University of Leeds

Centre for Medieval Studies

Early Medieval Epic Between Classical and Germanic Traditions:The Nature of Waltharius

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree ofMaster of Arts in Medieval Studies

byAntje Frotscher

Supervisor: Stephen Ryle

Leeds, 24 August 1999

Contents

1. Introduction.........................................................................................3

2. Aspects of Language.........................................................................52.1. VIRGIL............................................................................................................................................................52.2. GERMANIC EPIC STYLE...............................................................................................................................122.3. THE QUESTION OF IRONY............................................................................................................................17

3. Literary Aspects................................................................................223.1. THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT.................................................................................................................................233.2.SCENES..........................................................................................................................................................29

3.2.1. Banquet Scenes....................................................................................................................................303.2.2. Battle Scenes........................................................................................................................................343.2.3. The Duels.............................................................................................................................................38

3.3. THEMES........................................................................................................................................................463.3.1 Exile......................................................................................................................................................463.3.2 Treasure................................................................................................................................................48

4. Conclusion........................................................................................51

5. Appendices.......................................................................................535.1. APPENDIX I: WHOLE LINES BORROWED FROM VIRGIL'S AENEID..............................................................535.2. APPENDIX II: THE FLYTINGS OF WALTHARIUS...........................................................................................55

6. Bibliography......................................................................................576.1. SOURCES......................................................................................................................................................576.2. CRITICISM....................................................................................................................................................58

12 478 words MHRA style

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1. Introduction

Among the secular Latin literary works of the Middle Ages, the Middle Latin poem

Waltharius with its 1456 hexameters has probably the longest history of critical research. For

over two hundred years, ever since the publication of the editio princeps by Fr.Chr. J. Fischer

in 1780, it has commanded the attention of mostly German, but in this century increasingly

English, American, French and Italian scholars.1 Probably 90% of the critical material written

on it deals with questions of the poem's author, date, and provenance, and to take into account

all of this former scholarship is, though not impossible, at least highly impracticable: the sheer

bulk of editions, translations, books and articles written on these aspects of Waltharius tends

to initiate discussions that lead nowhere. On the other hand it is virtually impossible to simply

ignore the greater part of the enormous amount of work done by critics of the last two

centuries.

However, I will do exactly that. Since the advent of Deconstruction the focus on the

importance of the author in Classical criticism has been questioned. Accepting that 'the unity

of a text is not in its origin but its destination',2 I will leave the text its anonymity and

homelessness, and instead concentrate on its character. Unencumbered by considerations of

authorship and its implications I will try to look at the poem's text from a fresh perspective,

and attempt in this way to discover the nature of Waltharius.

In his 'Note on Old West Germanic Poetic Unity', Francis P. Magoun, Jr., draws up a list of

what he calls 'the pathetically small corpus of surviving Old West Germanic heroic poetry'.

This list includes the Old English epic Beowulf as well as the Old English shorter lays Widsið

and Deor, the Finnesburgh Fragment and the Waldere fragments. To these OE works he adds

the Old High German Hildebrandslied, and, 'last, but by no means least', the Middle Latin

Waltharius.3 Magoun comments:

The essential unity of the stuff of which this heroic poetry is made emerges from even a casual survey of Germanic heroic legend [...] Beyond a large common stock-in-trade of traditional story, the accumulations of parallel phrases and locutions that are sprinkled through the commentaries of this poetry in whatever language, even in that

1 Fr. Chr. J. Fischer, De prima expeditione Attilae regis Hunnorum in Gallias ac de rebus gestis Waltharii Aquitanorum principis carmen epicum saeculi VI: Ex codice manuscripto membranaceo optimae notae summa fide descriptum nunc primum in lucem productum et omni antiquitatum genere, imprimis vero monumentis coaevis illustratum et adauctum (Leipzig, 1780). For surveys of research see Walter Berschin, 'Ergebnisse der Waltharius-Forschung seit 1951', Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 24 (1968), 16-45; Waltharius und Walthersage: Eine Dokumentation der Forschung, ed. by Emil Ernst Ploss (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1969); or the most recent, Armando Bisanti, 'Un decennio di studi sul Waltharius', Schede Medievali, 11 (1986), 345-63.2 Roland Barthes, 'The Death of the Author', in The Rustle of Language, transl. by Richard Howard (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986), pp. 49-55 (p. 54).3 'A Note on Old West Germanic Poetic Unity', Modern Philology, 43 (1945-46), 77-82 (p. 77).

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of the Waltharii poesis, afford striking testimony to a basic, persistent community of diction.4

Comparisons between Waltharius and Beowulf have been made in other places. 'Dem

Beowulf am ehesten vergleichbar sind die 1456 Hexameter des Waltharius,' Theodore M.

Andersson writes in his article on 'Oral-Formulaic Poetry im Germanischen'. He also calls the

Waltharius 'ein wichtiges Seitenstück zum Beowulf', but unfortunately does not enlarge on

that concept.5

As another premise, I would like to adopt the ideas of a critic of Waltharius and

supporter of the oral-formulaic theory, Alexandra Henessey Olsen, to whose work on

'Formulaic Tradition and the Latin Waltharius' I will return later. Olsen calls the duel scenes

in Waltharius 'syncretic': to understand these scenes fully, she claims, the audience has to be

aware of both the literary Latin and the oral vernacular traditions the poet draws on in his

work.6 It is her concept of the inherent 'cultural syncreticism' of Waltharius which I would

like to explore more fully in this work.

In order to understand or uncover the cultural sycreticism of Waltharius, I will draw

comparisons between its Classical sources and models (especially the Aeneid) as well as its

companion-pieces in West Germanic heroic literature (especially Beowulf), I will draw these

comparisons on two different levels: in the second Chapter, I will examine the level of

language and diction, and in Chapter 3 move on to the level of literary themes and contents.

4 Magoun, p. 78.5 'Die Oral-Formulaic Poetry im Germanischen', in Heldensage und Heldendichtung im Germanischen, ed. by Heinrich Beck, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde Bd. 2 (Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1988), pp. 1-14 (p.12). 6 'Formulaic Tradition and the Latin Waltharius', in Heroic Poetry in the Anglo-Saxon Period: Studies in Honour of Jess B. Bessinger, Jr., ed. by Helen Damico and John Leyerle, Studies in Medieval Culture XXXII (Kalamazoo: Medieval institute Publications, 1993), pp. 265-282 (pp. 275-76).

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2. Aspects of Language

2.1. Virgil

There has never been any real question about the Classical influence on Waltharius, which is

obvious even without a closer analysis of the style in both language and metre. The degree,

however, to which the Waltharius-poet is indebted to the Classical tradition and Latin epic has

been a subject of much discussion. Hans Wagner in his 'Ekkehard und Vergil' examines the

parallels in the fights with the intention not of demonstrating the poet's dependence on Virgil

as a source, but on the contrary to emphasise 'das eigene dichterische Können Ekkehards'.

Friedrich Panzer went so far as to claim that the Waltharius does not contain a single shred of

German traditional legend, but that the story has been composed by the poet solely from

motifs found in episodes of Statius' Thebaid and Ovid's Metamorphoses, and arranged

together with Germanic names, Virgilian and Prudentian language and some material from the

Vulgate to form the poem as we know it, thereby laying the foundations for all other

treatments of the Walther-legend.7 Panzer's rather daring thesis has long since been refuted,8

but the search for parallels and sources has not diminished.

Although, as stated above, the author of Waltharius is indebted to a number of Latin

epic poets, and clearly made use of works like Prudentius' Psychomachia, Statius' Thebaid,

the Metamorphoses, the Vulgata and Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics, I intend, for reasons of

scope and because of the obvious affinities between the three heroic epics discussed, restrict

the discussion in both this part and in fact throughout this work to Virgil's Aeneid.

Already in 1898 Karl Strecker published an early essay on 'Ekkehard und Vergil' in the

Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, which has been acknowledged as the basis of this line of

research.9 He compares both literary themes and motifs and linguistic borrowings; a

comprehensive list of the latter can be found in the notes in his 1951 edition in the

Monumenta Germaniae Historia, which I have made use of extensively throughout this

work.10

7 Friedrich Panzer, Der Kampf am Wasichenstein: Waltharius-Studien (Speyer: Verlag Historisches Museum der Pfalz zu Speyer am Rhein, 1948).8 See, for example, Karl Stackmann, 'Antike Elemente im Waltharius: Zu Friedrich Panzers neuer These', Euphorion, 45 (1950), 388-405.9 'Ekkehart und Vergil', ZfdA, 42 (1898), 339-65.10 Waltharius, ed. by Karl Strecker, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae Latini, vol. 6, fasc. 1 (Weimar 1951), pp. 1-85. All quotations of Waltharius are from this edition. All translations in this work are my own. However I am indebted to Mr. Ian Moxon, School of History, University of Leeds, for his help with the passages from Waltharius.

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The Waltharius-poet's use of the language of the Aeneid can be analysed best if is looked at in

a number of classifications. In this part, I would like to divide the material into four categories

according to the degree of correspondence: one, the incorporation of whole lines with no or

only very slight moderations; two, the use of Virgilian phrases, combinations of two or more

words which can be found in exactly this form in the Aeneid, and three, the inclusion of

Virgilian phrases which have been altered in some way.11 The fourth category would be the

adaptation of Virgilian ideas, themes and scenes - this is a point I will return to in the

discussion of literary aspects in Chapter 3.

Depending on how one defines the words 'slight moderations', which I have used

above to describe borrowings of the first class, there are among the 1456 hexameters of

Waltharius, in thirteen passages, twenty-one whole lines which can be found in the Aeneid -

about 1.5 % of the total number of lines. Thirteen of these lines show modifications which

range from a change of prefix to a modification of vocabulary, grammatical forms and names.

I will discuss a selection of these lines separately in the order in which they appear in the

poem.12

The first line, from the battle before the walls of Latium in Book XI, is used as part of

the description of the battle between the Hunnish forces under Waltharius and some unnamed

rebels. W. 182 follows the enjambement of the original by continuing into the next line with

the second verb, and adding the noun cuneus:

W. 182-83: Iamque infra iactum teli congressus uterque | constiterat cuneus(And now both armies, having advanced within a spear throw's range, met the other...)13

A. XI, 608-09: iamque intra iactum teli progressus uterque | substiterat 14

Intra has been replaced by the incorrect infra, and there are two prefix-changes, giving the

repetitive con-. According to Mynors' textual notes, however, the reading constiterant can be

found in some MS.

The question of how these changes are to be interpreted depends on several factors.

Does one assume that the poet of Waltharius, very familiar with the Aeneid and endowed with

the mnemonic capabilities of medieval scholars, used Virgilian lines from memory, so that the

11 Hans Wagner in his Ekkehard und Vergil: Eine vergleichende Interpretation der Kampfschilderungen im Waltharius (Heidelberg: Selbstverlag F. Bilabel, 1939), pp. 52-64 likewise uses three different categories: a) borrowing of independent words ('Übernahme von Worten'), b) literal borrowings ('Wörtliche Übernahme'), and c) the use of images and thoughts with changes of wording or even contents ('Übernahme von Gedanken und Bildern mit mehr oder minder großer sprachlicher oder inhaltlicher Veränderung'). He lists 37, 17 and 48 examples respectively. 12 A list of all twenty-one complete lines I count in the first category can be found in Appendix I. 13 For the sake of consistency I have often used past tense for the Waltharius-poet's and Virgils various tenses. 14 All quotations from the Aeneid are according to P. Vergili Maronis Opera, ed. by R.A.B. Mynors, Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969). The italics that mark the differences between the two texts are my own.

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changes would be a failure of memory? Or does one take the position of a rather more

scriptural, not oral, writing culture, and ascribe differences like intra-infra, although

unsubstantiated in the surviving MS, to a lost MS reading?

The first instance of a whole-line-quotation without any alterations whatsoever occurs

in W. 328: Waltharius and Hiltgunt are about to flee Attila's court, and the poet devotes a few

lines to Waltharius' horse, Leo:

W. 328: Stat sonipes ac frena ferox spumantia mandit(The steed stood and spirited chewed at the foaming bridles/bits.)

A. IV, 135: stat sonipes ac frena ferox spumantia mandit

Virgil uses this line to describe the horse Dido will ride to the chase, which will end according

to the plans of Venus and Juno with Dido and Aeneas caught in the same cave by a

thunderstorm.

Likewise from the fourth book of the Aeneid are two quotations in close proximity just

fifty lines later. W. 383 copies a line which occurs twice in the Aeneid, and is used on both

occasions to describe Aeneas, who is worried once about how to break the news of his forced

departure to Dido, once about the oncoming war.

W. 383: Et nunc huc animum tristem, nunc dividit illuc.(...and turned his sad spirit now here, now there.)

A. IV, 285 and VIII, 20: atque animum nunc huc celerem nunc diuidit illuc.

W. 390: Nec placidam membris potuit dare cura quietem(...nor could his sorrow allow to give gentle rest to his limbs.)

A. IV, 5: [...]verbaque, nec placidam membris dat cura quietem

The second of these lines describes Dido's restlessness because of her feelings for Aeneas,

and thus the description of Attila's hangover and rage has many times been compared to the

behaviour of the love-sick Dido.15 Peter Dronke thinks that '[t]he incongruity is deliberate -

the world-conqueror waxes womanish.', and comments on the poet's use of Virgil in this

passage:

...there are further Virgilian phrases in the lines that follow [...].But these are not I think used for conscious effect - they are such as would come instinctively to a well-read medieval author.16

15 See, for example, Peter Dronke, 'Functions of Classical Borrowing in Medieval Latin Verse', in Classical Influences on European Culture AD 500-900, ed. by R.R. Bolgar (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1971), pp.159-164 (pp. 160-62); Waltharius of Gaeraldus, ed. by A.K.Bate, Reading University, Medieval and Renaissance Latin Texts 2 (Reading: Department of Classics, University of Reading, 1978), p.8; Dennis M. Kratz, Mocking Epic: Waltharius, Alexandreis and the Problem of Christian Heroism (Madrid: Ediciones José Porrúa Turanzas, 1980), pp. 29-31.16 Dronke, p.161.

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A remark like that certainly invites a discussion on the probabilities of written versus oral

sources and composition, the depths of authorial intention and the question of 'instinctive' or

'subconscious' writing. Such a romantic view of the poet's working method is held by von den

Steinen, who at length complains about the way critics have discussed the poet's 'working

method':

Daraufhin schreiben nun die Fachforscher dauernd von der 'Arbeitsweise' des Dichters, von seiner 'Quellenbenutzung', seinen 'Vorlage, die er 'imitierte', von 'bewußten Entlehnungen'....[...]Der Waltharius macht es sichtbar, daß seinem Autor nich andres asl meinetwegen einem Novalis, Tieck, Hoffmansthal [...] Hunderte oder vielmehr Tausende von Versen, Versklängen und-rhythmen, poetischen Wendungen und Motiven frisch im Ohre klangen, weit über alles Schulmäßige hinaus und auch ganz ohne die Gegenwart der Bücher selber... 17

Since this discussion consists mostly of unfounded speculation, I will not take it any further,

but rather return to the examination of some more facts.

The discussion of the above lines already shows that the poet uses the Virgilian

quotations in rather different ways, both to describe the same situation as the corresponding

passage of the Aeneid (as in the two armies' approach to battle), and to illustrate similar, but

actually unrelated circumstances (as in the portrayal of Attila's hangover). The next two

borrowings relate to specific situations only, and are used by the Waltharius-poet in exactly

those situations. Hagano's warning to King Guntharius and his fellow Frankish warrior about

Waltharius' fighting skills echoes Diomedes' warning to King Latinus and the Italians:

W. 528-29: O rex et comites, experto credite, quantus In clipeum surgat, quo turbine torqueat hastam.(O king and comrades, believe the expert, how tall he stands up with his shield, with what a storm he hurls the spear.)

A. XI, 283-84: [...] experto credite, quantus in clipeum adsurgat, quo turbine torqueat hastam

The other Virgilian line comes from Aeneas' narrative of the fall of Troy: his description of

Laocoon, running to help his two young sons who are attacked by the serpent, is repeated in

Waltharius (also in an event reported in direct speech) when Hagano tells Guntharius about

his prophetic dream:

W. 626: Et mox auxilio subeuntem ac tela ferentem(...and at once attacked me, coming to (your) assistance and bearing weapons,...)

A. II, 216: post ipsum auxilio subeuntem ac tela ferentem

An often-discussed two-line quotation is the description of Werinhardus, the third attacker, as

a relative of the Trojan Pandarus. At the funeral games in Book V of the Aeneid the warrior

17 Wolfram von den Steinen, 'Der Waltharius und sein Dichter', ZfdA, 48 (1952/53), 1-47 (pp. 22-23).

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Eurytion, the archer who shoots the dove and thus wins the archery competition, is described

as a brother of that Pandarus:

W. 728-29: Pandare, qui quondam iussus confundere foedus In medios telum torsisti primus Achivos.

(...Pandarus, who once, commanded to break the treaty, hurled the first arrow into the middle of the Greeks.)

A. V, 495-60 Pandare, qui quondam, iussus confundere foedus,in medios telum torsisti primus Achivos.

The connection is clear: both warriors use bow and arrow rather than sword or spear. It has

been suggested that the use of this quotation, and with it the characterisation of Werinhardus

as an archer and the whole course of the third fight, was prompted by the fact that Eurytion,

like Werinhardus, is the third warrior to enter the contest.18

The heaviest borrowing occurs in two of the eleven duels. This third fight against

Werinhardus is with its 29 lines one of the shorter fights.19 Counting the two lines with the

reference to Pandarus quoted above, it contains six whole Virgilian verses - nearly 25% of the

whole fight. The remaining four lines come from two different fights in the Aeneid: the fateful

venture of Nisus and Euryalus in Book IX, and the duel of Aeneas against Mezentius during

the battle in Book X, which the Waltharius-poet has combined into one four-line passage:

W. 745-49: Dixerat et toto conixus corpore ferrum Conicit. Hasta volans pectus reseravit equinum: Tollit se arrectum quadrupes et calcibus auras Verberat effundensque equitem cecidit super illum.

