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 NIBEIvUNGEN LIED. 
 
 2211178
 
 THE NIBKLUNGKN I.IKD.* 
 
 BY THOMAS CARI^YIyK. 
 
 IN the year 1757, the Swiss Pro- 
 fessor Bodmer printed an ancient 
 poetical manuscript, under the title 
 of " Chriemhilden Rache und die 
 Klage " (" Chriemhilde's Revenge, 
 and the lyament " ) ; which may be 
 considered as the first of a series, or 
 stream of publications and specula- 
 tions still rolling on, with increased 
 current, to the present day. Not, 
 indeed, that all these had their source 
 or determining cause in so insignificant 
 
 * JVestminsier Review, No. 29. — " Das Nibelungen 
 lyied," iibersetzt von Karl Simrock ("The Nibelun- 
 gen I,ied," translated by Karl Simrock). 2 vols, 
 i2mo. Berlin, 1827
 
 Ubc IRibclungcn XieD 
 
 a circumstance ; their source, or rather 
 thousand sources, lay far elsewhere. 
 As has often been remarked, a certain 
 antiquarian tendency in literature, a 
 fonder, more earnest looking back into 
 the Past, began about that time to 
 manifest itself in all nations (witness 
 our own "Percy's Reliques ") : this 
 was among the first distinct symptoms 
 of it in Germany ; where, as with our- 
 selves, its manifold effects are still visi- 
 ble enough. 
 
 Some fifteen years after Bodmer's 
 publication, which, for the rest, is not 
 celebrated as an editorial feat, one C. 
 H. Miiller undertook a " Collection of 
 German Poems from the Twelfth, Thir- 
 teenth, and Fourteenth Centuries ' ' ; 
 wherein, among other articles, he re- 
 printed Bodmer's " Chriemhilde " and 
 " Klage," with a highly remarkable 
 addition prefixed to the former, es^^en-
 
 Ebe IRibelungen XieD 
 
 tial indeed to the right understanding 
 of it ; and the whole now stood before 
 the world as one Poem, under the name 
 of the ' ' Nibelungen Lied, " or " Lay of 
 the Nibelungen." It has since been 
 ascertained that the ' ' Klage " is a 
 foreign appendage ; at best, related only 
 as epilogue to the main work. Mean- 
 while out of this " Nibelungen," such 
 as it was, there soon proceeded new 
 inquiries and kindred enterprises. For 
 much a-s the Poem, in the shape it here 
 bore, was defaced and marred, it failed 
 not to attract observation : to all open- 
 minded lovers of poetry, especially 
 where a strong patriotic feeling existed, 
 the singular antique ' ' Nibelungen ' ' 
 was an interesting appearance. Jo- 
 hannes Miiller, in his famous ' ' Swiss 
 Histor>^, ' ' spoke of it in warm terms ; 
 subsequently, August Wilhelm Schle- 
 gel, through the medium of the
 
 Zbc IRlbelungen Xie& 
 
 *' Deutsclie Museum," succeeded in 
 awakening something like a universal 
 popular feeling on the subject ; and, 
 as a natural consequence, a whole host 
 of Editors and Critics, of deep and of 
 shallow endeavor, whose labors we 
 yet see in progress. The " Nibelun- 
 gen " has now been investigated, trans- 
 lated, collated, commented upon, with 
 more or less result, to almost bound- 
 less lengths ; besides the Work named 
 at the head of this Paper, and which 
 stands there simply as one of the latest, 
 we have Versions into the modern 
 tongue by Von der Hagen, by Hins- 
 berg, Lachmann, Biisching, Zeune, the 
 last in Prose, and said to be worthless ; 
 Criticisms, Introductions, Keys, and so 
 forth, by innumerable others, of whom 
 we mention only Docen and the Broth- 
 ers Grimm. 
 
 By which means, not only has the
 
 Zbc IRibelungen XieD 
 
 Poem itself been elucidated with all 
 manner of researches, but its whole 
 environment has come forth in new 
 light ; the scene and personages it re- 
 lates to, the other fictions and tradi- 
 tions connected with it, have attained 
 a new importance and coherence. 
 Manuscripts, that for ages have lain 
 dormant, have issued from their ar- 
 chives into public view ; books that 
 had circulated only in mean guise for 
 the amusement of the people, have be- 
 come important, not to one or two 
 virtuosos, but to the general body of 
 the learned : and now a whole System 
 of antique Teutonic Fiction and Myth- 
 ology unfolds itself, shedding here and 
 there a real though feeble and uncer- 
 tain glimmer over what was once the 
 total darkness of the old Time. No 
 fewer than Fourteen ancient Tradi- 
 tionary Poems, all strangely inter-
 
 trbe IRibelungen XieD 
 
 twisted, and growing out of and into 
 one another, have come to light among 
 the Germans ; who now, in looking 
 back, find that they too, as well as the 
 Greeks, have their Heroic Age, and 
 round the old Valhalla, as their North- 
 ern Pantheon, a world of demi-gods 
 and wonders. 
 
 Such a phenomenon, unexpected 
 till of late, cannot but interest a deep- 
 thinking, enthusiastic people. For the 
 * ' Nibelungen ' ' especiall}^ which lies as 
 the centre and distinct keystone of the 
 whole too chaotic System, — let us say 
 rather, blooms as a firm sunny island 
 in the middle of these cloud-covered, 
 ever-shifting sand-whirlpools, — they 
 cannot sufficiently testify their love 
 and veneration. lycarned professors 
 lecture on the * ' Nibelungen ' ' in pub- 
 lic schools, with a praiseworthy view 
 to initiate the German youth in love of
 
 Zhc IRlbeUingen XieD 
 
 their father-land ; from many zealous 
 and nowise ignorant critics we hear 
 talk of a ' ' great Northern Epos, " of a 
 *' German Iliad " ; the more saturnine 
 are shamed into silence, or hollow 
 mouth-homage. Thus from all quarters 
 comes a sound of joyful acclamation ; 
 the ' ' Nibelungen ' ' is welcomed as a 
 precious national possession, recovered 
 after six centuries of neglect, and takes 
 undisputed place among the sacred 
 books of German literature. 
 
 Of these curious transactions some 
 rumor has not failed to reach us in 
 England, where our minds, from their 
 own antiquarian disposition, were will- 
 ing enough to receive it. Abstracts 
 and extracts of the * ' Nibelungen ' ' 
 have been printed in our language ; 
 there have been disquisitions on it in 
 our Reviews ; hitherto, however, such 
 as nowise to exhaust the subject. On
 
 ^be Bibelungen Xfc& 
 
 the contraty, where so much was to be 
 told at once, the speaker might be 
 somewhat puzzled where to begin. It 
 was a much readier method to begin 
 with the end, or with any part of the 
 middle, than like Hamilton's Ram 
 (whose example is too little followed 
 in literary narrative) to begin with the 
 beginning. Thus has our stock of in- 
 telligence come rushing out on us quite 
 promiscuously and pellmell ; whereby 
 the whole matter could not but acquire 
 a tortuous, confused, altogether inex- 
 plicable and even dreary aspect ; and 
 the class of " well-informed persons " 
 now find themselves in that uncom- 
 fortable position, where they are 
 obliged to profess admiration, and at 
 the same time feel that, except by 
 name, they know not what the thing 
 admired is. Such a position towards 
 the venerable " Nibelungen," which
 
 Zbc IRlbelunaen Xle& 
 
 is no less bright and graceful than 
 historically significant, cannot be the 
 right one. Moreover, as appears to 
 us, it might be somewhat mended b}^ 
 very simple means. I^et any one that 
 has honestly read the ' ' Nibelungen, ' ' 
 which in these days is no surprising 
 achievement, only tell us what he 
 found there, and nothing that he did 
 not find. We should then know some- 
 thing, and, what were still better, be 
 ready for knowing more. To search out 
 the secret roots of such a production, 
 ramified through successive layers of 
 centuries, and drawing nourishment 
 from each, ma}^ be work, and too hard 
 work, for the deepest philosopher and 
 critic ; but to look with natural eyes on 
 what part of it stands visibly above 
 ground, and record his own experi- 
 ences thereof, is what an}^ reasonable 
 mortal, if be will take heed, can do.
 
 10 ^be IFlibelungen %ic^ 
 
 Some such slight service we here in- 
 tend proffering to our readers. Let 
 them glance with us a little into that 
 mighty maze of Northern Archaeology ; 
 where, it may be, some pleasant pros- 
 pects will open. If the ' ' Nibelungen ' ' 
 is what we have called it, a firm sunny 
 island amid the weltering chaos of 
 antique tradition, it must be worth 
 visiting on general grounds ; nay, if 
 the primeval rudiments of it have the 
 antiquity assigned them, it belongs 
 especially to us English Teuto7ies as 
 well as to the German. 
 
 Far be it from us, meanwhile, to 
 venture rashly, or farther than is need- 
 ful, into that same traditionary chaos, 
 fondly named the * ' Cycle of Northern 
 Fiction, ' ' with its Fourteen Sectors (or 
 separate Poems), which are rather 
 Fourteen shoreless Limbos, where we 
 hear of pieces containing ' ' a hundred
 
 ^be IRlbelungen %ic^ 
 
 thousand verses, ' ' and ' ' seventy thou- 
 sand verses," as of a quite natural 
 affair ! How travel through that inane 
 country ; by what art discover the little 
 grain of Substance that casts such mul- 
 tiplied immeasurable Shadows ? The 
 primeval Mythus, were it at first philo- 
 sophical truth, or were it historical 
 incident, floats too vaguely on the 
 breath of men : each successive Singer 
 and Redactor furnishes it with new 
 personages, new scenery, to please a 
 new audience ; each has the privilege 
 of inventing, and the far wider privi- 
 lege of borrowing and new-modelling 
 from all that have preceded him. Thus, 
 though Tradition may have but one 
 root, it grows like a Banian, into a 
 whole over-arching labyrinth of trees. 
 Or rather might we say, it is a Hall of 
 Mirrors, where in pale light each mir- 
 ror reflects, convexly or concavely,
 
 Zhc mibelungen XieD 
 
 not only some real Object, but the 
 Shadows of this in other mirrors ; 
 which again do the like for it ; till in 
 such reflection and re-reflection the 
 whole immensity is filled with dimmer 
 and dimmer shapes ; and no firm scene 
 lies around us, but a dislocated, dis- 
 torted chaos, fading away on all hands,, 
 in the distance, into utter night. Only 
 to some brave Von der Hagen, fur- 
 nished with indefatigable ardor, and 
 a deep, almost religious love, is it given 
 to find sure footing there, and see his 
 way. All those ' ' Dukes of Aquitania, ' ' 
 therefore, and Ktzel's " Court-hold- 
 ings, ' ' and * ' Dietrichs, ' ' and ' ' Sige- 
 nots, ' ' we shall leave standing where 
 they are. Such as desire farther in- 
 formation will find an intelligible 
 account of the whole Series or Cj^cle, 
 in Messrs. Weber and Jamieson's " Il- 
 lustrations of Northern Antiquities ' ' ;
 
 ^be IRibelunQcn XieD 13 
 
 and all possible furtherance in tlie 
 numerous German works above al- 
 luded to ; among which Von der 
 Hagen's writings, though not the 
 readiest, are probably the safest guides. 
 But for us, our business here is with 
 the " Nibelungen," the inhabited po- 
 etic countr}^ round which all these 
 wildernesses lie ; only as environments 
 of which, as routes to which, are they 
 of moment to us. Perhaps our short- 
 est and smoothest route will be 
 through the ' ' Heldenbuch " ( " Hero- 
 book " ) ; which is greatly the most im- 
 portant of these subsidiary Fictions, 
 not without interest of its own, and 
 closely related to the " Nibelungen." 
 This "Heldenbuch," therefore, we 
 must now address ourselves to traverse 
 with all despatch. At the present 
 stage of the business, too, we shall for- 
 bear any historical inquirj^ and argu-
 
 14 tTbe mfbelungen XieO 
 
 ment concerning the date and local 
 habitation of those Traditions ; reserv- 
 ing what little is to be said on that 
 matter till the Traditions themselves 
 have become better known to us. I^et 
 the reader, on trust for the present, 
 transport himself into the twelfth or 
 thirteenth centur}^ ; and therefrom 
 looking back into the sixth or fifth, 
 see what presents itself. 
 
