Heroic lay
# Heroic lay

The heroic lay (German Heldenlied) is a genre of Germanic epic poetry characteristic of the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages. A lay is a short narrative poem of between 80 and 200 lines concerning a single heroic episode in the life of a warrior from Germanic legend. It is distinct from the heroic epic (Beowulf, Nibelungenlied) which combines a sequence of episodes into a longer narrative.

## Examples

* Old High German
   * The Hildebrandslied
* Old Norse
   * Atlakviða
   * Hamðismál
* Old English
   * The Finnesburg Fragment