(He spoke that and straining with all his body threw the iron. The flying spear opened up the breast of the horse: the four-footer reared and beat the air with its hooves and throwing off the rider fell on top of him.)

A. IX, 410-11: Dixerat, et toto conixus corpore ferrum conicit: hasta volans

A. X, 892-95: Tollit se arrectum quadrupes et calcibus aurasverberat effusumque equitem super ipse secutusimplicat

The fifth fight, against Hadawardus, is with 65 verses the second longest of the individual

battles (following the sixth against Patavrid), and contains five Virgilian hexameters.

W. 824-25: Olli sublimes animis ac grandibus armis Hic gladio fidens, hic acer et arduus hasta, Inter se multa et valida vi proelia miscent. (They, in high spirits and confident in their powerful weapons, one trusting in his sword, the other courageous and energetic with his spear, between them they joined battle with many and strong forces.)

18 So Strecker, 'Ekkehard und Vergil', p. 344. However, Rosemarie Katscher in her discussion of this fight in '"Waltharius" - Dichtung und Dichter', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 9 (1973), 48-120 (pp. 81-85), assumes the reverse order of events: 'Durch die Wahl der Waffe für den Angreifer fließen Motive aus dem V. Buch der "Aeneis" mit ein, aus der Eurytion-Episode.' (p. 81).19 See Wagner, p. 70, or Katscher, p. 73, for statistics on the length of the individual fights.

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A. XII, 788: olli sublimes armis animisque refecti, hic gladio fidens, hic acer et arduus hasta, [...]

A. XII, 720: illi inter sese multa ui uulnera miscent

W. 831-32: Emicat hic impune putans iam Wormatiensis Alte et sublato consurgit fervidus ense

(Now thinking it safe, the raging man from Worms dashed out (and) sprang forward with the sword raised up.) A. XII, 728-29: Emicat hic impune putans et corpore toto

alte sublatum consurgit Turnus in ensem

As is clearly visible from their position in Book XII and their high verse numbers, all of these

borrowings come from the final fight between Aeneas and Turnus. The poet uses another

quotation (which he has already used once, in a modified form, in W. 186) from this fight in

the later Gerwitus-episode:

W. 930: Ad studium fors et virtus miscentur in unum(For the effort fate and courage are blended together.)

A. XII, 714 [...] fors et uirtus miscetur in unum20

There are no more whole Virgilian lines after this, although over a third of the poem and four

fights (against Randolf, Helmnod, Trogus/Tanastus and Hagano/Guntharius) still remain. In

general the amount of Virgilian material in these last scenes, especially the very un-Virgilian

ninth fight with the ingenious use of a trident and rope as a kind of harpoon to rob Waltharius

of his shield, and the unusual final fights where the hero is attacked by two enemies at once,

contain markedly less borrowings than for example the battle scene or the fights against

Hadawardus and Werinhardus.

The class of borrowings which I defined above as the second category, the use of

unchanged Virgilian phrases, is rather bigger than that of full Virgilian verses. Thse

borrowings are, with a few exceptions, of necessity used in passages which describe situations

similar to those from which they are taken - fama volans (W. 17 - A. XI, 139) can hardly be

used other than in the description of spreading news, and somno vinoque solutus (W. 358 - A.

IX, 189) only to describe men sleeping after drinking. I list just a small selection here to show

the general appearance of these borrowings:21

W. 33 foedera firmant - A. XI, 330W. 165 pater optime - A. 1, 555W. 242 simulata mente locutam - A. 4, 105W. 400 per amica silentia - A. II, 255W. 472 in mea regna remisit - A. II, 54320 The reading miscentur can, according to Mynors' textual apparatus, be found in several MS.21 For a nearly complete list of these parallels see the notes to the text of Strecker's MGH edition.

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W. 583 dona ferens - A. XI, 479W. 787 stetit acer in armis - A. XII, 938W. 842 clipeus superintonat ingens - A. IX, 709

More interesting are the borrowings of the last category, which were changed one way

or another by the poet before incorporating them into the text. A number of changes are made

to the prefixes of verbs. Some prefix additions are probably made for metrical reasons (W. 42

Attila [...] deflectit habenas - A. XII, 471 flectit habenas; W. 432 cursus tendit - A. V, 834

cursum contendere; XII, 909 cursum extendere; W. 843 pede collum pressit - A. XII, 356f

pede collo impresso), but the suffix changes (W. 783: hastam...dimisit habendam - A III, 329

famulam...transmisit habendam) cannot be explained in this way. A number of times the poet

substitutes synonyms for single words (W. 55 vis inimica venit - A. XII, 150 vis inimica

propinquat W. 332 Loraque [...] fluitantia - A. V, 146 undantia lora; W. 391 nox rebus iam

dempserat atra colores - A. VI, 272 rebus nox abstulit atra colorem), preserving the fact of the

approach of the hostile power and the images of the 'flowing' of the reins and the night's

'taking away' the colours respectively, but again without any explanation except possibly the

metre. Katscher reads a lot into the change of A. X, 599-600 dicta dabas to W. 752 iactabas

dicta: :

Wenn dicta dabas zu iactabas dicta gewandelt ist, dann knüpft das iactabas and iactitat 739 vor Werinards Rede und an iactus in ihr (740) wieder an. Damit wird auch im Ausdruck auf das frühere Verhalten zurückgewiesen und die Abrundung der Episode auch äußerlich gestützt.22

There are also changes in single words which result in a new meaning, for example in W. 204

Saevior insurgit and A. XII, 902 altior insurgens. In the Aeneid this particular phrase is used

during the final fight of Aeneas against Turnus: Turnus draws himself up to his full height to

give more impetus to the stone he is throwing at his opponent. The Waltharius-poet, on the

other hand describes how during the battle against the rebels the Hunnish forces suddenly

attack more fiecely - he has used insurgere not in its literal, but in a figurative meaning.

Exactly the reverse occurs in the change from A II, 367 'redit in praecordia virtus' to W. 893

'redit in praecordia sanguis' - the metaphorical return of courage to the heart as the seat of the

soul is changed to the return of the actual blood to the heart as a vital organ - but of course

both 'blood' and 'heart' are, once again, images for courage and the soul.

One Virgilian phrase has been used twice with different variations: A. V, 842

'funditque has ore loquelas' becomes 'Addidit has [...] corde loquelas' (W. 256) and 'has

iactitas ore loquelas' (W. 739). Katscher comments on the second of these uses:

22 Katscher, p. 85.

11

Die Umwandlung von Vergils Metapher (V 842) funditque has ore loquelas zu iactitas ore loquelas dient der Charakterisierung Werinahrds: wie seine Pfeile, so schleudert er jetzt Worte Walthari zu.23

I cannot follow her interpretation completely (the wording used by the poet earlier on is

emissis...sargittis | Waltharium turbans, although the arrows are describes as ictus later (W.

734)). The change from ore to corde, another shift from literal meaning to metapher, can be

accepted as a deliberate change without any problem: the sentence introduces Hiltgunt's

passionate profession of love and obedience to Waltharius, and it is certainly justifiable to

describe her as pouring out these words from her heart rather than her mouth..

2.2. Germanic Epic Style

As a point of access to this second part of Chapter 2 I would like to refer again to the

statement of Magoun which I already quoted in the Introduction. To recapitulate, Magoun

believes in a 'community of diction' of West Germanic heroic poetry, proven by 'the

accumulations of parallel phrases and locutions that are sprinkled through the commentaries

of this poetry in whatever language, even in that of the Waltharii poesis'.24 Unfortunately

Magoun does not list any evidence which might support his theory.

In contrast to the number of works written on Waltharius' affinity to Virgilian epic, the

work done on its Germanic features (as far as the language is concerned) is comparatively

meagre, and, to complicate things even more, full of the contradictions without which

Waltharius-scholarship does not seem able to exist. Andersson, whose remark on Waltharius

as a 'Seitenstück' to Beowulf I quoted above, uses the case of the poem to substantiate his

belief in a non-oral literary culture:

Er [the Waltharius] läßt vermuten, daß die epische Breite nicht etwa aus einem mündlichen (d.h. oral-formulaic) Vorläufer hervorgeht, sondern aus klassischen Vorbildern. Mündliches Epos im Germanischen ist ein entbehrliches Konzept.25

Olsen, on the other hand, is trying to show the exact opposite, namely 'that the poem owes

something to a vernacular formulaic tradition as well as to classical and Christian works',26

and does that mainly by discussing the oral formulaic concepts of themes and type-scenes, but

also refers to a few formulae.27 Her examples include one of the undoubtely Germanic

23 Katscher, p. 83.24 Magoun, p. 78.25 Andersson, 'Oral-Formulaic Poetry', p. 12.26 Olsen, p. 266.27 Themes, according to Albert B. Lord's famous definition in The Singer of Tales, Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature 24 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1960), are 'groups of ideas regularly used in telling a

12

elements, the naming of Wieland the smith, the Germanic equivalent of the Homeric

Hephaistos (who fashions Achilles' arms) and the Virgilian Vulcanus (who on request of

Venus makes armour for Aeneas), as the maker of the hero's mailcoat:

Et nisi duratis Wielandia fabrica giris Obstaret, spisso penetraverit ilia ligno. (W. 965-66)

(And had not Wieland's work of hardened rings stood in the way, the thick wood would have penetrated the groin.)

Most critical studies of the origins of the Walther-legend point out the corresponding phrase

Welandes worc in the Old English Waldere (Fragment I, 2), and Olsen also refers to the

Beowulfian Welandes geweorc (Beowulf 455a) as a description of that hero's byrnie.28

Approaching the question of a possible influence of Germanic style from a purely

formal point of view, there is the question of the metre of the poem. The hexameters of

Waltharius are, of course, part of the Classical heritage - the metre in which the vernacular

epic of the time was composed is the Germanic alliterative long line, as evident for example

in Beowulf.

In the early days of Waltharius-scholarship one of the many theories about the poem's

sources stated that it was neither an original work put together from Vergilian and Prudentian

scenes, motifs and language, nor an independent work based on subject material from popular

tradition, nor an adaptation of a folk-epic of the same contents, but simply the Latin

translation of an earlier vernacular poem. It was a view shared for example by Jacob Grimm,

whose 1838 edition in Lateinische Gedichte des X. und XI. Jahrhunderts dominated

Waltharius-scholarship in the first half of the last century. Since this hypothetical source, a

vernacular Walther-poem, would have been written in Old High German, and in Germanic

alliterative long lines, the poem's language and style has been scoured for traces of this

underlying structure. There are certainly a number of alliterative lines in Waltharius. 29 In his

discussion of the poem Rudolf Kögel believed that he could detect 'nicht nur

durchschimmernde Stabreime, sondern ganze alliterierende Langzeilen'.30 Kögel's method is

to translate the Latin words 'back' into what their Old High German form must have been.

One of his examples is W. 129, Nam vereor, ne fors fugiens Haganonem imitetur ('Because I

tale in the formulaic style of traditional song' (p. 68). Donald K. Fry, 'Old English Formulaic Themes and Type-Scenes', Neophilologus, 52 (1968), 48-53, defines a theme as 'a recurring concatenation of details and ideas, not restricted to a specific event, verbatim repetition, or certain formulas, which forms an underlying structure for an action or description', and a type-scene as 'a recurring stereotyped presentation of conventional details used to describe a certain narrative event, requiring neither verbatim repetition nor a specific formula content.' (p. 53).28 Olsen, p. 267.29 Hermann Althof, Waltharii Poesis: Das Waltharilied Ekkehards I. von St. Gallen nach den Geralsdushss. herausgegeben und erläutert, 2 vols (Leipzig, 1899-1905), I, p. 56, gives a number of examples.30 Geschichte der deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters, 2 vols (Straßburg: Karl Trübner, 1894-97), I, 275-342 (p. 332).

13

fear that he perchance may imitate Hagen by fleeing.'), alliterating even in Latin. Translated

into Old High German, this line might contain furhten (to dread), fliohan (to flee) and folgan

(to follow, imitate). Another example is W. 562: Hinc nullus rediens uxore dicere Francus

('Returning no Frank (dares) to tell his wife...'), where the OHG quena (woman, wife), quedan

(to speak, tell) and queman (to come, go) would form the alliterations of a Germanic long

line. Kögel does not believe in the translation theory as such, but he is convinced that the

language of Waltharius is heavily influenced by the poet's vernacular mother-tongue and its

poetics. There is certainly no lack of alliterative lines in the poem. Some of the more obvious

cases of f-alliteration are lines 679 (Et forsan faceret, ni lancea fixa teneret.) and 883

(Desine, nam tua te fervens fiducia fallit!). In her quite over-interpretative analysis of the

battle, Katscher remarks on the function of the c-alliteration in line 45 (Quadrupedum cursu

tellus concussa gemebat.), which, in her view, reproduces the sound of the galloping horses,

and the 'pangrammatical' inital s and medial t in line 46 (Scutorum sonitu pavidus

superintonat aether.): 'Gehalt und Klang gehen ineins, stützen und verstärken die Handlung

effektvoll.'

However, is certainly true that if one searches hard enough one will find alliteration

even in the lines influenced by the Aeneid (e.g. W. 194: Pectoribus partim rumpuntur pectora

equorum, [...] ): 'Auf diese Weise kann man auch den ganzen Vergil zu einem alliterierenden

Gedichte stempeln.', Strecker remarks.31

Staying with the metre for a bit longer, the next point to be addressed is the question of

rhyme. Edoardo d'Angelo in his Indagini sulla tecnica versificatoria nell'esametro del

'Waltharius' emphasises the importance of this feature for post-classical Latin poetry:

la rima,[...] rappresenta forse il contributo più originale dato dalla versificazione mediolatina al verso eroica. 32

However, he adds that they '...dovuti spesso più alla probabilità statistica che ad effettive

ricerche del poeta.'33

Rhyme is found in a number of vernacular works of the early Middle Ages. Hennig

Brinkmann points out that some of both the Latin and the Old English Exeter Book Riddles

display end rhyme (e.g. Riddles 90 and 28), and that the Old English Elene has a rhymed

epilogue (Elene 1237-51). As for the non-vernacular, the rhymed hexameter is a prominent

feature in Gottschalk's works, but in quantitative verse it is apparently not the end rhyme, but

31 Karl Strecker, Bemerkungen zum Waltharius, Programm des Gymnasiums Dortmund (Dortmund: [n.pub.], 1899), p.5, note 2.32 Edoardo d'Angelo, Indagini sulla tecnica versificatoria nell'esametro del 'Waltharius' (Catania: Università di Catania, 1992), p. 65.33 D'Angelo, p. 65.

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the leonine rhyme (i.e. rhyme of the third foot and the last syllable) which appears from the

end of the eighth century in medieval hexameters.34 Langosch believes to be able to detect

strict leonine rhyme in about 25% of the poem's verses (whereas the number for Virgil is only

about 6%); counting assonances and rhymes of the second or fourth foot with the last syllable,

his number goes up to 79% in the first one hundred verses.35 D'Angelo's tables show 24.2% of

'leonine forte', the strict leonine rhyme, and an additional 11.2% of 'leonine debole'. He also

counts 8.1 % of end rhyme.36 Among his examples of feminine leonine rhyme, d'Angelo lists

such prime specimens as ''...Cultores regionis et' - en galeam Haganonis,... (W. 556) and Sed

cassis fabrefacta diu meliusque peracta (W. 1372). Most of his examples, however (strictoque

- videre, W. 414; poplite - omne, W. 625; and atque - puellae, W. 891), as well as Langosch's

assonances (linguis- gentes, W. 2; orta - narro, W. 15; and tantum - Hiltgunt W. 36), are

difficult to perceive as rhymes for the untrained eye and ear.

Moving from the basic feature of metre to more complicated matters, the next step in

the discussion of possible Germanic influences on the language of Waltharius is to take a

closer look at the poem's rhetorical style.37 According to Alistair Campbell, the chief

characteristic of what he calls the 'new' Germanic style (i.e. the style of the full epic as

opposed to that of the short lay) is the parallelism, or, as it is better known, the variation. 38

This, probably the foremost feature of Germanic epic style, is found throughout Beowulf, but

also in the Old English elegies (e.g. The Wanderer and The Seafarer), hagiographical works

(e.g. Judith and Elene), and biblical poetry (the two Genesis-poems and Exodus). It is also

found in what little we have of Old High German heroic poetry, i.e. the Hildebrandslied, and

the Old Saxon biblical poetry (e.g. the Heliand). A classic Old English variation, as found in

Beowulf, would be, for example

Geseah ða on searwum sige-eadig bil,eald-sweord eotenisc ecgum þyhtig,wigena weorð-mynd; þæt [wæs] wæpna cyst,... (Beowulf 1557a-59b)39

(There he saw among the weapons a sword blessed with victory, an old blade wrought by giants, with strong edges, the glory of warriors; that was the best of weapons;...)

34 Hennig Brinkmann,'Der Reim im frühen Mittelalter', in Studien zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 2 vols (Düsseldorf: Schwamm, 1966), II, 58-78 (pp. 73-76) (first publ. in Britannica: Festschrift für Hermann M. Flasdieck (Heidelberg: [n.pub.], 1960), pp. 62-81.35 Karl Langosch, 'Der Verfasser des "Waltharius"', ZfdPhil, 65 (1940), 117-42 (pp. 100-01).36 D'Angelo, p. 70. Langosch, p. 102, gives a number of examples for end rhyme, e.g. 105/06, 158/59, 267/68, 184/85 and 186/87.37 The Germanic influence on the language is almost negligible. There are two words which can be counted as definite Germanisms: wantus ('glove', W. 1426) and the interjection wah (W. 1429).38 'The Old English Epic Style', in: English and Medieval Studies: Presented to J.R.R. Tolkien on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, ed. by Norman Davis and C.L. Wrenn (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1962), 13-26, (pp. 20-23).39 Quotations from Beowulf are according to Beowulf with the Finnesburg Fragment, ed. by C.L. Wrenn and W.F. Bolton, rev. edn (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1988; repr.1992).

