stopped the Arab expansion into Europe across the Caucasus (7th and 8th centuries). At the same time, the so-called Moors (consisting of Arabs and Berbers ) invaded Europe via Gibraltar ( conquering Hispania from the Visigothic Kingdom in 711), before being halted by the Franks at the Battle of Tours in Gaul. These campaigns led to broadly demarcated frontiers between Christendom and Islam for

3600-522: The Goths, the Franks or the Saxons had on theirs. Based on the belief that particular types of artifacts, elements of personal adornment generally found in a funerary context, are thought to indicate the ethnicity of the person buried, the "Culture-History" school of archaeology assumed that archaeological cultures represent the Urheimat (homeland) of tribal polities named in historical sources. As

3690-632: The Roman Balkans , and the Franks were settled south of the Rhine in Roman Gaul . In 406 a particularly large and unexpected crossing of the Rhine was made by a group of Vandals , Alans and Suebi . As central power broke down in the Western Roman Empire, the military became more important but was dominated by men of barbarian origin. There are contradictory opinions as to whether the fall of

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3780-1012: The Roman Empire at that time. The first migrations of peoples were made by Germanic tribes such as the Goths (including the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths ), the Vandals, the Anglo-Saxons , the Lombards, the Suebi, the Frisii , the Jutes , the Burgundians , the Alemanni, the Sciri and the Franks; they were later pushed westward by the Huns, the Avars, the Slavs and the Bulgars. Later invasions, such as

3870-667: The Roman Empire in both its western and its eastern portions. In particular, economic fragmentation removed many of the political, cultural and economic forces that had held the empire together. The rural population in Roman provinces became distanced from the metropolis, and there was little to differentiate them from other peasants across the Roman frontier. In addition, Rome increasingly used foreign mercenaries to defend itself. That "barbarisation" parallelled changes within Barbaricum . To this end, noted linguist Dennis Howard Green wrote, "the first centuries of our era witness not merely

3960-575: The Roman West and Byzantium gradually converted the non-Islamic newcomers and integrated them into Christendom. Analysis of barbarian identity and how it was created and expressed during the Barbarian Invasions has elicited discussion among scholars. Herwig Wolfram , a historian of the Goths, in discussing the equation of migratio gentium with Völkerwanderung , observes that Michael Schmidt  [ de ] introduced

4050-654: The Visigoths, a group derived either from the Tervingi or from a fusion of mainly Gothic groups, eventually invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 410 before settling in Gaul. Around 460, they founded the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia. They were followed into Roman territory first by a confederation of Herulian , Rugian , and Scirian warriors under Odoacer , that deposed Romulus Augustulus in 476, and later by

4140-550: The Western Roman Empire was a result of an increase in migrations, or if both the breakdown of central power and the increased importance of non-Romans created additional internal factors. Migrations, and the use of non-Romans in the military, were known in the periods before and after, and the Eastern Roman Empire adapted and continued to exist until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. The fall of

4230-486: The Western Roman Empire, although it involved the establishment of competing barbarian kingdoms, was to some extent managed by the Eastern emperors. The migrants comprised war bands or tribes of 10,000 to 20,000 people. Immigration was common throughout the time of the Roman Empire, but over the course of 100 years, the migrants numbered not more than 750,000 in total, compared to an average 40 million population of

4320-401: The battle over, Ilyas is shown a cellar where the remaining heathen warriors are hiding and he beheads all of them in revenge, but Ortnit prevents him from killing the women and children. Attending to the wounded, Ortnit laments the many men he has lost. V. (347–483) At dawn, they set off for Muntabur. On arrival they pitch their tents outside the castle, but are too close and are shot at from

4410-429: The breakdown in Roman political control, which exposed the weakness of local Roman rule. Instead of large-scale migrations, there were military takeovers by small groups of warriors and their families, who usually numbered only in the tens of thousands. The process involved active, conscious decision-making by Roman provincial populations. The collapse of centralized control severely weakened the sense of Roman identity in