 Of the " Heldenbuch," tried on its 
 own merits, and except as illustrating 
 that other far worthier Poem, or at most 
 as an old national, and still in some 
 measure popular book, we should have 
 felt strongly inclined to say, as the Cu- 
 rate in * ' Don Quixote ' ' so often did, Al 
 corral con ello. Out of window with it ! 
 Doubtless there are touches of beauty 
 in the work, and e^^en a sort of hearti- 
 ness and antique quaintness in its 
 wildest follies : but on the whole that
 
 XTbe Iftlbelungen XteO 15 
 
 George-and-Dragon species of compo- 
 sition has long ceased to find favor 
 with any one ; and except for its 
 groundwork, more or less discernible, 
 of old Northern Fiction, this *' Helden- 
 buch ' ' has little to distinguish it from 
 these. Nevertheless, what is worth 
 remark, it seems to have been a far 
 higher favorite than the " Nibelun- 
 gen ' ' with ancient readers. It was 
 printed soon after the invention of 
 printing ; some think in 1472, for there 
 is no place or date on the first edition ; 
 at all events, in 1491, in 1509, and re- 
 peatedly since ; whereas the ' ' Nibe- 
 lungen," though written earlier, and in 
 worth immeasurably superior, had to 
 remain in manuscript three centuries 
 longer. From which, for the thou- 
 sandth time, inferences might be drawn 
 as to the infallibility of popular taste, 
 and its value as a criterion for poetry.
 
 i6 Zbc IRfbclungcn XlcD 
 
 However, it is probabl}^ in virtue of 
 this neglect, that the ' ' Nibelungen ' ' 
 boasts of its actual purity ; that it now 
 comes before us, clear and graceful as 
 it issued from the old singer's head and 
 heart ; not overloaded with Ass-eared 
 Giants, Fiery Dragons, Dwarfs, and 
 Hairj^ Women, as the ^' Heldenbuch '* 
 is, many of which, as charity would 
 hope, may be the produce of a later 
 age than that famed ' ' Swabian Kra, ' ' 
 to which these poems, as we now see 
 them, are commonly referred. Indeed, 
 one Casper von Roen is understood to 
 have passed the whole * * Heldenbuch ' ' 
 through his limbec, in the fifteenth 
 centur>^ ; but like other rectifiers, in- 
 stead of purifying it, to have only 
 drugged it with still fiercer ingredients 
 to suit the sick appetite of the time. 
 
 Of this drugged and adulterated 
 ' * Hero-book ' ' (the only one we yet
 
 XLbc Blbelungen XleO 17 
 
 have, though there is talk of a better) 
 we shall quote the long Title-page of 
 lyessing's Copy, the edition of 1560 ; 
 from which, with a few intercalated 
 observations, the reader's curiosity 
 may probably obtain what little satis- 
 faction it wants : 
 
 Das Heldenbuch^ welchs auffs new 
 corrigirt und gebessert ist, mit shonen 
 Figure7i geziert. Gedruckt zu Frank- 
 furt am Mayti, du7xh Weygaiid Ha7i 
 und Sygmund Feyerabend^ etc. That 
 is to say : 
 
 '' The ' Hero-book,' which is of new 
 corrected and improved, adorned with 
 beautiful Figures. Printed at Frank- 
 furt on the Mayn, through Weygand 
 Han and Sygmund Feyerabend. 
 
 ''Part First saith of Kaiser Ottnit 
 and the little King Blberich, how they 
 with great peril, over sea, in Heathen- 
 dom, won from a king his daughter
 
 i8 tibe mibelungen OLieD 
 
 (and how he in lawful marriage took 
 her to wife)." 
 
 From which announcement the 
 reader already guesses the contents : 
 how this little King Klberich was a 
 Dwarf or Klf, some half-span long, 3- et 
 full of cunning practices and the most 
 helpful activity ; nay, stranger still, 
 had been Kaiser Ottnit of Lampartei 
 or Lombardy's father, — having had his 
 own ulterior views in that indiscretion. 
 How they sailed with Messina ships, 
 into Paynim land ; fought with that 
 unspeakable Turk, King Machabol, in 
 and about his fortress and metropolis 
 of Montebur, which was all stuck 
 round with Christian heads ; slew from 
 seventy to a hundred thousand of the 
 infidels at one heat ; saw the lady on 
 the battlements ; and at length, chiefly 
 by Dwarf Elberich's help, carried her 
 off in triumph ; wedded her in Messina ;
 
 Zbc 'Uibclimgcn XleD ♦ig 
 
 and without difficulty, rooting out the 
 Mohammedan prejudice, converted her 
 to the creed of Mother Church. The 
 fair runaway seems to have been of a 
 gentle, tractable disposition, very dif- 
 ferent from old Machabol ; concerning 
 whom it is here chiefly to be noted that 
 Dwarf Elberich, rendering himself in- 
 visible on their first inter\dew, plucks 
 out a handful of hair from his chin, 
 thereby increasing to a tenfold pitch 
 the royal choler ; and, what is still 
 more remarkable, furnishing the poet 
 Wieland, six centuries afterwards, with 
 the critical incident in his '' Oberon." 
 As for the young lady herself, we can- 
 not but admit that she was well worth 
 sailing to Heathendom for, and shall 
 here, as our sole specimen of that old 
 German doggerel, give the description 
 of her as she first appeared on the bat- 
 tlements during the fight ; subjoining a
 
 XLbc IWlbelungen Xie& 
 
 version as verbal and literal as the 
 plainest prose can make it. Considered 
 as a detached passage, it is, perhaps, 
 the finest we have met with in the 
 "Heldenbuch." 
 
 I/ir herz brann also schoney 
 Recht als ein rot riibein, 
 Gleich dent vollen nione 
 Gaben ihr duglein schein. 
 Sick hett die maget reine 
 Mil Rosen wohl bekleid 
 Und audi mit berlin kleine ; 
 Nieinand da trost die ineid. 
 
 Her heart burnt (with anxiety) as beautiful 
 
 Just as a red ruby, 
 
 Ivike the full moon 
 
 Her eyes (eyelings, pretty eyes) gave 
 
 sheen. 
 Herself had the maiden pure 
 Well adorned with roses. 
 And also with pearls small : 
 No one there comforted the maid.
 
 (Tbe IFllbclungen ILieD 21 
 
 Sie war schon an detn leibe, 
 Und zu den seiten schmal ; 
 Recht als ein kertze scheibe 
 Wohlgeschaffen ii derail : 
 Ihrbeyden hand gemeine 
 Dars ihrgentz nichts gebrach ; 
 Ihr 7idglein schon und reine^ 
 Das man sich darin besach. 
 
 She was fair of body, 
 
 And in the waist slender ; 
 
 Right as a (golden) candlestick 
 
 Well-fashioned everywhere : 
 
 Her two hands proper, 
 
 So that she wanted nought : 
 
 Her little nails fair and pure, 
 
 That you could see yourself therein, 
 
 Ihr har war schon umbfangen 
 Mil edler seiden fein ; 
 Das Hess sie nieder hangen, 
 Das hilbsche magedlein. 
 Sie Irug ein kron mil sleinen, 
 Sie war von gold so rol ; 
 Elberich detn viel kleinen 
 War zu der magte not.
 
 ^be IFlibelungen XlcO 
 
 Her hair was beautifully girt 
 
 With noble silk (band) fine ; 
 
 She let it flow down, 
 
 The lovely maidling. 
 
 She wore a crown with jewels, 
 
 It was of gold so red : 
 
 For Blberich the very small 
 
 The maid had need (to console her). 
 
 Da vornen in den kronen 
 Lag ein karfunkelstein, 
 Der in dem pallast schonen 
 Aecht als ein kertz erschein ; 
 Aufjrem haupt das hare 
 War lauter und auchfein^ 
 Es leuchtet also klare 
 Recht als der sonnen schein. 
 
 There in front of the crown 
 Ivay a carbuncle-stone, 
 Which in the palace fair 
 Even as a taper seemed ; 
 On her head the hair 
 Was glossy and also fine, 
 It shone as bright 
 Even as the sun's sheen.
 
 ^be IFlibelunaen XleD 23 
 
 Die magt die stand alleine, 
 Gar trawrig zuarjr niut ; 
 Ihrfarb U7id die war reine^ 
 Lieblich we milch und blut ; 
 Her durchjr zopffe reinen 
 Schien jr hals a Is der schnee : 
 Elberich dent viel kleine^i 
 That der maget jammer weh. 
 
 The maid she stood alone, 
 
 Right sad was her mind ; 
 
 Her color it was pure, 
 
 Lovely as milk and blood ; 
 
 Out through her pure locks 
 
 Shone her neck like the snow. 
 
 Elberich the very small 
 
 Was touched with the maiden's sorrow. 
 
 Happy man was Kaiser Ottnit, 
 blessed with such a wife, after all his 
 travail ; — had not the Turk Machabol 
 cunningly sent him, in revenge, a box 
 of young Dragons, or Dragon-eggs, by 
 the hands of a caitiff Infidel, contriver
 
 24 Zbc IWibelungen Xie^ 
 
 of the mischief; by whom in due 
 course of time they were hatched and 
 nursed, to the infinite woe of all lyam- 
 partei, and ultimately to the death of 
 Kaiser Ottnit himself, whom they swal- 
 lowed and attempted to digest, once 
 without effect, but the next time too 
 fatally, crown and all ! 
 
 ''Part Second announceth (meldef) 
 of Herr Hugdietrich and his son Wolf- 
 dietrich ; how the}^, for justice-sake, 
 oft by their doughty acts succored dis- 
 tressed persons, with other bold heroes 
 that stood by them in extremity." 
 
 Concerning which Hugdietrich, Em- 
 peror of Greece, and his son Wolf- 
 dietrich, one day the renowned Die- 
 trich of Bern, we can here say little 
 more than that the former trained him- 
 self to sempstress- work ; and for many 
 weeks plied his needle, before he could 
 get wedded and produce Wolfdietrich ;
 
 Zbc IWibelungen %ic^ 25 
 
 who coming into the world in this clan- 
 destine manner, was let down into the 
 castle-ditch, and like Romulus and 
 Remus nursed by a Wolf, whence his 
 name. However, after never-imagined 
 adventures, with enchanters and en- 
 chantresses, pagans and giants, in all 
 quarters of the globe, he finally, with 
 utmost effort, slaughtered those lyom- 
 bardy Dragons ; then married Kaiser 
 Ottnit's widow, whom he had rather 
 flirted with before ; and so lived uni- 
 versally respected in his new empire, 
 performing yet other notable achieve- 
 ments. One strange property he had, 
 sometimes useful to him, sometimes 
 hurtful : that his breath, when he be- 
 came angry, grew flame, red-hot, and 
 would take the temper out of swords. 
 We find him again in the ' ' Nibelun- 
 gen," among King Etzel's (Attila's) 
 followers ; a staid, cautious, ^xt still
 
 26 XLbc IRibelunsen XieD 
 
 invincible man ; on which occasion, 
 though with great reluctance, he is 
 forced to interfere, and does so with 
 effect. Dietrich is the favorite hero of 
 all those Southern Fictions, and well 
 acknowledged in the Northern also, 
 where the chief man, however, as we 
 shall find, is not he but Siegfried. 
 
 ' ' Pari Third showeth of the Rose- 
 garden at Worms, which was planted 
 by Chrimhilte, King Gibich's daugh- 
 ter ; whereby afterwards most part of 
 those Heroes and Giants came to de- 
 struction and were slain." 
 