15

In these three lines three different termini are used to denote the sword Beowulf finds in the

lair of Grendel's mother under the lake: sige-eadig bil, eald-sweord eotenisc, and (a possible

kenning) wigena weorð-mynd.

The problem with detecting possible traces of variation in Waltharius is that this

device is of course close to the Classical hendiadys, and any repetitive phrases might as well

be attributed to Latin rather than Old English epic style, for example o versute dolis ac fraudis

conscie serpens ('O you snake, clever in tricks and knowledgeable in deceit', W. 790). A line

like W. 1161, Rerum factori, sed et omnia facta regenti ('To the Maker of things, but also the

Ruler of all done things...'), however, reminds of the variations on the name of God in Old

English Christian poetry (Scyppend, 'the Maker', Wealdend, 'the Ruler'), as they are used for

example in Cædmon's Hymn.

Strecker claims to detect several passages with possible variation, two of which I will

discuss here.40 The first is Waltharius 263-65:

'...Inprimis galeam regis tunicamque trilicemAssero loricam fabrorum insigne ferentemDiripe,...' (W. 263-65)

('...First seize the helmet of the king and his tunic, I mean the three-stranded breastplate carrying the sign of smiths,...'),

where trilicem...loricam is a variation of (or apposition to) tunica. Another Germanic feature

in this passage might be that fabrorum insigne ferens is reminiscent of the well-known

Beowulfian kenning homera laf ('the leavings of the hammer', 'what the hammers have left',

i.e. the sword, Beowulf 2829b). The second of Strecker's examples is three lines of Attila's

speech to his retainers in which the Hunnish king promises rewards for the capture of the

fleeing lovers:

...'o si quis mihi Waltharium fugientemAfferat evinctum ceu nequam forte liciscam,Hunc ego mox auro vestirem saepe recocto Et tellure quidem stantem hinc inde onerarem Atque viam penitus clausissem, vivo, talentis.' (W. 403-07)

('O if anyone would bring to me the escaped Waltharius, overcome like a wicked wolf-dog! Him I would at once cover with often re-forged gold and in fact I would load him as he stood on the ground on this side and that side and I would entirely block the way of the living man with gold talents.')

As Strecker points out, citing two Germanic (to be exact, Old Norse) parallels of the image

(the story of the Otrsgjôld from the Eddic Reginsmál and the Vôlsungasaga, in which the

wergeld exacted from Oðinn and Loki for killing a shapeshifter is the amount of gold needed

40 He discusses the first in 'Waltharius 263f', ZfdA, 42 (1898), 267-70; the second in Bemerkungen, p. 13.

16

to cover the corpse completely with gold, and a passage from Hervararsaga), the idea of

covering the captor of the fugitives with gold is expressed three times with different words,

fulfilling exactly the definition of variation.

2.3. The Question of Irony

One of the first critics to take into account the possibility of a humouristic or even ironic

intention of the Waltharius-poet has been Gustav Ehrismann as early as 1918 in his remarks

on the poem in Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur.41 Later Hennig Brinkmann

spoke on irony in his famous 1928 article 'Ekkehards "Waltharius" als Kunstwerk', and in

1956 Max Wehrli in his 'Gattungsgeschichtliche Betrachtungen' concluded:

Zwischen Retrospektive und der Ahnung neuer, künftiger Aufgaben bildet sich, im Klima des Humors, ein neues erzählerisches Bewußtsein. 42

Brinkmann uses the termini 'Humor', Spott', and 'Ironie' without differentiation (and later also

comments: 'Überall ist die Schilderung des Kampfes bei Ekkehard durch Scherz, Hohn, Spott

gefärbt.'),43 but Wehrli prefers to use the terminus 'Humor' rather than speaking of irony. His

idea that the use of comical elements (without necessarily a completely ironic intention) is the

author's own achievement, with which he manages to distance himself from both his Classical

and Germanic heroic sources, seems to appeal to critics who still, like Brinkmann, try to

establish Waltharius as a work of high art. Katscher, who contrary to Wehrli prefers to speak

of 'Komik' rather than 'Humor', writes:

Da sich mit dem hohen Pathos der "Aeneis", mit dem christliche lehrhaften Ton der "Psychomachie" und dem auf das Grausig-Schreckliche ausgerichteten Stil der "Thebais" Komik nicht vereinbaren läßt, heben sich die so gefärbten Szenen des "Waltharius" auch bei enger Anlehnung verschiedener Art grundsätzlich von ihnen ab und verfügen über eine besondere, eigentümliche Wirkung. 44

Nearly ten years after the publication of Wehrli's article the question of irony in Waltharius

was taken up again, this time mostly by English scholars. In 1974 Ford B. Parkes wrote on

'Irony in Waltharius', using especially the contrast to corresponding scenes of the Aeneid to

discover the author's intention.45 For example, he takes the reference to the dust cloud in W.

41 Geschichte der deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters, 4 vols (Munich: Beck, 1918), I, 384-397 (pp. 388 and 396).42 Hennig Brinkmann, 'Ekkehards "Waltharius" als Kunstwerk', in Studien, II, 137-50 (pp. 144-46) (first publ. in Zeitschrift für deutsche Bildung, 4 (1928), 625-36); Max Wehrli, 'Waltharius: Gattungsgeschichtliche Betrachtungen', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 2 (1965), 63-73 (p. 73).43 Brinkmann, 'Ekkehards "Waltharius" als Kunstwerk', p. 144.44 Katscher, p. 119.45 'Irony in Waltharius', MLN, 89 (1974), 459-65.

17

54 and A.VIII, 593 as a sign that the poet laughs at the three Germanic kings, who surrender

thus quickly to Attila and never think of forming a victorious alliance - which is what Aeneas,

Pallas and Tarchon do in the corresponding Virgilian passage. Parkes also comments on irony

within the epic: Attila as the prototype of the 'henpecked husband' ('[The poet's] portrayal of

Attila's monumental hangover is high comedy.', Parkes comments),46 or Hagano's speech on

avarice, which 'amounts to a tremendous slander of his nephew', who is entering the fight for

truly heroic reasons, not because of any greed for Waltharius' gold.47 In Parkes' view the

author's intention was to portray the decline of the Germanic warrior ethos - Waltharius as a

thief, Guntharius an avaricious coward, and Hagano a sulking hypocrite; a view rather like

Katscher's, who comments '...in [der Komik] distanziert sich der Mönch vom Heidnisch-

Germanischen und seiner Ethik.'48

The idea of the author's thoroughly ironic view was taken up again by A.K. Bate in his

awkward editon of the poem in 1978,49 and by Dennis M. Kratz, who is the author of the

previously mentioned book on Mocking Epic which includes a discussion of Waltharius.50

Contrary to Parkes, Kratz believes in the use of irony for didactic reasons rather than simply

for amusement, and thinks that the poet's ridicule of the main characters is at the same time a

warning against avarice..

Followers of the branch of criticism who believe that the Waltharius-poet is identical

with the Peccator fragilis Geraldus nomine uilis ('the frail and poor sinner called Geraldus')51

of the prologue are more likely to read the poem as ironic, since in this prologue Geraldus

states that the following libellus is not meant to be taken too seriously:

Non canit alma dei, resonat sed mira tyronis,Nomine Waltharii, per proelia multa resecti.Ludendum magis est dominum quam si rogitandum,Perlectus longaevi stringit in ampla diei. (Geraldus' Prologue, 16-20)

(It does not sing of the mercies of God, but of the wonderful deeds of a hero, of the name of Waltharius, cut up/wounded in many fights (or: it (the book) is divided into many battles).52 It is more for play/entertainment that for the questioning after the Lord, read through it shortens the length of a too long day.)

46 Parkes, p. 464.47 Parkes, p. 463.48 Katscher, p. 119.49 See Dieter Schaller's cutting review in 'Fröhliche Wissenschaft vom "Waltharius"', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 16 (1981), 54-57. 50 Dennis M. Kratz, Mocking Epic, pp. 15-60 and pp. 157-66.51 Geraldus' Prologue, 11. The Prologue is quoted according to Ekkehards Waltharius, ed. by Karl Strecker (Berlin: Weidmansche Buchhandlung, 1907), pp. 3-4.52 There is unanimosity as to the correct translation; for the second version see for example J.W. Beck, Ekkehards Waltharius. Ein Kommentar (Groningen: P. Noordhoff, 1908), p. 107.

18

It is surprising that Kratz, who is such a strong believer in Geraldus, thinks the heroic epic to

be ironic only on the surface, and, despite of the 'poet's' own words, assumes a serious

condemnation of Avaritia underneath. But, then, Geraldus might be speaking ironically here.

According to Dilwyn Knox' research on irony in medieval and renaissance texts, the

concept of 'irony' in the Middle Ages is different from that of today.53 He lists a number of

quotations from late Classical to Renaissance glossaries, poetics and treatises on rhetoric to

show that ironia was commonly understood as 'stating the opposite (contrarium) of the

intended meaning'.54 The Waltharius-poet himself uses the word at one point, in the

conversation of Waltharius with Hiltgunt after the battle. Waltharius addresses the topic of

their childhood betrothal, and Hiltgunt is said to be per hyroniam meditans hoc dicere

sponsum ('thinking that her betrothed spoke in ironia', W. 235). Hiltgunt's subsequent speech

shows how this per hyroniam is to be understood:

'Quid lingua simulas, quod ab imo pectore damnas, Oreque persuades, toto quod corde refutas,...?' (W. 237-38)

('Why do you pretend with your tongue what on the contrary you damn in your heart (breast), and (why do you) urge with your mouth what you decline in your heart,...?')

Most editors and translators take per hyroniam to mean 'in jest, mocking',55 but Hiltgunt's

speech with its imo makes it clear that the Waltharius-poet had a very medieval idea of irony,

conforming with the above quotation from Knox: Hiltgunt thinks that Waltharius is saying the

opposite of what he means. However, Hiltgunt is mistaken - misunderstandings being the

main problem of this rhetoric figure:

Many long passages of ironia admittedly did mislead their audience, and conversely straightforward passages were often wrongly thought ironic,

Knox comments.56 The crux of the matter is that in order to detect ironia, one has at first to

understand the true intention of the speaker or writer. If we accept a priori, with Parkes, Kratz

and Bate, that the author of Waltharius is indeed a monk who sets out to unveil the failings of

heroic values, or to denounce and warn against the deadly sin Avarice, then the poem is

certainly full of irony. If, however, one takes the poem as an earnest attempt of said monk to

write an epic in the Germanic heroic spirit and in a Classical form, as most critics have done

53 Ironia: Medieval and Renaissance Ideas on Irony (Leiden/New York/København/Köln: E.J. Brill, 1989). 54 Knox, pp. 9-12 (p. 9).55 'The Poem of Walter', transl. by H.M. Smyser and F.P.Magoun, in their Survivals in Old Norwegian of Medieval English, French, and German Literature,Together With the Latin Versions of the Heroic Legend of Walther of Aquitaine, Connecticut College Monograph No.1 (Baltimore: Waverly, 1941), pp. 111-45 (p. 117), has 'in mockery'; Gernot Wieland, Waltharius, Bryn Mawr Latin Commentaries (Bryn Mawr College, 1986), p. 59, glosses 'ironically, sarcystically'; Strecker, Ekkehards Waltharius, p. 85, unhelpfully explains 'hyronia = ironia'. 56 Knox, p. 40.

19

during the two centuries of Waltharius-scholarship, there is little to substantiate an ironic

reading.

But even if one does not believe in the ironic readings of the poem, one cannot deny

that there is humour: in the scene of Attila's hangover, for example, or in the mocking

speeches after the final fight. But humour, as irony, is always a matter of perception. There

are, however, I believe, some points in Waltharius where intended humour can be satisfyingly

proven: Gareth Morgan in his paper on 'Ekkehard's Signature to Waltharius' shows that there

are a number of cross-language puns ('calques') on the protagonists' names scattered

throughout the text.57

The first, probably most famous (and most disputed) of these is Waltharius' reference

to the Franci nebulones ('good-for-nothing Franks', W. 555). Since Grimm's edition it has

been suggested that the word nebulones is not a disparaging remark of Waltharius, but a

latinised version of the name Nibelung (OHG Nibulunc, ON Niflungr). Kögel, Althof and

Strecker are among a number of critics who reject this explanation.58 Morgan sees this line as

a pun, and accepts both explanations, while Wieland thinks it might be a pun on the fact that

the troop arrives in a dense cloud of dust (Hiltgunt....pulvere sublato venientes sensit -

'Hiltgunt...saw, by the stirred-up dust, the oncoming (men)', W. 532-33). 59

A second possible pun might be faunus (769, 769, 774), a word used for the hero by

his fourth opponent, the Saxon Ekivrid. Morgan suggests that it might bear a reference to the

name Walther (OHG *walt-hêro, ModG Wald-herr, 'Lord of the Woods').60

There is also the concluding line of the final fight: Sic sic armillas partiti sunt

Aavarenses (W. 1404) - what Katscher calls 'der bittere Abschluß'. The characteristic trait of

the Huns has always been their greed, whether in the historical accounts of their raids in the

whole Roman empire from Constantinople to Gaul, or in heroic literature (the Norse Atli of

the Eddic lays kills Gunnarr and Hôgni for the Nibelung hoard, and in Þiðeks saga he is

called allra manna fégjarnastr - 'the greediest of all men'.)61 The identification of Huns and

Avars (actually a very different people) and the pun on Huns/Avars and Avaritia is very old,

and not necessarily connected with the deadly sin Avaritia, as Katscher seems to think when

she comments that the poet makes an ethical judgement with this line.62

57 'Ekkehard's Signature to Waltharius', in Latomus: Revue d'études latines, 45 (1986), 171-77 (p. 172). Morgan gives a number of examples of these puns from Alcuin to Hrabanus Maurus to support his argument that the last line of the poem contains just such a pun on the name Ekkehard, and therefore reveals the author of Waltharius.58 See Kögel, p. 302; Strecker, Bemerkungen, p. 11; Althof, II, 177-79.59 Morgan, 'Ekkehard's Signature', p. 172; likewise Wieland, p. 73, and von den Steinen, p. 17.60 Gareth Morgan, 'Walther the Wood-sprite', Medium Ævum, 41 (1972), 16-19 (p. 17). 61 Þiðeks saga, 359. Quoted according to Þiðreks saga af Bern, ed. by Guðni Jónsson, 2 vols ([n.p.]: Íslendingasagnaugáfan, 1954), II, 486.62 Katscher, 104.

20

Last but not least there are the two puns on Hagano's name, the poet's Hagano

spinosus (1421) and Waltharius' O paliure (1351). In both there is the calque on Hagano's

name (OHG *hagan-dorn, ModG Hagedorn, ModE hawthorn; Latin paliurus),63 but the

second is actually a quite ingenious twofold pun, since O paliure is reminiscent of Aeneas'

Palinure and the sybil's O Palinure (A. VI, 3341 and 373) when, on their visit to the

underworld they encounter Aeneas' helmsman, as well as the poet's, Somnus' and Aeneas'

Palinure in the episode of his death (A. V, 840, 843 and 870).

3. Literary Aspects

There has always been a question how far the Virgilian influence in Waltharius goes, and

whether the poet copied contents and ideas from the Latin epic as well as the form. Strecker,

for example, thinks that there is a definite latinisation of the Germanic subject matter:

er [Ekkehard] konnte ihn [Virgil] vielmehr auch in der Weise benutzen, dass er ihm nicht nur die Form, sondern auch den gedanken entnahm und so dem deutschen bilde römische züge einfügte [...] hier ist nur die erklärung möglich, dass der dichter, was seine vorlage bot, verstümmelt oder ganz unterschlagen und durch römisches gute ersetzt oder aber die römischen züge frei zugefügt hat.64

Nearly the same view is later expressed by Katscher:63 Althof, II, 21, believes the poet's understanding of the name to be wrong; he lists a number of possible etymologies (pp. 21-22).64 Strecker, 'Ekkehard und Vergil', p. 339.

21

Die für Vergils Werk gültigen ästhetischen Gesicthspunkte sind auch für den "Waltharius" verbindlich [...] Daher sind auch die Verwendung des vergilischen Sprach-und Motivgutes und die Arbeit mit den gleichen stilistischen Mitteln nicht auf das Äußere beschränkt, sondern greifen ins Innere hinein.65

Wagner, however, takes a completely contrary position:

[...] der Einfluß Vergils erstreckt sich nur auf das Äußere, auf das Gewand des Gedichtes. Von einigen Einzelheiten abgesehen hat das Vorbild der Antike das Gesicht der Handlung nicht wesenhaft verändert.66

One of the more recent contributions to this topic has been made by an Italian critic, Luigi

Alfonsi, who demands that the poem be read with 'un "vergilianesimo" globale, non solo

epico' in mind:

C'è quindi un "vergilianesimo" formale, di imitazione; ma c'è altresí un vergilianesimo sostanziale, che oltrepassando gli echi molteplici, del resto già sapientemente ed ampiamende registrati.67

To include one quotation on the far less discussed matter of the Germanic influence on the contents of the poem, Olsen writes:

[...] the influence of oral tradition - of the vernacular on the Latin - reaches beyond poetic diction. The Waltharius also includes scenes that derive not from Latin poetry but from themes and type-scenes of oral-formulaic poetry, such as Exile, Sleep after Feasting, Journey to Trial, and the Hero on the Beach. Some of its most subtle scenes from the point of view of literary artistry are those which combine Latin and vernacular traditions.

There is, of course, a third major influence on the poem apart from the Virgilian and

Germanic heroic spirit: Christianity. In this second section of my work, I will look at the

effect of these three major sources on the poem on the literary level. I will begin with an

examination of the poem's religiosity, and then turn in the second part to a discussion of some

of the themes and type scenes mentioned by Olsen.

3.1. The Religious Spirit

The opposition of paganism and Christianity, and the inability to firmly place an epic into the

tradition of either the one or the other, is a problem that has confounded critics of both the

Aeneid and Beowulf. It is a known fact that in the Middle Ages Virgil, as the writer of the

65 Katscher, pp. 114-15.66 Wagner, p. 68.67 'Considerazioni sul vergilianesimo del "Waltharius"', in Studi Filologici, Letterari e Storici in memoria di Guido Tavati, ed. by. Giorgio Varanini and Palmiro Pinagli, Medioevo e Umanesimo 28, 2 vols (Padova, Editrice Antenore, 1977), I, 3-14 (pp. 3 and 4).

