# Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples/The Heroic Poems/The Old High German Hildebrand

HILDEBRAND
* ↑ Ik gihorta ðat seggen, a regular epic formula in the old Teutonic languages.
* ↑ urhettun might be N. pl. of a noun corresponding to AS. oretta, or the pret. pl. of a weak verb; cf. Goth. ushaitjan.
* ↑ ænon, probably N. pl. of adjective; cf. Heliand, v. 13, ênon (ms. enan).
* ↑ muotin has been interpreted as the imperfect subj. of a verb corresponding to OS. motian, as the pret. pl. of muoen, “bemühen,” “bedrängen”; or as the G. sg. of a noun, for which however there appears to be no evidence in OHG. nor OS. But cf. Braune, Ahd. Lesebuch, pp. 180–1.
* ↑ MS. Hildibraht.
* ↑ Sunufatarungo, a representative of a class of nouns—“dvandva compounds”—common in Sanskrit; cf. OS. gisunfader, “father and sons” (Heliand, v. 1176): AS. suhtergefæderan, “uncle and nephew” (Beowulf, v. 1164), etc. It might conceivably be an old dual; otherwise it must be a G. pl. depending on heriun. Cf. Braune, p. 181.
* ↑ MS: ringa.
* ↑ MS. Hiltibraht.
* ↑ MS. wer.
* ↑ MS. welihhes.
* ↑ MS. min.
* ↑ floh her Otachres nid; cf. Beowulf, v. 1200: searoniðas fleah (ms. fealh) Eormanrices. It is significant that in Hildebrand, the earliest evidence for Dietrich's exile at the Hunnish court, his enemy is Otacher, Odoacer-Odovacar, the Scyrrian or Turcilingian leader of fœderati, who in 476 deposed Romulus Augustulus, the last Emperor of the West, and reigned in Italy as Patrician till the invasion of Theodoric (489), by whom he was treacherously slain after the fall of Ravenna (493). In the MHG. epics (Dietrichs Flucht, etc.) Otacher’s place is filled by Erminrek; cf. Deor, v. 21 n. An intermediate form of the story is found in the Quedlinburg-Würzburg Chronicles (MGH. SS. iii. 31, vi. 23) and Ekkehard von Aura (MGH. SS. vi. 130 ff.), where Odovacar is the treacherous counsellor of Ermanric, corresponding to the Sibich of later authorities.
* ↑ Perhaps the most satisfactory way of dealing with this much disputed passage (cf. Braune, p. 182) is to take prut with v. Grienberger as pruti (Gen.), “in his wife's bower.” It can then be translated without difficulty as above.
* ↑ barn unwahsan; cf. AS. Genesis, v. 2871: bearn unweaxen.
* ↑ ms. (illegible text), which Braune and others regard as dittography for Det-rihhe: v. Grienberger compares with the inorganic þæt found in certain AS. charters.
HILDEBRAND
I have heard it said that Hildebrand and Hadubrand challenged each other to single combat between the hosts. Father and son, they set their panoply aright and made their armour ready: the heroes girt their swords above their corselets when they rode to the fray.
Hildebrand spake, the son of Heribrand: he was the older man, the riper in years. He began to ask in a few brief words who was his father among mortal men, “or of what stock art thou? If, young warrior, thou wilt tell me the name of one man in the kingdom, I shall know the others of myself; for the whole race of men is known to me.”
Then spake Hadubrand, the son of Hildebrand: “Our liegemen, full of years and wisdom, who lived in days gone ​by, have told me that my father's name was Hildebrand. I am called Hadubrand. Long ago he departed towards the east: he fled from the hatred of Odovacar, away with Theodoric and many another of his knights. He left behind his hapless son, bereft of his heritage, a little child in his mother’s bower. But he rode away to the east. In after years Theodoric had need of my father; he had lost all his friends—he was exceeding wrathful with Odovacar. The most devoted knight by Theodoric's side, he was ever in the forefront of the host: he always loved the fray. He was famous among men of valour; but I deem he is no longer alive.”
“I call to witness the Almighty God from heaven above,” quoth Hildebrand, “that never hast thou sought the wager of battle with one so near of kin.”
And with that he slipped from his arm the twisted rings wrought of imperial gold, which the king, even the lord of the Huns, had bestowed upon him. “This will I give to thee in earnest of good faith.”
​Hadubrand, the son of Hildebrand, replied: “With the spear should one receive a gift, point to point. Thou art of exceeding guile, old Hun. Thou seekest to decoy me with thy words and wilt aim thy spear at me. Thou hast grown old in the practice of treachery. Seafarers who went westwards over the Vandal Sea, have told me that he fell in battle. Dead is Hildebrand, the son of Heribrand.”
Then spake Hildebrand, the son of Heribrand.
“By thy garb I see full well that thou hast a generous lord at home; thou art no outcast in this land.”
“Woe now is me, Almighty God,” quoth Hildebrand. “An evil fate is come upon me. Sixty summers and winters have I wandered in exile from my native land and I was ever stationed in the forefront of the host: yet no man dealt me my deathblow before any stronghold. But now mine own son will smite me with his sword, slay me with his brand, or I must be his slayer. Yet now if thy prowess avail thee, thou canst easily win the harness of so old a man, carry off the spoils, if thou hast any right to them. Now were he the craven of the easterners who ​should refuse thee the combat, the duel, since thy heart is set upon it. Let him find out who can which of us this day is doomed to be stripped of his panoply or to win possession of both these corselets.”
Then first they launched their spears, their sharp weapons, so that the shields were pierced. Then they strode together, they clove the......bucklers shrewdly smiting at the white targets until their linden shields, destroyed by the weapons, were of none avail.