Evidence That Dieterich Of Bern Is Hadding

: THE MYTH IN REGARD TO THE LOWER WORLD.
: Teutonic Mythology

The appearance of Hamal and the Amalians on Hadding's side in the great

world war becomes a certainty from the fact that we discover among the

descendants of the continental Teutons a great cycle of sagas, all of

whose events are more or less intimately connected with the mythic

kernel: that Amalian heroes with unflinching fidelity supported a prince

who already in the tender years of his youth had been deprived of his

share of his father's kingdom, and was obliged to take flight from the

persecution of a kinsman and his assistants to the far East, where he

remained a long time, until after various fortunes of war he was able to

return, conquer, and take possession of his paternal inheritance. And

for this he was indebted to the assistance of the brave Amalians. These

are the chief points in the saga cycle about Dieterich of Bern

(thjodrekr, Thidrek, Theodericus), and the fortunes of the young

prince are, as we have thus seen, substantially the same as Hadding's.



When we compare sagas preserved by the descendants of the Teutons of the

Continent with sagas handed down to us from Scandinavian sources, we

must constantly bear in mind that the great revolution which the victory

of Christianity over Odinism produced in the Teutonic world of thought,

inasmuch as it tore down the ancient mythical structure and applied the

fragments that were fit for use as material for a new saga

structure--that this revolution required a period of more than eight

hundred years before it had conquered the last fastnesses of the Odinic

doctrine. On the one side of the slowly advancing borders between the

two religions there developed and continued a changing and

transformation of the old sagas, the main purpose of which was to

obliterate all that contained too much flavour of heathendom and was

incompatible with Christianity; while, on the other side of the borders

of faith, the old mythic songs, but little affected by the tooth of

time, still continued to live in their original form. Thus one might, to

choose the nearest example at hand, sing on the northern side of this

faith-border, where heathendom still prevailed, about how Hadding, when

the persecutions of Svipdag and his half-brother Gudhorm compelled him

to fly to the far East, there was protected by Odin, and how he through

him received the assistance of Hrutr-Heimdall; while the Christians,

on the south side of this border, sang of how Dieterich, persecuted by a

brother and the protectors of the latter, was forced to take flight to

the far East, and how he was there received by a mighty king, who, as he

could no longer be Odin, must be the mightiest king in the East ever

heard of--that is, Attila--and how Attila gave him as protector a

certain Ruediger, whose very name contains an echo of Ruther (Heimdal),

who could not, however, be the white Asa-god, Odin's faithful servant,

but must be changed into a faithful vassal and "markgrave" under Attila.

The Saxons were converted to Christianity by fire and sword in the

latter part of the eighth century. In the deep forests of Sweden

heathendom did not yield completely to Christianity before the twelfth

century. In the time of Saxo's father there were still heathen

communities in Smaland on the Danish border. It follows that Saxo must

have received the songs concerning the ancient Teutonic heroes in a far

more original form than that in which the same songs could be found in

Germany.



Hadding means "the hairy one," "the fair-haired;" Dieterich

(thjodrekr) means "the ruler of the people," "the great ruler." Both

epithets belong to one and the same saga character. Hadding is the

epithet which belongs to him as a youth, before he possessed a kingdom;

Dieterich is the epithet which represents him as the king of many

Teutonic tribes. The Vilkinsaga says of him that he had an abundant and

beautiful growth of hair, but that he never got a beard. This is

sufficient to explain the name Hadding, by which he was presumably

celebrated in song among all Teutonic tribes; for we have already seen

that Hadding is known in Anglo-Saxon poetry as Hearding, and, as we

shall see, the continental Teutons knew him not only as Dieterich, but

also as Hartung. It is also possible that the name "the hairy" has in

the myth had the same purport as the epithet "the fair-haired" has in

the Norse account of Harald, Norway's first ruler, and that Hadding of

the myth was the prototype of Harald, when the latter made the vow to

let his hair grow until he was king of all Norway (Harald Harfager's

Saga, 4). The custom of not cutting hair or beard before an exploit

resolved upon was carried out was an ancient one among the Teutons, and

so common and so sacred that it must have had foothold and prototype in

the hero-saga. Tacitus mentions it (Germania, 31); so does Paulus

Diaconus (Hist., iii. 7) and Gregorius of Tours (v. 15).