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Fourth Eclogue, was elevated to the position of a Christian prophet by such authorities as

Lactantius and St. Augustine. The most famous comment on Virgil's Christianity is certainly

T. S. Eliot's essay 'Virgil and the Christian World', in which he explores 'the chief

characteristics of Virgil which make him sympathetic to the Christian mind', and calls Aeneas

'the prototype of a Christian hero'.68

Beowulf, written in an era undoubtedly influenced by Christianity, but dealing with the

Heroic, seems to be a work with one foot in either camp. On the one hand, it expresses heroic

sentiments such as Deað bið sella | eorla gehwylcum þonne edwit-lif ('Death is better for any

noble man than a life of disgrace.', Beowulf 2890b-91b), or Beowulf's famous

Ure æghwylc sceal ende gebidanworolde lifes; wyrce se þe motedomes ær deaþe; þæt bið driht-gumanunlifgendum æfter selest. (Beowulf 1386a-89b)

(Every one of us has to await the end of life in the world; may he who can win glory before death; that is later the best for the unliving man.)

On the other hand there are the often-quoted lines about the heathenism of the Danish peopleSwylc wæs þeaw hyra,

hæþena hyht; helle gemundonin mod-sefan, Metod hie ne cuþon,dæda Demend, ne wiston hie Drihten Godne hie huru heofena Helm herian ne cuþon,wuldres Waldend. (Beowulf 178b-83a)

(Such was their custom, the hope of heathens; they thought in their hearts of hell, they did not know the Measurer, the Judge of deeds, they did not know of God the Lord, nor indeed could they hear the Guardian of the heavens, the Lord of glory.),

which is contrasted by many Christian utterances of both the hero himself and Hroðgar,

especially the passage called 'Hrothgar's sermon' (Beowulf 1700-84).

In Waltharius, a similarly confused situation exists. Grimm in his 1838 edition thought

the Christian elements to be of no significance whatsoever; a century later Brinkmann

pronounced the poem to be a completely Christian work. In the 1950s two influential essays,

one by a German and one by an American scholar, took up completely contrary positions:

Wolfram von den Steinen agrees with Brinkmann in that he finds the poem to be essentially

influenced by Christianity, while George F. Jones describes 'The Ethos of the Waltharius' as

hardly Christian at all.69

68 T.S. Eliot, 'Virgil and the Christian World', in his On Poetry and Poets (London, Faber and Faber, 1957), pp. 125 and 128.69 von den Steinen, pp. 9-12; Brinkmann, 'Ekkehards "Waltharius" als Kunstwerk', p. 140; George F. Jones, 'The Ethos of the Waltharius', in Middle Ages, Reformation, Volkskunde: Festschrift for John G. Kunstmann (Chapel Hill, NC: [n. pub.], 1956), pp. 1-20 (p. 7).

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In his article on the Christian theme of Waltharius, Dennis M. Kratz argues that rather

than exemplifying Christian virtues and model behaviour the poet used the protagonists of the

epic to emphasize and warn against their vices - namely the two deadly sins Avaritia and

Superbia. 'The Waltharius is an epic which has no hero' - and as such, it cannot be heroic.70

However, in view of the subject of this work, the contrast which exists is not simply

one of Christianity vs. heroic tradition. Concerning the question of the religiosity of

Waltharius one has to consider both the influences of Paganism and Christianity, and the

Heroic is likewise subdivided into sometimes opposite, but more often overlapping categories

of the Classical versus the Germanic heroic spirit.

There are seven passages with more or less direct references to the Christian God.71

Disregarding the last line of the epic, which contains the poet's blessing of his audience (Haec

est Waltharii poesis. Vos salvet Iesus. - 'This is the poem of Walthairus. May Jesus save you.',

W. 1456), one is left with six passages within the actual story of the epic itself. The first time

the name of God is mentioned in the text involves Hiltgunt and her situation as a hostage at

king Attila's court:

Virgo etiam captiva deo praestante supremo Reginae vultum placavit et auxit amorem, Moribus eximiis operumque industria habundans. (W. 110-12)

(The imprisoned maid also, through the intervention of the highest God, softened the countenance of the queen and increased her love, being endowed with exceptional character and diligence in work.)

A formula similar to deo praestante, which also assigns a good (or in this case, bad)

turn of evens to the will of God, can be found in Beowulf 707 and 968: þa Metod

nolde - 'because the Maker did not wish it'.

The second occurence of Christian material is the single word signans in W.

225. The passage describes Waltharius' and Hiltgunt's meeting just after the hero has

returned from his victorious battle: Illa mero tallum complevit mox pretiosum |

Porrexitque viro, qui signans accipiebat. - 'At once she filled a precious cup with

wine, and offered it to the man, who, making the sign of the cross, accepted it.'

Signans is glossed in the Ecclesiastical Latin sense 'segnen' (i.e. blessing the cup, not

crossing himself) by both Beck and Strecker,72 and in this sense it is certainly a

Christian element. However, in his commentary Althof points out that the Christian

70 Dennis M. Kratz, 'Quid Waltharius Ruodliebque cum Christo?', in: The Epic in Medieval Society: Aesthetic and Moral Values, ed. by Harald Scholler (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1977), 126-149 (p. 130). 71 Michael D. Cherniss, Ingeld and Christ: Heroic Concepts and Values in Old English Christian Poetry (The Hague/Paris: Mouton, 1972) counts six passages with fifteen lines containing Christian material: W. 110, 225, 564-65, 570, 1161-67 and 1456 (p. 122) - he has left out W. 472. 72 See Beck, p. 18 and Karl Strecker, Ekkehards Waltharius, p.90.

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habit of blessing food and drink is reminiscent of the Norse tradition of dedicating a

cup to Oðinn.73 An example of this usus can be found in the Eddic Sigrdrífomál, in

which the valkyrie Sigrdrífa gives advice to the hero Sigurðr:

Full scal signa oc við fári siáoc verpa lauki í lôg

þá ec þat veit, at þér verðr aldrimeinblandinn mioðr. (Sd. 8)74

(You shall bless the filled cup to guard against evil, and throw herbs (leeks) into the liquid: Then I know that, that you will never receive mead mixed with harmful things.)

This possible Germanic interpretation of a line which on a cursory glance seems thoroughly

Christian is just one more example of the ambiguity of Waltharius, which makes it so easy for

critics to find evidence to support nearly every interpretation of the poem's religiosity.

The next two occurrences of Christian material are connected through the theme of

boasting. Just after the fleeing couple have discovered the pursuing Franks, Waltharius makes

a boast ('verbum [...] iacto superbum [...] ', W. 561): that returning to his wife no Frank will be

able to say that he took away any part of the treasure without suffering. Boasting of deeds yet

to be done (O.E. beot or gylp, gylp-spræce) is certainly a thoroughly Germanic heroic trait: in

Beowulf they play an important part in the characterisation of the hero. Unfulfilled boasts

(often spoken in an inebriated state) mark both the rash, unsuccessful warrior and the

coward.75 Hroðgar mentions the vain boasts of his retainers when he describes how they have

been unable to rid his hall, Heorot, from the nightly visits of the monster Grendel:

'Ful oft gebeotedon beore druncneofer ealo-wæge oret-mecgas,þæt hie in beor-sele bidan woldonGrendles guðe mid gryrum ecga.Ðonne wæs þeos medo-heal on morgen-tid.driht-sele dreor-fah, þonne dæg lixte,.... (Beowulf 480a-85b)

('Very often the warriors over the ale-cup, drunken with beer, would boast, that they would in the ale-hall, with blades of horror, await the battle with Grendel. Then in the morning, when the daylight shone, that mead-hall, that noble hall, was stained with blood...')

Beowulf is specifically said to remember the boasts he made concerning the fight ('Ic

gefremman sceal | eorlic ellen, oþðe ende-dag | on þisse meodu-healle minne gebidan .' - 'I

will perform a noble deed, or await my final day in this mead-hall.', Beowulf 636b-38b)

during his encounter with Grendel:

73 Althof, II, 82.74 Quotations from the Edda are according to Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandter Denkmäler. I. Text, ed. by Gustav Neckel, 5th rev. edn. by Hans Kuhn (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1983).75 A beautiful example of the disastrous consequences of such drunken boasts is the well-known Old Norse tale of the vows of the Jómsborg Vikings from Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla.

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Gemunde þa se goda mæg Higelacesæfen-spræce, up-lang astodon him fæste wiðfeng;... (Beowulf 757a-60a)

(Then the brave kinsman of Hygelac [Beowulf] remembered the speech he made in the evening, he stood upright and grasped him [Grendel] firmly....)

Waltharius, however, seems to be standing in a different tradition. He is certainly not

inebriated when his boast is made, and the following twelve fights show that he is indeed able

to fulfil his proud words. Nevertheless he seems to feel apprehension about this show of

arrogance (or even Superbia?):

Necdum sermonem complevit, humotenus ecceCorruit et veniam petiit, quia talia dixit. (W. 564-65)

(No sooner had he completed his speech, to the ground, see, he fell and asked forgiveness for having spoken these (words).)

The verb petiit does not have a second object, and thus it remains unsaid of whom the

forgiveness is asked, but Waltharius' next boast is carefully modified to include the name of

God:

'Horum, quos video, nullum Haganone remotoSuspicio; namque ille meos per proelia mores Iam didicit, tenet hic etiam sat callidus artem.Quam si forte volente deo intercepero solam, Tunc' ait 'ex pugna tibi, Hiltgunt sponsa, reservor.' (W. 568-71)

('Of these whom I see I have no fear of anyone but Hagano: because he already has learned my battle-style, being quite shrewd, he also has skill. If perhaps God willing, this one alone I overcome, then,' he said, 'my betrothed Hiltgunt, I will be saved from the battle for you.')

One other passage makes Waltharius appear even more as a Christian rather than Germanic

warrior, and that is his prayer of thanks and plea for his eleven dead adversaries at the end of

the first day of fighting. 76

Quo facto ad truncos sese convertit amaroCum gemitu et cuicumque suum caput applicat atqueContra orientalem prostratus corpore partemAc nudum retinens ensem hac voce precatur:'Rerum factori, sed et omnia facta regenti,Nil sine permisso cuius vel denique iussoConstat, ago grates, quod me defendit iniquisHostilis turmae telis nec non quoque probis.Deprecor at dominum contrita mente benignum,

76 Ursula Ernst discusses this prayer in her 'Walther- ein christlicher Held?', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 21 (1986), 79-83. The question of the Christianity of Waltharius is also one of the main points in the discussion about the poem's author - the Casus sancti Galli record a vita Waltharii manufortis, and some supporters of Ekkehard argue that Waltharius is enough of a miles christianus for his story to be called a vita, while others postulate a second, Christian Walther-epic (so for example Karl Strecker, 'Der Walthariusdichter', Deutsches Archiv für Geschichte des Mittelalters, 4 (1941), 355-81).

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Ut qui peccantes non vult sed perdere culpas,Hos in caelesti praestet mihi sede videri.' (W. 1157-67)

(That done he turned himself to the corpses with a sad sigh and attached to each one his head, and with his body thrown down towards the east regions and holding his naked blade he prayed with this speech: 'To the Maker of things, but also the Ruler of all done things, without whose permission or rather command nothing exists, I give thanks, that he defended me from the hostile/unfair weapons of the hostile troop and also from disgrace. I pray to the benevolent Lord with a humble heart that He who does not want to destroy sinners but sins, may provide for them to be visible to me in the heavenly abode.')

The only person apart from the hero (and, in the first of the above passages, the heroine) to be

connected with a reference to God is Guntharius, receiving the news of Waltharius crossing

his lands with two chests full of treasure:

Guntharius princeps ex hac ratione superbus Vociferatur, et omnis ei mox aula reclamat:Congaudete mihi, iubeo, quia talia vixi!Gazam, quam Gibicho regi transmisit eoo,Nunc mihi cunctipotens huc in mea regna remisit." (W. 468-72)

(Guntharius, king and for this reason arrogant, cried, and at once the whole hall re-echoed: 'I urge you to be happy with me, because I have lived (to see) such things! The treasure which Gibuchus sent to the king of the East (Attila), the omnipotent one has now send back here to me into my kingdom.')

However, nothing in the arrogant Guntharius' subsequent behaviour can be called specifically

Christian. On the contrary, he is depicted as stupid (rex Guntharius coeptum meditatur

ineptum, - 'King Guntharius contemplated an absurd plan', W. 1304), mad (rex...demens, W.

1228) and cowardly (...tremens stupidusque stetit, vix morte reversus. - '...he stood trembling

and astounded, barely come back from death.', W. 1332). He is both greedy and proud to such

an extent that Kratz sees him as practically a personification of the deadly sins Superbia and

Avaritia. There is also the fact that in his appeal to Hagano for help he calls upon God's pagan

counterparts as easily as he invoked His name in the speech quoted above: Deprecor ob

superos, conceptum pone furorem. ('By the gods above I pray, put away that rage which you

have harboured.' W. 1075).

Admittedly, this does not really give any clues as to Guntharius' religious affinities.

There are a number of references to pagan deities and mythology scattered throughout the

poem which are, in most cases, nothing but literary conventions filched by the author from his

sources. The names of the goddess Fortuna (W. 1318) and the Parcae (W. 851) are used as

synonyms for 'fate', just as Bacchus, used twice in the feast scene, denotes 'wine' (W.

300/319) and Aeolus and Choris (W. 384 and W. 890) 'wind'. Phoebus (W. 278/348/1130)

and Hesperus (W. 1135) appear in the passages where the poet descibes the passing of time.

More remarkable is the poet's use of Classical symbols for the underworld: Waltharius sends

his adversaries to Tartarus (W. 523/1002), Erebus (W. 868), and Orcus (W. 913/1327). The

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contrast between this terminology and the prayer quoted above, in which the hero speaks of

his dead opponents in the heavenly abode (caelesti [...] sede, W. 1167), is obvious.

The theories of critics like Brinkmann, von den Steinen, Kratz, or Katscher (who talks

about the 'christliche Seele' of the Germanic subject matter) is, of course, not dependent on

these direct indications of Christian influence, but rather on interpretations of characters, their

actions and morals, situations and ethic values. Kratz interprets Hagano's speech against

avarice (W. 857-72) as the clue that the portrayal of the heroes in their fight for the treasure is

indeed a condemnation of the deadly sin Avaritia. Max Wehrli goes a step further and

manages to detect references to at least five of the seven deadly sins in Waltharius: in addition

to Guntharius' Superbia and Avaritia there is Gluttony, which is seen as the cause of the

downfall of Attila's kingdom in Ospirin's lament (O detestandas, quas heri sumpsimus, escas!

|O vinum, quod Pannonias destruxerat omnes!- 'O cursed foods, which we ate yesterday! O

wine, which has destroyed all Pannonias!', W. 372-73); Chastity as a contrast to Lechery in

the description of the hero's conduct towards his betrothed (Namque fugae toto se tempore

virginis usu | Continuit vir Waltharius laudabilis heros. - ' For indeed the whole time of the

flight the man Waltharius, the praiseworthy hero, held himself back from the use of the girl.',

W. 427-28); Wrath in Hagano's reaction to Guntharius' insults (Tunc heros magnam iuste

conceperat iram, | Si tamen in dominum licitum est irascier ullum. -'Then the hero with

reason received a great anger, if ever it is allowed to become angry with any lord.', W. 632-

33).77

Some scenes have also been interpreted as allusions to scripture - Kratz sees the

wounds suffered by the heroes in the final fight as symbolic, and quotes Mark 9. 42-48, where

the Christians are advised to cut off their hand or foot and pluck out their eyes if these tempt

them to sin, so as to enter the kingdom of heaven maimed rather than go to hell in complete

possession of one's limbs. 78

3.2.Scenes

In his article on Germanic oral-formulaic poetry referred to earlier Theodore M. Andersson

lists what he calls 'das[....] szenische Inventar' of Germanic heroic literature:79

77 Wehrli, 69-70.78 Kratz, Mocking Epic, 50-51.79 Andersson, 'Oral-Formulaic Poetry', p. 9. Dennis M. Kratz, 'Quid Waltharius...', mentions four 'epic conventions imitated in the Waltharius': Similes, Prophecy, the Banquet and the Battle (p. 129). I have used the English translations provided by Andersson in 'Tradition and Design in Beowulf', in Old English Literature in Context, ed. by John D. Niles (Cambridge: Brewer, 1980), pp. 90-106 (p. 92).

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1. Battle scenes in the open2. Hall scenes of conviviality or celebration3. Hall battles4. Journeys in quest of heroic confrontation5. Sentinel scenes6. Welcoming scenes7. The use of intermediaries8. The consultation of the hero with kings or queens9. Incitations or flytings10. Leave-taking scenes

Of these ten stock scenes, at least four can be found in Waltharius (1 - the battle between

Huns and rebels; 2 - the banquet at Attila's court; 9 - the interaction between the hero and

Guntharius' eleven retainers; 10 - the short scene at the end of the fights; and arguably 8 -

Waltharius' talk with Attila before the battle, and 4 - Waltharius' and Hiltgunt's journey). All

ten scenes can be found in Beowulf, and all are also present in the Aeneid. In this chapter I

will discuss three of the scenes as they appear in Waltharius, namely the banquet, the battle,

and the flytings (in combination with the single fights) in relation to their counterparts in the

Aeneid and Beowulf.