 In this Third Part the Southern or 
 Lombard Heroes come into contact 
 and collision with another as notable 
 Northern class, and for us much more 
 important. Chriemhild, whose ulte- 
 rior history makes such a figure in the 
 " Nibelungen," had, it would seem, 
 near the ancient city of Worms, a
 
 Rose-garden, some seven English 
 miles in circuit ; fenced only b}^ a silk 
 thread ; wherein, however, she main- 
 tained Twelve stout fighting-men ; 
 several of whom, as Hagen, Volker, 
 her three Brothers, above all the gal- 
 lant Siegfried her betrothed, we shall 
 meet with again ; these, so unspeaka- 
 ble was their prowess, sufficed to de- 
 fend the silk-thread Garden against all 
 mortals. Our good antiquar>% Von 
 der Hagen, imagines that this Rose- 
 garden business (in the primeval Tra- 
 dition) glances obliquel}' at the Eclip- 
 tic with its Twelve Signs, at Jupiter's 
 fight with the Titans, and we know 
 not what confused skirmishing in the 
 Utgard, or Asgard, or Midgard of the 
 Scandinavians. Be this as it may, 
 Chriemhild, we are here told, being 
 very beautiful and vers^ wilful, boasts, 
 in the pride of her heart, that no he-
 
 28 Zbc IRlbelungen %ict> 
 
 roes on earth are to be compared with 
 hers ; and hearing accidentally that 
 Dietrich of Bern has a high character 
 in this line, forthwith challenges him 
 to visit Worms, and with eleven picked 
 men to do battle there against those 
 other Twelve champions of Christen- 
 dom that watch her Rose-garden. 
 Dietrich, in a towering passion at the 
 style of the message, which was 
 * ' surly and stout, ' ' instantly pitches 
 upon his eleven seconds, who also are 
 to be principals ; and with a retinue 
 of other sixty thousand, by quick 
 stages, in which obstacles enough are 
 overcome, reaches Worms, and de- 
 clares himself ready. Among these 
 eleven lyombard heroes of his are like- 
 wise several whom w^e meet with again 
 in the * ' Nibelungen ' ' ; beside Dietrich 
 himself, we have the old Duke Hilde- 
 brand, Wolfhart, Ortwin. Notable
 
 Zbc IRibelungen XieD 29 
 
 among them, in another wa}^ is Monk 
 Ilsan, a truculent gray-bearded fellow, 
 equal to any Friar Tuck in '' Robin 
 Hood." 
 
 The conditions of fight are soon 
 agreed on : there are to be twelve 
 successive duels, each challenger being 
 expected to find his match ; and the 
 prize of victory is a Rose-garland from 
 Chriemhild and ei?i Helssen und ein 
 K'iissen, that is to say virtuall}^, one 
 kiss from her fair lips to each. But 
 here, as it ever should do, Pride gets a 
 fall ; for Chriemhild' s bully-hectors 
 are, in divers ways, all successively 
 felled to the ground by the Bemers ; 
 some of whom, as old Hildebrand, will 
 not even take her Kiss when it is due ; 
 even Siegfried himself, most reluctantly 
 engaged with by Dietrich, and for a 
 while victorious, is at last forced to 
 seek shelter in her lap. Nay, Monk
 
 30 Jlhc IRibclungcn %ictf 
 
 Ilsan, after the regular fight is over, 
 and his part in it well performed, calls 
 out in succession fifty-two other idle 
 Champions of the Garden, part of them 
 Giants, and routs the whole fraternity, 
 thereby earning, besides his own regu- 
 lar allowance, fifty- two spare Garlands 
 and fifty-two several Kisses ; in the 
 course of which latter, Chriemhild's 
 cheek, a just punishment, as seemed, 
 was scratched to the drawing of blood 
 by his rough beard. It only remains 
 to be added, that King Gibich, Chriem- 
 hild's Father, is now fain to do homage 
 for his kingdom to Dietrich, who 
 returns triumphant to his own country ; 
 where also Monk Ilsan, according to 
 promise, distributes these fifty-two 
 Garlands among his fellow Friars, 
 crushing a garland on the bare crown 
 of each, till ''the red blood ran over 
 their ears." Under which hard but
 
 not undeserved treatment they all 
 agreed to pray for remission of Ilsan's 
 sins ; indeed, such as continued refrac- 
 tor}^ he tied together by the beards and 
 hung pair-wise over poles, whereby 
 the stoutest soon gave in. 
 
 So endeth here this ditty 
 Of strife from woman's pride : 
 God on our griefs take pity, 
 And Mary still by us abide. 
 
 " In Par^ Fourth is announced 
 (^gemeW) of the little King I^aurin, the 
 Dwarf, how he encompassed his Rose- 
 garden with so great manhood and art- 
 magic, till at last he was vanquished by 
 the heroes, and forced to become their 
 Juggler, with etc. , etc. ' ' 
 
 Of which Fourth and, happily, last 
 part we shall here say nothing, inas- 
 much as, except that certain of our 
 old heroes again figure there, it has
 
 32 Zbc IRibelungcn XieD 
 
 no coherence or connection with the 
 rest of the " Heldenbuch," and is 
 simply a new tale, which, by way of 
 episode, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, as 
 we learn from his own words, had sub- 
 sequently appended thereto. He says : 
 
 Heinrich von Ofterdingen 
 This story hath been singing, 
 To the joy of Princes bold, 
 They gave him silver and gold. 
 Moreover pennies and garments rich : 
 Here endeth this Book the which 
 Doth sing our noble Heroes' story : 
 God help us all to heavenly glory. 
 
 Such is some outline of the famous 
 " Heldenbuch," on which it is not our 
 business here to add any criticism. 
 The fact that it has so long been popu- 
 lar betokens a certain worth in it, the 
 kind and degree of which is also in 
 some measure apparent. In poetry 
 "the rude man," it has been said,
 
 ^be IRibelungen XfeD 33 
 
 ' ' requires only to see something going 
 on ; the man of more refinement wishes 
 to feel ; the truly refined man must be 
 made to reflect. ' ' For the first of these 
 classes our " Hero-book," as has been 
 apparent enough, provides in abun- 
 dance ; for the other two scantily, — in- 
 deed for the second not at all. Nev- 
 ertheless our estimate of this work, 
 which, as a series of Antique Traditions, 
 may have considerable meaning, is apt 
 rather to be too low. Let us remember 
 that this is not the original ' ' Helden- 
 buch ' ' which we now see, but only a 
 version of it into the Knight-errant 
 dialect of the thirteenth, indeed partly 
 of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
 turies, with all the fantastic monstrosi- 
 ties, now so trivial, pertaining to that 
 style ; under which disguises the really 
 antique earnest groundwork, interest- 
 ing as old Thought if not as old 
 3
 
 34 tTbe IRibelungen XleD 
 
 Poetry, is all but quite obscured from 
 us. But Antiquarian diligence is now 
 busy with the " Heldenbuch " also, 
 from which what light is in it will 
 doubtless be elicited, and here and 
 there a deformity removed. Though 
 the Kthiop cannot change his skin, 
 there is no need that even he should 
 go abroad unwashed.* 
 
 Casper von Roen, or whoever was 
 the ultimate redactor of the ' ' Helden- 
 buch," whom lycssing designates as 
 "a highly ill-informed man," would 
 have done better had he quite omitted 
 
 ♦Our inconsiderable knowledge of the " Helden- 
 buch ' ' is derived from various secondary sources, 
 chiefly from Ivcssing's " Werke " (b. xiii.), where 
 the reader will find an epitome of the whole Poem, 
 with Extracts by Herr Fiilleborn, from which the 
 above are taken. A still more accessible and larger 
 Abstract, with long specimens translated into verse, 
 stands in the " Illustrations of Northern Antiquities " 
 (pp. 45-167). Von der Hagen has .since been employed 
 specially on the "Heldenbuch," with what result 
 we have not yet learned.
 
 XTbe Btbelimgcn Xie& 35 
 
 that little King lyaurin, ' ' and his lit- 
 tle Rose-garden, ' ' which properly is no 
 Rose-garden at all ; and instead 
 thereof introduced the " Gehomte 
 Siegfried" (Behorned Siegfried), whose 
 history lies at the heart of the whole 
 Northern Traditions ; and, under a 
 rude prose dress, is to this day a real 
 child' s-book and people' s-book among 
 the Germans. Of this Siegfried we 
 have already seen somewhat in the 
 Rose-garden at Worms ; and shall ere- 
 long see much more elsewhere ; for he 
 is the chief hero of the ' ' Nibelungen ' ' : 
 indeed nowhere can we dip into those 
 old Fictions, whether in Scandinavia 
 or the Rhine-land, but under one figure 
 or another, whether as Dragon-killer 
 and Prince-royal, or as Blacksmith and 
 Horse-subduer, as Sigurd, Sivrit, Sieg- 
 fried, we are sure to light on him. As 
 his early adventures belong to the
 
 36 Zbe IFllbelungen %ict> 
 
 strange sort, and will afterwards con- 
 cern us not a little, we shall here en- 
 deavor to piece together some consistent 
 outline of them ; so far, indeed, as that 
 ma}^ be possible ; for his biographers, 
 agreeing in the main points, differ 
 widely in the details. 
 
 First, then, let no one from the title 
 ''Gehornte" (Homed, Behomed), 
 fancy that our brave Siegfried, who 
 was the loveliest as well as the bravest 
 of men, was actually cornuted, and had 
 horns on his brow, though like 
 Michael Angelo's Moses ; or even that 
 his skin, to which the epithet Behomed 
 refers, was hard like a crocodile's, and 
 not softer than the softest sliamoy ; for 
 the truth is, his Hornedness means 
 only an Invulnerability, like that of 
 Achilles ; which he came by in the fol- 
 lowing manner : All men agree that 
 Siegfried was a king's son ; he was
 
 tTbe IWibelungen XieD 37 
 
 born, as we here have good reason to 
 know, ' ' at Santen in Netherland, ' ' of 
 Siegemund and the fair Siegelinde ; 
 yet by some family misfortune or dis- 
 cord, of which the accounts are very 
 various, he came into singular straits 
 during boj^hood ; having passed that 
 happy period of life, not under the 
 canopies of costlj^ state, but by the 
 sooty stithy, in one Mimer a Black- 
 smith's shop. Here, however, he was 
 nowise in his proper element ; ever 
 quarrelling with his fellow- apprentices; 
 nay, as some say, breaking the hardest 
 anvils into shivers by his too stout 
 hammering. So that Mimer, other- 
 wise a first-rate Smith, could by no 
 means do with him there. He sends 
 him, accordingly, to the neighboring 
 forest to fetch charcoal ; well aware 
 that a monstrous Dragon, one Regin, 
 the Smith's own Brother, would meet
 
 38 ^be IRlbelungen XieD 
 
 him and devour him. But far other- 
 wise it proved. Siegfried by main 
 force slew this Dragon, or rather 
 Dragonized Smith 's-Brother; made 
 broth of him ; and, warned by some 
 significant phenomena, bathed therein; 
 or, as others assert, bathed directly in 
 the monster's blood, without cookery ; 
 and hereby attained that Invulner- 
 ability, complete in all respects, save 
 that between his shoulders, where a 
 lime-tree leaf chanced to settle and 
 stick during the process, there was one 
 little spot, a fatal spot as afterwards 
 turned out, left in its natural state. 
 
 Siegfried, now seeing through the 
 craft of the Smith, returned home and 
 slew him ; then set forth in search of 
 adventures, the bare catalogue of which 
 were long to recite. We mention only 
 two, as subsequently of moment both 
 for him and for us. He is by some
 
 ^be naibelungen X(eD 39 
 
 said to have courted, and then jilted, 
 the fair and proud Queen Brunhild of 
 Isenland ; nay, to have thrown down 
 the seven gates of her Castle ; and 
 then ridden off with her wild horse 
 Gana, having mounted him in the 
 meadow, and instantly broken him. 
 Some cross passages between him and 
 Queen Brunhild, who understood no 
 jesting, there must clearly have been, 
 so angry is her recognition of him in 
 the * ' Nibelungen ' ' ; nay, she bears a 
 lasting grudge against him there ; as 
 he, and indeed she also, one day too 
 sorely felt. 
 
 His other grand adventure is with 
 the two sons of the deceased King 
 Nibelung, in Nibelungen-land. These 
 two youths, to whom their father had 
 bequeathed a Hoard or Treasure, be- 
 yond all price or computation, Sieg- 
 fried, " riding by alone," found on the
 
 40 ^be IRibeluncien XtcD 
 
 side of a mountain, in a state of great 
 perplexity. They had brought out 
 the Treasure from the cave where it 
 usually lay ; but how to part it was 
 the dijB&cult}^ ; for, not to speak of gold, 
 there were as man}^ jewels alone "as 
 twelve wagons in four days and nights, 
 each going three journeys, could carry 
 away ' ' ; nay, ' ' however much you 
 took from it, there was no diminu- 
 tion " : besides, in real property, a 
 Sword, Balmung, of great potency ; a 
 Divining-rod, * ' which gave power 
 over every one"; and a Tarnkappe 
 (or Cloak of Darkness), which not 
 only rendered the wearer invisible, but 
 also gave him twelve men's strength. 
 So that the two Princes Ro^^al, without 
 counsel save from their Twelve stupid 
 Giants, knew not how to fall upon any 
 amicable arrangement ; and, seeing 
 Siegfried ride by so opportunely, re-
 
 Zbc IRlbelungen XfeD 41 
 
 quested him to be arbiter ; offering also 
 the Sword Balmung for his trouble. 
 Siegfried, who readily undertook the 
 impossible problem, did his best to 
 accomplish it ; but, of course, without 
 effect; nay, the two Nibelungen Princes, 
 being of choleric temper, grew impa- 
 tient, and provoked him ; whereupon 
 with the Sword Balmung he slew them 
 both, and their Twelve Giants (per- 
 haps originally Signs of the Zodiac) to 
 boot. Thus did the famous Nibehui- 
 gen Hort (Hoard), and indeed the 
 whole Nibelun gen-land, come into his 
 possession ; wearing the Sword Bal- 
 mung, and having slain the two 
 Princes and their Champions, what was 
 there further to oppose him ? Vainly 
 did the Dwarf Alberich, our old friend 
 Elberich of the *' Heldenbuch," w^ho 
 had now become special keeper of this 
 Hoard, attempt some resistance with a
 
 42 ^be IFlibelungcn XieD 
 
 Dwarf Army ; he was driven back 
 into the cave ; plundered of his Tarn- 
 kappe ; and obliged, with all his myr- 
 midons, to swear fealty to the con- 
 queror, whom indeed thenceforth he 
 and they punctually obeyed. 
 
