Құдрун: Солтүстік теңіз жырларының қаһарманы

Kudrun (sometimes known as the Gudrunlied or Gudrun), is an anonymous Middle High German heroic epic. The poem was likely composed in either Austria or Bavaria around 1250. It tells the story of three generations of the ruling house of Hetelings on the North Sea, but is primarily the story of Kudrun, who is abducted by the Norman prince Hartmut who desires to marry her. Kudrun remains true to her fiancé Herwig and eventually is rescued. After the defeat of the Normans, however, Kudrun ensures that peace will be kept between the two peoples by arranging for marriages and alliances. Although the story of Kudrun is very likely the invention of the poet, the story of her parents has its origins in a common Germanic tale known in Scandinavia as the Hjaðningavíg: it tells how Kudrun's mother, Hilde, eloped with her father, Hetel, against the will of Hilde's father, Hagen. In Kudrun, this originally tragic tale has been transformed into a happy one that serves as the prehistory of Kudrun herself. The poem is notable for the important and active role played by its female characters. It is widely seen as a deliberate antithesis to the Nibelungenlied, to which it alludes in numerous ways. Kudrun does not appear to have been successful with medieval audiences, and survives in only one manuscript. Since its rediscovery, however, it has been popular with philologists, and this has resulted in a relatively wide modern reception. Of German heroic poems, it has been called "second in stature only to the Nibelungenlied."

In common with almost all other German heroic poems, the Kudrun is anonymous. The poem is only transmitted in the early sixteenth century Ambraser Heldenbuch, but it is conventionally dated to around 1250. The scribe of that manuscript has modernized the language of the poem, but he has done it in such a way that the text is often incomprehensible unless translated back into Middle High German. The earliest date that it could have been composed is around 1240; the author has to have known the Nibelungenlied and the text portrays the relationship between kings and vassals in a manner suggestive of Emperor Frederick II's Statutum in favorem principum. Although the story takes place on the North Sea, the author of the poem does not seem well acquainted with maritime geography; further proof that he was not familiar with the ocean comes from his portrayal of Kudrun washing clothes in the sea. This accords with the linguistic analysis of the poem, which locates it in the Austro Bavarian dialect area; potential places of composition include Styria and Regensburg.

The first half of the Kudrun is a reworking of a common Germanic oral tradition that likely has its origins around the North Sea, with the portrayal of warfare being similar to that of the Viking Age. Based on the forms of names found in the text, this tradition likely reached the southern German speaking area where the Kudrun was composed via the Dutch Flemish language area and potentially through a romance speaking area. The core of this tradition is the story of Hilde's abduction and a battle on an island between her father Hagen and her abductor Hetel. This tradition is attested in Germany as early as the middle of the twelfth century, when a fierce battle on the island Wolfenwerde (in Kudrun, Wülpensand) is mentioned in Priest Lambrecht's Alexanderroman: "Hilde's father" is said to perish in the battle, and the names Hagen and Wate are given. The version of events reported by Priest Lambrecht accords generally with other attestations, namely from Scandinavia, where it is known as Hjaðningavíg. Snorri Sturluson reports two versions of the tale in the Prose Edda: in one, Hildr (Hilde) attempts to mediate between her father Högni (Hagen) and Heðin (Hetel) during the battle and awakens the dead to life every night. In another, quoted from the poem Ragnarsdrápa, Hildr encourages the fight and prevents its end. Another version is reported by Saxo Grammaticus. The earliest attestation of the saga appears to be a picture stone (Smiss I) from Gotland, Sweden, which shows a woman attempting to mediate between warriors on land and on a ship. The saga is also attested in Anglo Saxon England of the ninth and tenth centuries, where the poems Deor and Widsith mention the names Hagena (Hagen), Heoden (Hetel), Wada (Wate), and Heorrenda (Horant) without, however, giving any indication of their story. The German Kudrun differs from the Norse versions and the version found in Priest Lambrecht in that Hilde is able to successfully mediate between Hagen and Hetel, transforming the story of Hilde into prologue to the story of her daughter, Kudrun. The story of Kudrun herself was likely the invented by the poet based on the story of Hilde, as there are no independent attestations of Kudrun. It is nevertheless not possible to prove that there were no oral traditions about Kudrun. The name Kudrun shows signs of having migrated with the oral tradition south to Baviara/Austria: it would be *Gundrūn if it had arisen in the High German area. The form *Gudrun may be of Dutch origin and probably derives from the Old Norse Guðrún (see Gudrun). It is unclear whether the poem's German speaking audience was aware that Kudrun's name was equivalent to the Norse version of Kriemhild or whether the name has some other explanation. The story of Hagen's youth in the wilderness is thought to have been invented by the poet using motifs taken from Herzog Ernst, the Nibelungenlied, and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival.

The Kudrun is widely seen as a deliberate reversal of the situation of the Nibelungenlied: the poem cites the Nibelungenlied in its metrical form, in its use of âventiuren (chapters, literally "adventures") to distinguish individual episodes, and its use of allusions and direct citations of lines of the other poem. Kudrun herself is seen as a reversal of Kriemhild in the Nibelungenlied: instead of revenge and destruction, Kudrun brings about peace and reconciliation. Gerlint, however, receives Kriemhild's epithet vâlentinne (Kudrun 629,4; "she devil"), while Wate seems to combine features of the Nibelungenlied's portrayal of Hagen and Hildebrand. While the antithesis to the Nibelungenlied is especially obvious in the role played by Kudrun herself, the male family members also show themselves to be much more pragmatic than the heroes in the Nibelungenlied. The central topic of Kudrun is reconciliation, a reconciliation which is secured through the marriage of members of formerly feuding families. The poem features female protagonists who are far more active than is typical; in particular, Kudrun herself intervenes repeatedly to prevent bloodshed and to secure peace. Kudrun's mother Hilde is also an active female figure, who rules in her own right following Hetel's death; Kudrun and Hilde are together responsible for the success of Kudrun's attempts to create a lasting peace. The poem nevertheless does not call male rule into question: female power is unable to challenge male power and is always based in prior suffering.

The Kudrun does not appear to have been a very popular poem in the Middle Ages; it is never alluded to elsewhere and it survives only in a single manuscript. Its lack of influence may have to do with the fact that it is a more consciously literary text than the Nibelungenlied or the other late medieval heroic epics about Dietrich von Bern. There are nevertheless certain areas where influence from Kudrun has been proposed: the Old Yiddish Dukus Horant and various ballads. Dukus Horant, which involves characters from the Hilde part of Kudrun, more likely is an independent reworking of the Hilde saga than of Kudrun. For a lack of a direct connection between the two epics speaks Dukus Horant's use of the name "Etene" for Hetel; this more closely matches the Old Norse and Anglo Saxon material than Kudrun. Several ballads in various European languages show parallels to Kudrun's captivity and rescue, with German examples being the Südeli ballads (18th century) and the Meererin (written down 1867). Their relationship to Kudrun is uncertain and most scholars now believe that it is more likely that the parallels show that the author of the Kudrun reworked traditional folk elements in composing the second half of the poem. Perhaps for the same reasons that the epic was unpopular as heroic poetry in the Middle Ages, namely its literary character, the Kudrun became extremely popular with nineteenth century philologists. This resulted in the work being adapted several times. In 1868, author Mathilde Wesendonck published a play Gudrun, which was among her more popular pieces and which Johannes Brahms offered to base an opera on. Several operas based on the poem were actually completed: Carl Amand Mangold completed one in 1849, as did Oscar Block in 1865, August Reissmann in 1871, Felix Draeseke in 1883, and Hans Huber in 1894.