3.2.1. Banquet Scenes

In his 1898 essay 'Ekkehart und Vergil', Karl Strecker points out the parallels between the

splendid cup which Waltharius hands to Attila at the victory banquet (...nappam dedit arte

peractam | Ordine sculpturae referentem gesta priorum, - '...he gave him a cup completed

with art, relating the deeds of the forefathers in an arrangement of carving,...', W. 308-09) and

the cups that Virgil describes as standing on Dido's table at the banquet given in honour of

Aeneas ('...ingens argentum mensis, caelataque in auro | fortia facta patrum...' - '...heavy

silver plate on the tables, and engraved in gold with the brave deeds of the fathers...' A. I, 640-

41). There are more similarities between the cheerful banquet which Waltharius prepares at

great expense (Sumptu permagno convivia laeta parabo, W. 279) and the welcome-feast of

the Carthaginian queen, although there is very little direct verbal borrowing in this part of

Waltharius. For example, both texts mention a hall decorated with gobelins (Ingrediturque

aulam velis rex undique septam. - '... and the king entered the hall which was surrounded on

all sides with curtains.', W. 291; arte laboratae uestes ostroque superbo.... - 'tapestries worked

with art and of magnificent purple', A. I, 639), and in both texts the arrival and seating of the

guests of honour is referred to seperately from that of the crowds of guests. Indeed the whole

course of events is similar: the hall, dishes, food and wine are described first; then the the

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guests arrive, they eat, and after the food courses have been removed, the host stands up and

proposes a toast: Dido addresses Jupiter, Bacchus and Juno, and invites the guests to be merry

('...et uos o coetum, Tyrii, celebrate fauentes.' - ...and you, o Tyrians, celebrate the meeting

with joy.', A. I, 735), just as Waltharius invites Attila to enjoy the feast ('in hoc, rogito,

clarescat gratia vestra | Ut vos inprimis, reliquos tunc laetificetis.' - 'I ask that your favour

may become obvious in this, that you may gladden first yourself, then the others.', W. 306-

07).80

Germanic heroic poetry is full of examples that would serve as comparisons to the

Latin texts. One example that springs to mind, especially in connection with the subject

matter of the Nibelung-legend, is the banquet held by Guðrún for her husband Atli (as Attila

is known in Old Norse) in the Eddic Atlakviða. Apart from them both being descriptions of

feasts in a heroic society there are two interesting points which connect the two banquets. The

first is that to illustrate how drunk the Huns are, the poet says about Waltharius:

Et licet ignicremis vellet dare moenia flammis,Nullus, qui causam potuisset scrire, remansit. (W. 322-23)

(And even if he had wanted to give the walls to the devouring flames, no-one who could have known the reasons (would have) remained.)81

Setting fire to the hall while the Huns are too drunk to notice is, of course, exactly what

Guðrún does in the Eddic version of the Nibelung story to revenge her slain brothers Gunnarr

and Hôgni:

Óvarr Atli, móðan hafði hann sic druccit,...

...hratt fyr hallar dyrr, oc húskarla vacþi,brandi, bruðr, heitom;...

Eldi gaf hon þá alla, er inni vórooc frá morði þeira Gunnars komnir vóro ór Myrcheimi;forn timbr fello, fiarghús ruco,bœr Buðlunga,... (Akv. 40,1-2; 41,5-7; 42,1-7)

(Careless was Atli, he had drunk himself weary.... the wife thrust a brand before the hall-door, and wakened the servants with its flame;...To the fire she gave all who were in there, and had come from the murder of Gunnarr from Myrkheimr; the old wooden beams fell, the treasure-house smoked, the home of the Buðlungrs,...)

The second connection is the purpose of the banquet. Just as Waltharius arranges the feast in

order to make the Huns drunk and enable his and Hiltgunt's flight, Guðrún has her own

agenda: she is planning to exact her revenge for her brothers by killing the intoxicated and

80 I take the second person plural as a pluralis maiestatis here, as the line before clearly states that Waltharius is addressing Attila (dominum laetanter adorsus). 81 Both Beck, p. 26 and Strecker, Ekkehards Waltharius, p. 85, gloss ignicremae flammae as 'verzehrendes Feuer'.

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helpless Atli in his bed, and burning all the Huns in their hall. As Katscher points out, the

same is true, in a fashion, for the Aeneid: underneath the obvious purpose of welcoming the

Trojans to Carthage, Venus and Juno are plotting, and by substituting Cupid for Ascanius they

make Dido fall in love with Aeneas.82

There is, however, a world of difference in the nature of the Carthaginian and the

Hunnish banquet: the one is a very formal, almost ceremonial welcome, the other a wild

victory celebration, close to an orgy; and although it is easy to find banquet scenes in

Germanic literature, it is not so easy to find orgy scenes.

Beowulf itself includes two feasts, both of them elaborate, and both of them formal

occasions. The first (Beowulf 491-661), like Dido's feast, is a banquet to welcome the hero to

Hroðgar's great hall Heorot in Denmark. Like the scenes from Aeneid and Waltharius, it also

contains references to the dishes, to the assignment of seats to the guests of honour, and to the

servants attending the guests. There is also a minstrel, who like Virgil's Iopas, entertains the

company with songs (c.f. A. I, 740-46):

Þa wæs Geat-mæcgum geador ætsomneon beor-sele benc gerymed;þær swið-ferhþe sittan eodon,þryðum dealle; þegn nytte beheold,se þe on handa bær hroden ealo-wæge,scencte scir-wered; scop hwilum sanghador on Heorote; þær wæs hæleða dream,duguð unlytel Dena ond Wedera. (Beowulf 491-98)

(There was to the Geatish warriors all together in the beer-hall a bech granted; they valiantly went to sit there, proud in their strength; a servant attended to the duty, who carried in his hands the decorated ale-cup, poured (from the) brightly adorned (cup); sometimes a minstrel sang with a clear voice in Heorot; there was the joy of warriors, a great company of Danes and Weder-Geats.)

This first feast includes the so-called Unferð-digression, a scene in which Beowulf is

challenged by Hroðgar's þyle (spokesman), and in his answer to Unferð's accusations seizes

the opportunity to relate some heroic deed from his youth. After Beowulf has honourably

acquitted himself Hroðgar's queen, Wealhþeow, comes forward bearing a cup, which she

ritually offers first to her husband, then to Beowulf. Wealhþeow, like Dido, offers a prayer to

God, and asks the guests (or rather, the king) to enjoy the feast (...bæd hine bliðne æt þære

beor-þege,... - 'urged him (to be) merry at the bear-drinking,...', Beowulf 617).83

The second feast (Beowulf 911-1250), likewise given by Hroðgar, and called 'the best

of feasts' (symbla cyst, Beowulf 1231), is celebrated after Beowulf has killed Grendel. It

82 Katscher, pp. 55-56.83 Unlike Waltharius and Guðrún, Wealhþeow of course does not have any ulterior motives when she urges the guests to drink.

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includes a number of parallels to the welcome-banquet, such as the appearance of Wealhþeow

and a minstrel (who recites the lay of Finn). However, as I said above, both of the feasts in

Beowulf (as well as the one in the Aeneid) are formal occasions, characterised through

ritualised gestures and ceremonial speeches, and neither of these examples has anything

remotely similar to what Wehrli calls the 'stillose Gelageszene' (p. 70) of the Huns'

drunkenness:

Ebrietas fervens tota dominatur in aula,Balbutit madido facundia fusa palato,Heroas validos plantis titubare videres. (W. 315-17)

(In the whole hall raging drunkenness dominated, copious eloquence stammered from a drunken palate, you would have seen powerful heroes stagger on their feet.)

But the first forty lines of Judith, one, a 350-line fragment of an Old English biblical poem

found in the Beowulf MS, describe just such an orgy. The host is the devilish tyrant

Holofernes, fated to be beheaded by Judith after the feast, when he is drunk and helpless - an

obviously recurrent motif in Germanic literature. The poet describes Holofernes' inebrieted

state with relish:

Ða wearð Holofernus,goldwine gumena, on gytesalum,hloh ond hlydde, hlynede one dynede,þæt mihten fira bearn feorran gehyranhu se stiðmoda styrmde ond gylede,... (Judith 21b-26a)84

(There became Holofernes, the gold-friend of men, joyful with the pouring of wine; he laughed and shouted, roared and made noise, so that the children of men could hear far and wide how the brave one stormed and yelled,...)

There is emphasis on the heavy drinking in both texts: the guests of both Waltharius and

Holofernes are continually supplied with wine:

Ocius accurrunt pincernae moxque recurrunt, Pocula plena dabant et inania suscipiebant. (W. 312-13)

(Quickly the cup-bearers ran and quickly ran back, they handed out full cups and took away the empty ones.)

Þær wæron bollan stæpeboren æfter bencum gelome, swylce eac bunan ond orcasfulle fletsittendum;... (Judith 17b-19a)

(There were deep bowls carried often along the beches, and also cups and pitchers full to the bench-sitters;...).

Both texts also include the gesture of encouragement by the host: Waltharius cunctos ad

vinum hortatur et escam. - 'Waltharius encourages all to wine and food.', W. 303; ...modig

84 Quotations from Judith are according to The Anglo-Saxon Poetical Records IV: Beowulf and Judith, ed. by Elliot van Kirk Dobbie (London: Routledge, 1954), pp. 99-109.

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ond medugal, manode geneahhe bencsittende þæt hi gebærdon wel. - '...proud and flushed

with mead he [Holofernes] encouraged often the benchsitters to enjoy themselves well.',

Judith 26a-27b). The end is the same: the guests end up drunk on the hall-floor:

Swa se inwidda ofer ealne dægdryhtguman sine drencte mid wineswiðmod sinces brytta, oðþæt hie on swiman lagon, oferdrencte his duguðr walle, swylce hie wæron deaðe geslegene,agotene goda gehwylces. (Judith 28a-31a)

(So the hateful one the whole day long plied his retainers with wine, the strongminded giver of treasure, until they lay in a swoon, all his retinue overfilled, as if they had been slain dead, deprived of every faculty.)

Strecker comments that 'die Gastmahlszene ist ein unlösliches Gewirr von deutschen und

vergilischen Motiven.'85 That he finds the strands of the different traditions which are twisted

together here so difficult to disentangle may well be due to the fact that, as I have shown

above, many of the motifs, structural elements and contextual ideas of banquet scenes, are

common to both Classical and Germanic traditions, and in fact shared by Classical Latin,

Middle Latin and Old English epics.

3.2.2. Battle Scenes

In his list of ten stock scenes of the epic narrative, Andersson distinguishes between two

different type of fight scenes: fights in the open (1), and fights in a hall (3). This

differentiation makes sense for Beowulf, who fights his three monster-fights inside (in Heorot,

Grendel's mother's cave and the dragon's cave), or even the Nibelungenlied, where the main

fight begins outside but moves to the hall for its climax, but not for either the Aeneid (in

which, in Aeneas' description of the Fall of Troy, only one short fight in a building occurs) or

Waltharius (in which all the fights are conducted in the open). In these two epics, the

emphasis is not on the fight's setting, but its participants, more specifically the number of its

participants. In short, the contrast is between the battle fought between armies and the single

duel (which can also occur within a battle of armies). Apart from its eleven single fights,

Waltharius contains one more fight scene: the battle between the Hunnish forces lead by the

hero and an unnamed nation which has dared to rebel against Attila, from which I have

already quoted some lines in my comments on the poet's use of Virgil above.

Since, as I just stated, Beowulf does not contain any comparable battle scenes, a

suitable passage for comparison has to be sought elsewhere. In an article on the merging of

85 Strecker, Bemerkungen, p. 6.

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Germanic and Latin traditions Norbert Voorwinden comments that '...in heroic poetry of the

Germanic tradition a description of the single combat is preferred', in contrast to the Latin

tradition, which, according to him, favours the description of battles. 86 While there is

evidence to support this statement it is, however, quite incomprehensible why he feels able to

state that in the Germanic tradition 'no descriptions of battles between complete armies are

preserved'.87 It is true that in the vernacular Germanic heroic epic no corresponding scene to

the two Latin descriptions of battles can be found, since Beowulf, despite its main theme of

the heroic fight, indeed lacks the description of an engagement between two armies - except,

perhaps, for the fight in Ravenswood (Beowulf 2922-98), which is barely more than the

description of the fight between Ongenþeow and Wulf and Eofor. But there are certainly

alternatives. There is the Old English Battle of Maldon, a 325-line poem on the battle fought

between the English under their leader Byrhtnoð and invading Vikings on 10 or 11 August

991. The case of Maldon, however, might be seen to back up Voorwinden's theory on the

Germanic preference for single fights, since it too describes a series of duels during the battle

rather than the clash of whole armies. This technique is familiar from Virgil, who likewise

prefers to focus on single combats within the battle, or even the aristeia of a single hero, like

Turnus in Book IX, or the amazon Camilla in Book XI - just as the Waltharius-poet, after

having described the action of the armies, turns to the aristeia of Waltharius. Looking beyond

the confines of epic heroic poetry, however, it is easy to find an elaborate Germanic battle

scene: the fight between the Hebrews against the Assyrian army in Judith takes up nearly half

the verses of the 350-line fragment. At this length it is not even half as long as The Battle of

Maldon; but where the poet of Maldon focusses in his description of the action on single

heroes in one-to-one combats with the enemy, the Judith-poet gives a description of the battle

which is both comprehensive and detailed.88

There is one main difference between the battles in the Latin poems and the Germanic

descriptions: Virgil and the Waltharius-poet recount a battle which involves cavalry. The idea

of a battle involving cavalry, based on the fighting method of the Roman armies, is Virgil's

own work, as Richard Heinze observes - pre-classical Greek armies did not have cavalry, and

Virgil's model Homer never describes fights other than on foot.89 The Germanic tradition

86 'Latin Words, Germanic Thoughts - Germanic Words, Latin Thoughts. The Merging of Two Traditions', in Latin Culture and Medieval Germanic Europe: Proceedings of the First Germania Latina Conference held at the University of Groningen, 26 May 1989, ed. by Richard North and Tette Hofstra, Germania Latina 1, Mediaevalia Groningana, 11 (Groningen: Forsten, 1992), pp. 113-128 (p. 116).87 Voorwinden, p. 116.88 More Old English non-heroic battles between armies are, for example, Genesis A (1982-2009), Elene (99-150), and Exodus (447-590). 89 Virgils Epische Technik (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1965), pp. 197-200.

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likewise never mentions horsemen involved in the fights; in The Battle of Maldon the soldiers

are even commanded to dismount and drive their horses away:

Het þa hyssa hwæne hors forlætan,feor afysan and forð gangan,hicgan to handum and to hige godum. (Maldon 2a-4b)90

(He commanded each of the soldiers to abandon his horse, to drive it far away, and to walk forward, to think of his hands and of a brave spirit.)

For Waltharius the question has been asked whether the 'Reiterschlacht', as the battle is called

by German scholars, really is a battle involving horsemen at all. There are only two lines in

the 28-line battle description which mention cavalry (one horses, one reins), and both are

obviously borrowed from Virgil: Pectoribus partim rumpuntur pectora equorum,...- 'In some

parts breasts were broken by breasts of horses,...' (W. 196) and Et versis scutis laxisque

feruntur habenis. - '...and they were carried away with their shields upturned and their reins

free.' (W. 202).91

Despite this main difference, there are obvious parallels in the main, two-phase

structure of the respective battles as well as in the imagery. In Virgil, the fight begins with

long-range weapons (arrows and spears): the armies move into spear-range, and then, already

charging, let loose volleys of missiles.

....subito erumpunt clamore furentisqueexhortantur equos; fundunt simul undique telacrebra nivis ritu caelumque obtexitur umbra. (A. XI, 609-11)

(...suddenly with a shout they rushed forward and encouraged the furious horses; they hurled at once missiles from all sides thickly like snow and the heaven was covered with a shadow.)

This first phase of long-range weapons is followed by the main melée, when the armies

actually meet:

Tertia sed postquam congressi in proelia totasimplicuere inter se acies legitque virum vir:tum vero et gemitus morientum et sanguine in altoarmaque corporaque et permixti caede virorumsemianimes volvuntur equi, pugna aspera surgit. (A. XI, 631-36)

(But when the whole armies met in battle for the third time the lines clashed and man chose man: then truly (there were) the groans of the dying and weapons and bodies deep in blood and mixed with the massacre of men half-dead horses rolled, the violent battle rose .)

In Waltharius the battle begins likewise with a shower of arrows and spears:

Continuoque hastae volitant hinc indeque densae.90 Quoted according to The Battle of Maldon, in: The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records VI: The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, ed. by Elliott van Kirk Dobbie (New York 1942), pp. 7-16.91 See A. XI, 614-15; A. XI, 623 (datis...habenis) and I, 63 (laxas...habenas). There is still no answer to the question whether the Waltharius-poet here describes a Roman battle according to Virgil, a Hunnish battle according to the story, or even a German battle according to contemporary models.

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Fraxinus et cornus ludum miscebat in unum,Fulminis inque modum cuspis vibrata micabat.Ac veluti boreae sub tempore nix glomerata Spargitur, haud aliter saevas iecere sagittas. (W. 185-89)

(...and immediately spears flew thickly from here and there, spears of ash and cornel mingled in a single play, and the hurled spear flashed like a bolt of lightning. And just as, in the season of the north wind, the accumulated snow scatters, not at all different they shot the cruel arrows.)

Only after all missiles have been spent do the lines charge:

Postremum cunctis utroque ex agmine pilisAbsumptis manus ad mucronem vertitur omnis.Fulmineos promunt enses clipeosque revolvunt,Concurrunt acies demum pugnamque restaurant. (W. 190-93)

(Finally, when all spears were spent on both sides, all hands were turned to the swords; they drew out their flashing swords and presented their shields, and at last the line of troops charged and renewed the battle.)

And the same two phases appear again in Judith:

Hie ða fromliceleton forð fleogan flana scuras,hildenædran, of hornbogan,strælas stedehearde; styrmdon hludegrame guðfrecan, garas sendonin heardra gemang.......mundum brugdonscealcas of sceaðum scirmæled swyrd,ecgum gecoste, slogon eornosteAssiria oretmæcgas,niðhycgende,.....(Judith 220a-233a)

(Then they, secure in position, bravely let fly showers of darts, war-snakes, from curved bows, arrows; loudly the fierce warriors shouted, sent spears into the crowd of strong ones.....With their hands the men drew brightly decorated swords from their sheaths, with proven edges, they struck in earnest at the Assyrian warriors, hostile in mind.)