Although it had nearly ceased to be heard in the German saga cycle,

still the name Hartung has there left traces of its existence. "Anhang

des Heldenbuchs" mentions King Hartung aus Reuessenlant; that is to

say, a King Hartung who came from some land in the East. The poem

"Rosengarten" (variant D; cp. W. Grimm, D. Heldensage, 139, 253) also

mentions Hartunc, king von Riuzen. A comparison of the different

versions of "Rosengarten" with the poem "Dieterichs Flucht" shows that

the name Hartung von Riuzen in the course of time becomes Hartnit von

Riuzen and Hertnit von Riuzen, by which form of the name the hero

reappears in Vilkinasaga as a king in Russia. If we unite the scattered

features contained in these sources about Hartung we get the following

main outlines of his saga:



(a) Hartung is a king and dwells in an eastern country (all the

records).



(b) He is not, however, an independent ruler there, at least not in

the beginning, but is subject to Attila (who in the Dieterich's saga has

supplanted Odin as chief ruler in the East). He is Attila's man

("Dieterichs Flucht").



(c) A Swedish king has robbed him of his land and driven him into

exile.



(d) The Swedish king is of the race of elves, and the chief of the

same race as the celebrated Velint--that is to say, Volund

(Wayland)--belonged to (Vilkinasaga). As shall be shown later (see Nos.

108, 109), Svipdag, the banisher of Hadding, belongs to the same race.

He is Volund's nephew (brother's son).



(e) Hartung recovers, after the death of the Swedish conqueror, his

own kingdom, and also conquers that of the Swedish king (Vilkinasaga).



All these features are found in the saga of Hadding. Thus the original

identity of Hadding and Hartung is beyond doubt. We also find that

Hartung, like Dieterich, is banished from his country; that he fled,

like him, to the East; that he got, like him, Attila the king of the

East as his protector; that he thereupon returned, conquered his

enemies, and recovered his kingdom. Hadding's, Hartung's and Dieterich's

sagas are, therefore, one and the same in root and in general outline.

Below it shall also be shown that the most remarkable details are common

to them all.



I have above (No. 42) given reasons why Hamal (Amala), the

foster-brother of Halfdan Borgarson, was Hadding's assistant and general

in the war against his foes. The hero, who in the German saga has the

same place under Dieterich, is the aged "master" Hildebrand, Dieterich's

faithful companion, teacher, and commander of his troops. Can it be

demonstrated that what the German saga tells about Hildebrand reveals

threads that connect him with the saga of the original patriarchs, and

that not only his position as Dieterich's aged friend and general, but

also his genealogy, refer to this saga? And can a satisfactory

explanation be given of the reason why Hildebrand obtained in the German

Dieterich saga the same place as Hamal had in the old myth?



Hildebrand is, as his very name shows, a Hilding,[31] like Hildeger who

appears in the patriarch saga (Saxo, Hist., 356-359). Hildeger was,

according to the tradition in Saxo, the half-brother of Halfdan

Borgarson. They had the same mother Drot, but not the same father;

Hildeger counted himself a Swede on his father's side; Halfdan, Borgar's

son, considered himself as belonging to the South Scandinavians and

Danes, and hence the dying Hildeger sings to Halfdan (Hist., 357):



Danica te tellus, me Sveticus edidit orbis.

Drot tibi maternum, quondam distenderat uber;

Hac genitrici tibi pariter collacteus exto.[32]



In the German tradition Hildebrand is the son of Herbrand. The Old High

German fragment of the song, about Hildebrand's meeting with his son

Hadubrand, calls him Heribrantes sunu. Herbrand again is, according to

the poem "Wolfdieterich," Berchtung's son (concerning Berchtung, see No.

