Walter of Aquitaine

Walther of Aquitaine is a figure of medieval German legend. The ending with severe injuries of the heroic struggle, which is told in Waltharius in Latin hexameters and clearly in comic exaggeration, leaves the Burgundy King Gunther without one of its two legs, Hagen loses in the battle one eye and six teeth, Walther 's right hand.

Parallels to the Norse sagas

Even Jacob Grimm was noticed ( German mythology, 1835, I, pp. 309 ff ) that the loss of the right hand Walthers has its equivalent in the Nordic legend of the Fenris Wolf.

The Asen try to captivate the Fenris Wolf. This does not want to leave captivate and negotiated. It requires a deposit for the event that the Aesir would, despite their given word let him bound. Tyr, the old sword God puts his hand into the jaws of Fenriswolfes; as the Aesir actually break their word and not break the bonds back, Tyr must have his hand in the mouth of the wolf. This is a " specular punishment" after the Ius Talionis within the meaning of the Germanic legal opinion: The right hand is the Schwurhand; Perjury and perjury are punishable by the loss of the right hand. A connection with Walther is therefore difficult to produce.