4500-764: The bride-quest story, and other sources, with what Miklautsch calls a "hybrid hero". Wolfdietrich and Ortnit are written in a strophic form called the Hildebrandston (similar to the Nibelungenstrophe used in the Nibelungenlied and Kudrun ). It consists of four long-lines: each long-line has three feet with a feminine ending , a caesura , then three feet with a rhymed masculine ending . Wolfdietrich A 1. Auf Kunstenobl ze Kriechen || ein gewaltiger kuanig sass an dem tugent noch ere || noch manheite nie ver gass sein maister und sein schepfer || der in da werden liess an im geprast nicht mere || wann daz er ein hayden hiess . In Constantinople in Greece there ruled

4590-532: The castle of Muntabur seem to be borrowed from the campaign of 1217 in the Fifth Crusade against Sultan al-Malek al-Adel and his fortress at Mount Tabor . Attempts to derive the story or the figure of Ortnit from Germanic myth or historical personages have not been successful. The many German bride-quest stories, which include Ortnit , König Rother , Orendel and Salman und Morolf , have their roots in late Merovingian history: chronicles contain

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4680-481: The coast of Tyre , Machorel's capital. Alberich gives Ortnit a magic stone which allows him to speak and understand any language, and this enables him to pose as a merchant to secure permission to dock. Ortnit wants to take the city immediately, riding through the open gates, but Alberich insists this would be dishonourable. Instead, Alberich goes to Muntabur and gives Machorel a formal challenge: to give his daughter to Ortnit or be attacked. Machorel refuses and flies into

4770-552: The construction of barbarian identity. They maintained that no sense of shared identity was perceived by the Germani ; a similar theory having been proposed for Celtic and Slavic groups. A theory states that the primordialist mode of thinking was encouraged by a prima facie interpretation of Graeco-Roman sources, which grouped together many tribes under such labels as Germanoi , Keltoi or Sclavenoi , thus encouraging their perception as distinct peoples. Modernists argue that

4860-477: The dates for the beginning and ending of the Migration Period. The beginning of the period is widely regarded as the invasion of Europe by the Huns from Asia in about 375 and the ending with the conquest of Italy by the Lombards in 568, but a more loosely set period is from as early as 300 to as late as 800. For example, in the 4th century a very large group of Goths was settled as foederati within

4950-446: The dragons terrorise the land. After a year's delay, Ortnit sets out to kill the dragons, but falls asleep and is killed by them. In most of the surviving versions, this is followed by the story of Wolfdietrich , who avenges Ortnit's death and marries his widow. Though the two stories have distinct origins, they were possibly combined and integrated at an early stage. The earliest surviving versions, Ortnit A and Wolfdietrich A may be

5040-614: The early 17th century. The story of Ortnit survives in eight narrative versions, grouped in four main traditions: Ortnit A (also Ortnit AW , after the two manuscripts) is the oldest version, written around 1230, containing 597 strophes. A later adaptation in the Dresden Heldenbuch condenses the text to about a third of the length. Ortnit C survives only in two fragments containing around 60 strophes of Ortnit with material close to that of Ortnit A. Ortnit D , written around 1300, combines material from version C and

5130-524: The eastern half of Europe predominantly Slavic-speaking. Additionally, Turkic tribes such as the Avars and - later - Ugric-speaking Magyars became involved in this second wave. In AD 567, the Avars and the Lombards destroyed much of the Gepid Kingdom . The Lombards, a Germanic people, settled in Italy with their Herulian, Suebian, Gepid, Thuringian, Bulgar, Sarmatian and Saxon allies in

5220-535: The equation in his 1778 history of the Germans. Wolfram observed that the significance of gens as a biological community was shifting, even during the early Middle Ages and that "to complicate matters, we have no way of devising a terminology that is not derived from the concept of nationhood created during the French Revolution ". The "primordialistic" paradigm prevailed during the 19th century. Scholars, such as German linguist Johann Gottfried Herder , viewed tribes as coherent biological (racial) entities, using

5310-637: The establishment of the post-Roman kingdoms . The term refers to the important role played by the migration, invasion, and settlement of various tribes, notably the Burgundians , Vandals , Goths , Alemanni , Alans , Huns , early Slavs , Pannonian Avars , Bulgars and Magyars within or into the territories of the Roman Empire and Europe as a whole. The period is traditionally taken to have begun in AD 375 (possibly as early as 300) and ended in 568. Various factors contributed to this phenomenon of migration and invasion, and their role and significance are still widely discussed. Historians differ as to

