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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
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    "chunk_id": "1911:heldenbuch:02984a8c0e29",
    "title": "HELDENBUCH",
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    "verified_text": "heldenbuch, das, the title under which a large body of german epic poetry of the 13th century has come down to us. the subjects of the individual poems are taken from national german sagas which originated in the epoch of the migrations (_volkerwanderung_), although doubtless here, as in all purely popular sagas, motives borrowed from the forces and phenomena of nature were, in course of time, woven into events originally historical. while the saga of the nibelungs crystallized in the 13th century into the _nibelungenlied_ (q.v.), and the low german hilde-saga into the epic of _gudrun_ (q.v.) the poems of the _heldenbuch_, in the more restricted use of that term, belong almost exclusively to two cycles, (1) the ostrogothic saga of ermanrich, dietrich von bern (i.e. dietrich of verona, theodorich the great) and etzel (attila), and (2) the cycle of hugdietrich, wolfdietrich and ortnit, which like the _nibelungen_ saga, was probably of franconian origin. the romances of the _heldenbuch_ are of varying poetic value; only occasionally do they rise to the height of the two chief epics, the _nibelungenlied_ and _gudrun_. dietrich von bern, the central figure of the first and more important group, was the ideal type of german medieval hero, and, under more favourable literary conditions, he might have become the centre of an epic more nationally german than even the _nibelungenlied_ itself. of the romances of this group, the chief are _biterolf und dietlieb_, evidently the work of an austrian poet, who introduced many elements from the court epic of chivalry into a milieu and amongst characters familiar to us from the _nibelungenlied_. _der rosengarten_ tells of the conflicts which took place round kriemhild's \"rose garden\" in worms--conflicts from which dietrich always emerges victor, even when he is confronted by siegfried himself. in _laurin und der kleine rosengarten_, the heldensage is mingled with elements of popular fairy-lore; it deals with the adventures of dietrich and his henchman witege with the wily dwarf laurin, who watches over another rose garden, that of the tyrol. similar in character are the adventures of dietrich with the giants ecke (_eckenlied_) and sigenot, with the dwarf goldemar, and the deeds of chivalry he performs for queen virginal (_dietrichs erste ausfahrt_)--all of these romances being written in the fresh and popular tone characteristic of the wandering singers or _spielleute_. other elements of the dietrich saga are represented by the poems _alpharts tod_, _dietrichs flucht_ and _die rabenschlacht_ (\"battle of ravenna\"). of these, the first is much the finest poem of the entire cycle and worthy of a place beside the best popular poetry of the middle high german epoch. alphart, a young hero in dietrich's army, goes out to fight single-handed with witege and heime, who had deserted to ermanrich, and he falls, not in fair battle, but by the treachery of witege whose life he had spared. the other two dietrich epics belong to a later period, the end of the 13th century--the author being an austrian, heinrich der vogler--and show only too plainly the decay that had by this time set in in middle high german poetry. the second cycle of sagas is represented by several long romances, all of them unmistakably \"popular\" in tone--conflicts with dragons, supernatural adventures, the wonderland of the east providing the chief features of interest. the epics of this group are _ortnit_, _hugdietrich_, _wolfdietrich_, the latter with its pathetic episode of the unswerving loyalty of wolfdietrich's vassal duke berchtung and his ten sons. although many of the incidents and motives of this cycle are drawn from the best traditions of the _heldensage_, its literary value is not very high. this collection of popular romances was one of the first german books to be printed. the date of the first edition is unknown, but the second edition appeared in the year 1491 and was followed by later reprints in 1509, 1545, 1560 and 1590. the last of these forms the basis of the text edited by a. von keller for the stuttgart _literarische verein_ in 1867. in 1472 the _heldenbuch_ was adapted to the popular tastes of the time by being remodelled in rough _knittelvers_ or doggerel; the author, or at least copyist, of the ms. was a certain kaspar von dor roen, of munnerstadt in franconia. this version was printed by f. von der hagen and s. primisser in their _heldenbuch_ (1820-1825). _das heldenbuch_, which f. von der hagen published in 2 vols, in 1855, was the first attempt to reproduce the original text by collating the mss. a critical edition, based not merely on the oldest printed text--the only one which has any value for this purpose, as the others are all copies of it--but also on the mss., was published in 5 vols. by o. janicke, e. martin, a. amelung and j. zupitza at berlin (1866-1873). a selection, edited by e. henrici, will be found in kurschner's _deutsche nationalliteratur_, vol. 7 (1887). recent editions have appeared of _der rosengarten_ and _laurin_, by g. holz (1893 and 1897). all the poems have been translated into modern german by k. simrock and others. see f. e. sandbach, _the heroic saga-cycle of dietrich of bern_ (1906). the literature of the _heldensage_ is very extensive. see especially w. grimm, _die deutsche heldensage_ (3rd ed., 1889); l. uhland, \"geschichte der deutschen poesie im mittelalter,\" _schriften_, vol. i. (1866); o. l. jiriczek, _deutsche heldensage_, vol. i. (1898); and especially b. symons, \"germanische heldensage,\" in paul's _grundriss der germanischen philologie_ (2nd ed., 1898).",
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