chlacht was a defeat. In the poem of _Ermenrichs Tod_ he is
represented as slaying Ermanaric, as in fact Theodoric slew Odoacer.
"Otacher" replaces Ermanaric as his adversary in the _Hildebrandslied_,
which relates how thirty years after the earlier attempt he reconquered
his Lombard kingdom. Dietrich's long residence at Attila's court
represents the youth and early manhood of Theodoric spent at the
imperial court and fighting in the Balkan peninsula, and, in accordance
with epic custom, the period of exile was adorned with war-like
exploits, with fights with dragons and giants, most of which had no
essential connexion with the cycle. The romantic poems of _Konig
Laurin_, _Sigenot_, _Eckenlied_ and _Virginal_ are based largely on
local traditions originally independent of Dietrich. The court of Attila
(Etzel) was a ready bridge to the Nibelungen legend. In the final
catastrophe he was at length compelled, after steadily holding aloof
from the combat, to avenge the slaughter of his Amelungs by the
Burgundians, and delivered Hagen bound into the hands of Kriemhild. The
flame breath which anger induced from him shows the influence of pure
myth, but the tales of his demonic origin and of his being carried off
by the devil in the shape of a black horse may safely be put down to the
clerical hostility to Theodoric's Arianism.

Generally speaking, Dietrich of Bern was the wise and just monarch as
opposed to Ermanaric, the typical tyrant of Germanic legend. He was
invariably represented as slow of provocation and a friend of peace, but
once roused to battle not even Siegfried could withstand his onslaught.
But probably Dietrich's fight with Siegfried in Kriemhild's rose garden
at Worms is a late addition to the Rosengarten myth. The chief heroes of
the Dietrich cycle are his tutor and companion in arms, Hildebrand (see
HILDEBRAND, lay of), with his nephews the Wolfings Alphart and Wolfhart;
Wittich, who renounced his allegiance to Dietrich and slew the sons of
Attila; Heime and Biterolf.

The contents of the poems dealing with the Dietrich cycle are
summarized by Uhland in _Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und
Sage_ (Stuttgart, 1873). The _Thidrekssaga_ (ed. C. Unger,
Christiania, 1853) is translated into German by F. H. v. der Hagen in
_Altdeutsche und altnordische Heldensagen_ (vols. i. and ii. 3rd ed.,
Breslau, 1872). A summary of it forms the concluding chapter of T.
Hodgkin's _Theodoric the Goth_ (1891)