6). In a Norse tradition preserved by Saxo we find a Hilding (Hildeger)

who is Borgar's stepson; in the German tradition we find a Hilding

(Herbrand) who is Borgar-Berchtung's son. This already shows that the

German saga about Hildebrand was originally connected with the patriarch

saga about Borgar, Halfdan, and Halfdan's sons, and that the Hildings

from the beginning were akin to the Teutonic patriarchs. Borgar's

transformation from stepfather to the father of a Hilding shall be

explained below.



Hildeger's saga and Hildebrand's are also related in subject matter. The

fortunes of both the kinsmen are at the same time like each other and

the antithesis of each other. Hildeger's character is profoundly tragic;

Hildebrand is happy and secure. Hildeger complains in his death-song in

Saxo (cp. Asmund Kaempebane's saga) that he has fought with and slain his

own beloved son. In the Old High German song-fragment Hildebrand seeks,

after his return from the East, his son Hadubrand, who believed that his

father was dead and calls Hildebrand a deceiver, who has taken the dead

man's name, and forces him to fight a duel. The fragment ends before we

learn the issue of the duel; but Vilkinasaga and a ballad about

Hildebrand have preserved the tradition in regard to it. When the old

"master" has demonstrated that his Hadubrand is not yet equal to him in

arms, father and son ride side by side in peace and happiness to their

home. Both the conflicts between father and son, within the Hilding

family, are pendants and each other's antithesis. Hildeger, who

passionately loves war and combat, inflicts in his eagerness for strife

a deep wound in his own heart when he kills his own son. Hildebrand acts

wisely, prudently, and seeks to ward off and allay the son's love of

combat before the duel begins, and he is able to end it by pressing his

young opponent to his paternal bosom. On the other hand, Hildeger's

conduct toward his half-brother Halfdan, the ideal of a noble and

generous enemy, and his last words to his brother, who, ignorant of the

kinship, has given him the fatal wound, and whose mantle the dying one

wishes to wrap himself in (Asmund Kaempebane's saga), is one of the

touching scenes in the grand poems about our earliest ancestors. It

seems to have proclaimed that blood revenge was inadmissible, when a

kinsman, without being aware of the kinship, slays a kinsman, and when

the latter before he died declared his devotion to his slayer. At all

events we rediscover the aged Hildebrand as the teacher and protector of

the son of the same Halfdan who slew Hildeger, and not a word is said

about blood revenge between Halfdan's and Hildeger's descendants.



The kinship pointed out between the Teutonic patriarchs and the Hildings

has not, however, excluded a relation of subordination of the latter to

the former. In "Wolfdieterich" Hildebrand's father receives land and

fief from Dieterich's grandfather and carries his banner in war.

Hildebrand himself performs toward Dieterich those duties which are due

from a foster-father, which, as a rule, show a relation of

subordination to the real father of the foster-son. Among the kindred

families to which Dieterich and Hildebrand belong there was the same

difference of rank as between those to which Hadding and Hamal belong.

Hamal's father Hagal was Halfdan's foster-father, and, to judge from

this, occupied the position of a subordinate friend toward Halfdan's

father Borgar. Thus Halfdan and Hamal were foster-brothers, and from

this it follows that Hamal, if he survived Halfdan, was bound to assume

a foster-father's duties towards the latter's son Hadding, who was not

yet of age. Hamal's relation to Hadding is therefore entirely analagous

to Hildebrand's relation to Dieterich.



The pith of that army which attached itself to Dieterich are Amelungs,

Amalians (see "Biterolf"); that is to say, members of Hamal's race. The

oldest and most important hero, the pith of the pith, is old master

Hildebrand himself, Dieterich's foster-father and general. Persons who

in the German poems have names which refer to their Amalian birth are by

Hildebrand treated as members of a clan are treated by a clan-chief.

