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98-438: Þiðreks saga af Bern ('the saga of Þiðrekr of Bern', sometimes Thidrekssaga or Thidreks saga in English) is an Old Norse saga that collects almost all Germanic heroic legends known from Germany into a single narrative. At the center of this narrative is the biography of the hero Dietrich von Bern ( Old Norse : Þiðrekr af Bern ). Most scholars believe that the saga was probably composed in Bergen , Norway , at

196-696: A dialect continuum , with no clear geographical boundary between them. Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway , although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, and Old West Norse traits were found in western Sweden . In what is present-day Denmark and Sweden, most speakers spoke Old East Norse. Though Old Gutnish is sometimes included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations, it developed its own unique features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th-century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes , Norwegians , Icelanders , and Danes spoke

294-589: A "composition theory:" that the compiler of the saga relied on various written sources as well as oral sources. Long-standing controversy exists as to what genre the Þiðreks saga belongs to, chivalric saga or legendary saga . On the one hand, it contains legendary stories; on the other, it does not take place vaguely in a legendary past but after the death of Constantine the Great , involves concrete, European geography, and includes King Arthur and Apollonius of Tyre among its characters. The dominant scholarly theory

392-727: A change known as Holtzmann's law . An epenthetic vowel became popular by 1200 in Old Danish, 1250 in Old Swedish and Old Norwegian, and 1300 in Old Icelandic. An unstressed vowel was used which varied by dialect. Old Norwegian exhibited all three: /u/ was used in West Norwegian south of Bergen , as in aftur , aftor (older aptr ); North of Bergen, /i/ appeared in aftir , after ; and East Norwegian used /a/ , after , aftær . Old Norse

490-813: A dragon. The Swedish Didriks Krönika also influenced other texts produced on Dietrich von Bern and the Nibelungen in Scandinavia. In particular, Jonas Venusinus produced the Hvenske Krønike in Latin sometime after 1550, which transports the fall of Burgundians as told in the Didriks Krönika to his home island of Ven in the Øresund ; the Hvenske Krønike was translated into Danish in 1603 by Anders Sørensen Vedel . The Didriks Krönika also had considerable influence on Swedish historiography as

588-417: A female raven or a male crow. All neuter words have identical nominative and accusative forms, and all feminine words have identical nominative and accusative plurals. The gender of some words' plurals does not agree with that of their singulars, such as lim and mund . Some words, such as hungr , have multiple genders, evidenced by their determiners being declined in different genders within

686-412: A front vowel to be split into a semivowel-vowel sequence before a back vowel in the following syllable. While West Norse only broke /e/ , East Norse also broke /i/ . The change was blocked by a /w/ , /l/ , or /ʀ/ preceding the potentially-broken vowel. Some /ja/ or /jɔ/ and /jaː/ or /jɔː/ result from breaking of /e/ and /eː/ respectively. When a noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb has

784-409: A given sentence. Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns were declined in four grammatical cases – nominative , accusative , genitive , and dative  – in singular and plural numbers. Adjectives and pronouns were additionally declined in three grammatical genders. Some pronouns (first and second person) could have dual number in addition to singular and plural. The genitive

882-584: A long vowel or diphthong in the accented syllable and its stem ends in a single l , n , or s , the r (or the elder r - or z -variant ʀ ) in an ending is assimilated. When the accented vowel is short, the ending is dropped. The nominative of the strong masculine declension and some i-stem feminine nouns uses one such -r (ʀ). Óðin-r ( Óðin-ʀ ) becomes Óðinn instead of * Óðinr ( * Óðinʀ ). The verb blása ('to blow'), has third person present tense blæss ('[he] blows') rather than * blæsr ( * blæsʀ ). Similarly,

980-474: A noun must mirror the gender of that noun , so that one says, " heill maðr! " but, " heilt barn! ". As in other languages, the grammatical gender of an impersonal noun is generally unrelated to an expected natural gender of that noun. While indeed karl , "man" is masculine, kona , "woman", is feminine, and hús , "house", is neuter, so also are hrafn and kráka , for "raven" and "crow", masculine and feminine respectively, even in reference to

1078-476: A similar development influenced by Middle Low German . Various languages unrelated to Old Norse and others not closely related have been heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman language ; to a lesser extent, Finnish and Estonian . Russian, Ukrainian , Belarusian , Lithuanian and Latvian also have a few Norse loanwords. The words Rus and Russia , according to one theory, may be named after

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1176-431: A supra-regional literary language ( mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache ) based on Swabian , an Alemannic dialect. This historical interpretation is complicated by the tendency of modern editions of MHG texts to use normalised spellings based on this variety (usually called "Classical MHG"), which make the written language appear more consistent than it actually is in the manuscripts. Scholars are uncertain as to whether

