"Hiltibrant hætti min fater, ih heittu Hadubrant"
What better fits the topic 'Fantasy', than to go back to the origin of most of the fantasy genre? Famous authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, himself a professor of Anglo-Saxon, were greatly influenced by Germanic sagas. Creatures like elves and dwarves that we now deem typical for fantasy come straight from Germanic legends and religion. The Germanic epics themselves are works of art that would not be out of place next to 'The Lord of the Rings', with ideals like honour and courage held in high esteem as legendary heroes fight against mighty foes, too often suffering a tragic death at the end.
This image depicts a scene from the famous 'Hildebrandslied'. Set in the late 5th century, this 9th century epic poem describes a battle between the Germanic kings Odoacer, who deposed the last West Roman emperor, and Theoderic the Great, who from 488 to 493 conquered Odoacer's young kingdom. Just decades ago this Roman heartland had been under the firm control of its decadent senators, but now two foreign armies were battling over the legacy of the once-great empire. And many other invaders would yet come, and with it many battles. The perfect background for legends about great heroes like Hildebrand and Hadubrand, the main characters of this saga.
The epic beautifully describes how the two armies meet and send forth a champion to fight each other in single combat, Theoderic the old but experienced Hildebrand and Odoacer the young warrior Hadubrand. As they introduce themselves to each other, the older Hildebrand realizes his opponent is his own lost son!
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All 3d-modeling, posing and rendering was done in Blender using Cycles. All textures and materials except the ones listed below, and the skin textures, were made using Blender and GIMP. The final render was retouched in GIMP.
External textures/materials I used:
- The hills in the background are from an excellent photograph of Italy by Moyan Brenn
- Hadubrand's skin uses the CyclesSkin shader by m9105826 (the textures are from MakeHuman though)
- The leather for the belts of the two generals is from the leather shader by elbrujodelatribu
- There is some minor use of the procedural wood shader by wesvdes
- The textures of the tree shields in the center are taken from a scan of a manuscript of the Notitia Dignitatum, by some Late-Roman author with long-lost copyrights
All other textures and materials, as well as all 3d-models, are either made by myself or MakeHuman.
I'd like to close off with the first stanza of this alliterative poem, translated by myself:
I once was told, | that between two armies
Two heroes, | Hildebrand and Hadubrand,
Checked their gear, | girded their swords,
Put on their mailcoats | and mighty armour,
When they went | towards the battlefield.