Ritter's research

On this page, I will introduce Heinz Ritter and summarize his findings.

From the early 60's, Heinz Ritter was intrigued by a strange topographical note in the 13th century Old-Norse Thidrekssaga.

When the saga tells by which road the Nibelungen travel towards Attila's court (where they will meet their tragic deaths), it says they cross the Rhine at the point

where Rhine and Danube merge.

Several generations of scholars had already noticed that the author of the saga has made a mistake here: the Rhine and the Danube do not merge. Of course, the scholars added, a 13th century Norwegian writer cannot be expected to know anything of Central European gegography.

Ritter, however, wanted to explain the strange phrase. For a change, he assumed that this strange sentence actually made a reference to an existing place. But what place? Although, obviously, the author could not have meant the Danube (German: Donau), it might be possible that he mixed up his names and actually meant another river, which does merge with the Rhine. After several false tries, Ritter unexpectedly hit a simple, elegant solution.

Slightly north of Cologne, there is a small river called the Dhuen (Medieval German: Duna). Ritter concluded the Thidrekssaga actually meant this Dhuen, for the following reasons:

• The names Donau and Duna can be easily confused.
• The Duna did indeed, up to 1840, merge with the Rhine.
• In the geography of the Thidrekssaga, it makes excellent sense for the Nibelungen to cross the Rhine slightly north of Cologne.
• Finally, at the precise point where Rhine and Duna merged, the Rhine is very broad and slow-streaming: an excellent place to make a crossing!

(Compare, however, Hempel, who equates the Duna with the Donau after all.)

This complete succes encouraged Ritter to make further inquiries into the geography of the Thidrekssaga. After many years of patient research, he drew the following conclusions:

• The Nibelungen were not the Burgundians. They were a small tribe living near modern Zuelpich, about two days travel south-west of the merging of Rhine and Duna.
• Attila the Hun, the enemy of the Nibelungen, resided in Soest, about two days travel north-east of the merging of Rhine and Duna. Thus, Attila the Hun is not the Attila the Hun known from Roman history.
• Dietrich von Bern was not Theodoric the Great. Instead, he was a kinglet on the Rhine, ruling over Bonn and its surroundings. Incidentally, on Medieval city-seals Bonn is sometimes called Verona, of which Bern is a germanization.
• Siegfried, finally, did not come from the Netherlands, but from the Harz in eastern Germany.

In addition, Ritter claims to have identified many villages and fortresses mentioned in the Thidrekssaga. From these identifications, it appears that the heroes of the saga lived in the Rhineland, sometimes making short trips to neighbouring areas like Niedersachsen. Because of this, Ritter started to distrust the traditional identifications of the heroes.

Load the page listing Ritter's topographical identifications.

If we follow Ritter and believe the Thidrekssaga has retained the original, true story of Siegfried, the Nibelungen and Dietrich von Bern, we must explain why of all medieval legends and saga's, only the Thidrekssaga knows the real place-names. Ritter's theory is that the Thidrekssaga has retained true stories handed down by oral tradition.

In fact, this theory is not new: Friese has already postulated that in the Thidrekssaga niedersachsische oral tradition has been preserved.

Load the page discussing oral tradition and its implications for the Thidrekssaga.

Despite Ritter's interesting discoveries, scholars remain unconvinced. Nevertheless, there has been surprisingly little criticism of Ritter or his methods. Discounting the virulent attack by Janota cs., only Heinrich Beck has made a few remarks, which, however, fail to convince.

Load the page discussing Ritter's critics.

Thus, Ritter has proposed a new theory for the identification of the great heroes. Despite some obvious merits, his proposal has never been seriously studied.

Continue the Introduction.