The two phases appear in Germanic battles and duels from Exodus to the Hildebrandslied,

sometimes more clearly separated, and sometimes with a less noticeable transition.92 There is

also a third, final phase which is common to Germanic and Latin battles: the despoiling of the

slain enemies by the victors. Virgilian examples, in which the victor strips the fallen opponent

of his armour, abound; a noticeable example might be Turnus' taking of Pallas' sword-belt, the

action which will be of vital importance in his last fight with Aeneas (A. X, 495-505).93 the

Waltharius-poet mentions in just one line that the victorious people of the Huns 'fell upon the

slain and plundered them all' (Tum super occisos ruit et spoliaverat omnes, W. 207), but in

92 For example in The Battle of Maldon, 108-115.93 On spoils of battle in the Aeneid see Heinze, pp. 209-10.

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Judith there are 29 lines which deal solely with the spoils of battle, which take the Israelites

one month to carry into their city:

...helmas and hupseax, hare byrnan,guðsceorp gumena golde gefrætwod,mærra madma þonne mon ænigasecgan mægesearoþoncelra... (Judith 328a-331b)

(Helmets and hip-swords, grey mailcoats, the battle-dress of men, ornamented with gold, more treasure than any man of the wise could say.)

Apart from the structure, a number of images are common to all three texts. The Waltharius-

poet has adopted the Virgilian simile of the snow-storm to describe the onslaught of

missiles,94 but this image is also familiar to the Germanic text. It can be found in a number of

battle-descriptions, and also in Beowulf's epitaph:95

'...Nu sceal gled fretan,- weaxan wonna leg- wigena strengel,þone oft gebad isern-scure,þonne stræla storm strengum gebædedscoc ofer scild-weall, sceft nytte heold,fæðer-gearwum fus, flane fulleode.' (Beouwlf 3114b-3119b)

(Now fire shall devour, - the dark flame grow - the prince of warriors, who often experienced the shower of iron, when the storm of arrows, urged by the bow-strings, shot over the shield-wall, the shaft did its duty, the eager feather-gear followed the arrow-point.)

There is also the appearance of bright flashes connected with the battle, which is common to

Virgil, Waltharius and Old English epic. In this particular battle Virgil describes the fields

shining with uplifted weapons ('campique armis sublimibus ardent', A. XI, 602); in

Waltharius we find Fulminis inque modum cuspis vibrata micabat ('the hurled spear flashed

like a bolt of lightning', W. 187) and the Virgilian fulmineos enses ('flashing swords', W. 192;

see A. IV, 442), and Judith mentions the already quoted scirmæled swyrd (Judith 221b).

3.2.3. The Duels

The Waltharius-poet's use of Virgil in the description of the ten individual fights against

Guntharius' eleven retainers and in the final fight of Waltharius against Guntharius and Hagen

has been examined in detail by numerous critics. Wagner gives a detailed analysis of the first

eight fights, listing both verbal borrowings and parallels in contents; Strecker discussed the

94 For a discussion of that adaptation see Wagner, p. 7, and Stackmann, p. 404.95 See Althof, II, 67 for an extensive list of occurrences in epic poetry.

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similarities as one of the first in an attempt to discover the poet's working method; and

Katscher's interpretations include much of the same material.96

In an effort to avoid repetition I will look in this section at the single fights from a

slightly different angle, and examine them in view of the flytings. Flytings, also known as

Streitgespräche or verbal duels, are a typical feature of both Classical and Germanic epic, and

the similarities between Homeric and Beowulfian flytings have long been recognised and

analysed.97 There are two recent treatments of the flytings in Waltharius. Carl Joachim

Classen focusses on the language of insult in the verbal exchanges, and discovers that

Waltharius turns out to possess none of the unfavourable character traits he is accused of by

his opponents (deceitfulness, cruelty, cowardice, disloyalty, to name a few), whereas

Guntharius does. He concludes:

So erweisen sich die Scheltreden, wie mir scheint, zum bewußt gewählten und gestalteten Darstellungsmittel, um den Kontrast zwischen Gunther und Walther zu unterstreichen. 98

The other, far more interesting treatment can be found in Norbert Voorwinden's article on

'Latin Words, Germanic Thoughts' which I mentioned in connection with the battle scenes. As

the title already reveals, Voorwinden is interested in the same question that occupies Olsen,

and also me in this essay: the 'cultural syncreticism' of Waltharius, its merging of Germanic

and Classical material. Voorwinden thinks the flytings show that the poet of the Waltharius

was not only familiar with the classical Latin tradition, but also with a tradition of Germanic

(or German) oral heroic poetry. He comes to the conclusion that

Waltharius himself represents in several situations the hero of the Germanic tradition, while nearly all his opponents seem to be part of the Latin tradition.99

This conclusion is based on his differention of the two traditions by means of two sets of

distinctive characteristics: the functional Germanic versus the aimless Classical flyting, 'boast'

versus 'sneering', three turns of speech versus more than three turns, and respect of the

opponent versus his humiliation. While these features are not invariably correct (Mezentius

boasts that he will clothe his son in Aeneas' armour, the thoroughly Germanic Unferð-

digression in Beowulf has only two turns, and Aeneas' last words to Lausus praise and honour

96 See Wagner, 9-52; Strecker, 'Ekkehard und Vergil', 343-62; Katscher 72-104.97 See, for example, Ward Parks, Verbal Dueling in Heroic Narrative. The Homeric and Old English Traditions (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990). Examples of Germanic heroic flytings include the Hildebrandslied 7-62, the Unferð-digression in Beowulf (506-606); The Battle of Maldon 25-61, the Eddic Lokasenna and passages from two Eddic heroic poems, the Hrimgerðarmál (Helgakviða Hjôvarðssonar 12-30) and Helgakviða Hundingsbana I, 31-46. 98 'Beobachtungen zum "Waltharius": die gegen Walther gerichteten Streitreden', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 21 (1986), 75-78 (p. 78).99 Voorwinden, p.126.

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the dead youth for his courage),100 Voorwinden is certainly right in assuming that there are

clear differences between the Classical and the Germanic verbal duel, the foremost of these

being their structure and their function.

For the Old Norse senna, Joseph Harris has identified three major structural elements:

the Preliminary (including Identification and Characterization), the Central Exchange, and the

Conclusion.101 Such a rigid structure is possible because in traditional Germanic flyting the

verbal exchange is nearly always conducted before the actual fight, if it is followed by a

physical fight at all. In the Latin flytings of the Aeneid, however, the verbal exchange is not a

separate scene or movement of the narrative, but is rather intertwined with descriptions of the

combatants, of their approach, of the fight itself. In Waltharius both kinds of exchanges can

be found. The first encounter with Camalo is, as Voorwinden correctly identifies, a very

Germanic flyting: the opponents meet to negotiate rather than quarrel, and if Waltharius' offer

of one hundred bracelets had been accepted, the fight could have been avoided. This offer of

treasure to avoid fighting is a traditional move in Germanic flytings. The best known example

is probably the Hildebrandslied, in which Hiltibrant, unwilling to fight his son Hadubrant,

offers Hunnish gold rings:

want her do ar arme wuntane bauga,cheisuringu gitan, so imo se der chuning gap,Huneo truhtin: 'dat, ih dir it nu bi huldi gibu.' (Hildebrandslied 33-35)102

(Then he took from his arms wound rings, made from emperor's coins, which the king, the lord of the Huns, had given him: 'This I give you out of favour.')

More importantly, the motif is found in the Old English Waldere-fragments, two leaves of 31

verses each, which are all that is left from the Old English version of the Walther-legend. The

fragments contain mostly dialogue, the first a speech by an unnamed person, probably

Hildegyð (Hiltgunt), the second the end of a speech by Guðhere (Guntharius) and Waldere's

answer. In her speech, an incitement to Waldere, Hildegyð speaks of an earlier, unsuccessful

attempt to pacify Guðhere by offering a sword, treasure and many rings:

Ne murn ðu for ði mece: ðe wearð maðma cystgifeðe to eoce unc; ðy ðu Guðhere scealtbeot forbigan, ðæs ðe he ðas beaduþe onganmid unryhte ærest secan.Forsoc he ðanm swurde and ðam syncfatum,beaga mænigo; nu sceal beaga leashworfan from ðisse hilde... (Waldere I 24-30a)103

100 A. X, 774-6; Beowulf 506-29 (Unferð) and 530-606 (Beowulf); A. X, 821-30. 101 'The senna: From Description to Literary Theory', Michigan Germanic Studies, 5 (1979), 65-74 (p. 66).102 Quoted according to Das Hildebrandslied, in:, Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, ed. by Wilhelm Braune and Karl Helm, 16th edition (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1979), 84-85.

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(Do not worry about the sword: this best of all treasures was given us for help; with it you shall repay Guðhere for his boast, that he first began to seek the fight with deceit. He refused the sword and the treasure, the many rings; now he shall depart ringless from this fight.)

This first flyting between Waltharius and Camalo is actually an exchange between Waltharius

and Guntharius, conducted by proxy. Camalo identifies himself not by his own name, but by

presenting what one could call his 'credentials':

'Noris Guntharium regem tellure potentemMe mississe tuas quaesitum pergere causas.' (W. 592-93)

('Know that the in this region powerful king Guntharius sent me to go to inquire after your reasons.')

Flyting by proxy is another well-known concept in Germanic literature, illustrated for

example in the Old Norse sennur of the Eddic Helgi-poems. Atli, in the senna against the

giantess Hrímgerðr, and Sinfiôtli, in his exchange with the hero Guðmundr, both identify

themselves through their lord Helgi. Guðmundr asks

'Hverr er landreki sá er liði stýriroc hann feicnalið fœrir at landi?'104

('Who is the lord who leads this fleet, and leads this threateningly strong troop to the land?')

and Hrímgerðr calls over the water

'Hverir ro hôlðar í Hatafirði?...kennit mér nafn konungs!'105

('Who are the heroes in Hatafjord?...Tell me you king's name!')

Sinfiôtli's and Atli's answers are the same: Helgi hann heitir ('He is called Helgi', HHv. 13,1)

and Þar mun Hôðbroddr Helga findan ('Hôðbroddr (Guðmundr's brother) can find Helgi

here', H HH. 35,1f). Only after they have named their lord thus the flyters identify

themselves: Atli ec heiti ('I am called Atli', HHv. 15,1).

There are six more flytings which follow this first exchange with Camalo: another

exchange with Camalo, which precedes his fight (and which I count as a seperate flyting for

the above stated reason that in the first dialogue Camalo is actually representing Guntharius),

and one each with Scaramundus, Werinhardus, Ekivrid, Hadawardus and Patavrid. None of

these flytings can be as easily compared with other Germanic examples as the first one: as the

structural analysis of the flytings in Appendix II shows, they are quite complex, and very

different from each other. The most important difference to Germanic flytings is, as can be

103 Quoted according to Waldere, ed. by Frederick Norman, Methuren's Old English Library A3 (London: Methuen, 1933)104 Helgakviða Hundingsbana I (HH.) 32, 3-6. 105 Helgakviða Hjôvarðssonar (HHv.) 12, 1/7.

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easily seen in the table, that all flytings except the first and the very short third are at one or

more points interrupted by fighting action.

There are a number of motifs which appear in Classical flyting. On two occasion,

Waltharius addresses his opponent mockingly just before the death stroke ('Talia non dudum

iactabas dicta per auras.' - 'A little while ago you were not throwing such speeches into the

air.', W. 752 to Werinhardus, and 'quonam fugis? accipe scutum!' - 'Where on earth are you

fleeing to? Take up the shield!', W. 840, to Hadawardus). The first of these quotations and its

context of the pleading opponent is, as I mentioned under the aspect of Virgilian borrowings,

taken nearly verbally from a passage in Book X. There are also several instances of reported

speech in Waltharius, a feature practically unknown to Germanic flyting, but found in Virgil

(for example A. XI 696-98).

However, there are features in the flytings and fights which are mutual to all three

epics: they appear in the Aeneid, are found in the Waltharius, and are present in Beowulf. An

example is what Harris calls the Identification: the enquiring of one opponent after the other's

name, rank, and intentions. An Identification is part of most flytings, and the resulting answer

often determines what the relationship between the parties is going to be. If a friendly

relationship follows, these exchanges are not normally regarded as flytings - Parks calls them

'short-circuited':

...[the exchange] modulate[s] out of the hightly eristic flyting mode that predominates at the outset into a friendly bonding process that is not flyting at all.106,

but since the feature is common to both potential and real flytings, I will quote two such

exchanges as examples to compare with the first Camalo-flyting of Waltharius.107

In Book VIII of the Aeneid, Aeneas arrives with his troop in Pallanteum to speak to

King Evander about a possible alliance, and is challenged by Evander's son Pallas:

Audax quos rumpere Pallassacra vetat raptoque volat telo obvius ipseet procul e tumulo: 'Iuvenes, quae causa subegitignotas temptare vias, quo tenditis?' inquit.'Qui genus? Unde domo? Pacemne huc fertis an arma?'Tum pater Aeneas puppi sic fatur ab altapaciferaeque manu ramum praetendit olivae:'Troiugenas ac tela vides inimica Latinis,quos illi bello profugos egere superbo.Euandrum petimus. Ferte haec et dicite lectos

106 Ward Parks, 'Flyting and Fighting: Pathways in the Realization of the Epic Contest', Neophilologus, 70 (1986), 292-306 (p. 301).107 William Lenz, Der Ausgang der Dichtung von Walther und Hildegunde, Hermanea. Ausgewählte Arbeiten aus dem deutschen Seminar zu Halle 34 (Halle a.d. Saale: Niemeyer, 1939) calls the exchange with Camalo 'geradezu typisch germanisch', and compares closely with the structure of the Hildebrandslied (p. 15).

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Dardaniae venisse duces socia arma rogantis.'Obstipuit tanto percussus nomine Pallas:'Egredere o quicumque es' ait 'coramque parentemadloquere ac nostris succede penatibus hospes.'excepitque manu dextramque amplexus inhaesit. (A. VIII, 110-124)

(The bold Pallas forbade to interrupt the rites and himself flew with his seized spear to meet (them) and high from the hill inquired:'You warriors, what cause compels you to try the unknown ways, where are you bound? Of what lineage? From which home? Do you bring peace or arms (war)?' Then Father Aeneas high from the stern spoke thus and held out in his hand the peace-bringing olive-branch: 'You can see men born of Troy and weapons hostile towards the Latins, (men) whom they have driven to be fugitives with proud war. We are looking for Evander. Bring him these (words) and tell him that elect leaders of the Dardanians have come asking for an alliance.' Pallas stood amazed at such a name: 'Disembark, o whoever you are,' he said, 'and talk to my father and follow as a guest into our home.' And he extended a hand and grasped (Aeneas') right hand in an embrace.)

A very similar situation is depicted in the Old English epic, when Beowulf's troop, on arrival

in Denmark, is encountered and questioned first by the Danish coastguard and then by

Hroðgar's officer Wulfgar:108

....Þa ðær wlonc hæleðoret-mecgas æfter æþelum frægn:'Hwanon ferigeað ge fætte scyldas,græge syrcan ond grim-helmas,here-sceafta heap?....'Him þa ellen-rof andswarode,wlanc Wedera leod, word æfter spræc,heard under helme: 'We synt Higelacesbeod-geneatas; Beowulf is min nama....' (Beowulf 331b-34b)

(There a proud man asked the warriors after their lineage: 'From where do you carry gold-adorned shields, grey corslets and grim helmets, a multitude of spears?...' Him answered the brave one, the courageous lord of the Weder-Geats, then spoke these words, strong under the helmet: ' We are Hygelac's table-companions; Beowulf is my name.')

Finally, there is the first encounter of Waltharius with the Franks. Sent by Guntharius to

establish the stranger's name, Camalo approaches Waltharius:

'dic, homo, quisnamSis aut unde venis? quo pergere tendis?'Heros magnanimus respondit talia dicens:'Sponte tua venias an huc te miserit ullus, Scire velim.' Camalo tunc reddidit ore superbo: 'Noris Guntharium regem tellure potentem Me misisse tuas quaesitum pergere causas.'His auscultatis suggesserat hoc adolescens:'Ignoro penitus, quid opus sit forte viantis Scrutari causas, sed promere non trepidamus. Waltharius vocor, ex Aquitanis sum generatus. A genitore meo modicus puer obsidis ergo

108 Friedrich Klaeber has compared this passage in more detail with Aeneas' arrival at Dido's court: 'Aeneis und Beowulf', in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 65 (n.s.26) (1911), 40-48 and 339-359 (p. 47-48). Olsen, pp. 273-75, interprets it as the oral-formulaic type-scene 'The Hero on the Beach'.

42

Sum datus ad Hunos; ibi vixi nuncque recessiConcupiens patriam dulcemque revisere gentem.' (W. 587-600)

('Say, man, who on earth you are or from where you come? Whither you intend to proceed?' The great-hearted hero answered saying these (words): 'I want to know whether you come by yourself or whether someone has sent you here.' Camalo then replied with an arrogant speech: 'Know that the in this region powerful king Gunther sent me to go to inquire after your reasons.' Having listened to that, the young man added this: 'I do not understand at all what need there is to examine the reasons of a chance wanderer, but we have no hesitation to make them known. I am called Waltharius, I am born in Aquitania. A small boy, I was then given by my father to the Huns as a hostage; there I lived and now have departed, long desiring to see again my fatherland and my dear people.')

There are other similarities like this in contents, structure and diction in the Aeneid,

Waltharius and Beowulf: all three epics possess a number of practically identical elements,

which are neither purely Classical not quite Germanic, but which rather seem to belong to a

common stock of epic conventions. I have already discussed the parallels of Virgil and

Waltharius at length, and pointed to even more extensive studies on the subject - almost as

many studies have been made on the subject of a possible Virgilian heritage in Beowulf, but,

as Theodore M. Andersson puts it succinctly in Early Epic Scenery, there is 'too much

evidence to ignore and too little to decide the case to everyone's satisfaction.' 109

Looking beyond merely the flytings, there are parallels in the fight descriptions of all

three epics which include, for example, heroic gestures and the expression of heroic

sentiments. There is in all three epics evidence of a nearly ritualistic beheading of the fallen

enemy: in the Aeneid, it is an almost characteristic trait of both Aeneas and Turnus (cf. A. X,

555; A. XII, 382 and 511). Six of Waltharius' opponents (Scaramundus W. 718-19,

Werinhardus W. 753, Gerwitus W. 939, Randolf W. 981, Helmnod W. 1018-20 and arguably

Trogus W.1059) are decapitated by the hero, either with the death-stroke or as a gesture after

they have died. It could be argued that this beheading is a Classical gesture, since in several of

these instances the words are borrowed from Virgil, but there are also examples of this in

Germanic literature. In Beowulf, the hero cuts the head off Grendel's body, which he finds

lying in the cave under the mere, to bring it back to Hroðgar's hall as a trophy (Beowulf 1584-

1590).

