Walter of Aquitaine
Encyclopedia
Walter of Aquitaine is a legendary king of the Visigoths. He figures in several epic poems and narratives in medieval languages:
  • Waldere
    Waldere
    Waldere or Waldhere is the conventional title given to two Old English fragments from a lost epic poem, discovered in 1860 by E. C. Werlauff, Librarian, in the Danish Royal Library at Copenhagen, where it is still preserved. The parchment pages had been reused as stiffening in the binding of an...

    , an Old English fragment
  • Waltharius
    Waltharius
    Waltharius, a Latin poem founded on German popular tradition, relates the exploits of the west Gothic hero Walter of Aquitaine.-History:Our knowledge of the author, Ekkehard, a monk of St. Gall, is due to a later Ekkehard, known as Ekkehard IV , who gives some account of him in the Casus Sancti Galli...

    , a Latin epic written by the monk Ekkehard I of St Gall
    Ekkehard I
    Ekkehard I , called Major , was a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall. He was of noble birth, of the Jonschwyl family in Toggenburg, and was educated in the monastery of St. Gall; after joining the Benedictine Order, he was appointed director of the inner school there...

  • Chronicon Novaliciense ("Chronicle of Novalesa"), a Latin prose chronicle composed c.1060, at Novalesa Abbey
    Novalesa Abbey
    Novalesa Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Piedmont, Italy. It was founded in 726, and dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Andrew.Novalesa is in the Val di Susa, on the route to the Mont Cenis Pass. The founder, Abbo of Provence, was a local Frankish governor. The abbey stands on the former Via...

    : Waltarius figures in chapters 7-13
  • Nibelungenlied
    Nibelungenlied
    The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge....

    , an Old High German
    Old High German
    The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...

     epic in which Walter is mentioned briefly
  • Walther, a lost Middle High German
    Middle High German
    Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...

     epic of which several short fragments from different redactions are known. In these the hero is sometimes called "Walther von Kärlingen"
  • Þiðrekssaga, which tells the stories of Walter briefly in chapters 241-244
  • Chronicon Poloniae ("Chronicle of Poland") by Boguchwał, which outlines the story of Walter as a Polish count, Wdaly Walczerz, under the year 1135.


The most complete of these is the second, the 9th century Latin epic poem Waltharius
Waltharius
Waltharius, a Latin poem founded on German popular tradition, relates the exploits of the west Gothic hero Walter of Aquitaine.-History:Our knowledge of the author, Ekkehard, a monk of St. Gall, is due to a later Ekkehard, known as Ekkehard IV , who gives some account of him in the Casus Sancti Galli...

, in which Walter fights single-handedly against the Burgundian
Kingdom of Burgundy
Burgundy is a historic region in Western Europe that has existed as a political entity in a number of forms with very different boundaries. Two of these entities - the first around the 6th century, the second around the 11th century - have been called the Kingdom of Burgundy; a third was very...

 king Gunther
Gunther
Gunther is the German name of a semi-legendary king of Burgundy of the early 5th century...

 and his retinue, killing all attackers except for Gunther and Hagen
Hagen (legend)
Hagen or Högni is a Burgundian warrior in tales about the Burgundian kingdom at Worms. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half-brother of King Gunther .In the Nibelungenlied, he is called Hagen of Tronje...

. In later literature, Walter figures in Scheffel
Joseph Viktor von Scheffel
Joseph Victor von Scheffel was a German poet and novelist.-Biography:He was born at Karlsruhe. His father, a retired major in the Baden army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the course of the Rhine; his mother, née Josephine Krederer, the daughter of a prosperous...

's novel Ekkehard
Ekkehard
Ekkehard was a Germanic given name. Eckard, Eckhard, Eckhart, and Eckart are modern forms. It was the name of five monks of the Abbey of Saint Gall from the tenth to the thirteenth century:*Ekkehard I*Ekkehard II*Ekkehard III*Ekkehard IV*Ekkehard V...

(1887).

Walter is not a historical king, but the historical nucleus of the events lies in the 5th century (the reign of the Balti dynasty
Balti dynasty
The Balti dynasty, Baltungs, Balthings, or Balths, existed among the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe who confronted the Western Roman Empire in its declining years. The Balti took their name from the Gothic word balþa...

), after king Wallia
Wallia
Wallia was king of the Visigoths from 415 to 419, earning a reputation as a great warrior and prudent ruler. He was elected to the throne after Athaulf and then Sigeric were assassinated in 415....

 established a Visigothic kingdom in Aquitaine in 417
417
Year 417 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Constantius...

, clashing with the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

 under king Gunderic
Gunderic
Gunderic , King of the Vandals and Alans , led the Vandals, a Germanic tribe originally residing near the Oder River, to take part in the barbarian invasions of the western Roman Empire in the fifth century.- History :...

. The Burgundians became neighbours of the Visigoths after being resettled to Savoy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....

 by Flavius Aëtius
Flavius Aëtius
Flavius Aëtius , dux et patricius, was a Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was an able military commander and the most influential man in the Western Roman Empire for two decades . He managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian peoples pressing on the Empire...

 in 443
443
Year 443 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Maximus and Paterius...

 during the rule of Gunderic of Burgundy.

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