Thus Hildebrand brings from Sweden a princess, Amalgart, and gives her

as wife to a son of Amelolt serving among Dieterich's Amelungs, and to

Amelolt Hildebrand has already given his sister for a wife.



The question as to whether we find threads which connect the Hildebrand

of the German poem with the saga of the mythic patriarchs, and

especially with the Hamal (Amala) who appears in this saga, has now been

answered. Master Hildebrand has in the German saga-cycle received the

position and the tasks which originally belonged to Hamal, the

progenitor of the Amalians.



The relation between the kindred families--the patriarch family, the

Hilding family, and the Amal family--has certainly been just as

distinctly pointed out in the German saga-cycle as in the Norse before

the German met with a crisis, which to some extent confused the old

connection. This crisis came when Hadding-thjodrekr of the ancient

myth was confounded with the historical king of the East Goths,

Theoderich. The East Goth Theoderich counted himself as belonging to the

Amal family, which had grown out of the soil of the myth. He was,

according to Jordanes (De Goth. Orig., 14), a son of Thiudemer, who

traced his ancestry to Amal (Hamal), son of Augis (Hagal).[33] The

result of the confusion was:



(a) That Hadding-thjodrekr became the son of Thiudemer, and that his

descent from the Teuton patriarchs was cut off.



(b) That Hadding-thjodrekr himself became a descendant of Hamal,

whereby the distinction between this race of rulers--the line of

Teutonic patriarchs begun with Ruther Heimdal--together with the Amal

family, friendly but subject to the Hadding family, and the Hilding

family was partly obscured and partly abolished. Dieterich himself

became an "Amelung" like several of his heroes.



(c) That when Hamal thus was changed from an elder contemporary of

Hadding-thjodrekr into his earliest progenitor, separated from him by

several generations of time, he could no longer serve as Dieterich's

foster-father and general; but this vocation had to be transferred to

master Hildebrand, who also in the myth must have been closely connected

with Hadding, and, together with Hamal, one of his chief and constant

helpers.



(d) That Borgar-Berchtung, who in the myth is the grandfather of

Hadding-thjodrekr, must, as he was not an Amal, resign this dignity

and confine himself to being the progenitor of the Hildings. As we have

seen, he is in Saxo the progenitor of the Hilding Hildeger.



Another result of Hadding-thjodrekr's confusion with the historical

Theoderich was that Dieterich's kingdom, and the scene of various of his

exploits, was transferred to Italy: to Verona (Bern), Ravenna (Raben),

&c. Still the strong stream of the ancient myths became master of the

confused historical increments, so that the Dieterich of the saga has

but little in common with the historical Theoderich.



After the dissemination of Christianity, the hero saga of the Teutonic

myths was cut off from its roots in the mythology, and hence this

confusion was natural and necessary. Popular tradition, in which traces

were found of the historical Theoderich-Dieterich, was no longer able to

distinguish the one Dieterich from the other. A writer acquainted with

the chronicle of Jordanes took the last step and made Theoderich's

father Thiudemer the father of the mythic Hadding-thjodrekr.



Nor did the similarity of names alone encourage this blending of the

persons. There was also another reason. The historical Theoderich had

fought against Odoacer. The mythic Hadding-thjodrekr had warred with

Svipdag, the husband of Freyja, who also bore the name Odr and Ottar

(see Nos. 96-100). The latter name-form corresponds to the English and

German Otter, the Old High German Otar, a name which suggested the

historical Otacher (Odoacer). The Dieterich and Otacher of historical

traditions became identified with thjodrekr and Ottar of mythical

traditions.



As the Hadding-thjodrekr of mythology was in his tender youth exposed

to the persecutions of Ottar, and had to take flight from them to the

far East, so the Dieterich of the historical saga also had to suffer

persecutions in his tender youth from Otacher, and take flight,

accompanied by his faithful Amalians, to a kingdom in the East.