1274-608: A voiced velar fricative [ɣ] in all cases, and others have that realisation only in the middle of words and between vowels (with it otherwise being realised [ɡ] ). The Old East Norse /ʀ/ was an apical consonant , with its precise position unknown; it is reconstructed as a palatal sibilant . It descended from Proto-Germanic /z/ and eventually developed into /r/ , as had already occurred in Old West Norse. The consonant digraphs ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ occurred word-initially. It

1372-467: A vowel or semivowel of a different vowel backness . In the case of i-umlaut and ʀ-umlaut , this entails a fronting of back vowels, with retention of lip rounding. In the case of u-umlaut , this entails labialization of unrounded vowels. Umlaut is phonemic and in many situations grammatically significant as a side effect of losing the Proto-Germanic morphological suffixes whose vowels created

1470-448: A word. Strong verbs ablaut the lemma 's nucleus to derive the past forms of the verb. This parallels English conjugation, where, e.g., the nucleus of sing becomes sang in the past tense and sung in the past participle. Some verbs are derived by ablaut, as the present-in-past verbs do by consequence of being derived from the past tense forms of strong verbs. Umlaut or mutation is an assimilatory process acting on vowels preceding

1568-425: Is a complete life of Dietrich von Bern ( Old Norse : Þiðrekr of Bern ). It begins by telling of Þiðrekr's grandfather and father, and then tells of Þiðrekr's youth at his father's court, where Hildebrand tutors him and he accomplishes his first heroic deeds. After his father's death, Þiðrekr leads several military campaigns: then he is exiled from his kingdom by his uncle Ermenrik, fleeing to Attila's court. There

1666-515: Is actually the devil in equine form. It rides away with him, and no one knows what happened to him after that, but the Germans believe that he received God and Mary's grace and was saved. In addition to the life of Þiðrekr, various other heroes' lives are recounted as well in various parts of the story, including Attila , Wayland the Smith (in the section called Velents þáttr smiðs ), Sigurd ,

1764-455: Is an unsuccessful attempt to return to his kingdom, during which Attila's sons and Þiðrekr's brother die. This is followed by Þiðrekr's entanglement in the downfall of the Niflings , after which Þiðrekr successfully returns to Verona and recovers his kingdom. Much later, after the death of both Hildebrand and his wife Herrad, Þiðrekr kills a dragon who had killed King Hernit of Bergara, marrying

1862-478: Is characterised by a massive rise in population, terminated by the demographic catastrophe of the Black Death (1348). Along with the rise in population comes a territorial expansion eastwards ( Ostsiedlung ), which saw German-speaking settlers colonise land previously under Slavic control. Linguistically, the transition to Early New High German is marked by four vowel changes which together produce

1960-465: Is expected to exist, such as in the male names Ragnarr , Steinarr (supposedly * Ragnarʀ , * Steinarʀ ), the result is apparently always /rː/ rather than */rʀ/ or */ʀː/ . This is observable in the Runic corpus. In Old Norse, i/j adjacent to i , e , their u-umlauts, and æ was not possible, nor u/v adjacent to u , o , their i-umlauts, and ǫ . At

2058-584: Is more common in Old West Norse in both phonemic and allophonic positions, while it only occurs sparsely in post-runic Old East Norse and even in runic Old East Norse. This is still a major difference between Swedish and Faroese and Icelandic today. Plurals of neuters do not have u-umlaut at all in Swedish, but in Faroese and Icelandic they do, for example the Faroese and Icelandic plurals of the word land , lond and lönd respectively, in contrast to

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2156-529: Is no consensus as to whether these sources were written or oral. The vocabulary of the text shows many connections to contemporary courtly culture in Germany. Most scholars agree that the adaptation was likely composed in the mid 15th century, possibly in the 1450s or 1460s. There is a disagreement whether the saga was composed in a Franciscan monastery or at Vadstena Abbey in Sweden. It has been suggested that

2254-506: Is no direct evidence that Haakon commissioned the Þiðreks saga . The saga matches the milieu of Haakon's court and adaptations in its frequent use of courtly and chivalric vocabulary. Likewise, the name of Þiðrekr's sister is Isolde , and her son is Tristram ( Tristan ), which points to courtly influence, and the influence of Arthurian literature is also found in the saga; however, Claudia Bornholdt cautions that such influence could have taken place in either Germany or Norway. The composer of

2352-502: Is roughly contemporary with the parallel German heroic epics, with only the Nibelungenlied predating it. Some scholars have argued that the Nibelungenlied itself was a source of the saga, while others have argued that a conjectured earlier Nibelungen epic was a source, and that this hypothesized epic was also the source for the second half of the Nibelungenlied . Because of the saga's localization of Attila's court at Soest , it

