Detailed attestations of heroic traditions are only found in writing. These written attestations cannot be assumed to be identical to the oral tradition, but represent adaptations of it, undertaken by a particular author at a particular time and place. All of them, but particularly the earlier attestations, were created by and for an audience that already knew the heroic tradition rather than one who was being informed about its contents; they are thus often difficult for modern readers to understand, often contradictory with other attestations, and rarely tell an entire story. No surviving text of Germanic legend appears to have been "oral," but rather all appear to have been conceived as written texts. The oral tradition also continued outside and alongside of the written medium. More recent written compositions can thus contain very old material or legendary variants; conversely, older texts do not necessarily convey an older or more authentic version of the tradition. Written versions of heroic legend are not confined to a single genre, but appear in various formats, including the
heroic lay, in the form of
epic, as prose
sagas, as well as theatrical plays and
ballads. Its written attestations also come from various places and time periods, including the 9th century
Carolingian Empire,
Anglo-Saxon England in the 8th and 9th centuries, Scandinavia in the 13th century, and what is now
Germany from the 12th to the 16th centuries. Heiko Uecker comments that the preserved attestations should not be considered "Germanic," but rather
Old English,
Old Norse, or
Middle High German.
Early medieval forced to drink from the skull of her father by
Alboin, after a legend recorded by
Paul the Deacon. Painted c. 1650-1660 by
Pietro della Vecchia. The Early Middle Ages produced only a few written heroic texts, as the majority of writing was on religious subjects, including in the vernacular. The 7th-century
Pforzen buckle, discovered in 1992 in an
Alemannic warrior's grave in southern Germany, has a short
runic inscription that may refer to
Egil and
Ölrun, two figures from the legend of
Wayland the smith. An early source in Latin is the
Historia Langobardorum (c. 783–796) of
Paul the Deacon: it recounts legends told among the
Lombards about their king
Alboin. The Frankish Emperor
Charlemagne (748-814) may have collected heroic poetry. His biographer
Einhard wrote that: It has traditionally been supposed that this represented a written collection of heroic poetry, and interest in heroic poetry at Charlemagne's court seems likely. However it is also possible that it was royal praise poetry of the type preserved in the
Old High German Ludwigslied. In any case, none of the purported collection has survived, unless it included the earliest extant vernacular heroic text, the
Hildebrandslied. The poem tells of the battle of the hero
Hildebrand with his own son Hadubrand and alludes to many of the traditions that will later surround Theodoric the Great/
Dietrich von Bern. Some potential references to written heroic poems are found in 9th-century monastic library catalogues, and the chronicler
Flodoard of Reims (c.893–966) mentions a written narrative about
Ermanaric. , from the 9th c.
Viking Age Scandinavia is traditionally believed to have produced a number of poems on heroic subjects in this period, but they were not written down until the 13th century. Although more recent scholarship has challenged the age of most of the surviving written poems, it remains likely that precursors to extant poems existed in the Viking Age. A single stanza on the 9th-century
Rök runestone from
Östergötland, Sweden, also mentions Dietrich/Theodoric. Anglo-Saxon England, which had a larger written culture than the continent, also produced several texts on heroic subjects, including the only vernacular
heroic epic of the time period,
Beowulf.
Beowulf deals with the legends of the
Scyldings, the ancestors of the Danish royal house, although it is debated whether Beowulf himself is a traditional or invented figure. The poem
Widsið is the first person narrator of a
scop who describes his travels. The lay is attested in the 10th century
Exeter book; it has traditionally been dated to the 7th century but this early dating has been questioned. The lay presents a catalogue of the names of 180 rulers and tribes from heroic legend, occasionally providing some details of a narrative, such as that of the Scyldings and of Eormanric (
Ermanaric). Another poem by a fictional ,
Deor, presents itself as the narrative of Deor, who has lost his position at court to the Heorrenda, a famous singer from the legend of
Hildr, and contains several other allusions to heroic material, such as to the legend of
Wayland the Smith. The legend of
Walter of Aquitaine is told in the fragmentary
Waldere, which also includes mentions of the fights of the heroes Ðeodric (Dietrich von Bern) and Widia (
Witege), son of Wayland, against giants. The
Finnesburg Fragment tells a story, also relayed in
Beowulf of a surprise attack led by the Frisian king
Finn on visiting Danes led by his brother-in-law, the Danish king Hnæf. It is not clear if Finnesburg Fragment is an old poem or a recent composition, nor how long it originally was. A number of brief mentions in Latin ecclesiastical texts indicate the popularity of heroic traditions among the early medieval clergy while simultaneously condemning it as a distraction from salvation. This popularity led to the writing of the Latin epic
Waltharius (9th or 10th century) in the area around
Lake Constance, which reworked the legend of Walter of Aquitaine. A number of early medieval Latin chronicles also contain material from the heroic tradition.
Widukind of Corvey's
The Deeds of the Saxons contains what is commonly taken to be a lost legend about the last independent king of the
Thuringians,
Hermanafrid, and his death at the hands of his vassal Iring at the instigation of
Theuderic I, king of the
Franks. The
Annals of Quedlinburg (early 11th century), includes legendary material about
Dietrich von Bern,
Ermanaric, and
Attila in the guise of history.
