The fabulous beings in the "Dietrich Epics"

The fabulous beings in the Dietrichepen, German epic poems from the mid-thirteenth century loosely based on the life of Theodoric the Great, are investigated in this thesis. Giants, dwarfs, and dragons in Virginal, Goldemar, Sigenot, Eckenlied, and Laurin are prominent in the so-called "marchenhafte Epen," which are far removed from historical events. Although there are exceptions, in general giants are depicted as being hostile and stupid, while dwarfs are clever and tricky, and possessed of great wealth and valuable devices, such as the tarnkappe, which bestows invisibility upon its wearer. Dragons are the embodiment of evil. These fabulous beings serve to test the nettle of Dietrich and his companions, and odd variety to their adventures. As the anonymous authors of these works must have gotten their knowledge of these beings from Germanic folk tradition, for comparison their occurrence in the Elder Edda and Grimm's Marchen was also investigated. Parallels as well as differences between these beings and those in the Dietrichepen are pointed out. Despite the differences due to the distances in time and space, there are striking similarities in all three sources.