5400-463: The giants, he sets out to kill the dragons, but after he has killed the first with the help of an elephant, he mysteriously falls asleep. He wakes up to find himself being carried off by the dragon, and in spite of his attempts to resist he is smashed against a tree and killed. While the earliest manuscripts of Ortnit date from the 14th century, the language of the poem suggests composition around 1230 in an Upper German dialect. The name Machorel and

5490-401: The heathen King Machorel his bride. He is greatly assisted by the cunning of the dwarf Alberich , who can only be seen by the wearer of a magic ring , and by the martial prowess of the Russian king Ilyas , Ortnit's uncle. In the second part of the story, Machorel, enraged by Ortnit's abduction of his daughter, sends him, in a feigned gesture of reconciliation, two dragon eggs. When these hatch,

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5580-420: The huntsman to Lombardy with gifts. Ortnit and his wife are delighted at these signs of reconciliation. After he has shown these to Ortnit, the huntsman reveals that one gift, an elephant, must be left to grow before being given. Ortnit orders the huntsman to be shown to a suitable cave in the mountains and given provisions. As the dragons grow the provisions start to become inadequate and dragons start to devastate

5670-446: The idea of "imagined communities"; the barbarian polities in late antiquity were social constructs rather than unchanging lines of blood kinship. The process of forming tribal units was called " ethnogenesis ", a term coined by Soviet scholar Yulian Bromley . The Austrian school (led by Reinhard Wenskus ) popularized this idea, which influenced medievalists such as Herwig Wolfram, Walter Pohl and Patrick J. Geary . It argues that

5760-437: The idea of a dynamic and "wandering Indo-Germanic people". In contrast, the standard terms in French and Italian historiography translate to "barbarian invasions", or even "barbaric invasions" ( French : Invasions barbares , Italian : Invasioni barbariche ). Historians have postulated several explanations for the appearance of "barbarians" on the Roman frontier: climate change, weather and crops, population pressure ,

5850-405: The identity of the newcomers. In Gaul , the collapse of imperial rule resulted in anarchy: the Franks and Alemanni were pulled into the ensuing "power vacuum", resulting in conflict. In Hispania, local aristocrats maintained independent rule for some time, raising their own armies against the Vandals . Meanwhile, the Roman withdrawal from lowland England resulted in conflict between Saxons and

5940-472: The land in their search for food. After a year, in which knights have failed to defeat the dragons, Ortnit decides that he must take on the task himself. VII. (527–575) During an emotional parting from his wife, who tries to dissuade him, Ortnit tells her that if he fails to return, the knight who comes back with his armour, his ring and the dragon's tongue, will have avenged his death. Alberich refuses to accompany Ortnit, but warns him not to fall asleep. After

6030-412: The late 15th and early 16th centuries, including In 1479 Johann Prüss printed a Heldenbuch which included Ornit , Wolfdietrich and three other works, with 230 woodcuts. The text came primarily from the source used in the Heldenbuch of Diebolt von Hanow (MS c). It was subsequently reprinted, with variations and different woodcuts, by others in 1491, 1509, 1545, 1560 and 1590. The Strassburg Heldenbuch

6120-440: The late Middle Ages". King Ortnit of Lambarten ( Lombardy ) abducts Liebgarte, the daughter of King Machorel. Under the guise of an attempt at reconciliation, Machorel sends Ortnit two dragon eggs, and the dragons terrorise the kingdom after they hatch. After a year Ortnit sets out to defeat the dragons, but is caught asleep and killed by them. His widow is forced into seclusion, to await the birth of Ortnit's avenger. Wolfdietrich

6210-415: The maintenance of their own power. The arrival of the Huns helped prompt many groups to invade the provinces for economic reasons. The nature of the barbarian takeover of former Roman provinces varied from region to region. For example, in Aquitaine , the provincial administration was largely self-reliant. Halsall has argued that local rulers simply "handed over" military rule to the Ostrogoths , acquiring