2450-557: Is taken to indicate a local tradition that placed the fall of the Burgundians at that Hanseatic city. The prologue of the saga states that it was composed based on the tales of German men, but its language is somewhat obscure and scholars debate what precisely this means. The prologue also mentions tales told across Scandinavia and Iceland as sources on Sigurd , the Nibelungs , and Wayland the smith . Some material may be original to

2548-566: Is that no large scale epic or prose work in Low German has survived that would show that such compilations existed in Northern Germany. On the other hand, there are many Norse examples. Arguments for an oral tradition as the source of the saga are mostly based on the prologue's mention of "tales of German men" as sources. As opposed to the traditional "translation theory" on the basis of purely oral sources, Kramarz-Bein has argued for

2646-473: Is that the Þiðreks saga was written in the same context as the chivalric sagas, namely, as a translation of courtly material from the continent; however, its manuscript transmission in Iceland is in the same contexts as the legendary sagas. Scandinavian scholars have generally been more comfortable discussing the Þiðreks saga as a chivalric saga. Susanne Kramarz-Bein and Heinrich Beck have both argued that

2744-459: Is that the nonphonemic difference between the voiced and the voiceless dental fricative is marked. The oldest texts and runic inscriptions use þ exclusively. Long vowels are denoted with acutes . Most other letters are written with the same glyph as the IPA phoneme, except as shown in the table below. Ablaut patterns are groups of vowels which are swapped, or ablauted, in the nucleus of

2842-557: Is unclear whether they were sequences of two consonants (with the first element realised as /h/ or perhaps /x/ ) or as single voiceless sonorants /l̥/ , /r̥/ and /n̥/ respectively. In Old Norwegian, Old Danish and later Old Swedish, the groups ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ were reduced to plain ⟨l⟩ , ⟨r⟩ , ⟨n⟩ , which suggests that they had most likely already been pronounced as voiceless sonorants by Old Norse times. The pronunciation of ⟨hv⟩

2940-620: Is unclear, but it may have been /xʷ/ (the Proto-Germanic pronunciation), /hʷ/ or the similar phoneme /ʍ/ . Unlike the three other digraphs, it was retained much longer in all dialects. Without ever developing into a voiceless sonorant in Icelandic, it instead underwent fortition to a plosive /kv/ , which suggests that instead of being a voiceless sonorant, it retained a stronger frication. Primary stress in Old Norse falls on

3038-509: The Völsunga saga appears to have known the Þiðreks saga as well. This includes a description of Sigurd's armor that is adopted directly from the Þiðreks saga . Old Norse scholar Klaus von See argued that the Völsunga saga was written in response to the Þiðreks saga as a "re-Scandinavianisation" of the material. The Þiðreks saga was also influential on Swedish literature even before

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3136-420: The Didriks Krönika (also: Didrikskrönikan ) or, less frequently, Didriks saga . Most scholars agree that the Didriks Krönika used the oldest extant manuscript of the Þiðreks saga (Mb) as its main source. It is possible that German and Danish sources were used as well, as various names show forms closer to their German or Low German counterparts, and the text shows some Danish linguistic forms. However, there

3234-535: The Latin alphabet , there was no standardized orthography in use in the Middle Ages. A modified version of the letter wynn called vend was used briefly for the sounds /u/ , /v/ , and /w/ . Long vowels were sometimes marked with acutes but also sometimes left unmarked or geminated. The standardized Old Norse spelling was created in the 19th century and is, for the most part, phonemic. The most notable deviation

3332-470: The Nibelungen , and Walter of Aquitaine . The section recounting Þiðrekr's avenging of Hertnit seems to have resulted from a confusion between Þiðrekr and the similarly named Wolfdietrich . The manuscripts of the Þiðreks saga are: Of these, the manuscripts Mb, A, and B are the most important. The Swedish version (Sv) is preserved in two manuscripts: The Swedish version is useful for reconstructing

3430-525: The Nibelungenlied and Dietrich epics. The main proponent of the saga having been composed in Norway today is Susanne Kramarz-Bein. She has argued that parallels in structure and content to the Karlamagnús saga and other chivalric sagas show that the saga must have been composed with its current structure at Haakon's court in Norway. One of the main arguments in favor of the saga's composition in Norway

3528-667: The Rus' people , a Norse tribe, probably from present-day east-central Sweden. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi , respectively. A number of loanwords have been introduced into Irish , many associated with fishing and sailing. A similar influence is found in Scottish Gaelic , with over one hundred loanwords estimated to be in the language, many of which are related to fishing and sailing. Old Norse vowel phonemes mostly come in pairs of long and short. The standardized orthography marks