A striking correspondence lies in the topos of the breaking sword. In an early stage of

the final fight against Aeneas Turnus' sword splinters, because in his excitement he has taken

the wrong weapon from his chariot, and this mortalis mucro could not prevail against

Aeneas's divinely fashioned armour:

.....at perfidus ensisfrangitur in medioque ardentem deserit ictu,ni fuga subsidio subeat. (A. XII, 731-33)

109 Early Epic Scenery: Homer, Virgil, and the Medieval Legacy (Ithaca/London: Cornell, 1976), p. 145.

43

(...but the treacherous blade was shattered and abandoned the eager one in mid-blow, if not flight came to his help.)

Waltharius' sword suffers a similar fate:

Extensam cohibere manum non quiverat heros,Sed cassis fabrefacta diu meliusque peractaExcipit assultum mox et scintillat in altum.Cuius duritia stupefactus dissilit ensis,Pro dolor! et crepitans partim micat aere et herbis. (W. 1371-75)

(The hero was not able to restrain his outstretched hand, but the helmet which had been forged for a long time and very well completed received the attack and at once sent up sparks to the sky. Astounded by its hardness, the sword broke, oh pain, and rattling shimmered partly in the air and (partly in the) grass.)

Waltharius looses both his sword and his hand as a result of this one blow, but unlike Turnus,

who only escapes through flight, he has another ace up his sleeve, or rather another sword at

his hip, and with this he manages to repay Hagano for the wound. Last but not least there is

Beowulf's last fight. Just as in the two Latin epics, the poet emphasises the enormous strength

of the blow which shatters the sword.

Þa gen guð-cyningmærða gemunde, mægen-strengo slohhilde-bille, þæt hyt on heafolan stodniþe genyded; Nægling forbærst,geswac æt sæcce sweord Biowulfes,gomol ond græg-mæl. (Beowulf 2677b-82a)

(Then still the war-king was thinking of glorious deeds, with mighty strength he struck with his battle-sword, so that it stuck in the head, compelled by violence. Nægling burst; Beowulf's sword, old and grey-coloured, failed in the fight.)

Beowulf does not flee. His retainer and kinsman Wiglaf now enters the fight and strikes at the

dragon, but like Waltharius the hero himself has another weapon, a wæll-seax ('deadly knife',

Beowulf 2709), with which he finally kills the dragon. Again like Waltharius, who cannot

hold back on his blow, it is the hero's superhuman strength which breaks the weapon (...wæs

sio hand to strong, | se ðe meca gehwane, mine gefræge,| swenge ofersohte... - '...his hand was

to strong, as I have heard, which overtaxed each of the swords in a blow...' Beowulf 2684b-

86a).

As for heroic sentiments, there is the topos of 'the fight would have been lost, if not...'.

The Aeneid gives numerous examples (see A. IX 757-59, or X, 323-31), and so does Beowulf

(see Beowulf 1550-56 and 1657-58). In Waltharius it is the armour fabricated by Wieland

which saves the hero from death (Et nisi duratis Wielandia fabrica giris | Obstaret, spisso

penetraverit ilia ligno. - 'And had not Wieland's work of hardened rings stood in the way, the

thick wood would have penetrated the groin.', W. 965-66).

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Another is the heroic 'win or die', which often precedes the advance into battle and is

therefore frequently part of a flyting. Pallas' answer to Turnus' indirect flyting is

'aut spoliis ego iam raptis laudabor opimisaut leto insigni....' (A. X, 449-50)

(I shall soon be renowned for the seized spoils of an enemy commander, or for a glorious death.)

In Waltharius, there are two heroes who express this sentiment. Opponent two, Scaramundus,

rushed into the fight exclaiming 'Now I will either die at the same time or avenge the beloved

friend.' (Nunc aut commoriar vel carum ulciscar amicum, W. 690), and Hagano's last words

before he attacks are 'Behold, either I die or I will perform some other memorable deed.' (En

aut oppeto sive aliquid memorabile faxo, W. 1279). In Beowulf we have the above-quoted Ic

gefremman sceal | eorlic ellen, oþðe ende-dag |on þisse meodu-healle minne gebidan. ('I will

perform a noble deed, or await my final day in this mead-hall.', Beowulf 636b-38b)

3.3. Themes

3.3.1 Exile

In her list of themes and type-scenes derived from oral-formulaic vernacular poetry, Olsen

mentions three type-scenes (Sleep after Feasting, Journey to Trial, and the Hero on the

Beach), two of which I have discussed indirectly above in the sections on the banquet scene

and the duels. She also mentions one theme, the theme of Exile, and proceeds to list

occurrences of the word exilium in the poem. She concludes:

...the repetition of the word exilium five times in the first 354 lines of the poem, with associative elements identified by Stanley B. Greenfield as the formulaic Theme of Exile, suggests that the plight of Walther and Hildegund is reflective of the Germanic milieu. Thematic exile emphasized a character's sorrow and state of social and psychological deprivation, a poignant predicament of women as well as men in the Germanic rather than Classical tradition.110

The four associative elements which, according to Greenfield,111 are the primary aspects of

exile as the Germanic poets conceived it, are all present in Waltharius. The status of the exile

is mentioned several times (e.g. in Waltharius' Exilium pariter patimur nam tempore tanto -

'Together we have suffered exile already for such a long time', W. 231). There is also an

indirect mentioning of deprivation of physical property: as suggested by Queen Ospirin, Attila

110 Olsen, pp. 267-68.111 'The Formulaic Expression of the Theme of 'Exile' in Anglo-Saxon Poetry', Speculum 30 (1955), 200-206 (p. 201).

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is to promise Waltharius money and land for his marriage, and to tell him non pauperiem

propriam perpendere cures ('do not trouble yourself to reflect about your own poverty', W.

137). The reference to the state of mind of the exiled can be found in W.251-52: piget exilii

me denique nostri | Et patriae fines reminiscor saepe relictos - 'In short, I am annoyed with

our exiles, and I often remember the confines of the fatherland I left behind.'). Lastly,

Greenfield mentions that an expression of the movement in or into exile is usually present,

and there is indeed at the beginning of the poem the line about Hiltgunt: Pergit in exilium

pulcherrima gemma parentum. - 'The most beautiful jewel of her parents proceeded into

exile.', W. 74).

However, for all that these elements are present in Waltharius, the notion of exile here

does not conform to the Germanic concept of exile, which is less an exile in terms of

geography, but rather, as Michael D. Cherniss calls it in his analysis of heroic values in Old

English poetry, 'the epitome of misfortune in heroic life':

Exile means deprivation; deprivation of the bonds of loyalty, of the protection of the avneger, of the honour symbolised by treasure. It is the greatest misfortune which can befall a Germanic warrior.112

It is exemplified in the Old English elegies The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Wife's

Lament. The Seafarer's powerful description of the miseries of his exile is a striking example:

þæt se mon ne watþe him on foldan fægrost limpeð,hu ic earmcearig iscealdne sæwinter wunade wræccan lastum,winemægum bidroren,bihongen hrimgicelum; hægl scurum fleag. (The Seafarer, 12b-17b)113

(That does the man not know, who lives on the land the best of times, how I, sorrowful on the ice-cold sea, lived in winter on the paths of exile, deprived of friends, hung around with icicles; hail flew in showers.)

In the heroic Beowulf, the exiled man is the counterpoint of the successful hero, who enjoys

the grace of a ring-giving lord. At the first sight of the hero and his troop Hroðgar's officer

Wulfgar comments

'...Wen ic þæt ge for wlenco, nalles for wræc-siðumac for hige-þrymmum Hroðgar sohton.' (Beowulf 338a-39b)

(I think that you have sought out Hroðgar for glory, not at all because of a journey into exile,but becasuse of greatness of spirit.)

112 Cherniss, p. 102.113 Quoted according to The Seafarer, in A Guide to Old English, ed. by Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, 5th ed. (Oxford/Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1992), pp. 276-83.

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Of the monster Grendel, Beowulf's antagonist and opposite, it is said that on weres wæstmum

wræc-lastas træd ('he walked the paths of exile in the form of a man', Beowulf 1351), and he

is described as doomed to exile by God just like his ancestor Cain:

wæs se grimma gæst Gerndel haten,mære mearc-stapa, se þe moras heold,fen ond fæsten; ...siþðan him Scyppend forscrifen hæfde... (Beowulf 102a-06b)

(That grim spirit was called Grendel, the mighty walker in the borderland, who inhabited the moors, the fens and fastness;...since the Creator had condemned him...).

All this is not part of Waltharius', Hiltgunt's and Hagano's exile. On the contrary, as generals

of the Hunnish army and administrator of the treasure chamber respectively they hold

positions of honour at Attila's court, and, as their flight shows, there are still feelings of

loyalty to their old homes. Exile in Waltharius is rather the Classical concept of the theme, as

it appears in the Aeneid. In his discussion of the 'vergilianesimo' of Waltharius, Alfonsi

writes:

Enea appare pure Waltharius per la nostalgia del ritorno in patria, anche se qui possa vernire in mente piú l'omerico ulisse, ma meglio in quanto 'elaborato' nell'Enea anelante all' 'antiqua mater'. Ma certo il tema dell'esilio e dell'anelito al ritorno è uno dei piú sentiti.114

Aeneas as a man who, forced to leave his home, is on his way to return to the fatherland of his

ancestors, is a much closer counterpart to Waltharius than the friendless, joyless, icicle-hung

Seafarer.

3.3.2 Treasure

The third of the four chapters on concepts and values in Old English Poetry in Cherniss'

Ingeld and Christ is headed 'The Material Symbol of Human Worth', and deals with the theme

of treasure. Treasure is connotated positively nearly everywhere in Germanic heroic literature;

Cherniss explains that

the objects and materials which we have designated as 'treasure' [...] give moral value to their possessors; [...] they are, in fact, material manifestations or representations of the proven or inherent worthiness of whoever possesses them. We may define the function of treasure as that of a tangible, material symbol of the intangible, abstract qualities of virtue in a warrior.115

114 Alfonsi, p. 6.115 Cherniss, p. 81.

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This view of treasure is due to the fact that it is what can be called the 'heroic currency': that

heroic deeds are always rewarded with gold: Hroðgar shows his appreciation of Beowulf's

success against Grendel by bestowing a costly banner, armour, helmet and sword upon him,

and Beowulf himself says about his service to Hygelac:

'Ic him þa maðmas, þe he me sealde,geald æt guðe, swa me gifeðe wæs,leohtan sweorde... Næs him ænig þearf,þæt he to Gifðum oððe to Gar-Denumoððe in Swio-rice secan þurfewyrsan wig-frecan, weorðe gecyþan.' (Beowulf 2490a-96b)

(I have paid him [Hygelac] back in battle for the treasures that he gave me, as was granted to me, with my gleaming sword;...There was no need for him, that he had to seek among the Gepidae or among the Spear-Danes or in the Swedish realm a less good warrior, to buy with treasure.)

In the second part of Beowulf, however, treasure (especially the dragon's hoard) is also

connotated negatively, since it is the greed of one thief which brings disaster to the Geats and

ultimately leads to Beowulf's death:

Sinc eaðe mæg,gold on grunde, gum-cynnes gehwoneoferhigian; hyde se ðe wylle! (2764b-66b)

(Treasure, gold in the earth, can easily overpower each man; let him hide it who will!)

Biowulfe wearðdryht-maðma dæl deaðe forgolden (Beowulf 2842b-43b)

(Beowulf was repaid with death for the pile of treasure.)

There are corresponding passages on the evil power of gold in Waltharius and the Aeneid. The

Middle Latin poem contain's Hagano's famous speech against avarice:

Ecce Non trepidant mortem pro lucro incurrere turpem.Quanto plus retinent, tanto sitis ardet habendi.Externis modo vi modo furtive potiunturEt, quod plus renovat gemitus lacrimasque ciebit, Caeligenas animas Erebi fornace retrudunt. (W. 862-67)

(See, they are not alarmed to meet with disgraceful death for profit. How much more they have, so much burns the thirst for possessions. Now by power, now by cunning they acquire external goods and, what more renews sighs and invokes tears, they push heavenly-made souls about through the fire of Erebus.)

In Book III, when Aeneas encounters the ghost of Polydorus, who was slain for the gold he was

carrying to the king of Thrace, Virgil comments: quid non mortalia pectora cogis, | auri sacra

fames! ('To what do you not compel mortal hearts, cursed hunger for gold!', A III, 56-57).

Depending on the individual critic's view, treasure is seen either negatively or positively in

Waltharius. Kratz thinks that

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Walter's avarice prevents him from being a model of Christian virtue. Once he has taken the treasure from the Huns, he is preoccupied both with keeping it and with avoiding the shame of losing it.116

Katscher calls the treasure the poem's 'Leitsymbol', and believes that the attitude of the two

main protagonists towards the Hunnish gold (Waltharius as moderate, since he only takes two

chests full of it, and is prepared to part with a portion of it in return for peace; Guntharius as

excessively greedy, because he is not content with less than the whole treasure) reflects not

only the differences in their character and morality, but also the degree to which they are to

blame for the deaths in the fights.117 The importance of the theme of treasure for the poem

cannot be denied: it is probably the most important plot element, since it motivates the fights

which take up no less than a thousand lines.

Kratz also suggests that Waltharius is at fault for taking Attila's gold at all.118 There is

ambiguity in the manner of Waltharius' acquisition of the gold: it is not clear whether he steals

it from Attila, as the greedy thief in Beowulf steals the cup from the dragon's hoard; whether

he takes back what was paid as tribute by his father, as Guntharius suggests; or whether the

two chests of gold are spoils of battle, since Waltharius has symbolically defeated Attila with

his successful plan of making the Huns drunk, and has every right to avail himself of the

looser's possessions.

Once in possession of the treasure, however, Waltharius can no more part with it

voluntarily than the English general Byrhtnoð in The Battle of Maldon, who thinks it too

shameful (to heanlic, Maldon 55) to give up treasure without a fight (unbefohtene, Maldon

57).

116 Kratz, Mocking Epic, p. 47.117 Katscher, p. 70.118 Kratz, Mocking Epic, p. 41.

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4. Conclusion

In the above discussion I have mostly restricted myself to the listing of facts and the

presentation of theories, and have seldom drawn any conclusions as to the implications of

what research has uncovered. Indeed, as the many different conclusions show, which have

been drawn by critics from one and the same text, an interpretation of the facts is a hazardous

venture, since little can be proved, even less disproved, and personal opinions, prejudices and

priorities always influence our reading. In this last section I would like to present my

personal, individual opinions about the poem, well knowing that they, like all the others, can

and will be easily contradicted and disagreed with.

'If the Waltharius and Alexandreis are not ironic but positive celebrations of heroic

virtue', Kratz writes, 'we must conclude that both poets have gone about their task ineptly.'119 I

do not believe in the irony of Waltharius; however, I certainly do believe in a certain

ineptitude on the poet's part, as it is visible in his often clumsy verses, which, however he may

try, have nothing of the elegance of Virgil's lines, his unclear expressions, which leave

translators in unresolvable discussions, and his near-borrowings from famous Classical

authors which sometimes give the impression of a student integrating the phrases of a source

he wants to use in a slightly altered form into an essay in an attempt to avoid accusations of

plagiarism. Walter Haug has listed a number of started, but never pursued plot lines in the

poem.120 The characters of the protagonists are not drawn clearly and consistently; instances

like Guntharius' call to both the Christian and Pagan deities are only one example. Even the

hero, wavering between Germanic warrior ethos and Christian values and behaviour, always

remains a fuzzy, ambiguous figure.

As I hope this essay has sufficiently shown, Olsen's concept of 'cultural syncreticism'

can certainly be applied to Waltharius: the Christian touches are opposed to the Classical 119 Kratz, Mocking Epic, p. 163.120 'Andreas Heusler's Heldensagenmodell: Prämissen, Kritik und Gegenentwurf', ZfdA, 104 (1975), 273-92 (pp. 285-91)

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references to paganism, the concept of exile is Classic, while the theme of treasure seems to

be influenced either by Germanic or by Christain values.

All in all, however, there is an astonishing number of examples where the poem does

not stand between Classical and Germanic traditions, but in an unbroken chain of heroic epic

conventions: the banquet scene, the battle scene and the flytings all contain structures,

elements and motifs which seem to have been as familiar to Virgil's readers as to the audience

of Beowulf. Despite its haphazardous mixture of Classical, Germanic and Christian

Waltharius is not the mongrel work many critics would have us believe, but a smooth puzzle

piece in the history of heroic epic literature. It is because of this unity of epic poetry which

strings an unbroken line from the Aeneid to Waltharius to Beowulf that I believe the poem to

be an honest, certainly not ironic, but not entirely flawless or successful attempt to write

heroic literature in the epic tradition.

Centre for Medieval Studies

University of Leeds Antje Frotscher

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5. Appendices

5.1. Appendix I: Whole Lines Borrowed From Virgil's Aeneid1.W. 182-83: Iamque infra iactum teli congressus uterque | constiteratA. XI, 608-09: iamque intra iactum teli progressus uterque | substiterat

2.W. 328: Stat sonipes ac frena ferox spumantia manditA. IV, 135: stat sonipes ac frena ferox spumantia mandit

3. W. 383: Et nunc huc animum tristem, nunc dividit illuc.A. IV, 285 and VIII, 20: atque animum nunc huc celerem nunc diuidit illuc

4.W. 390: Nec placidam membris potuit dare cura quietemA. IV, 5: [...]verbaque, nec placidam membris dat cura quietem 5.+6.W. 528-29: O rex et comites, experto credite, quantus In clipeum surgat, quo turbine torqueat hastam.A. XI, 283-84: [...] experto credite, quantusin clipeum adsurgat, quo turbine torqueat hastam

7W. 626: Et mox auxilio subeuntem ac tela ferentemA. II, 216: post ipsum auxilio subeuntem ac tela ferentem

8.W. 695: Bina manu lato crispans hastilia ferroA. I, 313 and XII, 165: bina manu lato crispans hastilia ferro.

