Wunderer

Der Wunderer (the monster), or Etzels Hofhaltung (Etzel's holding of court) is an anonymous Early New High German poem about the legendary hero Dietrich von Bern, the counterpart of the historical Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in Germanic heroic legend.

It is one of the so-called fantastical (aventiurehaft) Dietrich poems, so called because it more closely resembles a courtly romance than a heroic epic.

At a feast being held by Etzel, who is described as a greater king than Arthur, a beautiful maiden appears asking for help against the Wunderer, who has been hunting her for three days with his hounds and wants to eat her.

The lady has received three special gifts from his chastity, however: at first glance she can see the true character of a person, her blessing can make anyone invincible in battle, and she can transport herself to any place as swiftly as the wind.

Joachim Heinzle holds the early dating for possible but by no means proven,[2] whereas Victor Millet believes the poem to be a product of the fifteenth century.

[11] It has been suggested that the scene of the Wunderer's arrival at Etzel's castle has been inspired by the late Arthurian German romance Wigamur.

Church tradition, coming from the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, also made the claim that Theoderic's soul had been seen dropped into Mount Etna for his sins.

Additionally, the narrator mentions that Dietrich is still alive today: because of fault he is carried off by the devil in the form of a horse to Rumeney (Romagna?)

[21] 19th century scholarship attempted to connect Frau Saelde of the poem with "Saligen" or "Salgfrauen", female figures of Tyrolean folk stories who are chased by the Wild Huntsman.

Joachim Heinzle views this as unprovable, and would rather see Frau Saelde as a reflex of the personification Fortuna, i.e. a literary rather than a folk element of the poem.

[23] Recent scholarship has suggested that Frau Saelde's three magical abilities found in the poem may derive from influence from Slavic folklore,[9] something also often speculated upon for another text of German heroic poetry, Ortnit.