3626-668: The word stem , so that hyrjar would be pronounced /ˈhyr.jar/ . In compound words, secondary stress falls on the second stem (e.g. lærisveinn , /ˈlɛːɾ.iˌswɛinː/ ). Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark , runic Old Norse was originally written with the Younger Futhark , which had only 16 letters. Because of the limited number of runes, several runes were used for different sounds, and long and short vowels were not distinguished in writing. Medieval runes came into use some time later. As for

3724-423: The Þiðreks saga in Old Norse is unknown; scholars debate whether he was an Icelander or a Norwegian. The composer appears to have been educated, meaning he was probably a cleric , as was the only named author of a chivalric saga, Brother Robert . Scholars are divided between those that believe that the composer of the saga translated a lost Low German original ("translation hypothesis") and those who believe that

3822-498: The Þiðreks saga af Bern a courtly chivalric saga , like Haakon's other translation projects, or a legendary saga given that it contains Germanic heroic legends. In addition to the Old Norse version, an adaptation into Old Swedish known as the Didriks Krönika was created in the mid 15th century. It is not a literal translation but an adaptation that would go on to influence further Scandinavian texts about Dietrich and

3920-498: The "translation hypothesis" is Theodore Andersson, who regards the text as more German than Norwegian. Andersson argued that the saga was originally composed in Northern Germany around 1200, arguing that the compositional principals and his proposed sources for various episodes indicated familiarity with early courtly literature such as Spielmannsepik and the Kaiserchronik (c. 1150), as well as conjectured predecessor epics for

4018-557: The 11th century in most of Old East Norse. However, the distinction still holds in Dalecarlian dialects . The dots in the following vowel table separate the oral from nasal phonemes. Note: The open or open-mid vowels may be transcribed differently: Sometime around the 13th century, /ɔ/ (spelled ⟨ǫ⟩ ) merged with /ø/ or /o/ in most dialects except Old Danish , and Icelandic where /ɔ/ ( ǫ ) merged with /ø/ . This can be determined by their distinction within

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4116-979: The 12th-century First Grammatical Treatise but not within the early 13th-century Prose Edda . The nasal vowels, also noted in the First Grammatical Treatise, are assumed to have been lost in most dialects by this time (but notably they are retained in Elfdalian and other dialects of Ovansiljan ). See Old Icelandic for the mergers of /øː/ (spelled ⟨œ⟩ ) with /ɛː/ (spelled ⟨æ⟩ ) and /ɛ/ (spelled ⟨ę⟩ ) with /e/ (spelled ⟨e⟩ ). Old Norse had three diphthong phonemes: /ɛi/ , /ɔu/ , /øy ~ ɛy/ (spelled ⟨ei⟩ , ⟨au⟩ , ⟨ey⟩ respectively). In East Norse these would monophthongize and merge with /eː/ and /øː/ , whereas in West Norse and its descendants

4214-668: The 13th century there. The age of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland is strongly contested, but Swedish settlement had spread the language into the region by the time of the Second Swedish Crusade in the 13th century at the latest. The modern descendants of the Old West Norse dialect are the West Scandinavian languages of Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , and the extinct Norn language of Orkney and Shetland , although Norwegian

4312-616: The 15th century. The earliest edition of the Norwegian Þiðreks saga , together with a Latin translation, was published by Swedish antiquitarian Johan Peringskiöld in the early 18th century as the Vilkina saga due to Peringskiöld's interest in Gothicism . Richard Wagner used it as a source for his operatic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen . Old Norse Old Norse , also referred to as Old Nordic , or Old Scandinavian ,

4410-487: The 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects : Old West Norse (Old West Nordic, often referred to as Old Norse ), Old East Norse (Old East Nordic), and Old Gutnish . Old West Norse and Old East Norse formed

4508-572: The Faroe Islands, Faroese has also been influenced by Danish. Both Middle English (especially northern English dialects within the area of the Danelaw ) and Early Scots (including Lowland Scots ) were strongly influenced by Norse and contained many Old Norse loanwords . Consequently, Modern English (including Scottish English ), inherited a significant proportion of its vocabulary directly from Norse. The development of Norman French

4606-405: The Nibelungen. The Þiðreks saga is a compilation of legends about almost all known heroes from continental Germanic heroic legend into a single text; it also includes other narratives that were closely associated with such legends. Some of the legends have no extant German counterpart. It also contains material from fairy tales, folktales, and Spielmannsdichtung . At the centre of Þiðreks saga

4704-473: The Swedish plural land and numerous other examples. That also applies to almost all feminine nouns, for example the largest feminine noun group, the o-stem nouns (except the Swedish noun jord mentioned above), and even i-stem nouns and root nouns , such as Old West Norse mǫrk ( mörk in Icelandic) in comparison with Modern and Old Swedish mark . Vowel breaking, or fracture, caused