 Whereby Siegfried might now further 
 style himself King of the Nibelungen ; 
 master of the infinite Nibelungen 
 Hoard (collected doubtless by art- 
 magic in the beginning of Time, in 
 the deep bowels of the Universe), with 
 the Wunschelruthe (Wishing or Divin- 
 ing-rod) pertaining thereto ; owner of 
 the Tarnkappe^ which he ever after 
 kept by him, to put on at will ; and 
 though last not least, Bearer and 
 Wielder of the Sword Balmung,* by 
 
 * By this Sword Balmuiig also hangs a tale. Doubt- 
 less it was one of those invaluable weapons some- 
 times fabricated by the old Northern Smiths, com- 
 pared with which our modern Foxes and Ferraras 
 and Toledos are mere leaden tools. Von der Hagen
 
 XLbc 'UibclnrxQcn XlcD 43 
 
 the keen edge of which all this gain 
 had come to him. To which last 
 acquisitions adding his previously 
 acquired Invulnerability, and his 
 natural dignities as Prince of Nether- 
 land, he might well show himself before 
 the foremost at Worms or elsewhere, 
 and attempt any the highest adventure 
 that fortune could cut out for him. 
 
 seems to think it simply the Sword Mimung under 
 another name ; in which case Siegfried's old master, 
 Mimer, had been the maker of it, and called it after 
 himself, as if it had been his son. In Scandinavian 
 chronicles, veridical or not, we have the following 
 account of that transaction. Mimer (or, as some 
 have it, surely without ground, one Velint, once an 
 apprentice of his) was challenged by another Crafts- 
 man, named Amilias, who boasted that he had made 
 a suit of armor which no stroke could dint,— to equal 
 that feat, or own himself the second Smith then 
 extant. This last the stout Mimer would in no case 
 do, but proceeded to forge the Sword INIimung ; with 
 which, when it was finished, he, "in presence of the 
 King," cut asunder " a thread of wool floating on 
 water." This would have seemed a fair fire-edge to 
 most smiths : not so to ]Mimer ; he sawed the blade 
 in pieces, welded it in "a red-hot fire for three days, ' '
 
 44 ^be Iftibelungen XieD 
 
 However, his subsequent history be- 
 longs all to the * ' Nibelungen Song " ; at 
 which fair garden of poesy we are now, 
 through all these shaggy wildernesses 
 and enchanted w^oods, finally arrived. 
 
 Apart from its antiquarian value, 
 and not only as by far the finest monu- 
 ment of old German art, but intrinsi- 
 
 tempered it " with milk and oatmeal," and by much 
 other cunning brought out a sword that severed " a 
 ball of wool floating on water." But neither would 
 this suffice him ; he returned to his smithy, and, by 
 means known only to himself, produced, in the 
 course of seven weeks, a third and final edition of 
 Mimung, which split asunder a whole floating pack 
 of wool. The comparative trial now took place 
 forthwith. Amilias, cased in his impenetrable coat 
 of mail, sat down on a bench, in presence of assem- 
 bled thousands, and bade Mimer strike him. Mimer 
 fetched of course his best blow, on which Amilias 
 observed, that there was a strange feeling of cold 
 iron in his inwards. " Shake thyself," said Mimer ; 
 the luckless wight did so, and fell in two halves, 
 being cleft sheer through from collar to haunch, 
 never more to swing hammer in this world. See 
 " Illustrations of Northern Antiquities," p. 31.
 
 tlbe BibelunQen %ict> 45 
 
 cally, and as a mere detached composi- 
 tion, this *' Nibelungen " has an 
 excellence that cannot but surprise us. 
 With little preparation, any reader of 
 poetry, even in these days, might find 
 it interesting. It is not without a 
 certain Unity of interest and purport,, 
 an internal coherence and complete- 
 ness ; it is a Whole, and some spirit of 
 Music informs it : these are the highest 
 characteristics of a true Poem. Con- 
 sidering further what intellectual 
 environment we now find it in, it is 
 doubly to be prized and wondered at ; 
 for it differs from those " Hero-books," 
 as molten or carved metal does from 
 rude agglomerated ore ; almost as some 
 Shakespeare from his fellow Drama- 
 tists, whose " Tamburlaines " and 
 " Island Princesses," themselves not 
 destitute of merit, first show us clearly 
 in what pure loftiness and loneliness
 
 46 ^be IFllbelunQcn XicD 
 
 the ''Hamlets" and "Tempests" 
 reign. 
 
 The unknown Singer of the ' ' Nibe- 
 lungen," though no Shakespeare, 
 must have had a deep poetic soul ; 
 wherein things discontinuous and in- 
 animate shaped themselves together 
 into life, and the Universe with its 
 wondrous purport stood significantly 
 imaged ; overarching, as with heavenly- 
 firmaments and eternal harmonies, the 
 little scene where men strut and fret 
 their hour. His Poem, unlike so many 
 old and new pretenders to that name, 
 has a basis and organic structure, a 
 beginning, middle, and end ; there is 
 one great principle and idea set forth 
 in it, round which all its multifarious 
 parts combine in living union. Re- 
 markable it is, moreover, how along 
 with this essence and primary condi- 
 tion of all poetic virtue, the minor
 
 ^be IFlibcIungen XfeD 47 
 
 external virtues of what we call Taste 
 and so forth, are, as it were, presup- 
 posed ; and the living soul of Poetry- 
 being there, its body of incidents, its 
 garment of language, come of their 
 own accord. So too in the case of 
 Shakespeare : his feeling of propriety, 
 as compared with that of the Marlowes 
 and Fletchers, his quick sure sense of 
 what is fit and unfit, either in act or 
 word, might astonish us, had he no 
 other superiority. But true Inspira- 
 tion, as it may well do, includes that 
 same Taste, or rather a far higher and 
 heartfelt Taste, of which that other 
 ' ' elegant ' ' species is but an ineffectual, 
 irrational apery. Let us see the herald 
 Mercury actually descend from his 
 Heaven, and the bright wings, and 
 the graceful movement of these, will 
 not be wanting. 
 
 With an instinctive art, far different
 
 48 ^be IFlibelungen XieD 
 
 from acquired artifice, this Poet of the 
 ''Nibelungen," working in the same 
 province with his contemporaries of 
 the " Heldenbuch," on the same 
 material of tradition, has, in a wonder- 
 ful degree, possessed himself of what 
 these could only strive after ; and, with 
 his " clear feeling of fictitious truth," 
 avoided as false the errors and mon- 
 strous perplexities in which they vainly 
 struggled. He is of another species 
 than they ; in language, in purity 
 and depth of feeling, in fineness of 
 invention, stands quite apart from 
 them. 
 
 The language of the " Heldenbuch," 
 as we saw above, was a feeble half- 
 articulate child' s-speech, the metre 
 nothing better than a miserable dog- 
 gerel ; whereas here in the old Prankish 
 {Oberdeutsch') dialect of the " Nibe- 
 lungen," we have a clear, decisive
 
 tibe IKKbcUingcn %ic^ 49 
 
 utterance, and in a real system of verse, 
 not without essential regularity, great 
 liveliness, and now and then even har- 
 mou}^ of rhythm. Doubtless we must 
 often call it a diffuse, diluted utterance ; 
 at the same time it is genuine, with a 
 certain antique, garrulous heartiness, 
 and has a rhythm in the thoughts as 
 well as the words. The simplicity is 
 never silly : even in that perpetual 
 recurrence of epithets, sometimes of 
 rhymes, as where two words, for in- 
 stance lip (body, life, /ez5) and wzp 
 (woman, wife, wetd) are indissolubly 
 wedded together, and the one never 
 shows itself without the other follow^- 
 ing, — there is something which reminds 
 us not so much of poverty, as of trust- 
 fulness and childlike innocence. In- 
 deed a strange charm lies in those old 
 tones, where, in gay dancing melodies, 
 the sternest tidings are sung to us ;
 
 50 ^be IRibelun^en Xie^ 
 
 and deep floods of Sadness and Strife 
 play lightly in little curling billows, 
 like seas in summer. It is as a meek 
 smile, in whose still, thoughtful depths 
 a whole infinitude of patience, and 
 love, and heroic strength lie revealed. 
 But in other cases too, we have seen 
 this outward sport and inward earnest- 
 ness offer grateful contrast, and cun- 
 ning excitement ; for example, in 
 Tasso ; of whom, though otherwise 
 different enough, this old Northern 
 Singer has more than once reminded 
 us. There too, as here, w^e have a 
 dark, solemn meaning in light guise ; 
 deeds of high temper, harsh self-denial, 
 daring, and death stand embodied in 
 that soft, quick-flowing, joyfully 
 modulated verse. Nay, further, as if 
 the implement, much more than we 
 might fancy, had influenced the work 
 done, these two Poems, could we trust
 
 Zbc IRibelungen XleD 51 
 
 our individual feeling, have in one 
 respect the same poetical result for us. 
 In the ' ' Nibelungen " as in the ' ' Geru- 
 salemme, ' ' the persons and their story- 
 are indeed brought vividly before us, 
 yet not near and palpably present ; it 
 is rather as if we looked on that scene 
 through an inverted telescope, whereby 
 the whole was carried far away into 
 the distance, the life-large figures 
 compressed into brilliant miniatures, 
 so clear, so real, yet tiny, elf-like and 
 beautified as well as lessened, their 
 colors being now closer and brighter, 
 the shadows and trivial features no 
 longer visible. This, as we partly 
 apprehend, comes of singing Epic 
 Poems ; most part of which only pre- 
 tend to be sung. Tasso's rich melody- 
 still lives among the Italian people ; 
 the ' ' Nibelungen ' ' also is what it 
 professes to be, a *' Song."
 
 52 ^be Bibelungcn XieO 
 
 No less striking than the verse and 
 language is the quality of the inven- 
 tion manifested here. Of the Fable, 
 or narrative material of the ' ' Nibelun- 
 gen ' ' we should say that it had high, 
 almost the highest merit ; so daintily 
 yet firmly is it put together ; with such 
 felicitous selection of the beautiful, 
 the essential, and no less felicitous re- 
 jection of whatever was unbeautiful or 
 even extraneous. The reader is no 
 longer afflicted with that chaotic brood 
 of Fire-drakes, Giants, and malicious, 
 turbaned Turks, so fatally rife in the 
 ' * Heldenbuch. ' ' All this is swept away, 
 or only hovers in faint shadows afar off, 
 and free field is open for legitimate 
 perennial interests. Yet neither is the 
 " Nibelungen " without its wonders, 
 for it is poetry and not prose ; here, 
 too, a supernatural world encompasses 
 the natural, and, though at rare inter-
 
 Zbc IRibelungen XieD 53 
 
 vals and in calm manner, reveals itself 
 there. It is truly wonderful, with 
 what skill our simple untaught Poet 
 deals with the marvellous ; admitting 
 it without reluctance or criticism, yet 
 precisely in the degree and shape that 
 will best avail him. Here, if in no 
 other respect, we should say that he 
 has a decided superiority to Homer 
 himself. The whole story of the 
 '' Nibelungen " is fateful, mysterious, 
 guided on by unseen influences ; yet 
 the actual marvels are few, and done 
 in the far distance. Those Dwarfs, 
 and Cloaks of Darkness, and charmed 
 Treasure-caves are heard of rather 
 than beheld ; the tidings of them seem 
 to issue from unknown space. Vain 
 were it to inquire where that Nibelun- 
 gen-land specially is : its very name is 
 Nebel-land or Nifl-land, the land of 
 Darkness, of Invisibility. The " Nibe-
 
 54 ^be IRibelungen XieD 
 
 lungen-Heroes," that muster in thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands, though 
 they march to the Rhine or Danube, 
 and we see their strong limbs and shin- 
 ing armor, we could almost fancy to 
 be children of the air. Far beyond 
 the firm horizon, that wonder-bearing 
 region swims on the infinite waters ; 
 unseen by bodily eye, or at most dis- 
 cerned as a faint streak, hanging in the 
 blue depths, uncertain whether island 
 or cloud. And thus the ' ' Nibelungen 
 Song, ' ' though based on the bottomless 
 foundations of Spirit, and not unvis- 
 ited of skyey messengers, is a real, 
 rounded, habitable Earth, where we 
 find firm footing, and the wondrous and 
 the common live amicably together. 
 Perhaps it would be difiicult to find any 
 Poet of ancient or modern times, who 
 in this trying problem has steered his 
 way with greater delicacy and success.
 