Accordingly, Hadubrand says of his father Hildebrand, that, when he

betook himself to the East with Dieterich, floh her Otachres nid, "he

fled from Otacher's hate." Therefore, Otacher soon disappears from the

German saga-cycle, for Svipdag-Ottar perishes and disappears in the

myth, long before Hadding's victory and restoration to his father's

power (see No. 106).



Odin and Heimdal, who then, according to the myth, dwelt in the East and

there became the protectors of Hadding, must, as heathen deities, be

removed from the Christian saga, and be replaced as best they could by

others. The famous ruler in the East, Attila, was better suited than

anyone else to take Odin's place, though Attila was dead before

Theoderich was born. Ruther-Heimdal was, as we have already seen,

changed into Ruediger.



The myth made Hadding dwell in the East for many years (see above). The

ten-year rule of the Vans in Asgard must end, and many other events must

occur before the epic connection of the myths permitted Hadding to

return as a victor. As a result of this, the saga of "Dieterich of Bern"

also lets him remain a long time with Attila. An old English song

preserved in the Exeter manuscript, makes Theodric remain thrittig

wintra in exile at Maeringaburg. The song about Hildebrand and Hadubrand

make him remain in exile sumaro enti wintro sehstic, and Vilkinasaga

makes him sojourn in the East thirty-two years.



Maeringaburg of the Anglo-Saxon poem is the refuge which Odin opened for

his favourite, and where the former dwelt during his exile in the East.

Maeringaburg means a citadel inhabited by noble, honoured, and splendid

persons: compare the Old Norse maeringr. But the original meaning of

maerr, Old German mara, is "glittering," "shining," "pure," and it is

possible that, before maeringr received its general signification of a

famous, honoured, noble man, it was used in the more special sense of a

man descended from "the shining one," that is to say, from Heimdal

through Borgar. However this may be, these "maeringar" have, in the

Anglo-Saxon version of the Hadding saga, had their antitheses in the

"baningar," that is, the men of Loke-Bicke (Bekki). This appears from

the expression Bekka veold Baningum, in Codex Exoniensis. The Banings

are no more than the Maerings, an historical name. The interpretation of

the word is to be sought in the Anglo-Saxon bana, the English bane.

The Banings means "the destroyers," "the corrupters," a suitable

appellation of those who follow the source of pest, the all-corrupting

Loke. In the German poems, Maeringaburg is changed to Meran, and

Borgar-Berchtung (Hadding's grandfather in the myth) is Duke of Meran.

It is his fathers who have gone to the gods that Hadding finds again

with Odin and Heimdal in the East.



Despite the confusion of the historical Theoderich with the mythic

Hadding-thjodrekr, a tradition has been handed down within the German

saga-cycle to the effect that "Dieterich of Bern" belonged to a

genealogy which Christianity had anathematised. Two of the German

Dieterich poems, "Nibelunge Noth" and "Klage," refrain from mentioning

the ancestors of their hero. Wilhelm Grimm suspects that the reason for

this is that the authors of these poems knew something about Dieterich's

descent, which they could not relate without wounding Christian ears;

and he reminds us that, when the Vilkinasaga Thidrek (Dieterich) teases

Hoegne (Hagen) by calling him the son of an elf, Hoegne answers that

Thidrek has a still worse descent, as he is the son of the devil

himself. The matter, which in Grimm's eyes is mystical, is explained by

the fact that Hadding-thjodrekr's father in the myth, Halfdan

Borgarson, was supposed to be descended from Thor, and in his capacity

of a Teutonic patriarch he had received divine worship (see Nos. 23 and

30). Anhang des Heldenbuchs says that Dieterich was the son of a

"boeser geyst."



