The Nibelungenlied - Anonymous

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mit kraft unmazen kuene, die recken uz erkorn,

       dazen Burgonden so was ir lant genant,

       si framden starkiu wunder sit in Etzelen lant.

       Ze Wormze bidem Rine si wenden mit ir kraft,

       in diende von ir landen stolziu ritterscaft

       mit lobelichen eren unz an ir endes zit,

       sit sturben si inemerliche von zweier edelen frouwen nit.

      Some of the final rhymes with proper names, such as "Hagene": "degene" (str. 84) or "Hagene": "tragene" (str. 300) appear to be feminine, but it is really the final "e" that rhymes, and a scansion of the line in question shows that the three accents are not complete without this final "e". In this respect our poem differs from most of the Middle High German poems, as this practice of using the final "e" in rhyme began to die out in the twelfth century, though occasionally found throughout the period. The rhymes are, as a rule, quite exact, the few cases of impure rhymes being mainly those in which short and long vowels are rhymed together, e.g. "mich": "rich" or "man": "han". Caesural rhymes are frequently met with, and were considered by Lachmann to be the marks of interpolated strophes, a view no longer held. A further peculiarity of the "Nibelungen" strophe is the frequent omission of the unaccented syllable in the second half of the last line of the strophe between the second and third stresses. Examples of this will be found in the second, third, and fifth strophes of the passage given above.

      The language of the "Nibelungenlied" is the so-called Middle High German, that is, the High German written and spoken in the period between 1100 and 1500, the language of the great romances of chivalry and of the "Minnesingers". More exactly, the poem is written in the Austrian dialect of the close of the twelfth century, but contains many archaisms, which point to the fact of its having undergone a number of revisions.

      In closing this brief study of the "Nibelungenlied", just a word or two further with reference to the poem, its character, and its place in German literature. Its theme is the ancient Teutonic ideal of "Treue" (faithfulness or fidelity), which has found here its most magnificent portrayal; faithfulness unto death, the loyalty of the vassal for his lord, as depicted in Hagen, the fidelity of the wife for her husband, as shown by Kriemhild, carried out with unhesitating consistency to the bitter end. This is not the gallantry of medieval chivalry, which colors so largely the opening scenes of the poem, but the heroic valor, the death-despising stoicism of the ancient Germans, before which the masters of the world, the all-conquering Romans, were compelled to bow.

      In so far as the "Nibelungenlied" has forgotten most of the history of the youthful Siegfried, and knows nothing of his love for Brunhild, it is a torso, but so grand withal, that one hardly regrets the loss of these integral elements of the old saga. As it is a working over of originally separate lays, it is not entirely homogeneous, and contains not a few contradictions. In spite of these faults, however, which a close study reveals, it is nevertheless the grandest product of Middle High German epic poetry, and deservedly the most popular poem of older German literature. It lacks, to be sure, the grace of diction found in Gottfried von Strassburg's "Tristan und Isolde", the detailed and often magnificent descriptions of armor and dress to be met with in the epics of Hartman von Ouwe; it is wanting in the lofty philosophy of Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzival", and does not, as this latter, lead the reader into the realms of religious doubts and struggles. It is imposing through its very simplicity, through the grandeur of the story, which it does not seek to adorn and decorate. It nowhere pauses to analyze motives nor to give us a picture of inner conflict as modern authors are fond of doing. Its characters are impulsive and prompt in action, and when they have once acted, waste no time in useless regret or remorse.

      It resembles the older "Spielmannsdichtung", or minstrel poetry, in the terseness and vigor of its language and in the lack of poetic imagery, but it is free from the coarseness and vulgar and grotesque humor of the latter. It approaches the courtly epic in its introduction of the pomp of courtly ceremonial, but this veneer of chivalry is very thin, and beneath the outward polish of form the heart beats as passionately and wildly as in the days of Herman, the Cheruscan chief. There are perhaps greater poems in literature than the "Nibelungenlied", but few so majestic in conception, so sublime in their tragedy, so simple in their execution, and so national in their character, as this great popular epic of German literature.

      ENDNOTES:

       (1) A is a parchment MS. of the second half of the thirteenth

       century, now found in Munich. It forms the basis of

       Lachmann's edition. It is a parchment MS. of the middle of

       the thirteenth century, belonging to the monastery of St.

       Gall. It has been edited by Bartsch, "Deutsche Klassiker

       des Mittelalters", vol. 3, and by Piper, "Deutsche National-

       Literatur", vol. 6. C is a parchment MS., of the thirteenth

       century, now in the ducal library of Donauesehingen. It is

       the best written of all the MSS., and has been edited by

       Zarncke.

       (2) The "Thidreksaga" differs from the other Norse versions in

       having "Sigfrod", as he is called here, brought up in

       ignorance of his parents, a trait which was probably

       borrowed from the widespread "Genoveva" story, although

       thought by some to have been an original feature of our

       legend.

       (3) The "Thidreksaga", which has forgotten the enmity of the

       brothers, and calls Sigurd's tutor "Mimr", tells the episode

       in somewhat different fashion. The brothers plan to kill

       Sigurd, and the latter is attacked by the dragon, while

       burning charcoal in the forest. After killing the monster

       with a firebrand, Sigurd bathes himself in the blood and

       thus become covered with a horny skin, which renders him

       invulnerable, save in one place between the shoulder blades,

       which he could not reach. This bathing in the blood is also

       related in the Seyfrid ballad and in the "Nibelungenlied",

       with the difference, that the vulnerable spot is caused by a

       linden leaf falling upon him.

       (4) The fact that all but one of these names alliterate, shows

       that the Norse version is here more original. Gunnar is the

       same as Gunther (Gundaharius), Hogni as Hagen; Gutthorm

       (Godomar) appears in the German version as Gernot. In this

       latter the father is called Danerat, the mother Uote, and

       the name Grimhild is transferred from the mother to the

       daughter.

       (5) In the prose "Edda", in the water which drips from Gudrun's

       hair.

       Table of Contents

       Table of Contents

      Full many a wonder is told us in stories old, of heroes worthy of praise, of hardships dire, of joy and feasting, of the fighting of bold warriors, of weeping and of wailing; now ye may hear wonders told.

      In Burgundy there grew so noble a maid that in all the lands none fairer might there be. Kriemhild (3) was she called; a comely woman she became, for

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