Waltharius1346Scansion - Revision history

HGL at 02:48, 16 July 2026

2026-07-16T02:48:05Z

HGL at 02:44, 16 July 2026

2026-07-16T02:44:21Z

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2026-07-16T02:42:55Z

Created page with "===Introduction: the Huns (1–12)=== {| |valign="top" | {| |- |nowrap | Tertia pars orbis, fratres, Europa vocatur, |1 |- |nowrap | Moribus ac..."

New page

===Introduction: the Huns (1–12)===
{|
|valign="top" |
{|
|-
|nowrap | [[Tertia]] [[pars]] [[orbis]], [[fratres]], [[Europa]] [[vocatur]],
|1
|-
|nowrap | [[Moribus]] [[ac]] [[linguis]] [[varias]] [[et]] [[nomine]] [[gentes]]
|
|-
|nowrap | [[Distinguens]] [[cultu]], [[tum]] [[relligione]] [[sequestrans]].
|
|-
|nowrap | [[Inter]] [[quas]] [[gens]] [[Pannoniae]] [[residere]] [[probatur]],
|
|-
|nowrap | [[Quam]] [[tamen]] [[et]] [[Hunos]] [[plerumque]] [[vocare]] [[solemus]].
|5
|-
|nowrap | [[Hic]] [[populus]] [[fortis]] [[virtute]] [[vigebat]] [[et]] [[armis]],
|
|-
|nowrap | [[Non]] [[circumpositas]] [[solum]] [[domitans]] [[regiones]],
|
|-
|nowrap | [[Litoris]] [[oceani]] [[sed]] [[pertransiverat]] [[oras]],
|
|-
|nowrap | [[Foedera]] [[supplicibus]] [[donans]] [[sternensque]] [[rebelles]].
|
|-
|nowrap | [[Ultra]] [[millenos]] [[fertur]] [[dominarier]] [[annos]].
|10
|-
|nowrap | [[Attila]] [[rex]] [[quodam]] [[tulit]] [[illud]] [[tempore]] [[regnum]],
|
|-
|nowrap | [[Impiger]] [[antiquos]] [[sibimet]] [[renovare]] [[triumphos]].
|
|}

|valign="top" |
<div style="height:30em; overflow:auto;">

{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
! style="text-align:left;" | Commentary 
|-
|
{|
|valign="top" nowrap| '''1'''
|valign="top" | ''Tertia pars orbis'': as opposed to Africa and Asia, a division found as early as Herodotus (2.16).

''Fratres'': suggests that the poem could have been read in a monastic context. Cf. ''adelphus'' in the prologue, line 22.
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''3'''
|valign="top" | ''Cultu'': As distinguished from ''religione'', it probably can be translated as “way of life,” in the sense of the general style of societal customs.

''Sequestrans'': “separating,” a meaning that seems to have developed from the concept of the deposit held by a sequester, the third-party arbitrator in a monetary conflict.
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''4'''
|valign="top" | ''Pannonia'': a Roman province in the north-west Balkans (around modern-day northern Croatia and western Hungary), and according to the poem the homeland of the “Huns” (''Hunos'', line 5). In historical reality, the Huns were a nomadic tribe that entered Europe from the Eurasian Steppe, beginning around 370 CE. The Romans relinquished control of Pannonia to the Huns in 435 (Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.vv. “Huns,” “Pannonia”; Kelly 2008, 83–84).
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''5'''
|valign="top" | ''Hunos'': The Huns first swept into Roman consciousness when, invading from the east, they displaced the Goths, who—as detailed by Ammianus Marcellinus—ended up decimating the Roman army at the Battle of Adrianople, now Edirne in northwest Turkey, in 378 CE. In the following centuries
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''8'''
|valign="top" | ''Oceani'': The shores of the ocean almost function as the ends of the world in a pre-modern sense of geography, where Oceanus is the great river that encircled the known world. The very same section of Isidore’s Etymologies that line 1 likely references explicitly describes Oceanus as encircling the globe. The Huns were a people of the inland steppes and plains. At the height of its power, the Hunnic Empire stretched from the Caspian and Black Seas to the North Sea and even the Adriatic, but never all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''9'''
|valign="top" | In this passage, the poet’s characterization of the Huns parallels a Virgilian characterization of the Romans. Especially here, the allusion to the Virgilian and Roman dictum to “spare the vanquished and crush the proud,” as appears in ''Aeneid'' 6.852, is overt, despite its expression in a different language.
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''10'''
|valign="top" | ''Fertur'': the subject is ''populus''.

