A summary of the Thidrekssaga, part 5

On this page, I will give an extended summary of Thidrekssaga chapters 276-341.

21: Dietrich's flight (Ths. 276-290)

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rmenrik, Dietrich's uncle, is king of Rome. His closest adviser is Sibich. One day when Sibich is away, Ermenrik rapes his wife. She tells Sibich and he swears bloody revenge on Ermenrik and his whole clan.

First, he cleverly manages to get Ermenrik's three sons killed. He persuades Ermenrik to send them to demand tribute from several kings. Of course, they are all killed by the enraged rulers, among whom Osantrix.

22: Dietrich at Attila's court (Ths. 291-315)

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ttila decides to wage war against Osantrix once again. Dietrich follows him. In battle, Osantrix is killed by Dietrich's young nephew Wolfhart.

For good measure, Attila also attacks Osantrix' brother Waldemar. He loses this battle, but Dietrich captures Waldemar's son Didrik.

• Note that, of course, they bear the same name. For clarity's sake, I will refer to Dietrich Waldemar's son as Didrik.

Dietrich and his men flee to a fortress, which is invested by Waldemar. Food is scarce. Dietrich decides on a sally, and, cleverly timing it to coincide with the besiegers' dinner, captures some food. At first, Waldemar flees in panic, but he quickly returns to the siege.

After a few days, food is scarce again. Dietrich decides to send a messenger to Attila. Since Wildeber is badly wounded, he sends Wolfhart. Wolfhart borrows Dietrich's gear and creeps out of the castle. After slaughtering some of Waldemar's chiefs, he gets away and reaches Attila. Attila immediately sends out an army and Dietrich is saved.

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idrik Waldemar's son comes to Soest as a prisoner. He is badly wounded. Since he is nephew to Erka, Attila's wife (a daughter of Osantrix), Erka wants to look after him and gives herself as a guarantee for his good behaviour. Despite this, Didrik flees as soon as he is healed.

Erka asks aid of Dietrich. Although he is badly wounded himself, he immediately sets out to pursue Didrik. Helped by a woman standing on a tower, Dietrich finds Didrik, challenges him and kills him. Since Dietrich is now more badly wounded than before, he asks for help in the castle where the woman has helped him. He is received cordially, but on discovering who he is, the jarl and his knights become very nervous.

The castle happens to be the same in which one of the sons of Ermenrik has been slain. The knights are afraid that Dietrich wants to take blood-revenge and decide to kill him. The jarl, however, forbids them, because he is afraid that Attila will avenge him.

Dietrich forgives the killing of his cousin and goes to Soest again. Since he is still wounded, he does not participate in the next war against Waldemar. Hildebrand and Rodinger lead his men to victory. Hildebrand criticizes Attila, but Dietrich admonishes Hildebrand to shut up.

Dietrich heals and is able to participate in the next war against Waldemar. They besiege Palteskia. Dietrich offers to take the castle on his own, while Attila and Rodinger defeat Waldemar's field army. Attila refuses.

Dietrich draws back from the siege and finds Waldemar. He defeats his army and kills him. Attila takes Palteskia. Iron, Waldemar's brother, becomes Attila's follower.

23: Gransport (Ths. 316-341)

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ietrich lives at Attila's court, as does his brother Diether, who has come there twenty years before and is foster-brother to Attila's sons Erp and Ortwin.

• Note that the Membrame-manuscript does not say that Dietrich has lived at Attila's court for twenty years, as do the other manuscripts and all other saga's. Instead, the manuscript clearly states that Diether has lived there for twenty years. From the text, there is no reason to suppose that Dietrich and Diether have arrived at the same time. Research of the internal chronology of the saga shows that it is quite likely they didn't arrive together.

Dietrich complains to Erka about the unfairness of Ermenrik having seized his realm. Since Erka owes him one for the killing of Didrik Waldemar's son, she decides to help him reconquer it. She gives Dietrich her two sons Erp and Ortwin for help and prevails on Attila to send Rodinger.

• Note that it is Erka who sends Erp and Ortwin with Dietrich. Attila, apparently, has no say in the matter.

Then, the whole of Soest goes into a flurry of activity to prepare for the war. Erka equips Erp, Ortwin and Diether. Dietrich sends a messenger to Ermenrik, offering battle at Gransport. Dietrich's army will be split into three parts, led by Dietrich himself, Rodinger and duke Nudung, ward of Erp, Ortwin and Diether.

On receiving Dietrich's message, Ermenrik calls up his warriors. He sends Sibich, Reinald and Witig to lead the three parts of his army.

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he armies meet at Gransport, with the river in between them. During the night, Hildebrand scouts the enemy army. In the middle of the river, he meets Reinald, who has the same purpose. They behave most gentleman-like, each of them disclosing the battle order of their army. While doing this, some knights of Sibich approach and try to kill Hildebrand. Hildebrand kills five of them. The rest flees. Hildebrand and Reinald part. When nearing his own camp, Reinald meets some more knights and tells them not to dishonourably attack Hildebrand in the middle of the night. Let them wait until daylight to kill him, although chances are he will defend himself!

The next morning, the armies arrange themselves. Dietrich will fight against Sibich, Rodinger against Reinald and Nudung against Witig.

Battle breaks loose. The first major event is the duel between Wildeber and Walther. They are evenly matched and kill each other. This disheartens Sibich's men, who flee. Dietrich hotly pursues.

Meanwhile, Witig has closed with Nudung's group, containing Erp, Ortwin and Diether. Witig kills Nudung. Ortwin bravely wants to avenge him. Together with his ward Helfrich, he attacks Runga, Witig's standard-bearer. They both die. Diether avenges them by killing Runga, but meanwhile Witig kills Erp.

Then Witig and Diether meet. Witig refrains from attacking and tells Diether that for Dietrich's sake he will not kill him. Diether, however, manfully refuses to flee and is killed.

Meanwhile, Rodinger's group meets Reinald. Reinald kills Wolfhart, Rodinger's standard-bearer. In revenge, Rodinger kills Reinald's standard-bearer. Then Reinald sees that Sibich has fled and flees himself.

A messenger comes to Dietrich to tell him of Diether's death. Dietrich immediately breaks off the battle and turns to pursue Witig. His anger is so hot that he breathes fire. On seeing this, Witig flees into a lake. Dietrich halts his pursuit.

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hus, Dietrich has won the battle. Nevertheless, on riding across the battlefield, he sees so many of his friends and relatives dead that he neither wishes to push on to Rome, nor return to Attila. Rodinger tells him that he and the other leaders will follow him wherever he will lead them. If Dietrich wants to withdraw, they will support him against the angry Attila. Dietrich decides to return to Soest.

On arriving there, Dietrich refuses to see Attila and hides himself in the cooking-shed. Attila cannot prevail on him to behave normally, but finally Erka can.

Two years later, Erka dies. On her death-bed she advises Attila to remarry quickly and produce a new heir, but not to choose any woman from the Nibelungen- family. She gives her relative Herrat to Dietrich as his wife.