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Witege

character in several Germanic heroic legends

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ477712
Source-derived summary

Witege, Witige or Wittich (Old English: Wudga, Widia; Gotho-Latin: Vidigoia) or Vidrik "Vidga" Verlandsson (Old Norse: Vidrīk + Viðga or Videke + Verlandsson, Vallandsson, or Villandsson) is a character in several Germanic heroic legends, poems about Dietrich von Bern, and later Scandinavian ballads.

In German legends, he was one of the warriors of Dietrich von Bern, but betrayed him and took instead the side of his wicked Uncle Ermenrich. In one of the Scandinavian ballads (TSB E 119), he won particular fame in his duel with Langben Rese/Risker (the giant Etgeir in the Þiðrekssaga).

During the Middle Ages, he became the son of Wayland the Smith and Böðvildr, and this entitled him to carry a hammer and tongs in his coat of arms. Later the origin of his name "Wayland's son" was forgotten, but the fame of the character prevailed. During the 16th and the 17th centuries, this led to the idea that his name "Villandsson" referred to Villand Hundred in Skåne, and the hundred duly began to use his coat of arms as its own. Wudga wielded the sword Mimung, forged by his father, as was the helmet he wore. His mount was the stallion Schimming, one of the finest horses of its age.

Widsith

One of the earliest appearances of Wudga is in the poem Widsith, lines 123-130, where he appears together with his friend Háma (Heimir):

Waldere

In the Anglo-Saxon fragment known as Waldere, Wudga (Widia) is mentioned together with his father Wayland in a praise of Mimung, Waldere's sword that Weyland had made.

Partly on the basis of this allusion, Jennifer Lorden has argued that, although he is not named in the poem, the five allusive vignettes that comprise the first half of the Old English poem Deor trace the birth and career of Widia.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Witege” as character in several Germanic heroic legends. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 299-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Witege, character and several can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as character in several Germanic heroic legends. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q477712. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Witege” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.