It has already been stated (No. 38) that Hadding from Odin received a

drink which exercised a wonderful influence upon his physical nature. It

made him recreatum vegetiori corporis firmitate, and, thanks to it and

to the incantation sung over him by Odin, he was able to free himself

from the chains afterwards put on him by Loke. It has also been pointed

out that this drink contained something called Leifner's or Leifin's

flames. There is every reason for assuming that these "flames" had the

effect of enabling the person who had partaken of the potion of

Leifner's flames to free himself from his chains with his own breath.

Groa (Groagalder, 10) gives her son Svipdag "Leifner's fires" in order

that if he is chained, his enchanted limbs may be liberated (ek laet

ther Leifnis elda fyr kvedinn legg). The record of the giving of this

gift to Hadding meets us in the German saga, in the form that Dieterich

was able with his breath to burn the fetters laid upon him (see

"Laurin"), nay, when he became angry, he could breathe fire and make the

cuirass of his opponent red-hot. The tradition that Hadding by eating,

on the advice of Odin, the heart of a wild beast (Saxo says of a lion)

gained extraordinary strength, is also preserved in the form, that when

Dieterich was in distress, God sent him eines loewen krafft von

herczenlichen zoren ("Ecken Ausfarth").



Saxo relates that Hadding on one occasion was invited to descend into

the lower world and see its strange things (see No. 47). The heathen

lower world, with its fields of bliss and places of torture, became in

the Christian mind synonymous with hell. Hadding's descent to the lower

world, together with the mythic account of his journey through the air

on Odin's horse Sleipner, were remembered in Christian times in the form

that he once on a black diabolical horse rode to hell. This explains the

remarkable denouement of the Dieterich saga; namely, that he, the

magnanimous and celebrated hero, was captured by the devil. Otto of

Friesingen (first half of the twelfth century) states that Theodoricus

vivus equo sedens ad inferos descendit. The Kaiser chronicle says that

"many saw that the devils took Dieterich and carried him into the

mountain to Vulcan."



In Saxo we read that Hadding once while bathing had an adventure which

threatened him with the most direful revenge from the gods (see No.

106). Manuscripts of the Vilkinasaga speak of a fateful bath which

Thidrek took, and connects it with his journey to hell. While the hero

was bathing there came a black horse, the largest and stateliest ever

seen. The king wrapped himself in his bath towel and mounted the horse.

He found, too late, that the steed was the devil, and he disappeared for

ever.



Loke was at one time the comrade of Odin but by his mismating with a

giantess, Angerboda, he became the father of three monsters, the Fenris

Wolf, the Midgard Serpent and the terrible Hel, at the sight of which

latter living creatures were immediately stricken dead. Odin was so

enraged by these issues of Loke's commerce with a giantess, that he had

the brood brought before him in Asgard, and seizing Hel and the snake in

his powerful arms he flung them far out into space. Hel fell for nine

days until she reached Helheim, far beneath the earth, where she became

ruler over the dead. The snake dropped into the ocean that surrounds

Midgard, where it was to remain growing until its coils should envelop

the earth and in the end should help to bring about the destruction of

the world. The Wolf was borne away by Tyr and placed in chains, but

escaping later at Ragnarok he devoured Odin.]



Saxo tells that Hadding made war on a King Handuanus, who had concealed

his treasures in the bottom of a lake, and who was obliged to ransom his

life with a golden treasure of the same weight as his body (Hist.. 41,

42, 67). Handuanus is a Latinised form of the dwarf name Andvanr,

Andvani. The Sigurd saga has a record of this event, and calls the

dwarf Andvari (Sig. Fafn., ii.). The German saga is also able to

tell of a war which Dieterich waged against a dwarf king. The war has

furnished the materials for the saga of "Laurin." Here, too, the

conquered dwarf-king's life is spared, and Dieterich gets possession of

many of his treasures.



In the German as in the Norse saga, Hadding-thjodrekr's rival to

secure the crown was his brother, supported by Otacher-Ottar

(Svipdag). The tradition in regard to this, which agrees with the myth,

was known to the author of Anhang des Heldenbuchs. But already in an

early day the brother was changed into uncle on account of the

intermixing of historical reminiscences.



