Da 'heliđhelm' a 'tarenkappe' e oltre: intersezioni linguistico-culturali e rifunzionalizzazioni di un tema del fantastico.

The opinion that the Hêliand (l. 5452a) has the earliest instance of the “invisibility cape” or Tarnkappe, used by Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied, is widely shared among scholars. In the Old Saxon poem the “magic helmet” (heliðhelm) is being worn by Satan to conceal his identity. In fact, he has come from hell in order to prevent the salvation of the world by opposing the crucifixion of Christ. In this essay I will argue that the interpretation of heliðhelm within a historical and religious context allows to shed new light onto a topic too often considered only through the filter of Germanic magic. A thorough linguistic analysis which takes into account the related terms in various Germanic languages will be provided, thus showing that the global meaning retrieval process is based on synchronic, rather than diachronic mechanisms. The historical reconstruction of “reference” (Bedeutung) becomes a crucial step towards a better understanding of “sense” (Sinn).