4802-440: The Swedish version likewise all have different arrangements of the sub-sagas. Germanist Thomas Klein argued for a three-part structure of the saga, in which part one shows the youth and bringing together of the heroes, part two focuses on marriage, and part three shows death and old age. This basic structure is also supported by Susanne Kramarz-Bein. The Þiðreks saga also exists in a late medieval Old Swedish adaptation, known as

4900-435: The approximate values of /ei/ , /iə/ , /ou/ , /øy/ , /eu/ , /yə/ , /uə/ , respectively. Middle High German pronouns of the first person refer to the speaker; those of the second person refer to an addressed person; and those of the third person refer to a person or thing of which one speaks. The pronouns of the third person may be used to replace nominal phrases . These have the same genders , numbers and cases as

4998-541: The beginning of words, this manifested as a dropping of the initial /j/ (which was general, independent of the following vowel) or /v/ . Compare ON orð , úlfr , ár with English word, wolf, year . In inflections, this manifested as the dropping of the inflectional vowels. Thus, klæði + dat -i remains klæði , and sjáum in Icelandic progressed to sjǫ́um > sjǫ́m > sjám . The * jj and * ww of Proto-Germanic became ggj and ggv respectively in Old Norse,

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5096-411: The cluster */Crʀ/ cannot be realized as /Crː/ , nor as */Crʀ/ , nor as */Cʀː/ . The same shortening as in vetr also occurs in lax = laks ('salmon') (as opposed to * lakss , * laksʀ ), botn ('bottom') (as opposed to * botnn , * botnʀ ), and jarl (as opposed to * jarll , * jarlʀ ). Furthermore, wherever the cluster */rʀ/

5194-539: The compiler, having been put together using various motifs found in other heroic tales. Most scholars believe that the saga was probably composed in Bergen , Norway , at the court of king Haakon IV , sometime around 1250. Haakon had important Danish-Saxon dynastic connections, as his son Magnus VI was married to Ingeborg , a Danish-Saxon princess, and his chancery also included a number of clerics of German origin, who could have acted as intermediaries for material from

5292-511: The continent. Additionally, Bergen was an import trading center for the North German Hanseatic League , who had merchants that resided there and could have brought German stories to Norway. The composition of a saga based on German materials fits into the larger project of importing courtly literature under Haakon, which also resulted in the adaptation of the chivalric sagas from mostly French sources. However, there

5390-545: The court of king Haakon IV , sometime around 1250. Scholars are divided between those that believe that the composer translated a lost Low German original ("translation hypothesis") and those who believe that the sources were mostly oral and conveyed to Norway by merchants of the Hanseatic League , only being joined together in Norway ("compilation hypothesis"). The saga contains a number of otherwise unknown German legends. Controversy exists as to whether to consider

5488-449: The diphthongs remained. Old Norse has six plosive phonemes, /p/ being rare word-initially and /d/ and /b/ pronounced as voiced fricative allophones between vowels except in compound words (e.g. veðrabati ), already in the Proto-Germanic language (e.g. * b *[β] > [v] between vowels). The /ɡ/ phoneme was pronounced as [ɡ] after an /n/ or another /ɡ/ and as [k] before /s/ and /t/ . Some accounts have it

5586-688: The example of Good King Arthur who with knightly spirit knew how to strive for praise. In his day He lived so well That he wore the crown of honour And his name still does so. The truth of this is known To his countrymen: They affirm that he still lives today: He won such fame that Although his body died His name lives on. Of sinful shame He will forever be free Who follows his example. Commentary: This text shows many typical features of Middle High German poetic language. Most Middle High German words survive into modern German in some form or other: this passage contains only one word ( jehen 'say' 14) which has since disappeared from

5684-619: The exception of Thuringian, the East Central German dialects are new dialects resulting from the Ostsiedlung and arise towards the end of the period. Middle High German texts are written in the Latin alphabet . There was no standardised spelling, but modern editions generally standardise according to a set of conventions established by Karl Lachmann in the 19th century. There are several important features in this standardised orthography which are not characteristics of

5782-456: The following consonant spellings: The charts show the vowel and consonant systems of classical MHG. The spellings indicated are the standard spellings used in modern editions; there is much more variation in the manuscripts. Notes: MHG diphthongs are indicated by the spellings ⟨ei⟩ , ⟨ie⟩ , ⟨ou⟩ , ⟨öu⟩ and ⟨eu⟩ , ⟨üe⟩ , ⟨uo⟩ , and they have

5880-507: The following vowel spellings: Grammars (as opposed to textual editions) often distinguish between ⟨ë⟩ and ⟨e⟩ , the former indicating the mid-open /ɛ/ which derived from Germanic /e/ , the latter (often with a dot beneath it) indicating the mid-close /e/ which results from primary umlaut of short /a/ . No such orthographic distinction is made in MHG manuscripts. The standardised orthography of MHG editions uses

