Hildebrandslied

The Hildebrandslied is a medieval German heroic poem in the tradition of Germanic alliterative verse. The poem relates the tragic meeting of Hildebrand, a warrior in Theodoric's army, with his son Hadubrand in combat. Although the ending of the poem does not survive, scholars conclude from the Old Norse poem Asmundar Saga kappabana that Hildebrand kills his son. The poem is part of a cycle of legends about Theodoric, representative poems of which are found in many different Germanic languages and cultures, including references in the Old English poem Beowulf, the Middle High German Nibelungenlied, and the Old Norse Thidrekssaga.

The poem as it survives is incomplete. The 68 lines of verse are recorded only as a fragment from the late 9th century, added later on the first and last page of a Latin codex. The language of the poem is an odd mixture of Old High German and Old Saxon or Low German.