The brother's name in the Norse tradition is Gudhormr, in the German

Ermenrich (Ermanaricus). Ermenrich Joermunrekr means, like

thjodrekr, a ruler over many people, a great king. Jordanes already

has confounded the mythic Joermunrekr-Gudhormr with the historical

Gothic King Hermanaricus, whose kingdom was destroyed by the Huns, and

has applied to him the saga of Svanhild and her brothers Sarus

(Soerli) and Ammius (Hamdir), a saga which originally was connected

with that of the mythic Joermunrek. The Sigurd epic, which expanded

with plunder from all sources, has added to the confusion by annexing

this saga.



In the Roman authors the form Herminones is found by the side of

Hermiones as the name of one of the three Teutonic tribes which

descended from Mannus. It is possible, as already indicated, that

-horm in Gudhorm is connected with the form Hermio, and it is

probable, as already pointed out by several linguists, that the

Teutonic irmin (joermun, Goth. airmana) is linguistically

connected with the word Hermino. In that case, the very names

Gudhormr and Joermunrekr already point as such to the mythic

progenitor of the Hermiones, Herminones, just as Yngve-Svipdag's name

points to the progenitor of the Ingvaeones (Ingaevones), and possibly

also Hadding's to that of the Istaevones (see No. 25). To the name

Hadding corresponds, as already shown, the Anglo-Saxon Hearding, the old

German Hartung. The Hasdingi (Asdingi) mentioned by Jordanes were

the chief warriors of the Vandals (Goth. Orig., 22), and there may be

a mythic reason for rediscovering this family name among an East

Teutonic tribe (the Vandals), since Hadding, according to the myth, had

his support among the East Teutonic tribes. To the form Hasdingi

(Goth. Hazdiggos) the words istaevones, istvaeones, might readily

enough correspond, provided the vowel i in the Latin form can be

harmonised with a in the Teutonic. That the vowel i was an uncertain

element may be seen from the genealogy in Codex La Cava, which calls

Istaevo Ostius, Hostius.



As to geography, both the Roman and Teutonic records agree that the

northern Teutonic tribes were Ingaevones. In the myths they are

Scandinavians and neighbours to the Ingaevones. In the Beowulf poem the

king of the Danes is called eodor Inguina, the protection of the

Ingaevones, and frea Inguina, the lord of the Ingaevones. Tacitus says

that they live nearest to the ocean (Germ., 2); Pliny says that

Cimbrians, Teutons, and Chaucians were Ingaevones (Hist. Nat., iv. 28).

Pomponius Mela says that the land of the Cimbrians and Teutons was

washed by the Codan bay (iii. 3). As to the Hermiones and Istaevones, the

former dwelt along the middle Rhine, and of the latter, who are the East

Teutons of mythology, several tribes had already before the time of

Pliny pressed forward south of the Hermiones to this river.



The German saga-cycle has preserved the tradition that in the first

great battle in which Hadding-thjodrekr measured his strength with the

North and West Teutons he suffered a great defeat. This is openly avowed

in the Dieterich poem "die Klage." Those poems, on the other hand, which

out of sympathy for their hero give him victory in this battle ("the

Raben battle") nevertheless in fact acknowledge that such was not the

case, for they make him return to the East after the battle and remain

there many years, robbed of his crown, before he makes his second and

successful attempt to regain his kingdom. Thus the "Raben battle"

corresponds to the mythic battle in which Hadding is defeated by

Ingaevones and Hermiones. Besides the "Raben battle" has from a Teutonic

standpoint a trait of universality, and the German tradition has upon

the whole faithfully, and in harmony with the myth, grouped the allies

and heroes of the hostile brothers. Dieterich is supported by East

Teutonic warriors, and by non-Teutonic people from the East--from

Poland, Wallachia, Russia, Greece, &c.; Ermenrich, on the other hand, by

chiefs from Thuringia, Swabia, Hessen, Saxony, the Netherlands, England,

and the North, and, above all, by the Burgundians, who in the genealogy

in the St. Gaelen Codex are counted among the Hermiones, and in the

genealogy in the La Cava Codex are counted with the Ingaevones. For the

mythic descent of the Burgundian dynasty from an uncle of Svipdag I

shall present evidence in my chapters on the Ivalde race.



