Hildebrandslied
Also known as: Hildebrand's Song, Lay of Hildebrand, Song of Hildebrand
An Old High German heroic lay in which the veteran warrior Hildebrand meets a young opponent at a border and learns he is his son, Hadubrand. After tense exchanges about lineage, loyalty, and exile, they fight; the fragmentary text breaks off before the outcome is stated, leaving the tragedy unresolved.
Description
The Hildebrandslied is the earliest substantial secular verse in Old High German, recorded by Fulda scribes in the early ninth century but clearly reflecting an older oral tale linked to the Dietrich cycle. The poem stages a dramatic father-son encounter: Hildebrand, long exiled in service to Dietrich of Bern, confronts Hadubrand, who believes his father died and suspects deception. Ritualized speech—boasts, gift-talk, and lineage claims—fails to avert combat as heroic duty and blood-ties collide. The text is fragmentary at the end, so the duel’s result is unstated; later traditions resolve it differently, underscoring the tale’s fluid reception across Germanic cultures.
Historiography
The poem survives only as a single fragment in a Fulda manuscript, written by two hands on a theological codex’s flyleaf around 830–840. Its mixed Old High German and Old Saxon features suggest transmission across regions and dialects. The ending is lost, prompting debate about whether the father kills the son—as in some Germanic analogues—or recognition averts tragedy, as in later ballad redactions (the Jüngeres Hildebrandslied). The narrative belongs to the broader Dietrich cycle and influenced medieval German heroic literature.
Date Notes
Preserved uniquely in an early 9th-century Fulda manuscript; language shows Old High German with Old Saxon features, reflecting earlier oral tradition.
Major Characters
- Hildebrand
- Hadubrand
- Dietrich (Theoderic)
Myths
- The Duel of Father and Son
Facts
- Only one manuscript witness survives, written at Fulda in the early 9th century.
- The language mixes Old High German with Old Saxon elements, indicating cross-dialect transmission.
- The poem is part of the Dietrich-of-Bern tradition associated with Theodoric the Great.
- Hildebrand identifies himself as Heribrand’s son within the poem’s dialogue.
- The narrative centers on ritualized pre-battle speech and contest of genealogies.
- The ending is missing; the original outcome is unknown.
- Later ballads (Jüngeres Hildebrandslied) conclude with recognition rather than death.
- It is the earliest substantial secular Old High German poetic text.
- Themes reflect tension between kinship loyalty and warrior obligations to lord and oath.
- The duel motif has analogues across Germanic heroic literature and Norse sagas.