5978-1113: The impetus for this set of social changes came largely from France, many of the new words were either loans from French or influenced by French terms. The French loans mainly cover the areas of chivalry, warfare and equipment, entertainment, and luxury goods: Two highly productive suffixes were borrowed from French in this period: The text is the opening of Hartmann von Aue 's Iwein ( c.  1200 ) Swer an rehte güete wendet sîn gemüete, dem volget sælde und êre. des gît gewisse lêre künec Artûs der guote, der mit rîters muote nâch lobe kunde strîten. er hât bî sînen zîten gelebet alsô schône daz er der êren krône dô truoc und noch sîn name treit. des habent die wârheit sîne lantliute: sî jehent er lebe noch hiute: er hât den lop erworben, ist im der lîp erstorben, sô lebet doch iemer sîn name. er ist lasterlîcher schame iemer vil gar erwert, der noch nâch sînem site vert. [1] [5] [10] [15] [20] Whoever to true goodness Turns his mind He will meet with fortune and honour. We are taught this by

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6076-401: The language. But many words have changed their meaning substantially. Muot (6) means 'state of mind' (cognates with mood ), where modern German Mut means courage. Êre (3) can be translated with 'honour', but is quite a different concept of honour from modern German Ehre ; the medieval term focuses on reputation and the respect accorded to status in society. The text

6174-584: The literary language reflected a supra-regional spoken language of the courts. An important development in this period was the Ostsiedlung , the eastward expansion of German settlement beyond the Elbe - Saale line which marked the limit of Old High German . This process started in the 11th century, and all the East Central German dialects are a result of this expansion. "Judeo-German",

6272-562: The localization of the Huns in the North-German Duchy of Saxony could be related to these northern political, potentially pro- Welf leanings. The Þiðreks saga is divided into books, which are also referred to as sagas. Various proposals have been made about the original arrangement of the material. The scribes Mb2 and Mb3 of the oldest manuscript Mb follow different arrangements of the books and chapters. The manuscripts A, B, and

6370-399: The long vowels with an acute accent. In medieval manuscripts, it is often unmarked but sometimes marked with an accent or through gemination . Old Norse had nasalized versions of all ten vowel places. These occurred as allophones of the vowels before nasal consonants and in places where a nasal had followed it in an older form of the word, before it was absorbed into a neighboring sound. If

6468-524: The material. One of main differences between the redactions is the placement of the section called "Vilkina saga": in Mb2 “Vilkina saga” is placed early in the text, whereas Mb3 has placed it later, in a section largely concerning other marriages of heroes (as a result, "Vilkina saga" appears twice in Mb). Mb3 has inserted two sections, Sigurd's youth and a long description of the various heroes after Thidrek's feast, into

6566-730: The most conservative language, such that in present-day Iceland, schoolchildren are able to read the 12th-century Icelandic sagas in the original language (in editions with normalised spelling). Old Icelandic was very close to Old Norwegian , and together they formed Old West Norse , which was also spoken in Norse settlements in Greenland , the Faroes , Ireland , Scotland , the Isle of Man , northwest England, and in Normandy . Old East Norse

6664-514: The nasal was absorbed by a stressed vowel, it would also lengthen the vowel. This nasalization also occurred in the other Germanic languages, but were not retained long. They were noted in the First Grammatical Treatise , and otherwise might have remained unknown. The First Grammarian marked these with a dot above the letter. This notation did not catch on, and would soon be obsolete. Nasal and oral vowels probably merged around

6762-726: The neuter singular, is used only with prepositions : von diu , ze diu , etc. In all the other genders and in the plural it is substituted with the dative: von dëm , von dër , von dën . Middle High German nouns were declined according to four cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative ), two numbers (singular and plural ) and three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), much like Modern High German, though there are several important differences. Verbs were conjugated according to three moods ( indicative , subjunctive (conjunctive) and imperative ), three persons, two numbers (singular and plural ) and two tenses ( present tense and preterite ) There

6860-485: The original manuscripts : A particular problem is that many manuscripts are of much later date than the works they contain; as a result, they bear the signs of later scribes having modified the spellings, with greater or lesser consistency, in accord with conventions of their time. In addition, there is considerable regional variation in the spellings that appear in the original texts, which modern editions largely conceal. The standardised orthography of MHG editions uses

6958-435: The original nominal phrase. The possessive pronouns mîn, dîn, sîn, ir, unser, iuwer are used like adjectives and hence take on adjective endings following the normal rules. The inflected forms of the article depend on the number, the case and the gender of the corresponding noun. The definite article has the same plural forms for all three genders. Definite article (strong) The instrumental case , only existing in

