(a) That Hadding-thjódrekr became the son of Thiudemer, and that his descent from the Teuton patriarchs was cut off.
(b) That Hadding-thjódrekr himself became a descendant of Hamal, whereby the distinction between this race of rulers—the line of Teutonic patriarchs begun with Ruther Heimdal—together with the Amal family, friendly but subject to the Hadding family, and the Hilding family was partly obscured and partly abolished. Dieterich himself became an "Amelung" like several of his heroes.
(c) That when Hamal thus was changed from an elder contemporary of Hadding-thjódrekr into his earliest progenitor, separated from him by several generations of time, he could no longer serve as Dieterich's foster-father and general; but this vocation had to be transferred to master Hildebrand, who also in the myth must have been closely connected with Hadding, and, together with Hamal, one of his chief and constant helpers.
(d) That Borgar-Berchtung, who in the myth is the grandfather of Hadding-thjódrekr, must, as he was not an Amal, resign this dignity and confine himself to being the progenitor of the Hildings. As we have seen, he is in Saxo the progenitor of the Hilding Hildeger.
Another result of Hadding-thjódrekr's confusion with the historical Theoderich was that Dieterich's kingdom, and the scene of various of his exploits, was transferred to Italy: to Verona (Bern), Ravenna (Raben), &c. Still the strong stream of the ancient myths became master of the confused historical increments, so that the Dieterich of the saga has but little in common with the historical Theoderich.
After the dissemination of Christianity, the hero saga of the Teutonic myths was cut off from its roots in the mythology, and hence this confusion was natural and necessary. Popular tradition, in which traces were found of the historical Theoderich-Dieterich, was no longer able to distinguish the one Dieterich from the other. A writer acquainted with the chronicle of Jordanes took the last step and made Theoderich's father Thiudemer the father of the mythic Hadding-thjódrekr.
Nor did the similarity of names alone encourage this blending of the persons. There was also another reason. The historical Theoderich had fought against Odoacer. The mythic Hadding-thjódrekr had warred with Svipdag, the husband of Freyja, who also bore the name Ódr and Ottar (see Nos. 96-100). The latter name-form corresponds to the English and German Otter, the Old High German Otar, a name which suggested the historical Otacher (Odoacer). The Dieterich and Otacher of historical traditions became identified with thjódrekr and Ottar of mythical traditions.
As the Hadding-thjódrekr of mythology was in his tender youth exposed to the persecutions of Ottar, and had to take flight from them to the far East, so the Dieterich of the historical saga also had to suffer persecutions in his tender youth from Otacher, and take flight, accompanied by his faithful Amalians, to a kingdom in the East. Accordingly, Hadubrand says of his father Hildebrand, that, when he betook himself to the East with Dieterich, floh her Otachres nîd, "he fled from Otacher's hate." Therefore, Otacher soon disappears from the German saga-cycle, for Svipdag-Ottar perishes and disappears in the myth, long before Hadding's victory and restoration to his father's power (see No. 106).
Odin and Heimdal, who then, according to the myth, dwelt in the East and there became the protectors of Hadding, must, as heathen deities, be removed from the Christian saga, and be replaced as best they could by others. The famous ruler in the East, Attila, was better suited than anyone else to take Odin's place, though Attila was dead before Theoderich was born. Ruther-Heimdal was, as we have already seen, changed into Rüdiger.