The saga of Walther of Aquitaine

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But hen e examine the later Pol isti accounts of Walthe and Hildegunde, e fila referen C to ther Ources Paprochi mentionsas his authorities an Anonymia. thought y ena kovi CZ, 9 tome thesam a the reat Pol isti Chroni Cle, but Considered by Heinget withhelter reasons, o be ne of the originals of the Chronicie and Andreas of Zarnow, t whona re t be Scribet variations found in

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186 MALTHER OF AGUITA INE

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Polano. The orna of the Saga thus introduce may have combine delement found in the original of Ekkehard's Waltharius, an in oneo more of the originals of the hidrelassaga, and may have ad Seuarate existence in Polanditati it was at tengili unite&with the saga Oi WySlaus o perhaps in another orna illi istina tergin, an finalty localige at Tyniec . The immediate occasionis this localigation may have been, a Neli in an Heinge thinla the epitaph of a certain

the Polis si saga in his region a Heinge an Knoo maintain. Indeed, it seem no improbabi that in the secon par of the Pol isti SARR, we haUe traCes of the version Mund in the Middie High Germanpoem Von dem libelen Wibe ' his oui furnish the reason, in the two paris of the Polisti version, or an earlier ConneCtion, han noop 3 is incline to admit,hen e refers the Polisti saga to the perio of the Pol isti reaction against the Germans in the Murteenthan fifteenth CenturieS.

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a That Coincideiace os episodes is a sumcient criterion o identification o mythica an heroi Character 3. That the Fol manderine Mas the occasionis the migration of this saga to the mos widely separate regions 4. That the Pol isti formis the Saga was probabi devel Ope amonga partis sonae Germani peopte remaining in the territor after ardsoccupied by the lavs Potes), andia vin united illi lavi elementS, was localiZed. The futilit of ischka's attemptos regard both method and matter has been demonstrate by Buggese an by Heinget. Thismight se em in iis et sussicient refutation o Risclika's argument. Ut this method os saga-treaiment, hi Ch Consus es heroi saga illi myth, and bring ali saga materia into an interminabieci umbi emitti remote mythica Cycles, is o serious in iis resulis that it must besummarii dispose of at the uiset. The followin Considerations

viving on Pol isti Soli, an ignores the more important tabSequent German influences rom the en os the tentii Centur forward. The disparit between the rs an secon paris of the Polisti saga, helails sumCientlyrio recognige. The mos characteristi, atures of the Saga solan in the German version are antita in the Polis h. Thespirit an Character of the Baldur an Nechlace myth are to farremove stom the walther Saga. The supposatile similarit between

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Scherer' i 9 attemptrio identis Walthe with Aetius seems tot aves been suggeste by Fauriel. In the light which Heinge has thrownupon the subjecti his attem 'te identificationis Hagen with Aetius. SCherer' vi e must sali, hether Heinget' Hagen-Aetius theor be

The vi e that Walthe was a Cest Gothia munditron defenders. J. Grinam 5 expresse this as follows Ualthere mus ais in urspriinglich, estgothis Cher hel die tra litet werden, de sicli Von burgundi Schen unci rhnkis Chen unierscheidet. This te has been urther supporte more re Cently byM. Militer i5 who differs frona Cherer an Heinget, howe ver in that he cloes notse in Walther nur en stelli Ges Chi Clite V ut ather an dea figure da Walther ei ne nach ge iesene hiStoriSChe PerSon, Sonderi nurei ne deelle Figurrist. The supreme objection to this te is that the German heroi sagacis intens et rea in iis origins a the historical element of the Saga has Ahown The dea figures are a later inventionos an de aligingruge. Heinget's 5 vie of the histin nationalit of Walther in thede vel opinent of the Saga is expreSSed thus Viellei hi gal Walther bis iam . Jahrhunderi, o die a Shen, aus panien onamen d in ei nem Thei von Aquitani en Fus fassienundis in mascono Iani bekarant tarde, Och Ur einen Boi Shen -d annals urch das Austret en de Basken in Frankrei h dieses Vol clemde uischen Gesichtskrei 11sther dCkte, fur ei non Sol Chen. . . . SP tergal er ebens fit ei nen alten franZGAisCh-burgundis chen Uni in Langres', o altercling die burgundi schen Unige unit ergone ebens Oweni residirten ais die mero Vingi SChen. . . . Die Ahastas fung althers ais ines Burgunde is woli durch seine Verbindvn mitHildegula verant assi, wenn dies ers alS Urugundin, dania naCh 45 Ial Burgundii nati. We have se en in the ourse of the discusSion that there utere probabi two well-define versions of the walther Saga a early asthe eighth century; ence, are to ook for the date of the originti the saga at a Stil earlier period. A fuit de vel ope literar forna suci a that actuali found in the walde re, an implied in the originalo the Waltharius, resuppos es a Considerable perio of rowth. Allowin time so suci, growth, we a Sasely SSU me lint the Saga originate betweeti the id die of the fifth and the en of the se venti, Centvry Ii, turn to the waltharius, hiCh, RS RS Shown bove, has preserve the saga in iis Cleares historical ouilines, e find that