7056-641: The other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, and Gaelic ( Scottish and/or Irish ). Although Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have diverged the most, they still retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, particularly if speaking slowly. The languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders. This could be because these languages have been mutually affected by each other, as well as having

7154-596: The phonemic system of modern German, though not all dialects participated equally in these changes: The centres of culture in the ENHG period are no longer the courts but the towns. The dialect map of Germany by the end of the Middle High German period was much the same as that at the start of the 20th century, though the boundary with Low German was further south than it now is: Central German ( Mitteldeutsch ) Upper German ( Oberdeutsch ) With

7252-523: The precursor of the Yiddish language, is attested in the 12th–13th centuries, as a variety of Middle High German written in Hebrew characters. The Middle High German period is generally dated from 1050 to 1350. An older view puts the boundary with (Early) New High German around 1500. There are several phonological criteria which separate MHG from the preceding Old High German period: Culturally,

7350-536: The root vowel, ǫ , is short. The clusters */Clʀ, Csʀ, Cnʀ, Crʀ/ cannot yield */Clː, Csː, Cnː, Crː/ respectively, instead /Cl, Cs, Cn, Cr/ . The effect of this shortening can result in the lack of distinction between some forms of the noun. In the case of vetr ('winter'), the nominative and accusative singular and plural forms are identical. The nominative singular and nominative and accusative plural would otherwise have been OWN * vetrr , OEN * wintrʀ . These forms are impossible because

7448-486: The saga greatly. Episodes not connected to the main plot have been removed and others reduced to only what is essential for the main plot. The adapter has also made additions to the text in some places and sought to remove contradictions from his Norwegian source. The Þiðreks saga was an important influence on the chivalric sagas written after it, including Erex saga , Mágus saga jarls , Kirialax saga , Blómstrvallasaga , and Samsons saga fagra . The author of

7546-446: The saga identified the country of Vilkinaland with Sweden and so its line of kings was added to the Swedish line of kings. In spite of the fact that the early scholar Olaus Petri was critical, these kings were considered to have been historic Swedish kings until fairly recent times. The historicity of the kings of Vilkinaland was further boosted in 1634 when Johannes Bureus discovered the Norwegian parchment that had arrived in Sweden in

7644-443: The saga may have been adapted under the patronage of Swedish King Charles VII . Interest in adapting the Þiðreks saga may have been sparked by the saga's portrayal of Swedish control of a large Baltic empire called "Vilcinaland", which included Swedish rule over its rival Denmark . The Didriks Krönika is not a literal translation of the Þiðreks saga but an adaptation for a contemporary Swedish public. The adapter has abbreviated

7742-420: The saga shows pro-Scandinavian leanings, exemplified in the way in which it treats the heroes Viðga , Þétleifr Danskr ( Middle High German : Dietleib von Stîre ) and Heimir : Heimir, portrayed as Swabian , is a mostly negative figure, whereas the heroes Viðga and Þétleifr, both portrayed as Danes, are given many positive traits that put them above Thidrek's other heroes. The same scholars have also argued that

7840-441: The same language, dǫnsk tunga ("Danish tongue"; speakers of Old East Norse would have said dansk tunga ). Another term was norrœnt mál ("northern speech"). Today Old Norse has developed into the modern North Germanic languages Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , Danish , Swedish , and other North Germanic varieties of which Norwegian, Danish and Swedish retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Icelandic remains

7938-467: The scene of Didrik's fight with Wideke and the latter's flight into the sea was included, along with the battles of several other biblical and legendary heroes, on the roof of Floda church in Södermanland , Sweden . An illumination in a law codex from Uppland from the mid 15th century also shows a scene from the saga: it shows the knight Sistram, identified by text, half-swallowed in the jaws of

8036-536: The sequence of chapters written by Mb2. It is possible that Mb2 had forgotten this material or else chosen to omit it. The two redactions also contain differences in the names, number (3 vs. 4 brothers), and origins of the Burgundian kings. There is no doubt that the sources of the Þiðreks saga were mostly Middle High German or Middle Low German . It is thus the only extant example of a translation from (Low) German to Old Norse. Given its dating to around 1250, it

8134-484: The sources were mostly oral and conveyed to Norway by merchants of the Hanseatic League, only being joined together in Norway ("compilation hypothesis"). There is little evidence outside of the text itself that would point either way. Most scholars adhering to the "translation hypothesis" have been German, while most adhering to the "compilation hypothesis" have been Norwegian. The most recent main proponent of

8232-409: The text where the other versions disagree. There are at least two redactions of the Old Norse Þiðreks saga , with the two main scribes of the oldest manuscript, Mb, each following a different redaction. Scribe Mb3 has followed a manuscript with a redaction similar to that found in the later Icelandic manuscripts A and B, whereas Mb2 has followed a manuscript source representing a different redaction of