High and late medieval Scandinavian (harpa or hörpu in Old Norse) while dying in a snake pit at
Hylestad Stave Church, c. 1200. The scene is narrated in the Eddic poem
Atlakviða. Some of the oldest written Scandinavian sources relate to the same heroic matter as found in
Beowulf, namely
Langfeðgatal (12th c.), the
Lejre Chronicle (late 12th c.),
Short History of the Kings of Denmark (c. 1188), and the
Gesta Danorum by
Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200). At this time in
Iceland, the now lost
Skjöldunga saga was written, c. 1200, and like parts of
Gesta Danorum and
Beowulf it dealt with the legendary Danish
Scylding (Skjöldung) dynasty, and it would be the main source for future sagas on the Danish Scylding dynasty's relations with its Swedish
Scylfing (Yngling) counterpart. Sometime c. 1220–1230,
Snorri Sturluson finished writing the
Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings, having previously spent two years in
Norway and
Sweden (1218–20). In the saga, Snorri fleshes out the skaldic poem
Ynglingatal with Scandinavian heroic legends relating to the Norse kings, such as the 6th c. Swedish king
Aðils, about whom it includes native legends related to some of those found in
Beowulf. Snorri is also the author of the
Prose Edda (c. 1220–1241). It contains a part called
Skáldskaparmál that has a list of
kennings and
heitis for young poets, and he provided it with narratives to provide background for them. The
Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse mythological and heroic poems that was probably first compiled in the mid-13th century in Iceland and is known from two major manuscripts today, of which the
Codex Regius (c. 1270) is the most important. The Codex Regius groups mythological poems into a first section and a series of 19 heroic poems into a second; scholars believe that the two sections of poems likely come from two originally separate written collections. Although the legends in Poetic Edda are very old, the poems themselves come from different times, and some may have been written in the 13th century: normally the poems
Völundarkviða and
Atlakviða are believed to be from the
Viking Age, while the three lays concerning
Gudrun, the
Atlamál, and
Helreið Brynhildar are thought to be very recent. Some poems, such as
Hamðismál, are judged to be old by some scholars and recent by others. The heroic poems open with 3 concerning Sigurd's half brother
Helgi Hundingsbane, continue with a group of lays about Sigurd, followed by a group about the destruction of the Burgundians, and close with lays about
Svanhildr and Jörmunrekkr (Ermanaric), all loosely connected via short prose passages and through the figures of Sigurd and Gudrun. of eight heroes, including Dietrich von Bern fighting against Witege from the
Þiðreks saga, found on the vault of
Floda church in
Södermanland, Sweden, painted around 1479. Dietrich is breathing fire and is found in the lower part of the image. In the mid-13th century,
legendary sagas () began to be written in the Old Norse vernacular, some of which derive from Scandinavian and Germanic heroic legends. Those sagas which contain older heroic legend are given the German name ("heroic sagas") in modern scholarly usage. Much of the content of these sagas is derived from Eddic poems, and other elements likely derive from then current oral tradition. Some may be additions of the saga authors. Traditionally, six sagas are counted as :
Völsunga saga,
Norna-Gests þáttr,
Hervarar saga,
Hrólfs saga kraka,
Sǫgubrot af nokkrum fornkonungum, and
Ásmundar saga kappabana. The best-known today, the
Völsunga saga, was probably written in Norway and shows knowledge of the
Þiðreks saga (see below): it narrates the story of Sigurd and his ancestors, the destruction of the Burgundians, and the death of Jörmunrekr (Ermanaric), moving their location to Scandinavia and including many mythological elements. The
Hrólfs saga kraka may be the second best-known legendary saga. It was popular in the Middle Ages, and it still is, but its modern popularity among scholars is due to it being a
Beowulf analogue, with which it shares at least eight legendary characters. The
Hervarar saga combines several different stories that are united by the handing down of the cursed sword
Tyrfing through generations. It preserves what is considered to be one of the oldest heroic lays, the
Battle of the Goths and Huns, and poetry such as the
Waking of Angantýr, the
Riddles of Gestumblindi and the
Samsey poetry. Another important source for heroic legend was the
Þiðreks saga, a compilation of heroic material mostly from northern Germany, composed in
Bergen, Norway in the mid 13th century. By its own account, it was composed from oral German sources, although it is possible that some written materials were used as well. The
Þiðreks saga is not a purely legendary saga, but also contains material about
King Arthur and
Apollonius of Tyre. It is probably part of the tradition of
chivalric sagas - translations of courtly material - initiated by king
Haakon IV of Norway. The core of the saga is the biography of the hero Dietrich von Bern (). The saga appears to assemble all of the heroic material from the continent and is thus a valuable attestations of which heroic legends were being told on the continent in the 13th century, including several that are otherwise lost.