 ^be IFlibelunaen XicD 55 
 
 To any of our readers who may 
 have personally studied the " Nibe- 
 lungen," these high praises of ours 
 will not seem exaggerated : the rest, 
 who are the vast majority, must en- 
 deavor to accept them with some de- 
 gree of faith, at least of curiosity ; to 
 vindicate, and judicially substantiate 
 them would far exceed our present op- 
 portunities. Nay, in any case, the 
 criticisms, the alleged Characteristics 
 of a Poem are so many Theorems, 
 which are indeed enunciated, truly or 
 falsely, but the Demonstration of which 
 must be sought for in the reader's own 
 study and experience. Nearly all 
 that can be attempted here is some 
 hasty epitome of the mere Narrative ; 
 no substantial image of the work, but a 
 feeble outline and shadow. To which 
 task, as the personages and their en- 
 vironment have already been in some
 
 56 ^bc IRibelungcn XieD 
 
 degree illustrated, we can now proceed 
 without obstacle. 
 
 The ' ' Nibelungen ' ' has been called 
 the Northern Epos ; j^et it has, in great 
 part, a Dramatic character : those 
 thirty-nine Aventitiren (Adventures), 
 which it consists of, might be so many 
 scenes in a Tragedy. The catastrophe 
 is dimly prophesied from the begin- 
 ning ; and, at every fresh step, rises 
 more and more clearly into view. A 
 shadow of coming Fate, as it were, a 
 low inarticulate voice of Doom falls, 
 from the first, out of that charmed 
 Nibelungen-land : the discord of two 
 women is as a little spark of evil pas- 
 sion, which erelong enlarges itself 
 into a crime ; foul murder is done ; 
 and now the Sin rolls on like a de- 
 vouring fire, till the guilty and the in- 
 nocent are alike encircled with it, and
 
 Zbc IFlibeluncjen %\c^ 57 
 
 a whole land is ashes, and a whole 
 race is swept away. 
 
 C/ns ist in alien mcsren Wunders vil geseit, 
 Von helden lobebcsren Von grozer chiion- 
 
 heit ; 
 Von vrouden und' hoch-geziten, Von zvei- 
 
 nen tend von chlagen, 
 Von chuner rechcn strife n, Miiget ir nu 
 
 wunder horen sagen. 
 
 We find in ancient story Wonders many 
 
 told, 
 Of heroes in great glory With spirit free 
 
 and bold ; 
 Of joyances and high-tides, Of weeping and 
 
 of woe, 
 Of noble Recken striving. Mote ye now 
 
 wonders know. 
 
 This is the brief artless Proem ; and 
 the promise contained in it proceeds 
 directly towards fulfilment. In the 
 very second stanza we learn :
 
 58 ^be IRibeluncjcn %\ct> 
 
 Es wuhs m Burgonden Ein vil edel mage- 
 din, 
 
 Das in alien landen Niht schoners mohte 
 sin ; 
 
 Chrienihilt was si geheien, Si wart ei?t 
 schone zvip ; 
 
 Darumbe nmsett degene Vil verliesen den 
 lip. 
 
 A right noble maiden Did grow in Bur- 
 gundy, 
 
 That in all lands of earth Nought fairer 
 mote there be ; 
 
 Chriemhild of Worms she hight, She was a 
 fairest wife ; 
 
 For the which must warriors A many lose 
 their life.* 
 
 * This is the first of a thousand instances in which 
 the two inseparables, wip and lip, or in modern 
 tongue weib and leib, as mentioned above, appear 
 together. From these two opening stanzas of the 
 *' Nibelungen L,ied," in its purest form, the reader 
 may obtain some idea of the versification. It runs on 
 in more or less regular Alexandrines, with a ccesural 
 pause in each, where the capital letter occurs ; in- 
 deed, the lines seem originally to have been divided 
 into two at that point, for sometimes, as in Stanza
 
 Ebe IFllbelungen XicD 59 
 
 Chriemhild, this world's- wonder, a 
 king's daughter and king's sister, and 
 no less coy and proud than fair, dreams 
 one night that ' ' she had petted a fal- 
 con, strong, beautiful, and wild ; which 
 two eagles snatched away from her : 
 this she was forced to see ; greater sor- 
 row felt she never in the world. ' ' Her 
 mother, Ute, to whom she relates the 
 vision, soon redes it for her ; the falcon 
 is a noble husband, whom, God keep 
 him, she must suddenly lose. Chriem- 
 hild declares warmly for the single 
 state ; as, indeed, living there at the 
 Court of Worms, with her brothers, 
 Gunther, Gemot, Geiselher, " three 
 
 First, the middle words {mczren, lobebceren ; geziten, 
 striten) also rhyme ; but this is rather a rare case. 
 The word rechen or recken, used iu the First Stanza, 
 is the constant designation for bold fighters, and has 
 the same root with rich (thus in old French, ho7nmes 
 riches ; in Spanish, ricos hombres), which last is here 
 also synonymous with powerful, and is applied to 
 kings, and even to the Almighty, Got dent richen.
 
 6o nbe Bibclungen Xic& 
 
 kings noble and ricli," in such pomp 
 and renown, the pride of Burgunden- 
 land and Earth, she might readily 
 enough have changed for the worse. 
 However, dame Ute bids her not to be 
 too emphatical ; for '' if ever she have 
 heartfelt joy in life, it will be from 
 man's love, and she shall be a fair wife 
 (wip), when God sends her a right 
 worthy Ritter's lip.'' Chriemhild is 
 more in earnest than maidens usually 
 are when they talk thus ; it appears 
 she guarded against love, ' ' for many 
 a lief-long day ' ' ; nevertheless, she 
 too must yield to destiny. * ' Honora- 
 bly she was to become a most noble 
 Ri tter ' s wife. " '' This, ' ' adds the old 
 Singer, "was that same falcon she 
 dreamed of : how sorely she since re- 
 venged him on her nearest kindred ! 
 For that one death died full many a 
 mother's son."
 
 XLhc IRfbelunQen XteD 6i 
 
 It may be observed, that the Poet 
 here, and at all times, shows a marked 
 partiality for Chriemhild ; ever striv- 
 ing, unlike his fellow-singers, to mag- 
 nify her worth, her faithfulness, and 
 loveliness ; and softening, as much as 
 may be, whatever makes against her. 
 No less a favorite with him is Sieg- 
 fried, the prompt, gay, peaceably fear- 
 less hero ; to whom, in the Second 
 Aventiure^ we are here suddenly in- 
 troduced, at Santen (Xanten), the 
 Court of Netherland ; whither, to his 
 glad parents, after achievements (to us 
 partially known) ' ' of which one might 
 sing and tell forever," that noble 
 prince has returned. Much as he has 
 done and conquered, he is but just 
 arrived at man's years ; it is on occa- 
 sion of this jo3^ful event that a high- 
 tide {JiochgezW) is now held there, with 
 infinite joustings, minstrels}^, largesses,
 
 62 Zbc IRibelungen XieD 
 
 and other chivalrous doings, all which 
 is sung with utmost heartiness. The 
 old King Siegemund offers to resign his 
 crown to him ; but Siegfried has other 
 game a-field : the unparalleled beauty 
 of Chriemhild has reached his ear and 
 his fancy ; and now he will to Worms 
 and woo her, at least ' * see how it 
 stands with her." Fruitless is it for 
 Siegemund and the mother Siegelinde 
 to represent the perils of that enter- 
 prise, the pride of those Burgundian 
 Gunthers and Gemots, the fierce tem- 
 per of their uncle Hagen ; Siegfried is 
 as obstinate as young men are in these 
 cases, and can hear no counsel. Nay, 
 he will not accept the much more lib- 
 eral proposition, to take an army with 
 him, and conquer the country, if it 
 must be so ; he will ride forth, like 
 himself, with twelve champions only, 
 and so defy the future. Whereupon,
 
 XLbc IFllbelunQen XieD 63 
 
 the old people finding that there is no 
 other course, proceed to make him 
 clothes * ; — at least, the good queen 
 with ' ' her fair women sitting night 
 and day," and sewing, does so, the 
 father furnishing noblest battle and 
 riding gear ; — and so dismiss him with 
 many blessings and lamentations. 
 ' ' For him wept sore the king and his 
 wife, but he comforted both their bodies 
 (lip) ; he said : ' Ye must not weep, for 
 my body ever shall ye be without care. ' ' 
 
 Sad was it to the Recken, Stood weeping 
 
 many a maid ; 
 I ween their heart had them The tidings 
 
 true foresaid, 
 That of their friends so many Death thereby 
 
 should find ; 
 Cause had they of lamenting. Such boding 
 
 in their mind. 
 
 * This is a never-failing preparative for all expedi- 
 tions, and always specified and insisted on with a 
 simple, loving, almost female impressiveness.
 
 64 XLbc IFlibelungen XieD 
 
 Nevertheless, on the seventh morning, 
 that adventurous company * ' ride up 
 the sand," on the Rhine-beach, to 
 Worms, in high temper, in dress and 
 trappings, aspect and bearing more 
 than kingly. 
 
 Siegfried's reception at King Gun- 
 ther's court, and his brave sayings and 
 doings there for some time, we must 
 omit. One fine trait of his chivalrous 
 delicacy it is that, for a whole year, he 
 never hints at his errand ; never once 
 sees or speaks of Chriemhild, whom, 
 nevertheless, he is longing day and 
 night to meet. She, on her side, has 
 often through her lattices noticed the 
 gallant stranger, victorious in all tilt- 
 ings and knightly exercises ; whereby 
 it would seem, in spite of her rigorous 
 predeterminations, some kindness for 
 him is already gliding in. Meanwhile, 
 mighty wars and threats of invasion
 
 XLbc IRibelungen XieD 65 
 
 arise, and Siegfried does the state good 
 service. Returning victorious, both as 
 general and soldier, from Hessen 
 (Hessia), where, by help of his own 
 courage and the sword Balmung, he 
 has captured a Danish king, and ut- 
 terly discomforted a Saxon one ; he 
 can now show himself before Chriem- 
 hild without other blushes than those 
 of timid love. Nay, the maiden has 
 herself inquired pointedly of the mes- 
 sengers, touching his exploits; and 
 ' * her fair face grew rose-red when she 
 heard them." A gay High-tide, by 
 way of triumph, is appointed ; several 
 kings, and two-and-thirty princes, and 
 knights enough with " gold-red sad- 
 dles," come to joust; and better than 
 whole infinities of kings and princes 
 with their saddles, the fair Chriemhild 
 herself, under guidance of her mother, 
 chiefly too in honor of the victor, is to 
 5
 
 66 Zhc IRlbelutiQcn XieD 
 
 grace that sport. '* Ute the full rich " 
 fails not to set her needle-women to 
 work, and " clothes of price are taken 
 from their presses," for the love of her 
 child, "wherewith to deck many 
 women and maids. ' ' And now, ' * on 
 the Whitsun-moming, " all is ready, 
 and glorious as heart could desire it ; 
 brave Ritters, ' ' five thousand or 
 more," all glancing in the lists; but 
 grander still, Chriemhild herself 
 is advancing beside her mother, 
 with a hundred body-guards, all 
 sword in hand, and many a noble 
 maid "wearing rich raiment," In 
 her train ! 
 
 "Now issued forth the lovely one {mtn- 
 nechliche), as the red moruing doth from 
 troubled clouds ; much care fled away from 
 him who bore her in his heart, and long had 
 done ; he saw the lovely one stand in her 
 beauty.
 
