Þiðreks saga
Old Norse chivalric saga / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Thidreks saga?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Þiðreks saga af Bern ('the saga of Þiðrekr of Bern', sometimes Thidrekssaga or Thidreks saga in English) is an Old Norse saga that collects almost all Germanic heroic legends known from Germany into a single narrative. At the center of this narrative is the biography of the hero Dietrich von Bern (Old Norse: Þiðrekr af Bern).
Most scholars believe that the saga was probably composed in Bergen, Norway, at the court of king Haakon IV, sometime around 1250. Scholars are divided between those that believe that the composer translated a lost Low German original ("translation hypothesis") and those who believe that the sources were mostly oral and conveyed to Norway by merchants of the Hanseatic League, only being joined together in Norway ("compilation hypothesis"). The saga contains a number of otherwise unknown German legends. Controversy exists as to whether to consider the Þiðreks saga af Bern a courtly chivalric saga, like Haakon's other translation projects, or a legendary saga given that it contains Germanic heroic legends.
In addition to the Old Norse version, an adaptation into Old Swedish known as the Didriks Krönika was created in the mid 15th century. It is not a literal translation but an adaptation that would go on to influence further Scandinavian texts about Dietrich and the Nibelungen.