Hildebrandslied

I heard it said
that they challenged one another to single combat,
Hildebrand and Hadubrand, between two armies.

Father and son prepared their armour,
made ready their battle-dress, buckled their swords upon themselves,
over their mail-shirts, as they rode to the battle.

Hildebrand spoke, Heribrand's son;
he was the older man, wiser in life.
He began to ask, in few words,
who his father was among the people,
or of what family he was.

"If you tell me one thing, I know the other,
child, in the kingdom;
all mankind is known to me."

Hadubrand spoke, Hildebrand's son:

"Our people told me,
old and wise men, who lived before,
that Hildebrand was called my father;
I am called Hadubrand.

Long ago he went east;
he fled Odoacer's hatred,
away with Theodoric and many of his warriors.

He left in the land
a young wife in the house,
a child not yet grown,
without inheritance.
He rode east from here.

After that Theodoric
suffered exile.
My father stood by him.
He was a man without friends.

He was greatly hostile to Odoacer,
dearest of the warriors to Theodoric.
He was always at the front of the army.
Battle was always dear to him.

He was known among brave men.

I do not believe he is still alive...

Hildebrand spoke:

"I call upon the mighty God above in heaven,
that you have never before fought
with so near a kinsman."

Then he unwound from his arm
a wound gold arm-ring,
made by the emperor,
which the king of the Huns had given him.

"I now give it to you
as a token of goodwill."

Hadubrand spoke, Hildebrand's son:

"With a spear
a man shall receive a gift,
point against point.

You are an old Hun,
exceedingly cunning.
You tempt me with your words,
and would cast your spear at me.

You are so old
that you have always practised deceit.

Seafarers told me
from west across the Wendel Sea
that battle took him.

Dead is Hildebrand,
Heribrand's son."

Hildebrand spoke, Heribrand's son:

"Well I see from your armour
that you have a good lord at home,
and that under this kingdom
you have never become an exile."

"Alas now, ruling God," said Hildebrand,
"a grievous fate comes to pass.

I wandered, summer and winter,
for sixty years away from my homeland.

Men always placed me
among the archers of the army.

At no fortress
did anyone strike me down.

Now my own child
shall hew me with the sword,

strike me with his blade,
or I shall become his slayer.

Yet you may easily,
if your courage is sufficient,
take the armour
from so old a man,
strip him of his weapons,
if you have any right to them.

He is the most cowardly
of the eastern people,"
said Hildebrand,
"who now would forbid you battle,
since you desire it so greatly.

Let us test
who today must give up the armour,
or who shall possess
the mail-coats of both."

Then first they let
the ash-spears fly,

with sharp showers,
until they stood fast in the shields.

Then they came together.

They struck the shield-boards,

they hewed fiercely
at the white shields,

until their linden shields
became worn away,

damaged by their weapons...

The manuscript ends here...

Analyses

The plot of the Hildebrandslied is remarkably simple, but emotionally powerful. Almost the entire poem consists of a single conversation between two champion before they fight a single combat with each other.

Hildebrand is an old warrior who had followed Theodoric into exile after Odoacer seized power in Italy. He fled east with Theodoric and remained away from home for about sixty years.

When he left, he had a young wife, and a son who was still an infant, Hadubrand, who grew up never knowing his father, believing he had died long ago.

Many years later, two armies face each other. From each army a champion rides, the old warrior Hildebrand, and the young warrior Hadubrand.

Before fighting, Hildebrand asks the young man who his father is. Hadubrand replies that he is the son of Hildebrand, but says his father went into exile with Theodoric decades ago and never returned. Sailors have told him that Hildebrand died overseas.

Hildebrand immediately realises that this is his own son. He tells Hadubrand that they are close kin and even offers him a gold arm-ring as a sign of peace and recognition.

Hadubrand refuses. He believes the old man is lying in order to trick him. To him, an old warrior claiming to be his long-dead father seems impossible. He accuses Hildebrand of trying to deceive him before killing him.

Hildebrand realizes there is no way to convince his son. He laments his fate, saying that after sixty years of exile, having survived countless battles without being defeated, he must now either kill his own son or be killed by him.

Since Hadubrand insists on fighting, Hildebrand accepts. He says they must let battle decide who will carry away the other's armour.

They begin by throwing their ash-wood spears. The spears strike the shields. Then they close together and fight with swords. They hack at one another's shields until the wooden linden shields begin to break apart under the blows.

At that point the manuscript ends.

The poem's emotional core is not the combat itself but the tragedy of failed recognition. Hildebrand knows exactly who Hadubrand is, while Hadubrand cannot believe the truth. The reader understands from the beginning that father and son are about to fight one another, creating a powerful sense of inevitable tragedy. It is one of the earliest surviving examples of this theme in Germanic heroic literature.

Spoiler

A later inferior version of the story exists from the high middle ages, in that version the ending isn't missing, Hildebrand slays his son.