The HILDEBRANDSLIED (or Lay of Hildebrand) is an alliterative song-poem (lay or "Lied") from Germany of the Dark Ages. It is quite Heathen.
I carefully go over the first sentence, word by word, morpheme by morpheme - so you can come out of this experience actually understanding the original Old High German verse, appreciating its grammar and its particular Heathen-type alliterative style.
I will be making such a translation for each sentence of the Hildebrandslied. Follow along in this series, and you will get to know the whole lay so well, you will be able to recite it by heart, knowing what each and every word and word-part means.
THE SOUNDS AND THE MEANINGS WILL BECOME ONE.
TWO IMPORTANT NOTES:
(1) I'm not satisfied with my translating GI in GIHORTA as "have." In the grammars and dictionaries, GI is listed as an "intensifier," whatever that really is supposed to end out specifically meaning here. I think it may be a perfective (as opposed to perfect) prefix, like those found in Slavic languages. Perhaps ignoring GI would be best - but I just don't want to because I want every element reflected in the translation.
(2) There is a controversy over whether the first sentence ends with "between two armies." The first sentence may actually end with the first part of the next line (SUNUFATARUNGO) - which would may make the first sentence end with something like "between the TWO armies of the father/son ONE-ness".