 Zbc tMbclumcn Xlc& 67 
 
 "There glanced from her garments full 
 many precious stones, her rose-red color 
 shone full lovely : try what he might, each 
 man must confess that in this world he had 
 not seen aught so fair. 
 
 " Like as the light moon stands before 
 the stars, and its sheen so clear goes over the 
 clouds, even so stood she now before many 
 fair women ; whereat cheered was the mind 
 of the hero. 
 
 ' ' The rich chamberlains you saw go before 
 her, the high-spirited Recken would not for- 
 bear, but pressed on where they saw the 
 lovely maiden. Siegfried the lord was both 
 glad and sad. 
 
 '* He thought in his mind, How could this 
 be that I should woo thee? That was a 
 foolish dream ; yet must I forever be a 
 stranger, I were rather {sanfter, softer) 
 dead. He became, from these thoughts, in 
 quick changes, pale and red. 
 
 " Thus stood so lovely the child of Siege- 
 linde, as if he were limned on parchment by 
 a master's art ; for all granted that hero so 
 beautiful they had never seen."
 
 68 ^be IRlbelungen %iet> 
 
 In this passage, which we have ren- 
 dered from the Fifth Azmitiure into 
 the closest prose, it is to be remarked, 
 among other singularities, that there 
 are two similes : in which figure of 
 speech our old Singer deals very spar- 
 ingly. The first, that comparison of 
 Chriemhild to the moon among stars 
 with its sheen going over the clouds, 
 has now for many centuries had little 
 novelty or merit : but the second, that 
 of Siegfried to a Figure in some illu- 
 minated Manuscript, is graceful in 
 itself ; and unspeakably so to antiqua- 
 ries, seldom honored, in their Black- 
 letter stubbing and grubbing, with 
 such a poetic wind-fall ! 
 
 A prince and a princess of this 
 quality are clearly made for one an- 
 other. Nay, on the motion of young 
 Herr Gemot, fair Chriemhild is bid 
 vSpecially to salute Siegfried, she who
 
 C^be IPllbelungen %ict> 69 
 
 had never saluted man ; which unpar- 
 alleled grace the lovely one, in all 
 courtliness, openly does him. ''Be 
 welcome," said she, " Herr Siegfried, 
 a noble Ritter good"; from which 
 salute, for this seems to have been all, 
 ' ' much raised was his mind. ' ' He 
 bowed with graceful reverence, as his 
 manner was with women ; she took 
 him by the hand, and with fond stolen 
 glances they looked at each other. 
 Whether in that ceremonial joining of 
 hands there might not be some soft, 
 slight pressure, of far deeper import, is 
 what our Singer will not take upon 
 him to say ; however, he thinks the 
 affirmative more probable. Hence- 
 forth, in that bright May weather, the 
 two were seen constantly together, — 
 nothing but felicity around and before 
 them. In these days, truly, it must 
 have been that the famous Prize-fight,
 
 70 Zbc IRibclunGcn X(e& 
 
 with Dietricli of Bern and his Eleven 
 Lombardy champions, took place, little 
 to the profit of the two I^overs ; were 
 it not rather that the whole of that 
 Rose-garden transaction, as given in 
 the " Heldenbuch," might be falsified 
 and even imaginary ; for no mention or 
 hint of it occurs here. War or battle 
 is not heard of ; Siegfried the peerless 
 walks wooingly by the side of Chriem- 
 hild the peerless ; matters, it is evident, 
 are in the best possible course. 
 
 But now comes a new side-wind, 
 which, however, in the long-run also 
 forwards the voyage. Tidings, namely, 
 reached over the Rhine, not so sur- 
 prising we might hope, ' ' that there was 
 many a fair maiden" ; whereupon 
 Gunther the King ' * thought with him- 
 self to win one of them." It was an 
 honest purpose in King Gunther, only 
 his choice was not the discreetest.
 
 Zhc Iftlbelunoen XicD 71 
 
 For no fair maiden will content him 
 but Queen Brunhild, a lady who rules 
 in Iseyiland^ far over sea, famed indeed 
 for her beauty, yet no less so for her 
 caprices. Fables we have met with of 
 this Brunhild being properly a Valkyr^ 
 or Scandinavian Houri, such as were 
 wont to lead old northern warriors 
 from their last battle-field into Val- 
 halla ; and that her castle of Isenstein 
 stood amidst a lake of fire. But this, as 
 we said, is fable and groundless cal- 
 umny, of w^hich there is not so much 
 as notice taken here. Brunhild, it is 
 plain enough, was a flesh-and-blood 
 maiden, glorious in look and faculty, 
 only wath some preternatural talents 
 given her, and the strangest w^ayward 
 habits. It appears, for example, that 
 any suitor proposing for her has this 
 brief condition to proceed upon : he 
 must try the adorable in the three sev-
 
 72 Zbc IRtbclunaen XieO 
 
 eral games of hurling the Spear (at one 
 another), lyeaping, and throwing the 
 Stone. If victorious, he gains her hand ; 
 if vanquished, he loses his own head ; 
 which latter issue, such is the fair 
 Amazon's strength, frequent fatal ex- 
 periment has shown to be the only- 
 probable one. 
 
 Siegfried, who knows something of 
 Brunhild and her wa3^s, votes clearly 
 against the whole enterprise ; however, 
 Gunther has once for all got the whim 
 in him, and must see it out. The 
 prudent Hagen von Troneg, uncle to 
 love-sick Gunther, and ever true to 
 him, then advises that Siegfried be re- 
 quested to take part in the adventure ; 
 to which request Siegfried readily 
 accedes on one condition : that, should 
 they prove fortunate, he himself is to 
 have Chrierahild to wife when they 
 return. This readily settled, he now
 
 Zbc IWtbelun^en %ictf 73 
 
 takes charge of the business and 
 throws a httle light on it for the others. 
 They must lead no army thither ; only 
 two, Hagen and Dankwart, besides 
 the king and himself, shall go. The 
 grand subject of waeie'^ (clothes) is 
 next hinted at, and in general terms 
 elucidated ; whereupon a solemn con- 
 sultation Tvdth Chriemhild ensues ; and 
 a great cutting-out, on her part, of 
 white silk from Araby, of green silk 
 from Zazemang, of strange fish-skins 
 covered with morocco silk ; a great 
 sewing thereof for seven weeks, on the 
 part of her maids ; lastly, a fitting-on 
 of the three suits by each hero, for 
 each had three ; and heartiest thanks 
 in return, seeing all fitted perfectly, 
 and was of grace and price unuttera- 
 ble. What is still more to the point, 
 
 * Hence our English weeds, and Scotch wad 
 (pledge) ; and, say the etymologists, wadding^ and 
 even wedding.
 
 74 Zbc IRibelunacn Xie& 
 
 Siegfried takes his Cloak of Darkness 
 with him, fancying he may need it 
 there. The good old Singer, who has 
 hitherto alluded only in the faintest 
 way to Siegfried's prior adventures 
 and miraculous possessions, introduces 
 this of the Tarnkappe with great frank- 
 ness and simplicity. ' ' Of wild dwarfs 
 {getwergefi),'' says he, *' I have heard 
 tell, they are in hollow mountains, and 
 for defence wear somewhat called 
 Tarnkappe, of wondrous sort ' ' ; the 
 qualities of which garment, that it 
 renders invisible, and gives twelve 
 men's strength, are already known to 
 us. 
 
 The voyage to Isenstein, Siegfried 
 steering the ship thither, is happily 
 accomplished in twenty days. Gun- 
 ther admires to a high degree the fine 
 masonry of the place ; as indeed he 
 well might, there being some eighty-
 
 ^be IRibelungen XieD 75 
 
 six towers, three immense palaces and 
 one immense hall, the whole built of 
 ' ' marble green as grass ' ' ; further he 
 sees many fair women looking from 
 the windows down on the bark, and 
 thinks the loveliest is she in the snow- 
 white dress ; which, Siegfried informs 
 him, is a worthy choice ; the snow- 
 white maiden being no other than 
 Brunhild. It is also to be kept in 
 mind that Siegfried, for reasons best 
 known to himself, had previously stipu- 
 lated that, though a free king, they 
 should all treat him as vassal of Gun- 
 ther, for whom accordingly he holds 
 the stirrup, as they mount on the 
 beach ; thereby giving rise to a mis- 
 conception, which in the end led to 
 saddest consequences. 
 
 Queen Brunhild, who had called 
 back her maidens from the windows, 
 being a strict disciplinarian, and re-
 
 76 ^be mibclun^en XieD 
 
 tired into the interior of her green- 
 marble Isenstein, to dress still better, 
 now inquires of some attendant, Who 
 these strangers of such lordly aspect 
 are, and what brings them ? The at- 
 tendant professes himself at a loss to 
 say ; one of them looks like Sieg- 
 fried, the other is evidently by his port 
 a noble king. His notice of Von 
 Troneg Hagen is peculiarly vivid : 
 
 The third of those companions He is of as- 
 pect stem. 
 
 And yet with lovely body. Rich queen, as 
 ye might discern ; 
 
 From those his rapid glances, For the eyes 
 nought rest in him, 
 
 Meseems this foreign Recke Is of temper 
 fierce and grim. 
 
 This is one of those little graphic 
 touches, scattered all over our Poem, 
 which do more for picturing out an 
 object, especially a man, than whole
 
 ^be naibelungen XleD 77 
 
 pages of enumeration and mensura- 
 tion. Never after do we hear of this 
 stout, indomitable Hagen, in all the 
 wild deeds and sufferings he passes 
 through, but those swindeii blickeyi 
 of his come before us, with the rest- 
 less, deep, dauntless spirit that looks 
 through them. 
 
 Brunhild's reception of Siegfried is 
 not without tartness ; which, however, 
 he, with polished courtesy and the 
 nimblest address, ever at his com- 
 mand, softens down, or hurries over. 
 He is here, without will of his own, 
 and so forth, only as attendant on his 
 master, the renowned King Gunther, 
 who comes to sue for her hand, as the 
 summit and keystone of all earthly 
 blessings. Brunhild, w^ho had deter- 
 mined on fighting Siegfried himself, 
 if so he w^illed it, makes small account 
 of this King Gunther or his prow^ess ;
 
 78 Zbc naibclungcn XicD 
 
 and instantly clears the ground, and 
 equips her for battle. The royal wooer 
 must have looked a little blank when 
 he saw a shield brought in for his fair 
 one's handling, "three spans thick 
 with gold and iron, ' ' which four cham- 
 berlains could hardly bear, and a spear 
 or javelin she meant to shoot or hurl, 
 which w^as a burden for three. Hagen, 
 in angry apprehension for his king and 
 nephew, exclaims that they shall all 
 lose their life (/ip), and that she is the 
 tiuvels wip, or Devil's wife. Neverthe- 
 less Siegfried is already there in his 
 Cloak of Darkness, twelve men strong, 
 and privily whispers in the ear of roy- 
 alty to be of comfort ; takes the shield 
 to himself, Gunther only affecting to 
 hold it, and so fronts the edge of bat- 
 tle. Brunhild performs prodigies of 
 spear-hurling, of leaping, and stone- 
 pitching ; but Gunther, or rather Sieg-
 
 Zbc IPiibclnnQcn %ict> 79 
 
 fried, — '' who does tlie work, lie only- 
 acting the gestures," nay, who even 
 snatches him up into the air, and leaps 
 carrying him, — gains a decided vic- 
 tory, and the lovely Amazon must 
 own with surprise and shame that she 
 is fairly won. Siegfried presently ap- 
 pears without Tarnkappe, and asks 
 with a grave face. When the games, 
 then, are to begin ? 
 
 So far well; yet somewhat still re- 
 mains to be done. Brunhild will not 
 sail for Worms, to be wedded, till she 
 have assembled a fit train of warriors ; 
 wherein the Burgundians, being here 
 without retinue, see symptoms or pos- 
 sibilities of mischief. The deft Sieg- 
 fried, ablest of men, again knows a 
 resource. In his Tarnkappe he steps 
 on board the bark, which, seen from 
 the shore, appears to drift off of its own 
 accord ; and therein, stoutly steering
 
 8o Zbc IRibelungen XieD 
 
 towards Nibelung en-land^ lie reaches 
 that mysterious country and the moun- 
 tain where his Hoard lies, before the 
 second morning ; finds Dwarf Alberich 
 and all his giant sentinels at their post, 
 and faithful almost to the death ; these 
 soon rouse him thirty thousand Nibe- 
 lungen Recken, from whom he has 
 only to choose one thousand of the 
 best ; equip them splendidly enough ; 
 and therewith return to Gunther, sim- 
 ply as if they were that sovereign's 
 own bodyguard, that had been delayed 
 a little by stress of weather. 
 