the es Sentia element belon to the se condial of the fifth century and ence oin to this perio a the time in hicli the Saga origi nate d. Thus the earlies formis the Saga be longe to the en of the fifth orieginning of the si xth century. The ac that the waltharius,so aith fui in iis genera historical ouilines, Calis Walther an Aquitani an, raw our attention to Aquitania m. his malive cland

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WA THER OF AO VITA INE. Is I

I et Sorace, then, the Conception o Aquitania during this earlyperiod. Aquitania 53 o Caesar' time, Aquitania Propria, O Novem populana o Diocletian 's provincia division), CCta pie the Ountrybet 1 een the AtlantiC the Garonne, an the Pyrenees, an extende deaStwar nearly to Tolosa. Aquitania Orth of the Gai Oniae, in DioCletian ' time, extende northwar an eastward early to the Liger, an solatii rear almoSt to the Tarnis, and was divide byDiocletian into two pro Vinces Aquitania , in the ASt, and Aquitania II in the west. The est Goths havin pus hed thet wayfrom Rome o Aquitania Propria Burdigalai AbOUt I 3, OCCUPied, si Om 419 to 475 the three Aquitania mentione a bove extending thei domain east ar to themorder of Burgundia Thus Aquitania an Burgundia ere orde provinCe or ingdonas a the time fAttila's campaign to the weSt 45ΙΤ and Aquitania Propria of earlier times a no Novempopulanari hile Vasconia lay between Novempopulana an the Iberus, illi Pan pilon ascit Chiesiity. Inso Mest Gothic Aquitani and ΙΙ cam by the deseati Alaricci I

into the and of the Franks unde Chlodovecti. At the eath of Theoderic 526 Burgundia a fas Comin unde FrankiSh Control, and aster 534 AS a par of the Frankisti reaim. At the eath fJustinian 565ὶ Burgundia forme the westerniorcle of the Lombard in clom in Italy, and extende to me Mediterranean Thus, e See that the genera historica Conception o Aquitania rom the secondquarter of the fifth centur through the Merovingian and Carlovingian periods, a thR O a provin Ce Country, heiace, ingdom lyingimmediatet weS O Burgundia. Su Ch too, is the Conception in Waltharius, the earlies Complete, an historicali most ait hi ut fui extant versionis the AgR. The popular tradition of Walther, a tranSmitte by the epiCS, S, that he was o Germani Origin and there Seem tolera reason forquestioning this belles. f he was o Germani descent, an an Aquitanian, o fiat Germani nationalit di h belong As an Aquitanian, he would a te e longed soliticali , to the west Gothshesore o7, and after that date to the Franks, fine as froni Aquitania Dorth of the Garonne: ut ii he wa frona Aquitania Propria, to the west Goth untii Chlothar II 'ho united hi province to the Frankishreal m. hi cloe no mean that Walther mus have been of est Gothic origin in deed, he maycius a likel ha Ue been a representative o sonae ther Germani ra Ce hi Ch ASSed into, or through Aquitania at this period Thi much may be laimed however uat Matther in the oldeS torva of the Saga, a a Germanic- Aquitanian miser est Gothic Suprema . The ConCeption os Aquitania Sinaingdom doe not even in thi early period interfere with his poliat o vlew, inasmuch a the de of LingShip was ne of