The original identity of Hadding's and Dieterich's sagas, and their

descent from the myth concerning the earliest antiquity and the

patriarchs, I now regard as demonstrated and established. The war

between Hadding-Dieterich and Gudhorm-Ermenrich is identical with the

conflict begun by Yngve-Svipdag between the tribes of the Ingaevones,

Hermiones, and Istaevones. It has also been demonstrated that Halfdan,

Gudhorm's, and Hadding's father, and Yngve-Svipdag's stepfather, is

identical with Mannus. One of the results of this investigation is,

therefore, that the songs about Mannus and his sons, ancient already in

the days of Tacitus, have, more or less influenced by the centuries,

continued to live far down in the middle ages, and that, not the songs

themselves, but the main features of their contents, have been preserved

to our time, and should again be incorporated in our mythology together

with the myth in regard to the primeval time, the main outline of which

has been restored, and the final episode of which is the first great war

in the world.



The Norse-Icelandic school, which accepted and developed the learned

hypothesis of the middle age in regard to the immigration of Odin and

his Asiamen, is to blame that the myth, in many respects important, in

regard to the olden time and its events in the world of gods and

men--among Aryan myths one of the most important, either from a

scientific or poetic point of view, that could be handed down to our

time--was thrust aside and forgotten. The learned hypothesis and the

ancient myth could not be harmonised. For that reason the latter had to

yield. Nor was there anything in this myth that particularly appealed to

the Norse national feeling, and so could claim mercy. Norway is not at

all named in it. Scania, Denmark, Svithiod (Sweden), and continental

Teutondom are the scene of the mythic events. Among the many causes

co-operating in Christian times, in giving what is now called "Norse

mythology" its present character, there is not one which has contributed

so much as the rejection of this myth toward giving "Norse mythology"

the stamp which it hitherto has borne of a narrow, illiberal town

mythology, which, built chiefly on the foundation of the Younger Edda,

is, as shall be shown in the present work, in many respects a caricature

of the real Norse, and at the same time in its main outlines Teutonic,

mythology.



In regard to the ancient Aryan elements in the myth here presented, see

Nos. 82 and 111.



[Footnote 31: In nearly all the names of members of this family, Hild-

or -brand, appears as a part of the compound word. All that the names

appear to signify is that their owners belong to the Hilding race.

Examples:--



Old High German fragment. Herbrand - Hildebrand - Hadubrand.

Wolfdieterich Berchtung. - Herbrand - Hildebrand.

Vilkinasaga. Hildebrand. - Alebrand.

A popular song about

Hildebrand. Hildebrand. - The younger Hildebrand.

/ Hildir.

Fundin Noregur. Hildir. - Hildebrand.

\ Herbrand.

/ Hildir.

Flateybook, i. 25, Hildir. - Hildebrand. - Vigbrand.

\ Herbrand.

Asmund Kaempebane's Saga. Hildebrand. - Helge. - Hildebrand.

]



[Footnote 32: Compare in Asmund Kaempebane's saga the words of the dying

hero:



thik Drott of bar

af Danmorku

en mik sjalfan

a Svithiodu.

]



[Footnote 33: The texts of Jordanes often omit the aspirate and write

Eruli for Heruli, &c. In regard to the name-form Amal, Closs remarks, in

his edition of 1886: AMAL, sic, Ambr. cum Epit. et Pall, nisi quod hi

Hamal aspirate.]