 The final arrival at Worms ; the 
 bridal feasts, for there are two, Sieg- 
 fried also receiving his reward; and 
 the jo3^ance and splendor of man and 
 maid, at this lordliest of high-tides ; 
 and the joustings, greater than those 
 at Aspramont or Montauban, — every 
 reader can fancy for himself. Remark-
 
 XTbe BibelunGcn XfcD 8i 
 
 able only is the evil eye with which 
 Queen Brunhild still continues to re- 
 gard the noble Siegfried. She cannot 
 understand how Gunther, the I^and- 
 lord of the Rhine,* should have be- 
 stowed his sister on a vassal. The 
 assurance that Siegfried also is a prince 
 and heir- apparent, the prince namely 
 of Netherland, and little inferior to 
 Burgundian majest}^ itself, yields no 
 complete satisfaction ; and Brunhild 
 hints plainly that, unless the truth be 
 told her, unpleasant consequences may 
 follow. Thus is there ever a ravelled 
 thread in the web of life ! But for this 
 little cloud of spleen, these bridal 
 feasts had been all bright and balmy 
 as the month of June. Unluckily, too, 
 
 * Der Wirt von Rine : singular enough, the word 
 Wit-th^ often applied to royalty in that old dialect, 
 is now also the title of innkeepers. To such base 
 uses may we come. 
 6
 
 82 XLbc IFlibelunaen %ict> 
 
 the cloud is an electric one ; spreads 
 itself in time into a general earth- 
 quake ; nay, that very night, becomes 
 a thunder-storm, or tornado, unparal- 
 leled we may hope in the annals of 
 connubial happiness. 
 
 The Singer of the " Nibelungen," 
 unlike the author of ' ' Roderick Ran- 
 dom," cares little for intermeddling 
 with "the chaste mysteries of H}^- 
 men." Could we, in the corrupt 
 ambiguous modern tongue, hope to 
 exhibit any shadow of the old simple, 
 true-hearted, merely historical spirit, 
 with which, in perfect purity of soul, 
 he describes things unattempted yet 
 in prose or rhyme, — we could a tale 
 unfold ! Suffice it to say. King Gun- 
 ther. Landlord of the Rhine, falling 
 sheer down from the third heaven of 
 hope, finds his spouse the most athletic 
 and intractable of women ; and him-
 
 ^be Bibelungen XleD 83 
 
 self, at the close of the adventure, no- 
 wise encircled in her arms, but tied 
 hard and fast, hand and foot, in her 
 girdle, and hung thereby, at consider- 
 able elevation, on a nail in the wall. 
 lyCt any reader of sensibility figure the 
 emotions of the royal breast, there as 
 he vibrates suspended on his peg, and 
 his inexorable bride sleeping sound in 
 her bed below ! Towards morning he 
 capitulates ; engaging to observe the 
 prescribed line of conduct with utmost 
 strictness, so he may but avoid becom- 
 ing a laughing-stock to all men. 
 
 No wonder the dread king looked 
 rather grave next morning, and re- 
 ceived the congratulations of mankind 
 in a cold manner. He confesses to 
 Siegfried, who partly suspects how it 
 may be, that he has brought the ' ' evil 
 devil ' ' home to his house in the shape 
 of wife, whereby he is wretched
 
 G:be IRibelungen %iet> 
 
 enough. However, there are remedies 
 for all things but death. The ever- 
 serviceable Siegfried undertakes even 
 here to make the crooked straight. 
 What may not an honest friend with 
 Tarnkappe and twelve men's strength 
 perform ? Proud Brunhild, next night, 
 after a fierce contest, owns herself 
 again vanquished ; Gunther is there 
 to reap the fruits of another's victory ; 
 the noble Siegfried withdraws, taking 
 nothing with him but the luxury of 
 doing good, and the proud queen's 
 Ring and Girdle gained from her in 
 that struggle ; which small trophies 
 he, with the last infirmity of a noble 
 mind, presents to his own fond wife, 
 little dreaming that they would one 
 day cost him and her, and all of them, 
 so dear. Such readers as take au}^ in- 
 terest in poor Gunther will be gratified 
 to learn, that from this hour Brunhild's
 
 Zbc IRibelungcn XleD 85 
 
 preternatural faculties quite left her, 
 being all dependent on her maidhood ; 
 so that any more spear-hurling, or 
 other the like extraordinary work, is 
 not to be apprehended from her. 
 
 If we add, that Siegfried formally 
 made over to his dear Chriemhild the 
 Nibelungen Hoard, by way of Morgeri- 
 gabe (or, as we may say. Jointure) ; 
 and the high-tide, though not the 
 honeymoon, being past, returned to 
 Netherland with his spouse, to be wel- 
 comed there with infinite rejoicings, — 
 we have gone through as it were the 
 First Act of this Tragedy ; and may 
 here pause to look round us for a 
 moment. The main characters are 
 now introduced on the scene, the rela- 
 tions that bind them together are dimly 
 sketched out : there is the prompt, 
 cheerfully heroic, invulnerable, and 
 invincible Siegfried, now happiest of
 
 86 xrbe IRibelunQcn Xle& 
 
 men ; tlie high Chriemhild, fitly- 
 mated, and if a moon, revolving glo- 
 rious round her sun, or Friedel (joy 
 and darling) ; not without pride and 
 female aspirings, yet not prouder than 
 one so gifted and placed is pardonable 
 for being. On the other hand, we have 
 King Gunther, or rather let us say 
 king's-mantle Gunther, for never ex- 
 cept in that one enterprise of courting 
 Brunhild, in which too, without help, 
 he would have cut so poor a figure, 
 does the worthy sovereign show will 
 of his own, or character other than that 
 of good potter's clay ; further, the 
 suspicious, forecasting, yet stout and 
 reckless Hagen, him with the rapid 
 glanceSy and these turned not too 
 kindly on Siegfried, whose prowess he 
 has used yet dreads, whose Nibelungen 
 Hoard he perhaps already covets ; 
 lastly the rigorous and vigorous Brun-
 
 XLbc 'Uibclnmcn XleD 87 
 
 Mid, of whom also more is to be feared 
 than hoped. Considering the fierce 
 nature of these now mingled ingredi- 
 ents ; and how, except perhaps in the 
 case of Gunther, there is no menstruum 
 of placid stupidity to soften them ; 
 except in Siegfried, no element of 
 heroic truth to master them and bind 
 them together, — unquiet fermentation 
 may readily be apprehended. 
 
 Meanwhile, for a season all is peace 
 and sunshine. Siegfried reigns in 
 Netherland, of which his father has 
 surrendered him the crown ; Chriem- 
 hild brings him a son, whom in honor 
 of the uncle he christens Gunther, 
 which courtesy the uncle and Brunhild 
 repay in kind. The Nibelungen Hoard 
 is still open and inexhaustible ; Dwarf 
 Alberich and all the Recken there still 
 loyal ; outward relations friendly, in- 
 ternal supremely prosperous : these are
 
 88 Zbc IRibelungen XieD 
 
 halcyon days. But, alas, they cannot 
 last. Queen Brunhild, retaining with 
 true female tenacity her first notion, 
 right or wrong, reflects one day that 
 Siegfried, who is and shall be nothing 
 but her husband's vassal, has for a 
 long while paid him no service ; and, 
 determined on a remedy, manages that 
 Siegfried and his queen shall be in- 
 vited to a high-tide at Worms, where 
 opportunity may chance for enforcing 
 that claim. Thither accordingly, after 
 ten years' absence, we find these illus- 
 trious guests returning ; Siegfried 
 escorted by a thousand Nibelungen 
 Ritters, and, further, by his father 
 Siegemund, who leads a train of Neth- 
 erlanders. Here for eleven days, 
 amid infinite joustings, there is a true 
 heaven-on-earth ; but the apple of 
 discord is already lying in the knightly 
 ring, and two Women, the proudest
 
 tTbe Bibelungen XlcD 89 
 
 and keenest-tempered of the world, 
 simultaneously stoop to lift it. Aven- 
 there Fourteenth is entitled ' ' How the 
 two queens rated one another. ' ' Never 
 was courtlier Billingsgate uttered, or 
 which came more directly home to the 
 business and bosoms of women. The 
 subject is that old story of Precedence, 
 which indeed, from the time of Cain 
 and Abel downwards, has wrought 
 such effusion of blood and bile both 
 among men and women ; lying at the 
 bottom of all armaments and bat- 
 tle-fields, whether Blenheims and 
 Waterloos, or only plate-displays, 
 and tongue-and-eye skirmishes, in the 
 circle of domestic Tea : nay, the very 
 animals have it ; and horses, were they 
 but the miserablest Shelties and 
 Welsh ponies, will not graze together 
 till it has been ascertained, bj^ clear 
 fight, who is master of whom, and a
 
 go tibe Iftibelunaen XlcD 
 
 proper drawing-room etiquette estab- 
 lished. 
 
 Brunhild and Chriemhild take to 
 arguing about the merits of their hus- 
 bands : the latter, fondly expatiating 
 on the pre-eminence of her Friedel, 
 how he walks ' ' like the moon among 
 stars ' ' before all other men, is reminded 
 by her sister that one man at least 
 must be excepted, the mighty King 
 Gunther of Worms, to whom, by his 
 own confession long ago at Isenstein, 
 he is vassal and servant. Chriemhild 
 will sooner admit that clay is above 
 sunbeams, than any such proposition ; 
 which therefore she, in all politeness 
 requests of her sister never more to 
 touch upon while she lives. The re- 
 sult may be foreseen : rejoinder follows 
 reply, statement grows assertion ; flint- 
 sparks have fallen on the dry flax, 
 which from smoke bursts into confla-
 
 ^be IRibelungcn %ict> 91 
 
 gration. The two queens part in hot- 
 test, though still clear-flaming anger. 
 Not, however, to let their anger bum 
 out, but only to feed it with more solid 
 fuel. Chriemhild dresses her forty 
 maids in finer than royal apparel ; 
 orders out all her husband's Recken ; 
 and so attended, walks foremost to the 
 Minster, where mass is to be said ; 
 thus practically asserting that she is 
 not only a true queen, but the worthier 
 of the two. Brunhild, quite outdone 
 in splendor, and enraged beyond all 
 patience, overtakes her at the door of 
 the Minster, with peremptor}^ order to 
 stop : " Before king's wife shall vas- 
 sal's never go." 
 
 Then said the fair Chriemhilde, Right an- 
 gry was her mood : 
 
 " Couldest thou but hold thy peace. It were 
 surely for thy good ;
 
 92 XLbc fUMbclnngcn XieD 
 
 Th3'self hast all polluted With shame thy 
 
 fair bodye ; 
 How can a Concubine By right a King's 
 
 wife be ? " 
 
 **Whom hast thou Concubined ? " The 
 
 King's wife quickly spake ; 
 **That do I thee," said Chriemhild ; *' For 
 
 thy pride and vaunting' s sake ; 
 Who first had thy fair body Was Siegfried 
 
 my beloved Man ; 
 My Brother it was not That thy maidhood 
 
 from thee wan." 
 
