*Thedrick of Scythland
As I can tell, the standard explanation, or non-explanation, for why the Almainish branch of the Theodiscan heroic mythology (in e.g. the Þiðrekssaga af Bern or the Rabenschlacht), has the presumptive Thedrick of Bern (454-526) in exile, allied with Great Power Huns, and at Italian war with Ermenrich (d. 376) is that for some unapparent reason the former's historical Italian enemy Edwaker (433-493)- attested as his foe in the Hildebrandslied- was simply somehow forgotten or confused with Ermenrich at some point for some reason.
I think it is however more likely, not that Edwaker & Ermenrich have been confused, but rather that two historical Gothlords named Thedrick have been:
*Thedrick of Scythland (fl. 360-390), not contemporaneously attested, Ermenrich's exiled kinsman, who joined with his historical Great Power enemies the Huns against him.
Thedrick of Bern (454-526), the well-known conqueror of Italy from Edwaker.
It is of course far from unlikely that the later Thedrick was descended from the former.
Now, if we look at the earliest attestations of Thedrick in Anglo-Saxon, which long predate those in Norse or Almainish (save of course the Hildebrandslied)- in the Waldere, in the Deor, and in the Widsith we find absolutely nothing suggesting that the Thedrick in question is that of Bern. Instead, we find allusions to an already fully developed story that is consistent (except in geography!) with that much later attested in the Þiðrekssaga.
The Widsith passage deserves special notice here:
From there I travelled through the Gothic homeland I always sought out the best companions; that was Eormanric's household guard! I visited Hehca and Beadeca and the Herelingas, Emerca and Fridla and Eastgota, the wise and virtuous father of Unwen. I visited Secca and Becca, Seafola and Theodric, Heathoric and Sifeca, Hlith and Incgentheow. I visited Eadwine and Elsa, Aegelmund and Hungar, and the proud household of the Withmyrgingas. I visited Wulfhere and Wyrmhere; there battle often raged in the Vistula woods, when the Gothic army with their sharp swords had to defend their ancestral seat against Attila's host. I visited Raedhere and Rondhere, Rumstan and Gislhere, Withergield and Freotheric, Wudga and Hama. They were by no means the worst of companions, even though I happen to mention them last. Often a whistling spear flew from the army, screaming on its way to the enemy line; there the exiles Wudga and Hama gained twisted gold, men and women.
Two important points must be made in support of my theory:
Firstly, that here Ermenrich and Thedrick are associated with wars between the Goths and Huns in Scythland, by which I mean Eastern Europe & Western Asia. The only toponym is Wistlawudu, which is in what is now eastern Poland.
Secondly, that we here have an immense list of names associated with these wars, implied to be contemporaries; those I've bolded I immediately recognise from later sources concerned with Ermenrich. But more relevant are the names missing- namely, any name that must be linked with the historical Thedrick of Bern. We do not find the alliterative name of his father Theodemir (even though this name is known from later sources as the father of Thedrick of Bern), nor that of his successor Athalaric, or his son-in-laws Eutharic or Alaric or Sigismund. The only such name we might think to find is Vitiges, i.e. Wudga (I modernise this name as Widge). But fortunately a hero, already old by the historical Attila's time, by this name is known from Priscus by way of Jordanes:
Crossing mighty rivers--namely, the Tisia and Tibisia and Dricca--we came to the place where long ago Vidigoia, bravest of the Goths, perished by the guile of the Sarmatians.
This is likely the Wudga meant; these Sarmatians are the Huns themselves or an allied tribe; this fits the context much better than an Italian king who only fought against Romans.
But the biggest name absent is the one wye whom we know from the Hildebrandslied cannot be associated with *Thedrick of Scythland and must be historically associated with Thedrick of Bern, indeed the hero who is so prominent that he often overshadows his Thedrick in the later Almainish poems, namely Hildebrand himself!
It may be though also that the Freotheric mentioned is this Frederick. However, I think it more likely that this is Ermenrich's son Frederick killed by his father, known from the Þiðrekssaga; the Rondhere is his brother called Randver in the Völsunga saga, likewise killed by his father.
I thus contend that the Anglo-Saxon sources speaking of Þeodric are thus entirely concerned with Thedrick of Scythland, and have no evident confusion with Thedrick of Bern. Likewise, the Hildebrandslied, our other early source, shows no confusion of its proper Thedrick of Bern with Thedrick of Scythland. (We no longer need the asterisk, I think).
One objection that may be raised against this is that his Lied tells us that Hildebrand was a Hun, and received beys from the Drighten of Huns- does this not indicate that Thedrick of Bern and so Hildebrand were already by that early date misunderstood as in exile with the Huns? No. If the historical Hildebrand really were sixty, as the song says, in ~490, then he would have been twenty in 450, during the Hunnic supremacy and indeed Attila's reign; it's a perfectly likely detail.
It also seems to me likely that the confusion between the two Thedricks occurred originally in the Almainish branch of the heroic mythology, that is, that of the Holy Roman Empire, and arose (beyond the obvious) from misunderstandings of references in songs like the Hildebrandslied. Certainly references to places in Scythland soon became unintelligible to the Almains, whereas the combined Thedrick's wars against Ermenrich's Rome would have been highly relatable to the Almainish chivalry, from Charlemagne's conquest of the Lombards through the many Imperial conflicts with the Papacy of later centuries. even unto the Hapsburgs such as Maximilian I, who commissioned the Ambraser Heldenbuch and ordered a statue of Thedrick to grace his tomb.
Thus we see that Ermenrich- the proverbial tyrant of the Thedishmen, the German Hitler, if you will- was for later ages a cipher of none other than the Antichrist himself, namely, the Pope of Rome, and so that likewise Thedrick of Scythland is a precursor of the 515.
