On this page, I will discuss the evidence Ritter found for Dietrich's fight with a dragon.
Compare the saga.
When traveling in the Osning-mountains with his hero Fasold, Dietrich suddenly sees a dragon carrying a man. Dietrich and Fasold immediately attack and free the man.
When Ritter was researching this part of the saga, he came to the little village of Buer. Near this village, Dietrich should have met this dragon. Ritter questioned some locals and they told him about the dinosaur-traces near the village. Immediately he went there and saw the traces for himself.
The traces were large, some great reptile must have made them. It is very likely that a Germanic hero or a later story-teller concluded they must have been made by a dragon. This was of course a great incentive for a nice story.
Ritter concludes that Dietrich and Fasold have invented the dragon-story when seeing the traces. This is of course a possibility. Nevertheless, it is also possible that a later story-teller, wanting to explain the traces for a local audience, invented a nice Dietrich-story to go with them.
Whoever invented the story, it is clear that the Thidrekssaga knew what it was talking about.
It describes the traces in a way which leave no doubt that the actual traces near Buer are meant.
Thus, we have found some evidence that the Thidrekssaga believed Dietrich and his heroes to
have lived in western Germany.
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