High and late medieval German From the 11th to the 12th centuries, heroic legend on the continent is mentioned only in brief allusions. This includes a tradition of criticizing the legendary life of
Dietrich von Bern as not according with the life of the historical
Theodoric the Great, found in works such as the of
Frutolf of Michelsberg (c. 1100), the (1134-1136) of
Otto von Freising, and the vernacular
Kaiserchronik (after 1146). Allusions to heroic legends are also found in a number of vernacular literary works of
courtly romance and
poetry from the 12th century, including by
Walther von der Vogelweide,
Heinrich von Veldeke, and
Wolfram von Eschenbach. From the 13th to 16th centuries, many heroic traditions enter writing in Germany and enjoy great popularity. Werner Hoffmann defined five subjects of heroic epics in medieval Germany: the Nibelungen (
Burgundians and Siegfried), the lovers
Walther and Hildegund, the maiden
Kudrun, kings
Ortnit and
Wolfdietrich, and Dietrich von Bern. He found the heroic epics to be closely related to another genre, the so-called
Spielmannsdichtung ("minstrel poetry"). The anonymous authorship of the Middle High Germans heroic poems forms an important distinction from other poetic genres, such as romance, but is shared with
Spielmannsdichtung. Although these epics all appear to be written compositions, the amount of differences between manuscripts indicates that their texts were not fixed and that redactors could insert additional material from the oral tradition and otherwise edit the epics. Heroic poetry begins to be composed in writing in Germany with the
Nibelungenlied (c. 1200), which updated the heroic legends with elements of the popular literary genre of its time, courtly romance. The epics written after the
Nibelungenlied maintain this hybrid nature. For this reason Middle High German heroic poetry is also called "late heroic poetry" (). The
Nibelungenlied narrates the wooing of Kriemhild (
Gudrun) by the hero Siegfried, his aid to king Gunther in the latter's wooing of Brünhild (
Brunhild), Siegfried's murder at the hands of Gunther's vassal
Hagen, and Kriemhild's treacherous revenge on Hagen and her brothers after inviting them to the hall of Kriemhild's new husband, Etzel (Attila). A direct reaction to the heroic nihilism of the
Nibelungenlied is found in the
Kudrun (1230?), in which material also found in Old English and Old Norse about the heroine
Hildr serves as the prologue to the - likely invented - story of her daughter, Kudrun. in Hagen's presence. Painting by Emil Lauffer, 1879. From 1230 onward, several heroic epics, of which 14 are known to us, were written concerning the hero Dietrich von Bern, forming a literary cycle comparable to that around
King Arthur (the
Matter of Britain) or
Charlemagne (the
Matter of France). These texts are typically divided into "historical" and "fantastical" epics, depending on whether they concern Dietrich's battles with Ermenrich (Ermanaric) and exile at the court of Etzel (Attila) or his battles with mostly supernatural opponents such as
dwarfs,
dragons, and
giants. The "historical" Dietrich epic
Rabenschlacht (c. 1280) narrates the death of the sons of Etzel (Attila) and of Dietrich's brother Diether at the hands of his traitorous vassal,
Witege and may have origins in the
Battle of Nedao (454). The "fantastical" Dietrich epics are typically thought to be later material, possibly invented on the basis of earlier motifs in the 13th century, although Dietrich's battles with giants are already mentioned in the Old English
Waldere fragment. The earliest attested of the "fantastical" epics is the
Eckenlied, of which a single stanza is contained in the
Codex Buranus (c. 1230). Closely connected to the Dietrich epics, the combined epics
Ortnit and
Wolfdietrich (both c. 1230) have unclear connections to the Migration Period and may be inventions of the thirteenth century, although
Merovingian origins are also suggested for
Wolfdietrich. '': Dietrich von Bern and Hildebrand fight against dragons, with Dietrich breathing fire. UBH Cod.Pal.germ. 324 fol. 43r, (c. 1440). Almost all of the texts originate in the
Bavarian-speaking areas of Bavaria and Austria, with several texts about Dietrich von Bern having origins in
Tirol; a few others seem to have originated in the
Alemannic dialect area in modern south-west Germany and Switzerland. Evidence for the continued existence of heroic legends in what is now Northern Germany and the
Low Countries is provided by the
Þiðreks saga on the one hand, and the early modern ballad
Ermenrichs Tod (printed 1560 in
Lübeck) on the other. The latter tells a garbled version of the killing of Ermenrich (Ermanaric) also found in early medieval Latin sources and the Eddic poem
Hamðismál. Very few new heroic poems, and no new heroic epics, were written after 1300, although the existing ones remained popular. Beginning in the 14th century, heroic poems come to be collected together in so-called
Heldenbücher ("books of heroes"); the of Diebolt von Hanau (after 1475) contains a text known as the which provides a brief history of the entire heroic world. Possibly originating in the 14th century but only attested in 1530, the
Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid recorded a number of details about the hero Siegfried absent in the
Nibelungenlied but attested in Old Norse tradition. The
ballad the
Jüngeres Hildebrandslied (c. 1450) concerns the same material as the early medieval
Hildebrandslied. Finally, a number of heroic texts were adopted as carnival plays (), including by the
Nuremberg poet
Hans Sachs (1494-1564). ==Heroic poetry==