Chapter CCI: Section X: Theodoric

Theodoric of Bern is hardly a genuine hero of the _Nibelung_, being really the main figure in a cycle of Germanic romances of his own; but as he, under the abbreviation Dietrich, is brought in to play a considerable part in the final action of the tale, this seems the fittest place for treating of him and the names in connection with him.

He seems to have been brought into the _Nibelungenlied_ because the Germanic mind could conceive of nothing considerable passing without him. He is represented as one of the four-and-twenty princes in King Etzel’s train, and as anxious to prevent mischief to the visitors from Burgundy, warning them of Chriemhilt’s enmity, and refusing to attack them at her request. When the great slaughter began, it was Dietrich who conveyed the king and queen safely out of the _mêlée_, and withheld his men from engaging in it, until almost at the end, when they could no longer be restrained, and rushing into the fray were all slain except old Sir Hildebrand, though on the other hand, Gunther and Haghen alone remained alive of the Burgundians. Dietrich then armed himself, and after a fierce combat, made them both prisoners, and delivered them up to Chriemhilt, fully intending that she should spare their lives; but when her relentless fury had fallen on them, he assisted King Etzel to bury the dead, and to return the horses and armour of their fallen champions to their respective countries.

Other German romances, however, elevate this prince to a much higher rank. The _Book of Heroes_, written by Wolfram of Eschenbach and Heinrich of Ofterdingen, makes Dietrich of Bern, in Lombardy, son of King Dietmar. Hearing of Chriemhilt’s rose garden, which measured seven miles round, and was guarded by twelve champions, he was seized with a desire to do battle with them, for love of battle, not of ladies, though the victor was to receive a chaplet of roses and a kiss from the young lady. The wise old Sir Hildebrand, of the Wolfing line, conducted him and his eleven companion champions to Wurms, where the single combats took place. Dietrich’s knights were successful, and for the most part took the Chaplets, but refused the kisses, because they disdained Chriemhild as a faithless maiden.

A Danish ballad describes ‘Kong Tidrich’s’ tremendous battle with a Lindwurm, the progeny of one that had escaped his great-grandfather Wolfdietrich. He was led to enter on the battle by entreaties for help from a lion whom the dragon had seized; but at first he came by the worst, for his sword broke, and

‘The Lindwurm took him on her back,
His steed beneath her tongue,
Bore them into the hollow hill
To her eleven young.’

She bade them eat the horse to pass away the time while she rested, promising that on her awakening they should devour the knight. In the cave, however, Tidrich found the magic sword of Siegfried and two knives; and in spite of the threats of the young dragons, and the promises of the old one, he killed them all; but the old worm fell so as to choke the mouth of the cave, whereupon the friendly lion dug him out, and supplied the place of the slain steed by carrying him to Bern on his back.

So much for romance. History mentions a real Theodoric, son of Theudemir, and king of the Ostrogoths in Italy, from 475 to 527. He had been sent as a hostage to Constantinople, and there educated; and though he could not write his name, and had a stamp perforated with the letters Theod to enable him to sign his edicts, he was exceeding able, wise, and skilful, and Arian as he was, conciliated the love of the Catholics. Verona was his chief city, and is evidently the Bern of the romances. He lived too late for the historical Attila, who had died in 453; and though there is a report of a previous Theodoric, who meddled in a dissension between Attila’s sons, and took part in a great slaughter that lasted fifteen days, it is most likely that the original Theuderik was a mythical personage, after whom these historical princes were called, and who afterwards received the credit of some of their deeds, and was localized in the places of their dominion. It is in favour of this notion that Dietrich of Berne is one of the many titles of the wild huntsman, though the Lusatians corrupt him into Dietrich Bernhard, and the Low Countries into Dirk-mit-den-Beer, or with the beard. Indeed, Dirk, the Dutch form of Theodoric, was a half-mythical king of Holland.