6300-444: The meantime, he sails to Greece, where after a successful siege of his brothers he has Sabene executed and rewards his faithful vassals. He then returns to Lambarten. After twelve years of marriage, Wolfdietrich moves to a monastery, where devils torment him until his death. Various theories have attempted to connect Wolfdietrich (and his father Hugdietrich) with historical persons from the Germanic Migration Period : However, there

6390-508: The medieval and early modern period. Though Wolfdietrich and Ortnit do not seem originally to have been among the legends surrounding Theodoric the Great , the Dietrich von Bern cycle, Wolfdietrich became identified as the grandfather of Dietrich, and material from the two stories found its way into a number of Dietrich tales, including the Old Norse Thidreksaga . The story survives in four versions. Three of these (A,B,C) are largely independent of each other, and each gives Wolfdietrich

6480-649: The next millennium. The following centuries saw the Muslims successful in conquering most of Sicily from the Christians by 902. The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin from around AD 895 and the subsequent Hungarian invasions of Europe and the Viking expansion from the late 8th century conventionally mark the last large migration movements of the period. Christian missionaries from Ireland,

6570-430: The ninth century, the central Balkans (corresponding to modern Kosovo, Serbia and Macedonia) and the area of southern and central Albania became invaded and settled by Bulgars. During the early Byzantine–Arab Wars , Arab armies attempted to invade southeast Europe via Asia Minor during the late 7th and early 8th centuries but were defeated at the siege of Constantinople (717–718) by the joint forces of Byzantium and

6660-726: The opposite coast of the Baltic Sea , moving up the Vistula near the Carpathian Mountains . During Tacitus ' era they included lesser-known tribes such as the Tencteri , Cherusci , Hermunduri and Chatti ; however, a period of federation and intermarriage resulted in the familiar groups known as the Alemanni , Franks , Saxons , Frisians and Thuringians . The first wave of invasions, between AD 300 and 500,

6750-502: The politics of an empire already falling apart for quite a few other causes". Goffart argues that the process of settlement was connected to hospitalitas , the Roman practice of quartering soldiers among the civilian population. The Romans, by granting land and the right to levy taxes to allied (Germanic) armies, hoped to reduce the financial burdens of the empire. The Crisis of the Third Century caused significant changes within

6840-422: The provinces, which may explain why the provinces then underwent dramatic cultural changes even though few barbarians settled in them. Ultimately, the Germanic groups in the Western Roman Empire were accommodated without "dispossessing or overturning indigenous society", and they maintained a structured and hierarchical (but attenuated) form of Roman administration. Ironically, they lost their unique identity as

6930-431: The ramparts. That night, however, Alberich steals into the castle and throws the bows and arrows into the moat. Believing this to be the work of the devil, the heathens pressure the queen to let Ortnit have her daughter. But the king rejects the suggestion angrily. The next day, battle is joined. Distressed at the battle and the danger to her father's life, the princess prays to Apollo and Mohammed . Alberich pretends to be

7020-504: The remaining 101 strophes (A2) show a more condensed narration by a continuator using material from the tradition of Wolfdietrich B. The end of the story is missing in the Ambraser Heldenbuch (it ends as Wolfdieterich's sword breaks in his fight against the dragon), but can be reconstructed from the Dresden Heldenbuch of 1472, which draws on the same source as MS A. Wolfdietrich B ("Wolfdietrich of Saloniki") greatly expands

7110-482: The resident Celts west to the Rhine around 200 BC), moving into southern Germany up to the Roman provinces of Gaul and Cisalpine Gaul by 100 BC, where they were stopped by Gaius Marius and later by Julius Caesar . It is this western group which was described by the Roman historian Tacitus (AD 56–117) and Julius Caesar (100–44 BC). A later wave of Germanic tribes migrated eastward and southward from Scandinavia, between 600 and 300 BC, to

7200-441: The resulting rhyme scheme ABABCDCD . This necessarily involved considerable rewriting of the text: Ortnit D, Augsburger Heldenbuch, 1491 2. Ez saß do in lam parten Ein edeler künig reych Auff einer burg hieß garten Man fandt nit seinem geleych Man nannt in her ot niten Als ichs vernomen han Man fandt zuo den ge zeyten Kein fürsten so lobe san There ruled in Lombardy A rich and noble king In

