First page of Kudrun. Ambraser Heldenbuch, Austrian National Library Cod. ser. nova 2663 fol. 140t.
Kudrun (sometimes known as the Gudrunlied or Gudrun), is an anonymous Middle High German heroic epic. The poem was likely composed in either Austria or Bavaria around 1250. It tells the story of three generations of the ruling house of Hetelings on the North Sea, but is primarily the story of Kudrun, who is abducted by the Norman prince Hartmut who desires to marry her. Kudrun remains true to her fiancé Herwig and eventually is rescued. After the defeat of the Normans, however, Kudrun ensures that peace will be kept between the two peoples by arranging for marriages and alliances.
Although the story of Kudrun is very likely the invention of the poet, the story of her parents has its origins in a common Germanic tale known in Scandinavia as the Hjaðningavíg: it tells how Kudrun's mother, Hilde, eloped with her father, Hetel, against the will of Hilde's father, Hagen. In Kudrun, this originally tragic tale has been transformed into a happy one that serves as the prehistory of Kudrun herself.
The poem is notable for the important and active role played by its female characters. It is widely seen as a deliberate antithesis to the Nibelungenlied, to which it alludes in numerous ways.
Kudrun does not appear to have been successful with medieval audiences, and survives in only one manuscript. Since its rediscovery, however, it has been popular with philologists, and this has resulted in a relatively wide modern reception. Of German heroic poems, it has been called "second in stature only to the Nibelungenlied."[1]
Kudrun (sometimes known as the Gudrunlied or Gudrun), is an anonymous Middle High German heroic epic. The poem was likely composed in either Austria or...
Tod Lay of Hildebrand Muspilli The Merseburg Incantations Nibelungenlied Kudrun Weyland Dietrich von Bern Mannaz Common Germanic deities Germanic king Norse...
Dukus Horant is a heroic epic with thematic similarities to the German poem Kudrun. It is thus a good example of the transfer of literary material between...
the Kudrun (c. 1250), for instance, has been described as a reply to the Nibelungenlied that reverses the heroic tragedy of the previous poem. Kudrun herself...
characters (with notable texts being its versions of the Nibelungenlied, the Kudrun and the poem Nibelungenklage) and defends the concept of Frauenehre (female...
(Burgundians and Siegfried), the lovers Walther and Hildegund, the maiden Kudrun, kings Ortnit and Wolfdietrich, and Dietrich von Bern. He found the heroic...
French) by Graindor de Douai and others Nibelungenlied (Middle High German) Kudrun (Middle High German) Daniel von dem blühenden Tal (Middle High German) Brut...
Elsasses". Bermerkungen zur Kudrun, 1867 – Remarks about Kudrun. Goethe in Strassburg, 1871 – Goethe in Strassburg. Kudrun (1872, second edition 1902)...
continent, this name is only attested for an apparently unrelated figure (see Kudrun). The etymology of Kriemhild is less clear. The second element is clearly...
Vogelweide Heinrich Frauenlob Oswald von Wolkenstein Epic Nibelungenlied Kudrun Chivalric romance Hartmann von Aue's Erec and Iwein Wolfram von Eschenbach's...
Judeo-German (Proto-Yiddish) with thematic similarities to the German poem Kudrun found in the earliest Yiddish literary manuscript from 1384. In the early...
1957 Deutsche Heldensagen, Berlin vol. 1. Dietrich von Bern, 1958 vol. 2. Kudrun und Nibelungen, 1960 Der stralsundische Ratskutscher und andere deutsche...
the Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus, and the Middle High German poem Kudrun. It must also have been known in Orkney, since it is referred to in a poem...
direct reaction to the heroic nihilism of the Nibelungenlied is found in the Kudrun (1230?), in which material also found in Old English and Old Norse about...
complete Nibelungen cycle: the Nibelungenlied, the Nibelungenklage and Kudrun. From the Dietrich cycle it includes Dietrichs Flucht, Rabenschlacht, Biterolf...
Hildebrandston (similar to the Nibelungenstrophe used in the Nibelungenlied and Kudrun). It consists of four long-lines: each long-line has three feet with a feminine...
Hildebrandston (similar to the Nibelungenstrophe used in the Nibelungenlied and Kudrun). It consists of four long-lines: each long-line has three feet with a feminine...
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