The Sagas of the Sun-Heroes

Sun-hero and saga of heroes divine,

Beyond all historical events, it aligns,

The mythic essence of our lives, profound,

Yet ever influencing our actions, unbound.

Throughout our lives, we traverse a stage,

Where ancestral myths engage,

More real and potent, it seems,

Than the demands of mundane streams.

In that era, when Siegfried, radiant and brave,

Embodied our essence, as an eternal wave,

His strength, his deeds, his destiny bold,

Within us, they stirred, as tales were told.

We battled dragons with him, side by side,

Grim and sorrowful, his sudden demise implied.

Later, the superhuman figure of Hagen grim,

And the fall of the valiant Burgundians, dim.

Their loyalty and treachery shook our core,

Dietrich of Bern's comrades, forevermore,

Their actions, sufferings, became our guide,

Measuring friendships and adventures wide.

Why do these figures, long gone,

Remain familiar, hearts still drawn,

What keeps our hearts ablaze,

As Siegfried strikes the dragon's gaze?

In a world of scientific knowledge vast,

Where legendary creatures have long surpassed,

A different science holds the key,

To our innermost nature, setting us free.

The study of Germanic heritage and lore,

A part of life's grand wisdom store,

Explains why we are as we are,

Why we feel what we feel, near and far.

Since the days of our forefathers, true,

Our being and feeling remain, through and through,

Essentially unchanged, cannot be undone,

If we hold steadfast, in who we've become.

Heroic sagas and epic songs,

Rooted in our people, where strength belongs,

They trace back to our creative source,

From which we draw, with an unseen force.

A shared ancestral possession they proclaim,

From a mighty collective experience they came,

Their vivid images endure to this day,

Stirring new experiences, lighting our way.

All the heroes we admired as young,

And still do now, their praises sung,

Bear the traits of that primordial hero,

In whom the divine likeness does flow.

Here lie the eternal roots of our Germanic gods,

Intertwined with our oldest, ever-renewing odds,

All that has shaped our experiences profound,

Throughout centuries, in the world's surround.

Fed from these eternal roots, we find,

Nourishment for our souls, a steadfast bind,

Where the battle-tested hero's image stands,

Emerging from mythic realms, celestial lands.

In historical champions of our folk's striving,

The ancient Nordic sun-hero's likeness, surviving,

Their features reveal divine descent,

As each new hero, through time is sent.

The foreboding consciousness of the people aware,

Sees in them a new embodiment, fair and rare,

Carrying the eternal archetype's light,

In the ebb and flow of genders, day and night.

The first hero of recorded history's dawn,

Who triumphed against Rome's resistance drawn,

Known to the Romans as Arminius, renowned,

In our radiant hero Siegfried, his essence found.

Ancient legends intertwine with his name,

Like the primal sun-hero's rise to acclaim,

From the dark winter's cave, he emerges bright,

Overcoming divine power's internal fight.

In that dim cavern, he forges his own sword,

To face the Lindworm, a foe untoward.

We now know the sword was once of bronze,

In earlier times, before iron's response,

And in even more ancient days, behold,

The sun-hero wielded a stone axe bold.

He shattered the burial mound's capstone grand,

Like Thor with his hammer, giants withstand.

A burial mound near Bremen, steadfast and true,

Preserved an image of this sun-hero, anew.

When a foreign world shattered their realm,

A thousand years ago, in a steadfast helm,

Germanic mythology found solace and grace,

In woodcarvers' and stonemasons' embrace.

The Germanic heroic saga, loyal and proud,

Preserved the ancient hero spirit, unbowed,

Recognizing it in the great leaders of their time,

Beside the first liberator from Rome's clime.

The figures of the great Migration Age arose,

Dietrich von Bern, foremost among those,

The saga adorned him with sun-hero's feats,

Fighting dragons and discovering swords, a treat.

In the dark dragon's lair, he found the key,

A sword that unlocked paths to light's decree,

And his eyes, sun-like and divine,

Glowed fiercely when wrath began to shine.

The saga tells us of his earthly end,

Entering the ancestral stone house to transcend,

To return in the ultimate battle, grand,

For life's victory, a hero truly manned.

Whenever a king or emperor fulfilled,

The people's longing for justice, strong-willed,

They took on the features of the eternal guide,

And the people awaited their triumphant stride.

They embodied the archetype's eternal might,

In them, the law of their world took flight,

For within us lies God's own divine spark,

Enchanting us with the sacred and the dark.

In the oldest writings of the Indo-Germanic kin,

He's the "God in the Waters," we begin,

And according to ancient Northern lore,

He rises from the sea, life and deeds to restore.

A Germanic tombstone shows his face,

Placed by companions, honoring a fallen ace,

Many sagas speak of the dying hero's quest,

As he sought the sun in his final rest.

Enlightened by the knowledge held so deep,

A German poet once did speak,

"If our eyes lacked a sunlit gleam,

The sun's radiance would remain unseen."

And if within us, God's own power didn't reside,

How could we be stirred by the divine's tide?

A poetic English interpretation from "Das Erbe der Ahnen"

by CR Meyer