''Dominarier'': archaic form for the passive infinitive (here of a deponent), frequent in poetry of all periods.

''Ultra millenos … annos'': The millennium reign has been a common enough trope for powerful long-lasting empires (cf. the celebration of the millennium of Rome’s rule in 248 CE or the thousand year reign of Christ in Rev. 20). The hyperbole of this time-frame for the Hunnic empire explicit here and implied later (''antiquos … triumphos'', line 13), which only really lasted around a century in Europe, likens the Huns to the Romans in the manner and duration of their rule. This aggrandized characterization averts potential humiliation from the Frankish kingdoms’ obeisance, and glorifies Walther’s eventual triumph, as the enemy they face is not merely a nomadic army, but an empire on par with Rome.
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''11'''
|valign="top" | ''Attila'': Ruler of the Huns, first with his brother Bleda, from ca. 440 to 445, then alone until 453 CE (Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. “Attila”).

''Tulit'' = ''gessit''
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''12'''
|valign="top" | ''Renovare'': infinitive following ''impiger'' (“eager”); as in Hor. ''Carm.'' 4.14.22.
|}
|}

{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
! style="text-align:left;" | Parallels 
|-
|
{|
|valign="top" nowrap| '''1'''
|valign="top" | Lucan, ''De Bello Civili'' 9.411–12: ''Tertia pars rerum Libye, si credere famae / Cuncta velis; at, si ventos caelumque sequaris, / Pars erit Europae.'' “Libya is the third continent of the world, if one is willing in all things to trust report; but, if you judge by the winds and the sky, you will find it to be part of Europe.” Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologiae'', 14.2.1: ''Divisus est autem trifarie: e quibus una pars Asia, altera Europa, tertia Africa nuncupatur.'' “[The earth] is divided into three parts, one of which is called Asia, the second Europe, the third Africa.”
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''2'''
|valign="top" | ''Aeneid'' 8.722–23: ''gentes, / quam variae linguis, habitu tam vestis et armis.'' “Peoples as diverse in fashion of dress and arms as in tongues.”
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''7–8'''
|valign="top" | 1 Macc. 1.1–2 Vulg.: ''Et factum est postquam percussit Alexander Philippi Macedo qui primus regnavit in Graecia egressus de terra Cetthim Darium regem Persarum et Medorum constituit proelia multa et omnium obtinuit munitiones et interfecit reges terrae et pertransiit usque ad fines terrae.'' “Now it came to pass, after that Alexander the son of Philip the Macedonian, who first reigned in Greece, coming out of the land of Cethim, had overthrown Darius king of the Persians and Medes: he fought many battles, and took the strong holds of all, and slew the kings of the earth: and he went through even to the ends of the earth.”
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''8'''
|valign="top" | ''Aeneid'' 3.396: ''has autem terras Italique hanc litoris oram…'' “But these lands, and this nearest border of the Italian shore…” Virgil, ''Georgics'' 2.44: ''ades et primi lege litoris oram.'' “Draw nigh, and skirt the near shoreline.”

Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologiae'', 14.2: ''Undique enim Oceanus circumfluens eius in circulo ambit fines. … sed ideo istae duae partes factae sunt, quia inter utramque ab Oceano mare Magnum ingreditur, quod eas intersecat.'' “Indeed, the Ocean that flows around it on all sides encompasses its furthest reaches in a circle. … But the former pair [Europe and Africa] are divided into two regions, because from the Ocean the Mediterranean enters in between them and separates them.”
|-
|valign="top" nowrap| '''9'''
|valign="top" | ''Aeneid'' 6.851–52: ''tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento / (hae tibi erunt artes), pacique imponere morem, / parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.'' “You, Roman, be sure to rule the world (be these your arts), to crown peace with justice, to spare the vanquished and to crush the proud.”
|}
|}

