A Germanic Hero and His Afterlife: Walter’s Poem

Harvard FAS

Studies a short epic about an early Germanic warrior, Walter of Aquitaine, in the late Roman era of Attila the Hun. Considers date and authorship, heroism and gender roles, tribal and racial rivalries (including Franks and Goths) in Charlemagne’s time and later, manuscript transmission, and literary reception (from romanticism through the Nazi era to the present). Sets the style and content of the poem into both Germanic and Latin contexts, with comparison of versions in Old Norse and other…