Note 21 — Chapter II · THE TEUTONIC EPIC

The resemblance to Hildebrand, l. 58, is pointed out by Sophus Bugge: "Doh maht du nu aodlihho, ibu dir din ellen taoc, In sus heremo man hrusti giwinnan." (Hildebrand speaks): "Easily now mayest thou win the spoils of so old a man, if thy strength avail thee." It is remarkable as evidence of the strong conventional character of the Teutonic poetry, and of the community of the different nations in the poetical convention, that two short passages like Hildebrand and Waldere should present so many points of likeness to other poems, in details of style. Thus the two lines quoted from Hildebrand as a parallel to Waldere contain also the equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon phrase, Þonne his ellen deah, a familiar part of the Teutonic Gradus.