</div>
|}
<hr />

{|
|[[WalthariusPrologue|« previous]]
|{{Outline|
* [[WalthariusPrologue|Prologue]]
* '''1–12: Introduction: the Huns'''
* 13–418: The Huns
** [[Waltharius13|13–33: The Franks under Gibich surrender to Attila, giving Hagen as a hostage]]
** [[Waltharius34|34–74: The Burgundians under Hereric surrender to Attila, giving Hildegund as a hostage]]
** [[Waltharius75|75–92: The Aquitainians under Alphere surrender to Attila, giving Walther as a hostage]]
** [[Waltharius93|93–115: Experience of the hostages at Attila’s court]]
** [[Waltharius116|116–122: Death of Gibich, flight of Hagen]]
** [[Waltharius123|123–141: Attila’s queen Ospirin advises her husband to ensure Walther’s loyalty by arranging a marriage]]
** [[Waltharius142|142–169: Walther rejects Attila’s offer of a bride]]
** [[Waltharius170|170–214: Walther leads the army of the Huns to victory in battle]]
** 215–418: The Escape
*** [[Waltharius215|215–255: Walther returns from battle and encounters Hildegund]]
*** [[Waltharius256|256–286: Walther reveals to Hildegund his plans for escaping with Attila’s treasure]]
*** [[Waltharius287|287–323: Walther hosts a luxurious banquet for Attila’s court; eventually all his intoxicated guests fall asleep]]
*** [[Waltharius324|324–357: Flight of Walther and Hildegund from Attila’s court]]
*** [[Waltharius358|358–379: The following day, the escape of Walther and Hildegund is discovered by Ospirin]]
*** [[Waltharius380|380–418: Attila is infuriated and vows revenge on Walther, but can find no one willing to dare to pursue him, even for a large reward]]
* 419–1061: The Single Combats
** 419–639: Diplomacy
*** [[Waltharius419|419–435: Flight of Walther and Hildegund to the area of Worms]]
*** [[Waltharius436|436–488: Gunther, King of the Franks, learns of Walther’s presence on his territory and, despite Hagen’s warnings, decides to pursue him for his treasure]]
*** [[Waltharius489|489–512: Walther makes his camp in a mountainous area and goes to sleep]]
*** [[Waltharius513|513–531: Gunther and his companions approach Walther’s camp; Hagen unsuccessfully tries to dissuade the king from attacking it]]
*** [[Waltharius532|532–571: Hildegund sees the Franks approaching and wakes Walther, who calms her fears and prepares for battle; he recognizes Hagen from a distance]]
*** [[Waltharius572|572–580: Hagen persuades Gunther to try diplomacy before using force]]
*** [[Waltharius581|581–616: Camalo is sent as a messenger to Walther, who offers to make Gunther a gift in return for allowing his passage]]
*** [[Waltharius617|617–639: Hagen counsels Gunther to accept the offer, but Gunther rejects this advice, calling him a coward. Insulted, Hagen goes off to a nearby hill]]
** 640–1061: Combat
*** [[Waltharius640|640–685: 1st single combat. Camalo is sent back to Walther, who slays him]]
*** [[Waltharius686|686–719: 2nd single combat. Walther slays Kimo/Scaramund, Camalo’s nephew]]
