Legends about Theoderic the Great

The Gothic King Theoderic the Great was remembered in Germanic legend as Dietrich von Bern (Bern is the Middle High German name for Verona, where Theoderic had one of his residences). Dietrich figures in a number of surviving works, and it must be assumed that these draw on long-standing oral tradition. The majority of poems about Dietrich/Theoderic are composed in Middle High German, and are generally divided by modern scholars into historical (German: historische Dietrichepik) and fantastical (German: either märchenhafte or aventiurehafte Dietrichepik). The historical poems can loosely be connected with the life of the historical Theoderic and concern his expulsion from Verona by his uncle Ermenrich (Ermanaric) and his attempts to regain his kingdom with the help of Etzel (Attila). The fantastical poems concern his battles with dwarfs, dragons, giants, and other mythical beings, as well as other heroes such as Siegfried. In addition to these two categories of poems, he appears as a supporting character in some poems such as the Nibelungenlied and Biterolf und Dietleib.