Figurenkonstellation, Erzählschema und Action. Formen der Figurentypik im ›Wolfdietrich A‹ und seinen Vorgängern und Nachfolgern

Abstract

The paper analyzes contradictions in characters in ›Wolfdietrich A‹. These contradictions are explained as resulting from the characters’ relation to narrative schemata and their position in typical character constellation. The prehistory of such character modelling is sought in old Germanic heroic poetry. Scholarship on the history of the fable of ›Wolfdietrich A‹ has established two different views which are reconciled in a new explanation. The paper proposes that the textual tradition of later ›Wolfdietrich‹ epics is formed by an import of motifs from narrative folklore. As a result of this process a new type of hero emerges, a forerunner of the modern action hero.