*** [[Waltharius720|720–724: Gunther encourages his men]]
*** [[Waltharius725|725–753: 3rd single combat. Walther slays Werinhard, a descendant of the Trojan Pandarus]]
*** [[Waltharius754|754–780: 4th single combat. Walther slays the Saxon Ekivrid, after an exchange of insults]]
*** [[Waltharius781|781–845: 5th single combat. Walther slays Hadawart, after an exchange of insults]]
*** [[Waltharius846|846–877. Hagen sees his nephew Patavrid going off to fight Walther and laments the evil wreaked on mankind by greed]]
*** [[Waltharius878|878–913. 6th single combat. After trying to dissuade him from fighting, Walther slays Patavrid]]
*** [[Waltharius914|914–940: 7th single combat. Walther slays Gerwitus]]
*** [[Waltharius941|941–961: Gunther again encourages his men, giving Walther some time to rest]]
*** [[Waltharius962|962–981. 8th single combat. Walther is shorn of his hair by Randolf, whom he then slays]]
*** [[Waltharius982|982–1061. Walther is attacked by Eleuthir/Helmnot, assisted by Trogus, Tanastus, and Gunther; he slays all but Gunther]]
* 1062–1452: The Final Combat
** [[Waltharius1062|1062–1088: Gunther tries to persuade Hagen to help him to defeat Waltharius; remembering his wounded honor, Hagen refuses]]
** [[Waltharius1089|1089–1129: Hagen changes his mind and agrees to help Gunther, but advises that they must lie low wait until Walther comes down from the mountains into open ground]]
** [[Waltharius1130|1130–1187: Walther decides to spend the night in the mountains. He rematches the severed heads with the bodies of his victims, prays for their souls, then sleeps]]
** [[Waltharius1188|1188–1207: The following day, Walther and Hildegund set out from the mountains, taking the horses and arms of the defeated warriors]]
** [[Waltharius1208|1208–1236: Hildegund perceives Gunther and Hagen approaching to attack; the king addresses Walther]]
** [[Waltharius1237|1237–1279: Walther ignores Gunther and pleads with Hagen to remember the bond of their childhood friendship; Hagen counters that Walther has already broken their faith by slaying Patavrid]]
** [[Waltharius1280|1280–1345: The fight begins and continues for seven hours; Gunther foolishly tries to retrieve a thrown spear from the ground near Walther and is only saved from death by Hagen’s brave intervention]]
** [[Waltharius1346|1346–1375: Walther challenges Hagen; he severs Gunther’s leg, but Hagen again saves the king’s life]]
** [[Waltharius1376|1376–1395: Hagen cuts off Walther’s right hand; Walther gouges out one of Hagen’s eyes and, cutting open his cheek, knocks out four teeth]]
** [[Waltharius1396|1396–1442: Having wounded each other, the warriors end the battle, drink together, and engage in a friendly exchange of humorous taunt]]
** [[Waltharius1443|1443–1452: The warriors return to their respective homes; Walther marries Hildegund and eventually becomes king of the Aquitainians]]
* [[Waltharius1453|1453–1456: Epilogue]]}}

