ABSTRACT

If we are searching for a natural origin of this kind for old Germanic heroic poetry, then the end of the Beowulf-epic shows us the way. The body of the hero is burnt on the funeral pyre with weapons and treasure, the remains buried in a mound which is piled high. Then twelve of the companions ride round his grave and proclaim his deeds and make the tapestry of his fame. The lament for the dead, found among all peoples, is the starting-point also for the heroic lay of the Germans. Two impulses are present in it at once: the sadness for the departed one which deeply stirs the feelings, and the wish to confront evil influences on his soul, to exorcise them by the magic of song, to appease them and come to peaceful agreement. The sensation of power wells miraculously from the tumult of feelings. Its origin in the lament for the dead determines the essential and basic features of the old Germanic heroic poetry, it is an exaggerated song of praise which exuberantly boasts the hero and his deeds as incomparable. He was the bravest, strongest, best and most generous; I have never before heard of such fights, the poet says, and I never saw such gifts as those he shared. These superlative formulas have remained in the heroic poem up to the latest times. From its original characterisation as a praise-poem for the dead hero comes the high and distinguished pathos of the heroic poetry, which springs without ceasing from summit to summit of its presentation and in its pure form must have

poetry of the warrior-state, which throngs around its leader, develops and blooms in this walk of life, and receives from it its pure style.