‘Waldhere’
‘Waldhere’,the name given to two short fragments of an Old English poem in a manuscript of the late 10th cent., totalling 63 lines. It is thought that the poem they come from is an epic of considerable length, perhaps 1,000 lines. The manuscript is in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. We know from other sources that Waldhere was the son of a king of Aquitaine, who was given up to Attila the Hun and became one of his generals. He escapes with Hiltgund, a Burgundian princess to whom he has been betrothed as a child. In the course of their flight they are attacked, and Waldhere, after slaying his assailants in a fist fight, is ambushed and wounded the next day. But they are able to continue the journey and are finally married. It is paralleled by the 10th-cent. Latin poem Waltharius. Ed. F. Norman ( 1933 ; rev. 1949 ).
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