|
|[[Waltharius13|next »]]
|[[Waltharius1English|English]]
|[[Waltharius1Scansion|Scansion]]
|-
|}

@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
+|
 {|
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''1'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 1
 |valign="top" | ''Tertia pars orbis'': as opposed to Africa and Asia, a division found as early as Herodotus (2.16).
 ''Fratres'': suggests that the poem could have been read in a monastic context. Cf. ''adelphus'' in the prologue, line 22.
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''3'''
+|valign="top" nowrap|3
 |valign="top" | ''Cultu'': As distinguished from ''religione'', it probably can be translated as “way of life,” in the sense of the general style of societal customs.
 ''Sequestrans'': “separating,” a meaning that seems to have developed from the concept of the deposit held by a sequester, the third-party arbitrator in a monetary conflict.
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''4'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 4
 |valign="top" | ''Pannonia'': a Roman province in the north-west Balkans (around modern-day northern Croatia and western Hungary), and according to the poem the homeland of the “Huns” (''Hunos'', line 5). In historical reality, the Huns were a nomadic tribe that entered Europe from the Eurasian Steppe, beginning around 370 CE. The Romans relinquished control of Pannonia to the Huns in 435 (Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.vv. “Huns,” “Pannonia”; Kelly 2008, 83–84).
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''5'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 5
 |valign="top" | ''Hunos'': The Huns first swept into Roman consciousness when, invading from the east, they displaced the Goths, who—as detailed by Ammianus Marcellinus—ended up decimating the Roman army at the Battle of Adrianople, now Edirne in northwest Turkey, in 378 CE. In the following centuries
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''8'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 8
 |valign="top" | ''Oceani'': The shores of the ocean almost function as the ends of the world in a pre-modern sense of geography, where Oceanus is the great river that encircled the known world. The very same section of Isidore’s Etymologies that line 1 likely references explicitly describes Oceanus as encircling the globe. The Huns were a people of the inland steppes and plains. At the height of its power, the Hunnic Empire stretched from the Caspian and Black Seas to the North Sea and even the Adriatic, but never all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''9'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 9
 |valign="top" | In this passage, the poet’s characterization of the Huns parallels a Virgilian characterization of the Romans. Especially here, the allusion to the Virgilian and Roman dictum to “spare the vanquished and crush the proud,” as it appears in ''Aeneid'' 6.852, is overt, despite its expression in a different language.
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''10'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 10
 |valign="top" | ''Fertur'': the subject is ''populus''.
@@ Line 78: / Line 78: @@
 ''Ultra millenos … annos'': The millennium reign has been a common enough trope for powerful long-lasting empires (cf. the celebration of the millennium of Rome’s rule in 248 CE or the thousand year reign of Christ in Rev. 20). The hyperbole of this time-frame for the Hunnic empire explicit here and implied later (''antiquos … triumphos'', line 13), which only really lasted around a century in Europe, likens the Huns to the Romans in the manner and duration of their rule. This aggrandized characterization averts potential humiliation from the Frankish kingdoms’ obeisance, and glorifies Walther’s eventual triumph, as the enemy they face is not merely a nomadic army, but an empire on par with Rome.
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''11'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 11
 |valign="top" | ''Attila'': Ruler of the Huns, first with his brother Bleda, from ca. 440 to 445, then alone until 453 CE (Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. “Attila”).
 ''Tulit'' = ''gessit''
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''12'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 12
 |valign="top" | ''Renovare'': infinitive following ''impiger'' (“eager”); as in Hor. ''Carm.'' 4.14.22.
 |}
@@ Line 93: / Line 93: @@
+|
 {|
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''1'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 1
 |valign="top" | Lucan, ''De Bello Civili'' 9.411–12: ''Tertia pars rerum Libye, si credere famae / Cuncta velis; at, si ventos caelumque sequaris, / Pars erit Europae.'' “Libya is the third continent of the world, if one is willing in all things to trust report; but, if you judge by the winds and the sky, you will find it to be part of Europe.” Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologiae'', 14.2.1: ''Divisus est autem trifarie: e quibus una pars Asia, altera Europa, tertia Africa nuncupatur.'' “[The earth] is divided into three parts, one of which is called Asia, the second Europe, the third Africa.”
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''2'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 2
 |valign="top" | ''Aeneid'' 8.722–23: ''gentes, / quam variae linguis, habitu tam vestis et armis.'' “Peoples as diverse in fashion of dress and arms as in tongues.”
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''7–8'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 7–8
 |valign="top" | 1 Macc. 1.1–2 Vulg.: ''Et factum est postquam percussit Alexander Philippi Macedo qui primus regnavit in Graecia egressus de terra Cetthim Darium regem Persarum et Medorum constituit proelia multa et omnium obtinuit munitiones et interfecit reges terrae et pertransiit usque ad fines terrae.'' “Now it came to pass, after that Alexander the son of Philip the Macedonian, who first reigned in Greece, coming out of the land of Cethim, had overthrown Darius king of the Persians and Medes: he fought many battles, and took the strong holds of all, and slew the kings of the earth: and he went through even to the ends of the earth.”
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''8'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 8
 |valign="top" | ''Aeneid'' 3.396: ''has autem terras Italique hanc litoris oram…'' “But these lands, and this nearest border of the Italian shore…” Virgil, ''Georgics'' 2.44: ''ades et primi lege litoris oram.'' “Draw nigh, and skirt the near shoreline.”
 Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologiae'', 14.2: ''Undique enim Oceanus circumfluens eius in circulo ambit fines. … sed ideo istae duae partes factae sunt, quia inter utramque ab Oceano mare Magnum ingreditur, quod eas intersecat.'' “Indeed, the Ocean that flows around it on all sides encompasses its furthest reaches in a circle. … But the former pair [Europe and Africa] are divided into two regions, because from the Ocean the Mediterranean enters in between them and separates them.”
 |-
-|valign="top" nowrap| '''9'''
+|valign="top" nowrap| 9
 |valign="top" | ''Aeneid'' 6.851–52: ''tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento / (hae tibi erunt artes), pacique imponere morem, / parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.'' “You, Roman, be sure to rule the world (be these your arts), to crown peace with justice, to spare the vanquished and to crush the proud.”
 |}