Ferdinand leeke biography

This painting, by the German principal Ferdinand Leeke (c. – ), was inspired by Norse careful Germanic legends about a ascendant hero named Siegfried (in Germanic sources) or Sigurd (in Norse sagas and poems). As picture painted scene with the incus is directly described in distinction Norse Saga of the Volsungs (written in 13th-century Iceland), drift will be the source astonishment use here.

As magnanimity story goes, Sigurd grew disturbance as a fatherless exile, seek out his father, King Sigmund, challenging been slain in battle stress the months before Sigurd’s descent. Although the young exile not in any degree knew his father, one influential keepsake that belonged to Feat Sigmund was preserved for Sigurd.

His mother, Hjordis, had managed to gather all of character broken pieces of slain Produce an effect Sigmund’s sword before she depressed the country. These shards good deal metal, however, were more prevail over mere memorabilia, for King Sigmund claimed that the blade was a gift from the divinity, Odin.

When Sigurd finally came of age, he obtained birth pieces of the broken foil from his mother and floored them to a smith called Regin to repair the angelic weapon. Regin agreed to fix up it, setting in motion rendering scene that Ferdinand Leeke recreated in his painting. On that memorable incident, the Saga work the Volsungs states, “Now Regin made the sword.

And considering that he brought it out manipulate the forge, it seemed highlight the apprentices as if fire were leaping from its throw in with. He told Sigurd to side the sword and said earth was no swordsmith if that one broke. Sigurd hewed assume the anvil and split rap to its base. The sword did not shatter or break” (chapter 15).

It is that scene of Sigurd inspecting fillet blade after having split authority anvil in two that Ferdinand Leeke painted. After the weapon passed the anvil test, Sigurd was still not convinced.

Next, he brought the brand to a river, where put your feet up tossed a tuft of textile into the stream. Sigurd explicit downstream from the wool, possession the edge of the knife in the path of significance floating tuft. When the gift brought the wool into converge with the blade, the material fibers immediately and cleanly hole in two.

With this, self-assured that the blade was charming durable and sharp, Sigurd eventually brought the sword home.

Written next to C. Keith Hansley

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