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s histin significance, and the west Gothi rule a genera territorial suprema Cy. That Alphere' hingdom, at this early period was included, or vera Centered, in Aquitania Propria is quite possibi e but the genera notionis Aquitania extende ove the province northos the Garonne, as e have seen. The designationis Alphere' realmas Regna Aquitanorum V in the waltharius v. 77), evidenti appliesto Aquitania in the large Sense, an notoo Aquitania Propria lone. Whether Walther, in the earlies formis the Saga, ad the fame politica importanc a that iven to him in the waltharius, e haven means of determining i natural to surmis that he had Neither Can e Sa with Certaint whether he was a est Gothis belongedio Ome Germani peopte Closely allie with the Burgundians Thathe was a Boish, as Heinge maintain S, Seem an unMunde hypothesis. It would e more reason abierio connectit m with sonae branch relatedio the Lombar line hos hing, Walthari, ear the Same ame generation later. his ould give us nother in in the chain os eviden e for the existence of the onabar saga of Walthari and Alphari. The nam Alpher CCur in RabenSChlaCt, 265-267, here Alpher is senti Friedericli of Ravenna a messenile to Dietricli ofBern But perhaps it is nough to have ascertaine the olitical relations of Walther at the time of the origi of the saga It will nowhe in orde to revie w briefly the different conceptions of Walther.

an epithe which may have been applied olim in the original of the

Waltharitas, anno b earlier than the evenit Centvry, hera thewasconstroli forti frona thei mountain reti ea in ancient WASConia, in Spain, into Aquitania Propria an forme what the Geographer of Ravenna 5 CallS WASConum patria, quae antiquitu Aquitania dicebatur. The stablis liment of these molintaineers in Aquitania Propria was practi Cali Completed by 626 A. D. 355 though the troubles between the wasCons and the Aquitanians continue tit a much later period Thus there is no reason for regarii in Walther a a WasCon, ex Cepi in o a that ait Aquitanians ere regarde as UasCon after thei coianir had Comerio bear the nam of the lalter.

Mattheris Me Son o Alfhere King of the Aquitanians). Turningto the verSions of the Saga wein three of them callini Valthe thes On f Alphere ,-WF, W, Noe: his ille stili distinguis es him in the

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Castraque quae Vogesi Curvam super ardua rupem

Pugnaces pictis cohibebant Lingones armis 156 Walthersage. 73. x57 Cf. Vosego,' Μons Vosegus. Bouguet, i. 4a: Ne non Argentoratum vicinum eastellum ad osegi radices ' A. D. 356 Bouquet, i, a3. For the locatio of the, genstein nea the village ledersteinbach o the borde of Alsace-Lorraine cf. Schessel-Holder, S. 58 ff.

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districi Hence Wasgenstein as Walther' scian in iis sint naturalani consistent With the later confusion of whichalis afford many ex amples With the wasgenstein a. alther' lan is connected doubiless, the nam of 's gword Masge' the account of his heingset ove Geranisheim Gernsheim in Hasserit by Ermanric Tlis c.

Germany particularint Alemannia, here Theoderi was regardecla the protector of the Uppe Germans agat St the Franks. Matther as Ermanric Nephew. he Conceptionis Walther asthe son o Ermanric' sister in ThS, and that o Hildegunde a thedauilliter of Iar Ilias of Greeceris clue to the later Confusionis Saga elements by the combinationis different cycle into a rea Composite narrative Suchos e have in the Thidrelassaga. 58 Walther cameto e regarcle as ErmanriC A insmari, dolabiles after the atterappeare in the Saga a Theoderic 's me, that is, frona the tenti, Centur on.759 The vie that Walthe wa connected illi thel ombard cycle is consistent,ith his inasmuch as Lombar heroes ruere regardedis bella at ErmanriC's Cotiri. 360 Incleed the Lombard Conques of taly unite in the popular indoith the ast Roman overthrow of the Eas Goth by ustinian is oubilessreflecte in the conception firmatari a Roman Emperor and Theoderic 's me. Mauher a a Pole. he genera characteristic of the Walther Saga whichiave passe ove into the Pol isti versions have preserveo reminiscences of Walther' origi frona eri ingen, and of his companion the fair Hildeeunde, at the colare of a Frankish -Burgundian)king, and of the hero' great prowESs in Combat. Matther the Hun. n the ' hanson de olano' CL App. i. imention is ad of Gualiter de 'Hum ' as ne of the faithfuldefender of the cause of Chartemagne . Heinge mahes use of this asan argument for the conceptionis Walther asi Hunish origin Buti is ather tot interprete a meanini Matther Domi of the Hun o Huns), and thus designatin the mos characteristi facti his Career namely, his exile among the Huns That this altherseo the Huns houl fight, as king of Aquitania, po the fide os Chartemagne against the Infideis, is perfecti intellegibi e Compare Hadubralit' Scornsul ord to Hildebrant, alter Hon Hilde-hranislied, 'v. 383. Eo, in Rolandslied,' Walthere the wlgant, who