7290-412: The resulting rhyme scheme ABABCDCD. This necessarily involved considerable rewriting of the text: Wolfdietrich D, Strassburger Heldenbuch, 1479 6. Zuo constantinopel für ware da saß ein künig reich er was gewaltig zware der hieß Hugdiete reich auff von kindes jugent kund der künig wol leben durh got und durch sein tugent beide lihen und auch geben In Constantinople it

7380-414: The second, Wolfdietrich, deprived of his inheritance by two brothers and an evil counsellor, sets out to seek Ortnit's help but, finding he has been killed, avenges him by killing the dragons, he then defeats his brothers and the counsellor, and marries Ortnit's widow. While the earliest version is similar to other heroic epics such as the Nibelungenlied , the tale gradually accretes more episodes, becoming

7470-569: The sons threaten to resist violently any claim for tribute, Hugdietrich, in order to save lives, pays in gold. However, Wolfdietrich warns that when he is full grown he will challenge Ortnit. After Wolfdietrich has married Sigeminne, he decides to follow up his earlier threat to challenge Ortnit. He defeats Ortnit in battle, the two are then reconciled. When Sigeminne is abducted, Ortnit offers to help and they succeed in rescuing her. Ortnit returns home to find his land being terrorised by two dragons and two giants, Velle and his wife Runze. After killing

7560-511: The stimulus for forming tribal polities was perpetuated by a small nucleus of people, known as the Traditionskern ("kernel of tradition"), who were a military or aristocratic elite. This core group formed a standard for larger units, gathering adherents by employing amalgamative metaphors such as kinship and aboriginal commonality and claiming that they perpetuated an ancient, divinely-sanctioned lineage. The common, track-filled map of

7650-457: The stories are integrated: Wolfdietrich meets Ortnit, defeats him in battle and gains his friendship; Ortnit later kills two giants and a dragon but is then killed in his sleep by a second dragon. I. (Strophes 1–69) In his castle at Garda, King Ortnit of Lambarten ( Lombardy ) tells his vassals that he means to seek a wife, and one of them, his uncle Ilyas , King of Russia, mentions the beautiful daughter of Machorel of Muntabur ( Mount Tabor ),

7740-425: The story of Wolfdietrich's youth. Wolfdietrich C ("Wolfdietrich of Athens") survives only in five widely spread fragments, one of which is now missing. Wolfdietrich D is the most extensive version (hence "The Large Wolfdietrich") and combines material from versions B and C as well as a further, unknown version related to B. With 10 manuscripts and six printed editions it is "one of the great literary successes of

7830-475: The term to refer to discrete ethnic groups. He also believed that the Volk were an organic whole, with a core identity and spirit evident in art, literature and language. These characteristics were seen as intrinsic, unaffected by external influences, even conquest. Language, in particular, was seen as the most important expression of ethnicity. They argued that groups sharing the same (or similar) language possessed

7920-454: The uniqueness perceived by specific groups was based on common political and economic interests rather than biological or racial distinctions. Indeed, on this basis, some schools of thought in recent scholarship urge that the concept of Germanic peoples be jettisoned altogether. The role of language in constructing and maintaining group identity can be ephemeral since large-scale language shifts occur commonly in history. Modernists propose

8010-480: The work of a single author. The bride-quest and dragon motifs come from older oral traditions , but a strong crusading element in the journey to the Levant and defeat of a heathen army reflects the concerns of the 13th century. There is no consensus about the origins of the figure of Ortnit himself. With a dozen manuscripts, six printed editions and a theatrical adaptation, the story remained popular right up until

8100-472: Was used as the source for a dramatic trilogy by Jakob Ayrer published in 1618: Ortnit Ortnit is the eponymous protagonist of the Middle High German heroic epic Ortnit . First written down in strophic form in around 1230 by an anonymous author, it circulated in a number of distinct versions. In the earliest version, King Ortnit sets out on an expedition to make the daughter of

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