and gives its proud history. Walter, or Waldere, replies that tired as he is, he is a match for the king; nor has Hagen, as the king hoped, broken down Walter’s strength so as to make him an easy victim. His defiant invitation to Guthhere to come and fetch the spoils of war from his person is good Germanic; so perhaps is the pious bow to fate, to God, but it has been set to a feebler tune. The style of these fragments is not so energetic and convincing as the style of Finnsburg; but taken all together they show that our literature has lost a fine story not ineffectively told.
The manuscript of the Waldere belongs to the library of Copenhagen, where it was found as cover for some unvalued sermons.
A
Hildeguth spake. She heartened[1] him eagerly:
“Sure, work of Wayland[2] will weaken never
with any man who can Mimming wield,
hoary-hued sword. Many heroes by turn
5 blood-stained and blade-pierced in battle it felled.[3]
Attila’s van-leader,[4] valor of thine let not
- ↑ If we translate “heard him gladly,” then the conjectural words in italics are wrong. Heinzel thinks this speech is made by some comrade, some man, to Waldere, who “hears him gladly.” But the other supposition, that Hildeguth addresses her lover and hero, is vastly preferable.
- ↑ The sword. In the Beowulf, Wayland is credited with the making of the hero’s breastplate; and there as here the sword must have a name of the patronymic form.
- ↑ Literally, “have fallen”; sc. by its work.
- ↑ In the Latin poem, Waltharius just before he fled from Attila had led his master’s army against the foe in a successful campaign.