8330-580: The two periods are distinguished by the transition from a predominantly clerical written culture, in which the dominant language was Latin , to one centred on the courts of the great nobles, with German gradually expanding its range of use. The rise of the Hohenstaufen dynasty in Swabia makes the South West the dominant region in both political and cultural terms. Demographically, the MHG period

8428-497: The umlaut allophones . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , /ɛ/ , /ɛː/ , /øy/ , and all /ɛi/ were obtained by i-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /o/ , /oː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , /au/ , and /ai/ respectively. Others were formed via ʀ-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , and /au/ . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , and all /ɔ/ , /ɔː/ were obtained by u-umlaut from /i/ , /iː/ , /e/ , /eː/ , and /a/ , /aː/ respectively. See Old Icelandic for information on /ɔː/ . /œ/

8526-482: The verb skína ('to shine') had present tense third person skínn (rather than * skínr , * skínʀ ); while kala ('to cool down') had present tense third person kell (rather than * kelr , * kelʀ ). The rule is not absolute, with certain counter-examples such as vinr ('friend'), which has the synonym vin , yet retains the unabsorbed version, and jǫtunn (' giant '), where assimilation takes place even though

8624-407: The vowels in brackets were dropped in rapid speech. The preterite conjugation went as follows: The present tense conjugation went as follows: The vowels in brackets were dropped in rapid speech. The preterite conjugation went as follows: In the Middle High German period, the rise of a courtly culture and the changing nature of knighthood was reflected in changes to the vocabulary. Since

8722-412: The widow and becoming king of Bergara. After Attila's death, Þiðrekr becomes king of the Huns as well. The final time he fights an opponent is to avenge the death of Heime (who had become a monk and then sworn loyalty to Þiðrekr once again). After this, he spends all his time hunting. One day, upon seeing a particularly magnificent deer, he jumped out of the bathtub and mounted a gigantic black horse – which

8820-612: The writing of the Didriks Krönika , with Dietrich being mentioned in Herr Ivan lejonriddare (1303) - one of the translated romances known as the Eufemiavisorna - and the Eric Chronicle (c. 1320-1335). Additionally, several late medieval ballads were based on material found in the Þiðreks saga . The Swedish Didriks Krönika inspired at least two pictorial depictions. Around 1480, artist Albertus Pictor included

8918-404: Was a moderately inflected language with high levels of nominal and verbal inflection. Most of the fused morphemes are retained in modern Icelandic, especially in regard to noun case declensions, whereas modern Norwegian in comparison has moved towards more analytical word structures. Old Norse had three grammatical genders – masculine, feminine, and neuter. Adjectives or pronouns referring to

9016-427: Was a present participle, a past participle and a verbal noun that somewhat resembles the Latin gerund , but that only existed in the genitive and dative cases. An important distinction is made between strong verbs (that exhibited ablaut ) and weak verbs (that didn't). Furthermore, there were also some irregular verbs. The present tense conjugation went as follows: The bold vowels demonstrate umlaut ;

9114-566: Was a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age , the Christianization of Scandinavia , and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 8th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by

9212-400: Was also influenced by Norse. Through Norman, to a smaller extent, so was modern French. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system. Contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the vowel phonemes, has changed at least as much in Icelandic as in

9310-583: Was heavily influenced by the East dialect, and is today more similar to East Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish) than to Icelandic and Faroese. The descendants of the Old East Norse dialect are the East Scandinavian languages of Danish and Swedish . Among these, the grammar of Icelandic and Faroese have changed the least from Old Norse in the last thousand years, though their pronunciations both have changed considerably from Old Norse. With Danish rule of

9408-535: Was obtained through a simultaneous u- and i-umlaut of /a/ . It appears in words like gøra ( gjǫra , geyra ), from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną , and commonly in verbs with a velar consonant before the suffix like søkkva < *sankwijaną . OEN often preserves the original value of the vowel directly preceding runic ʀ while OWN receives ʀ-umlaut. Compare runic OEN glaʀ, haʀi, hrauʀ with OWN gler, heri (later héri ), hrøyrr/hreyrr ("glass", "hare", "pile of rocks"). U-umlaut

9506-766: Was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, Kievan Rus' , eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language , ranging from Vinland in the West to the Volga River in the East. In Kievan Rus' , it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod , probably lasting into

9604-411: Was used partitively and in compounds and kennings (e.g., Urðarbrunnr , the well of Urðr; Lokasenna , the gibing of Loki). There were several classes of nouns within each gender. The following is an example of the "strong" inflectional paradigms : Middle High German While there is no standard MHG, the prestige of the Hohenstaufen court gave rise in the late 12th century to

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