La solitudine degli hapax legomena e il conforto di un’amica. Riflessioni e ricordi sugli sfidanti del Canto di Ildebrando

This paper in honor of Elda Morlicchio aims to resume some reflections on the lexicon of one of the most fascinating ancient Germanic poems, The Lay of Hildebrand, particularly on the hapax legomena about which – in the number from twelve to fifteen occurrences – many scholars have questioned themselves during the centuries. I myself wrote many years ago a study on the hapax legomena – or what appear to be such – of this poem. Since at that time Elda Morlicchio was of indispensable help to me, I think the time has come to bring it back to life in honor of her. Obviously, this is a very broad study that I will only partially revisit here, updating the results of that research based on more recent studies. So, for  reasons of space, the contribution will be limited to the examination of only a few examples, which will however be sufficient to demonstrate, on the one hand, the originality of the poem in the context of Old High German literature and, on the other, its firm roots in the ancient Germanic poetic tradition.