9.+10.W. 728-29: Pandare, qui quondam iussus confundere foedus In medios telum torsisti primus Achivos.A. V, 495-60 Pandare, qui quondam, iussus confundere foedus,in medios telum torsisti primus Achivos.

11., 12., 13.+ 14.W. 745-49: Dixerat et toto conixus corpore ferrum

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Conicit. Hasta volans pectus reseravit equinum: Tollit se arrectum quadrupes et calcibus auras Verberat effundensque equitem cecidit super illum.A. IX, 410-11: Dixerat, et toto conixus corpore ferrumconicit: hasta volansA. X, 892-95: Tollit se arrectum quadrupes et calcibus aurasverberat effusumque equitem super ipse secutusimplicat

15.W. 775: ' [...] Aspice, num mage sit telum penetrabile nostrum'A. X, 481 'aspice, num mage sit nostrum penetrabile telum.'

16., 17.+18.W. 824-25: Olli sublimes animis ac grandibus armisHic gladio fidens, hic acer et arduus hasta,Inter se multa et valida vi proelia miscent.A. XII, 788: olli sublimes armis animisque refecti,hic gladio fidens, hic acer et arduus hasta, [...]A. XII, 720: illi inter sese multa ui uulnera miscent

19.+20.W. 831-32: Emicat hic impune putans iam WormatiensisAlte et sublato consurgit fervidus enseA. XII, 728-29: Emicat hic impune putans et corpore totoalte sublatum consurgit Turnus in ensem

21.W. 930: Ad studium fors et virtus miscentur in unumA. XII, 714 [...] fors et uirtus miscetur in unum

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5.2. Appendix II: The Flytings of Waltharius

Parantheses around a speaker's name indicate indirect speech, a dash passages where the flyting is interrupted by action.

Opponent Lines Speaker Contents1Camalo Ill. 581-616

581-86 - introduction of Camalo587-88 Camalo C inquires after W's identity, provenance

and plans589-91 Waltharius W inquires after Camalo's credentials591-93 Camalo C names Guntharius as his sender594-600 Waltharius W names himself, gives his descent, history

and reasons for the journey601-03 Camalo C asks in G's name for the treasure and the

girl604-14 Waltharius W does not feel that G has any power over

him, and refuses to obey. He offers G one hundred gold bracelets as recompense

615-16 - Camalo returns to Guntharius 2Camalo IIll. 640-685

640-43 Guntharius G orders Camalo to go and fight W644-48 Camalo C demands the gold again, and offers

threats 649-51 (Camalo) W does not reply and C repeats his call

(indirect speech)653-63121 Waltharius W repeats his claim that the demands of G

are unjust, and offers two hundred bracelets to G

664-667 Camalo C refuses to negotiate and repeats his threats

668-71 - Camalo attacks672 Waltharius W gives up negotiating and accepts the

challenge673-85 - Waltharius and Camalo fight

3Scaramundusll. 686-719

686-95 - identification of Scaramundus; S vows to revenge his uncle; the single fights necessitated by the outlay of the place

696-701 Scaramundus S states that he wants nothing of the

121 The discrepancy in line numbering here arises through the fact that in Strecker's MGH edition, which I am following, l. 652 is left out.

54

treasure, but is driven by the desire to avenge his kinsman

702-04 Waltharius W denies any guilt on his part for the death of Camalo

705-19 - Waltharius and Scaramundus fight, S falls720-24 Guntharius Guntharius' hvôt (speech of incitement)

4Werinhardus725-53

725-36 - identification of Werinhardus; WH initiates the fight by shooting arrows at W from a distance, which W all avoids

737-41 Werinhardus having spent all his arrows, WH announces his intention to continue the fight with the sword

742-44 Waltharius W remarks on the unfairness of WH's earlier choice of weapons

745-51 - Waltharius and Werinhardus fight752 (Werinhardus) /

WalthariusW ridicules his fallen opponent's pleas for mercy (WH indirect speech)

753 - W kills WH5Ekivrid754-80

754-59 - Ekivrid's background and equipment760-63 Ekivrid E calls W a faun764-69 Waltharius W comments on E's accent and beliefs770 Ekivrid E replies shortly 771-72 - E attacks771-75 Waltharius W replies in words and with a sent spear776-80 - E dies

6Hadawardus781-845

781-89 - H asks Guntharius for permission to win W's shield, and keeps only his sword

790-804 Hadawardus H compares W with a snake, demands the shield, and threatens with vengeance by his comrades in case of his death

805-17 Waltharius W praises his shield and addresses his right and left hand

818-20 Hadawardus H demands the shield, the gold and the girl821-39 - H and W fight, H is disarmed and turns to

flee840 Waltharius W addresses the fleeing H and strikes with

his spear841-45 - H dies

7Patavrid846-913

846-77 Hagano seeing his nephew P rush into battle, H tries to warn him, then delivers a sermon against avarice, and, crying, says his farewells to him

878-85 Waltharius W warns P away, but without success886-87 Patavrid P declares that the time for words is past887-94 - P's spear lands at Hiltgunt's feet

55

895-99 (Waltharius) W warns P again (indirect speech), but has to give up talking

900-13 - W and P fight; P falls

6. Bibliography

6.1. Sources

Althof, Hermann, Waltharii Poesis: Das Waltharilied Ekkehards I. von St. Gallen nach den Geraldushss. herausgegeben und erläutert, 2 vols (Leipzig, 1899-1905)

Barthes, Roland, 'The Death of the Author', in The Rustle of Language, transl. by Richard Howard (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986), pp. 49-55

Ekkehards Waltharius. Ein Kommentar, ed. by J.W. Beck (Groningen: P. Noordhoff, 1908)

Beowulf with the Finnesburg Fragment, ed. by C.L. Wrenn and W.F. Bolton, rev. edn (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1988; repr.1992)

Das Hildebrandslied, in Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, ed. by Wilhelm Braune and Karl Helm, 16th edn (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1979), pp. 84-85

Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandter Denkmäler, ed. by Gustav Neckel, 5th rev. edn. by Hans Kuhn, 2 vols (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1983)

Ekkehards Waltharius, ed. by Karl Strecker (Berlin: Weidmansche Buchhandlung, 1907)

Fischer, Fr. Chr. J., De prima expeditione Attilae regis Hunnorum in Gallias ac de rebus gestis Waltharii Aquitanorum principis carmen epicum saeculi VI. Ex codice manuscripto membranaceo optimae notae summa fide descriptum nunc primum in lucem productum et omni antiquitatum genere, imprimis vero monumentis coaevis illustratum et adauctum (Leipzig: [no publ.], 1780)

Judith, in The Anglo-Saxon Poetical Records IV: Beowulf and Judith, ed. by Elliot van Kirk Dobbie (London: Routledge, 1954), pp. 99-109

P. Vergili Maronis Opera, ed. by R.A.B. Mynors, Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969)

The Battle of Maldon, in: The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records VI: The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, ed. by Elliott van Kirk Dobbie (New York 1942), pp. 7-16

56

'The Poem of Walter', in Survivals in Old Norwegian of Medieval English, French, and German Literature, Together With the Latin Versions of the Heroic Legend of Walther of Aquitaine, transl. by H.M. Smyser and F.P. Magoun, Connecticut College Monograph No.1 (Baltimore: Waverly, 1941), pp. 111-45

The Seafarer, in A Guide to Old English, ed. by Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, 5th ed. (Oxford/Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1992), pp. 276-83

Þiðreks saga af Bern, ed. by Guðni Jónsson, 2 vols ([n.p.]: Íslendingasagnaugáfan, 1954)

Virgil: The Aeneid, transl. by C. Day Lewis (Oxford/New York: Oxford UP, 1998)

Waldere, ed. by Frederick Norman, Methuen's Old English Library A3 (London: Methuen, 1933)

Waltharius of Gaeraldus, ed. by A.K.Bate, Reading University, Medieval and Renaissance Latin Texts 2 (Reading: Department of Classics, University of Reading, 1978)

Waltharius, ed. by Karl Strecker, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae Latini, vol. 6, fasc. 1 (Weimar 1951), pp. 1-85

Waltharius, ed. by Wieland, Gernot, Bryn Mawr Latin Commentaries (Bryn Mawr College, 1986)

'Waltharius', in Lateinische Gedichte des X. und XI. Jahrhunderts, ed. by Jacob Grimm and Andreas Schmeller (Göttingen, 1838), pp. 1-126

6.2. Criticism

Alfonsi, Luigi, 'Considerazioni sul vergilianesimo del "Waltharius"', in Studi Filologici, Letterari e Storici in memoria di Guido Tavati, ed. by. Giorgio Varanini and Palmiro Pinagli, Medioevo e Umanesimo 28, 2 vols (Padova, Editrice Antenore, 1977), I, 3-14

Andersson, Theodore M., 'Die Oral-Formulaic Poetry im Germanischen', in Heldensage und Heldendichtung im Germanischen, ed. by Heinrich Beck, Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde Bd. 2 (Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1988), pp. 1-14

----------, Early Epic Scenery: Homer, Virgil, and the Medieval Legacy (Ithaca/London: Cornell, 1976)

----------, 'Tradition and Design in Beowulf', in Old English Literature in Context, ed. by John D. Niles (Cambridge: Brewer, 1980), pp. 90-106

d'Angelo, Edoardo, Indagini sulla tecnica versificatoria nell'esametro del 'Waltharius' (Catania: Università di Catania, 1992)

Berschin, Walter, 'Ergebnisse der Waltharius-Forschung seit 1951', Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 24 (1968), 16-45

57

Bisanti, Armando, 'Un decennio di studi sul Waltharius', Schede Medievali, 11 (1986), 345-63

Brinkmann, Hennig, 'Der Reim im frühen Mittelalter', in Studien zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 2 vols (Düsseldorf: Schwann, 1966), II, 58-78 (first publ. in Britannica: Festschrift für Hermann M. Flasdieck (Heidelberg: [n.pub.], 1960), pp. 62-81)

----------, 'Ekkehards "Waltharius" als Kunstwerk', in Studien zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 2 vols (Düsseldorf: Schwann, 1966), II, 137-50 (first publ. in Zeitschrift für deutsche Bildung, 4 (1928), 625-36)

Campbell, Alistair, 'The Old English Epic Style', in: English and Medieval Studies Presented to J.R.R. Tolkien on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, ed. by Norman Davis and C.L. Wrenn (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1962), 13-26

Cherniss, Michael D., Ingeld and Christ: Heroic Concepts and Values in Old English Christian Poetry (The Hague/Paris: Mouton, 1972)

Classen, Carl Joachim, 'Beobachtungen zum "Waltharius": die gegen Walther gerichteten Streitreden', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 21 (1986), 75-78

Dronke, Peter, 'Functions of Classical Borrowing in Medieval Latin Verse', in Classical Influences on European Culture AD 500-900, ed. by R.R. Bolgar (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1971), pp.159-164

Ehrismann, Gustav, 'Waltharius', in Geschichte der deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters, 4 vols (Munich: Beck, 1918), I, 384-397

Eliot, T.S., 'Virgil and the Christian World', in On Poetry and Poets (London: Faber and Faber, 1957)

Ernst, Ursula, 'Walther- ein christlicher Held?', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 21 (1986), 79-83

Fry, Donald K., 'Old English Formulaic Themes and Type-Scenes', Neophilologus, 52 (1968), 48-53

Greenfield, Stanley B., 'The Formulaic Expression of the Theme of 'Exile' in Anglo-Saxon Poetry', Speculum 30 (1955), 200-206

Harris, Joseph, 'The senna: From Description to Literary Theory', Michigan Germanic Studies, 5 (1979), 65-74

Haug, Walter, 'Andreas Heuslers Heldensagenmodell: Prämissen, Kritik und Gegenentwurf', ZfdA, 104 (1975), 273-92

Heinze, Richard, Virgils Epische Technik (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1965)

Jones, George F., 'The Ethos of the Waltharius', in Middle Ages, Reformation, Volkskunde: Festschrift for John G. Kunstmann (Chapel Hill, NC: [n. pub.], 1956), pp. 1-20

58

Katscher, Rosemarie, '"Waltharius" - Dichtung und Dichter', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 9 (1973), 48-120

Klaeber, Friedrich, 'Aeneis und Beowulf', in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 65 (n.s.26) (1911), 40-48 and 339-359

Knox, Dilwyn, Ironia: Medieval and Renaissance Ideas on Irony (Leiden/New York/København/Köln: E.J. Brill, 1989)

Kögel, Rudolf, 'Waltharius', in Geschichte der deutschen Literatur bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters, 2 vols (Straßburg: Karl Trübner, 1894-97), I, 275-342

Kratz, Dennis M., Mocking Epic: Waltharius, Alexandreis and the Problem of Christian Heroism (Madrid: Ediciones José Porrúa Turanzas, 1980)

----------, 'Quid Waltharius Ruodliebque cum Christo?', in: The Epic in Medieval Society: Aesthetic and Moral Values, ed. by Harald Scholler (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1977), 126-149

Langosch, Karl, 'Der Verfasser des "Waltharius"', ZfdPhil, 65 (1940), 117-42

----------, Waltharius. Die Dichtung und die Forschung (Darmstadt, 1973)

Lenz, William, Der Ausgang der Dichtung von Walther und Hildegunde, Hermanea: Ausgewählte Arbeiten aus dem deutschen Seminar zu Halle 34 (Halle a.d. Saale: Niemeyer, 1939)

Lord, Albert B., The Singer of Tales, Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature 24 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1960)

Magoun, Francis P. Jr, 'A Note on Old West Germanic Poetic Unity', Modern Philology, 43 (1945-46), 77-82.

Morgan, Gareth, 'Ekkehard's Signature to Waltharius', in Latomus: Revue d'études latines, 45 (1986), 171-77

Morgan, Gareth, 'Walther the Wood-sprite', Medium Ævum, 41 (1972), 16-19

Olsen, Alexandra Hennessey, 'Formulaic Tradition and the Latin Waltharius', in Heroic Poetry in the Anglo-Saxon Period: Studies in Honour of Jess B. Bessinger, Jr., ed. by Helen Damico and John Leyerle, Studies in Medieval Culture 32 (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1993), pp. 265-282

Önnerfors, Alf, Die Verfasserschaft des Waltharius-Epos aus sprachlicher Sicht, Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Vorträge, G 236 (Opladen: Westfälischer Verlag, 1979)

Panzer, Friedrich, Der Kampf am Wasichenstein: Waltharius-Studien (Speyer: Verlag Historisches Museum der Pfalz zu Speyer am Rhein, 1948)

Parkes, Ford B., 'Irony in Waltharius', MLN, 89 (1974), 459-65

59

Parks, Ward, 'Flyting and Fighting: Pathways in the Realization of the Epic Contest', Neophilologus, 70 (1986), 292-306

----------, Verbal Dueling in Heroic Narrative. The Homeric and Old English Traditions (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990).

Schaller, Dieter, 'Fröhliche Wissenschaft vom "Waltharius"', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 16 (1981), 54-57

Stackmann, Karl, 'Antike Elemente im Waltharius: Zu Friedrich Panzers neuer These', Euphorion, 45 (1950), 388-405.

Strecker, Karl, Bemerkungen zum Waltharius, Programm des Gymnasiums Dortmund ((Dortmund: [n.pub.], 1899)

----------, 'Der Walthariusdichter', Deutsches Archiv für Geschichte des Mittelalters, 4 (1941), 355-81

----------, 'Ekkehart und Vergil', ZfdA, 42 (1898), 339-365.

----------, 'Waltharius 263f', ZfdA, 42 (1898), 267-70

Surles, Robert L., Roots and Branches. Germanic Epic / Romanic Legend (New York/Bern/Frankfurt a.M./Paris: Peter Lang, 1987)

Townsend, David, 'Ironic Intertextuality and the Reader's Resistance to Heroic Masculinity in the "Waltharius"', in Becoming Male in the Middle Ages, ed. by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Bonnie Wheeler, The New Middle Ages 4 (London/New York: Garland, 1997), pp. 67-86

von den Steinen, Wolfram, 'Der Waltharius und sein Dichter', ZfdA, 48 (1952/53), 1-47

Voorwinden, Norbert, 'Latin Words, Germanic Thoughts - Germanic Words, Latin Thoughts. The Merging of Two Traditions', in Latin Culture and Medieval Germanic Europe: Proceedings of the First Germania Latina Conference held at the University of Groningen, 26 May 1989, ed. by Richard North and Tette Hofstra, Germania Latina 1, Mediaevalia Groningana, 11 (Groningen: Forsten, 1992), pp. 113-128

Wagner, Hans, Ekkehard und Vergil: Eine vergleichende Interpretation der Kampfschilderungen im Waltharius (Heidelberg: Selbstverlag F. Bilabel, 1939)

Waltharius und Walthersage: Eine Dokumentation der Forschung, ed. by Emil Ernst Ploss (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1969)

Wehrli, Max, 'Waltharius: Gattungsgeschichtliche Betrachtungen', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 2 (1965), 63-73.

Wolf, Alfred, 'Der mittelalterliche Waltharius und Ekkehard I. von St. Gallen', Studia Neophilologica, 13 (1940/41), 80-102.

60

Wolf, Alois, 'Mittelalterliche Heldensagen zwischen Vergil, Prudentius und raffinierter Klosterliteratur: Beobachtungen zum "Waltharius"', Sprachkunst: Beiträge zur Literaturwissenschaft, 7 (1976), 180-212

Zwierlein, Otto, 'Das Waltharius-Epos und seine lateinischen Vorbilder', Antike und Abendland, 16.1 (1970), 153-84

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