It was a most universal name, Anglo-Saxon and Visigothic, as well as Frank and German; and two saints made it everywhere popular in the middle ages, though the Dutch at present chiefly use it.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Italian. │Span. and Port.│
│Theodric │Theodoric │Teodorico │Theodorico │
│Theodoric │Thierry │Dieterico │ │
│Derrick │Thian │ │ │
│Terry │Thean │ │ │
│Tedric │ │ │ │
│ (_Domesday_) │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ German. │ Bavarian. │ Frisian. │ Danish. │
│Diotrich │Dietl │Tiaderik │Tjodrckr │
│Dietrich │ ———————— │Tiarik │Didhrikr │
│Diez │ Dutch. │Tiark │Theodrckr │
│Diether │Diederik │Tiado │Tidrich │
│ │Dierk │Tiaddo │Didrik │
│ │Dirk │Todo │ ———————— │
│ │ │Tade │ Slovak. │
│ │ │Tido │Todorik │
│ │ │Tide │ │
│ │ │Dudde │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Polish. │ Bohemian. │ Lettish. │ Hungarian. │
│Dytrych │Detrich │Diriks │ │
│ │ │Didschis │Ditrik │
│ │ │Tiz │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The name of Dietmar, the father of Theodoric, is to be found in many forms; in Theudemir, a Frank, who faithfully served Constantius; in an Ostrogothic Theodomir; Spanish, Theodomiro; and the modern Frisian, Thiadmar, Tiedmer, Tyeddemer, Tidmer. It means people’s greatness.

Dietleib, his friend, is rightly Ditlev; and in the North, Thjodleif, the people’s relic, or what is left to them. He, too, survives in constant Friesland, as Teallef, Taedlef, Tiadelef.

The chief favourite of this class is, however, the people’s prince, occurring both among the Frank and early Anglian kings, and belonging to two French hermits and one English archbishop. It took firm root in Provence, and has an aroma of crusades and courts of love surrounding it; and though it is not in Domesday, it and its contractions survive as English surnames; and in a Gloucestershire parish register of the eighteenth century, the feminine form occurs frequently in every variety of spelling; Tibelda, Tiballa, Tibotta, Tybal.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Spanish. │ Portuguese. │
│Theodebald │Theudobald │Theudebaldo │Theobaldo │
│Theobald │Thiebault │ │ │
│Tybalt │Thiebaud │ │ │
│Tibble │Tibaut │ │ │
│Dibble │ │ │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Italian. │ German. │ Dutch. │ Netherlands. │
│Teobaldo │Dietbold │Tibout │Dippolt │
│Tebaldo │Diephold │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The people’s wolf was canonized as a Frank hermit, who gets called St. Thiou. Our friend Theodolf, the Icelander, as Fouqué calls him, would have been in his own land Thjodolf, and the contraction is there Kjold, or Kjol, as Kjoil, or Kjoille, is for Thjodhild, the same as the Diuthilt of the Germans, and Theudhilda, a nun-sister of Clovis. St. Audard has undergone a still greater change; he was once archbishop of Narbonne, and called Theodhard, or ward, the Tiard of Friesland, and Thjodvar, or Kjovar, in the North.

The remaining forms are,

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ger. Dietbert; Frank. Theudebert—People’s brightness │
│ Ger. Dietbrand—People’s sword │
│ Ger. Dietburg—People’s protection │
│ │
│ Nor. German. Frank. │
│ Thjodgjer } │
│ Toger } │
│ Kiogjeir } Dietgar Theodokar—People’s spear │
│ Kygeir } │
│ Kyer } │
│ │
│ Ger. Dietfrid; Frank. Theodofrid—People’s peace │
│ Ger. Theodegisel; It. Teodisclo—People’s pledge │
│ Ger. Diether—People’s warrior │
│ Nor. Thjodhjalm; Ger. Diethelm—People’s helmet │
│ Ger. Dietlind; Lomb. Theudelinda—People’s snake │
│ Ger. Dietman—People’s man │
│ Ger. Diutrat; Frank. Theodorada—People’s council │
│ Ger. Dietram—People’s raven │
│ Nor. Thjodvald, Kjodvald, Kjoval—People’s power.[137] │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Footnote 137:

Weber and Jamieson; Munch; Grimm; Butler; _Nibelung_.