 In proof of which outrageous saying, 
 she produces that Ring and Girdle ; 
 the innocent conquest of which, as we 
 well know, had a far other origin. 
 Brunhild burst into tears ; ' ' sadder 
 day she never saw. ' ' Nay, perhaps a 
 new light now rose on her over much 
 that had been dark in her late history ; 
 ' ' she rued full sore that ever she was 
 bom.*'
 
 Zbc IRlbelungen XlcD 93 
 
 Here, then, is the black injury which 
 only blood will wash away. The evil 
 fiend has begun his work ; and the 
 issue of it lies beyond man's control. 
 Siegfried may protest his innocence of 
 that calumny, and chastise his indis- 
 creet spouse for uttering it even in the 
 heat of anger : the female heart is 
 wounded beyond healing ; the old 
 springs of bitterness against this hero 
 unite into a fell flood of hate ; while he 
 sees the sunlight, she cannot know a 
 joyful hour. Vengeance is soon offered 
 her : Hagen, who lives only for his 
 prince, undertakes this bad service ; by 
 treacherous professions of attachment, 
 and anxiety to guard Siegfried's life, he 
 gains from Chriemhild the secret of 
 his vulnerability ; Siegfried is carried 
 out to hunt ; and in the hour of frank- 
 est gayety is stabbed through the fatal 
 spot ; and, felling the murderer to the
 
 94 ^be Wbelungen XtcO 
 
 ground, dies upbraiding his false kin- 
 dred, 5^et, with a touching simplicit}^ 
 recommending his child and wife to 
 their protection. '' ' I^et her feel that 
 she is your sister ; was there ever vir- 
 tue in princes, be true to her ; for 
 me my Father and my men shall long 
 wait.' The flowers all around were 
 wetted with blood, then he struggled 
 with death ; not long did he this, the 
 weapon cut him too keen ; so he could 
 speak nought more, the Recke bold 
 and noble. ' ' 
 
 At this point, we might say, ends 
 the Third Act of our Tragedy ; the 
 whole story henceforth takes a darker 
 character ; it is as if a tone of sorrow 
 and fateful boding became more and 
 more audible in its free, light music. 
 Evil has produced new evil in fatal 
 augmentation, injury is abolished, 
 but in its stead there is guilt and de-
 
 Zhc IRibeluncjen %ict> 95 
 
 spair. Chriemhild, an hour ago so 
 rich, is now robbed of all ; her grief 
 is boundless as her love has been. No 
 glad thought can ever more dwell in 
 her ; darkness, utter night has come 
 over her, as she looked into the red 
 of morning. The spoiler too walks 
 abroad unpunished ; the bleeding 
 corpse witnesses against Hagen, nay, 
 he himself cares not to hide the deed. 
 But who is there to avenge the friend- 
 less ? Siegfried's Father has returned 
 in haste to his own land ; Chriemhild 
 is now alone on the earth, her hus- 
 band's grave is all that remains to 
 her ; there only can she sit, as if wait- 
 ing at the threshold of her own dark 
 home ; and in prayers and tears pour 
 out the sorrow and love that have no 
 end. Still further injuries are heaped 
 on her : by advice of the crafty Hagen, 
 Gunther, who had not planned the
 
 96 ^be mibelun^en %ict> 
 
 murder, yet permitted and witnessed 
 it, now comes with whining professions 
 of repentance and good-will ; per- 
 suades her to send for the Nibelungen 
 Hoard to Worms ; where no sooner is 
 it arrived, than Hagen and the rest 
 forcibl}^ take it from her ; and her last 
 trust in affection or truth from mortal 
 is rudely cut away. Bent to the earth, 
 she weeps only for her lost Siegfried, 
 knows no comfort, but will weep for- 
 ever. 
 
 One lurid gleam of hope, after long 
 years of darkness, breaks in on her, in 
 the prospect of revenge. King Etzel 
 sends from his far country to solicit 
 her hand : the embassy she hears at 
 first, as a woman of ice might do ; 
 the good Rudiger, Ktzel's spokesman, 
 pleads in vain that his king is the rich- 
 est of all earthly kiii^:";? ; that he is so 
 lonely ' ' since Frai i \ lelke died ' ' ; that
 
 Zbc ffiibclungen XfeD 97 
 
 though a heathen, he has Christians 
 about him, and may one day be con- 
 verted ; till at length, when he hints 
 distantly at the power of Ktzel to 
 avenge her injuries, she on a sudden 
 becomes all attention. Hagen foresee- 
 ing such possibilities, protests against 
 the match ; but is overruled : Chriem- 
 hild departs with Rudiger for the land 
 of the Huns ; taking cold leave of her 
 relations ; only two of whom, her 
 brothers Gemot and Geiselher, inno- 
 cent of that murder, does she admit 
 near her as convoy to the Donau. 
 
 The Nibelungen Hoard has hitherto 
 been fatal to all its possessors ; to the 
 two sons of Nibelung ; to Siegfried its 
 conqueror : neither does the Burgun- 
 dian Royal House fare better with it. 
 Already, discords threatening to arise, 
 Hagen sees prudent to sink it in the 
 Rhine ; first takiri^- oath of Gunther
 
 98 ^be IWibclungen XleD 
 
 and his brothers, that none of them 
 shall reveal the hiding-place while 
 any of the rest is alive. But the curse 
 that clave to it could not be sunk there. 
 The Nibelungen-land is now theirs : 
 they themselves are henceforth called 
 Nibelungen ; and this history of their 
 fate is the Nibelungen Song, or " Nibe- 
 lungen Noth " ( Nibelungen 's Need, 
 extreme Need, or final wreck and abo- 
 lition). 
 
 The Fifth Act of our strange event- 
 ful history now draws on. Chriemhild 
 has a kind husband, of hospitable dis- 
 position, who troubles himself little 
 about her secret feelings and intents. 
 With his permission, she sends two 
 minstrels, inviting the Burgundian 
 Court to a high-tide at Ktzel's ; she 
 has charged the messengers to say 
 that she is happy, and to bring all 
 Gunther's champions with them. Her
 
 ^be IFllbelungcn %ict> 99 
 
 eye was on Hagen, but she could not 
 single him from the rest. After seven 
 days' deliberation, Gunther answers 
 that he will come. Hagen has loudly 
 dissuaded the joume}^, but again been 
 overruled. "It is his fate," says a 
 commentator, "like Cassandra's, ever 
 to foresee the evil, and ever to be dis- 
 regarded. He himself shut his ear 
 against the inward voice ; and now his 
 warnings are uttered to the deaf." He 
 argues long, but in vain ; nay, young 
 Gemot hints at last that this aversion 
 originates in personal fear : 
 
 Then spake Von Troneg Hagen : ** Nowise 
 
 is it through fear ; 
 So you command it, Heroes, Then up, gird 
 
 on your gear ; 
 I ride with you the foremost Into King Et- 
 
 zel's land." 
 Since then full many a helm Was shivered 
 
 by his hand.
 
 Zbc IFlibcIungen Xiet) 
 
 Frau Ute's dreams and omens are 
 now unavailing with him ; " whoso 
 heedeth dreams," says Hagen, "of 
 the right story wotteth not " : he has 
 computed the worst issue, and defied it. 
 
 Many a Httle touch of pathos, and 
 even solemn beauty lies carelessly scat- 
 tered in these rhymes, had we space to 
 exhibit such here. As specimen of a 
 strange, winding, diffuse, yet inno- 
 cently graceful style of narrative, we 
 have translated some considerable por- 
 tion of this Twenty-fifth Aveniiure^ 
 * ' How the Nibelungen marched (fared) 
 to the Huns," into verses as literal as 
 might be ; which now, alas, look 
 mournfully different from the origi- 
 nal ; almost like Scriblerus' shield 
 when the barbarian housemaid had 
 scoured it ! Nevertheless, to do for 
 the reader what we can, let some- 
 what of that modernized ware, such
 
 ZTbe IRibclungen XleD 
 
 as it is, be set before him. The brave 
 Nibelungen are on the eve of depart- 
 ure, and about ferr^dng over the 
 Rhine ; and here it may be noted that 
 Worms, * with our old Singer, lies 
 
 * This City of Worms, had we a right imagination, 
 ought to be as venerable to us Modems, as any Thebes 
 or Troy was to the Ancients. Whether founded by 
 the Gods or not, it is of quite unknown antiquity, and 
 has witnessed the most wonderful things. Within 
 authentic times, the Romans were here ; and if tra- 
 dition may be credited, Attila also ; it was the seat 
 of the Austrasian kings ; the frequent residence of 
 Charlemagne himself ; innumerable Festivals, High- 
 tides, Tournaments, and Imperial Diets were held in 
 it, of which latter, one at least, that where I,uther 
 appeared in 1521, will be forever remembered by all 
 mankind. Nor is Worms more famous in history 
 than, as indeed we may see here, it is in romance ; 
 whereof many monuments and vestiges remain to 
 this day. " A pleasant meadow there," says Von der 
 Hagen, " is still called Chriemhild's Rosengarten. The 
 name Worms itself is derived (by I,egendary Ety- 
 mology) from the Dragon, or Worm, which Siegfried 
 slew, the figure of which once formed the City 
 Arms ; in past times, there was also to be seen here 
 an ancient, strong Riesen-Haus (Giant's-house), and 
 many a memorial of Siegfried : his I,ance, 66 feet
 
 I02 Zbc IKllbelungen XieD 
 
 not in its true position, but at some 
 distance from the river ; a proof at 
 least that he was never there, and 
 probably sang and lived in some very 
 distant region : 
 
 long (almost 80 English feet), in the Cathedral ; his 
 Statue, of gigantic size, on the Neue Thurm (New 
 Tower) on the Rhine" ; etc., etc. " And lastly the 
 Siegfried's Chapel, in primeval, Pre-Gothic architec- 
 ture, not long since pulled down. In the time of the 
 Meistersangers too, the Stadtrath was bound to give 
 every Master, who sang the lay of Siegfried (" Meister- 
 liedvon Siegfrieden," the purport of which is now 
 unknown), without mistake, a certain gratuity."— 
 " Glossary to the Nibelungen," § " Worms." 
 
 One is sorry to learn that this famed Imperial City 
 is no longer Imperial, but much fallen in every way 
 from its palmy state ; the 30,000 inhabitants, to be 
 found there in Gustavus Adolphus' time, having now 
 declined into some 6,800,—" who maintain themselves 
 by wine-growing, Rhine-boats, tobacco-manufacture, 
 and making sugar-of-lead." So hard has war, which 
 respects nothing, pressed on Worms, ill-placed for 
 safety, on the hostile border, lyouvois, or I,ouis XIV., 
 in 1689, had it utterly devastated ; whereby in the inte- 
 rior, "spaces that were once covered with build- 
 ings are now gardens." — See " Conv. I^exicon," 2 
 " Worms."
 
 Zbe IRibclungcn XfeD 103 
 
 The boats were floating ready, And many 
 
 men there were ; 
 What clothes of price they had They took 
 
 and stow'd them there, 
 Was never a rest from toiling Until the 
 
 eventide, 
 Then they took the flood right gaily, Would 
 
 longer not abide. 
 
 Brave tents and hutches You saw raised on 
 
 the grass. 
 Other side the Rhine-stream That camp it 
 
 pitched was : 
 The king to stay awhile. Was besought of 
 
 his fair wife ; 
 That night she saw him with her, And 
 
 never more in life. 
 
 Trumpets and flutes spoke out. At dawning 
 
 of the day, 
 That time was come for parting. So they 
 
 rose to march away : 
 Who loved-one had in arms Did kiss that 
 
 same, I ween ; 
 And fond farewells were bidden By cause 
 
 of Etzel's Queen.
 
 I04 v^be IRibelungen XieO 
 
 Frau Ute's noble sons They had a serving- 
 man, 
 
 A brave one and a true : Or ever the march 
 began, 
 
 He speaketh to King Gunther, What for his 
 ear was fit, 
 
 He said : " Woe for this journey, I grieve 
 because of it." 
 
 He, Rumold hight, the Sewer, Was known 
 
 as hero true ; 
 He spake : " Whom shall this people And 
 
 land be trusted to ? 
 Woe on 't, will nought persuade ye, Brave 
 
 Recken, from this road ! 
 Frau Chriemhild's flattering message No 
 
 good doth seem to bode." 
 
 " The land to thee be trusted, And my fair 
 
 boy also, 
 And serve thou well the women, I tell thee 
 
 ere I go ; 
 Whomso thou findest weeping Her heart 
 
 give comfort to ; 
 No harm to one of us King Etzel's wife 
 
 will do."
 
 XLbc IRlbelungen %iet> 105 
 
 The steeds were standing ready, For the 
 
 Kings and for their men ; 
 With kisses tenderest Took leave full many 
 
 then, 
 Who, in gallant cheer and hope. To march 
 
 were nought afraid : 
 Them since that day bewaileth Many a noble 
 
 wife and maid. 
 
 But when the rapid Recken Took horse and 
 
 prickt away, 
 The women shent in sorrow You saw behind 
 
 them stay ; 
 Of parting all too long Their hearts to them 
 
 did tell ; 
 When grief so great is coming, The mind 
 
 forebodes not well. 
 
 Nathless the brisk Burgonden All on their 
 
 way did go. 
 Then rose the country over A mickle dole 
 
 and woe ; 
 On both sides of the hills Woman and man 
 
 did weep : 
 Let their folk do how they list, These gay 
 
 their course did keep.
 
 io6 Zbc IRibclungen Xie2) 
 
 The Nibelungen Recken* Did march with 
 
 them as well, 
 In a thousand glittering hauberks, Who at 
 
 home had ta'en farewell 
 Of many a fair woman Should see them 
 
 never more : 
 The wound of her brave Siegfried Did grieve 
 
 Chriemhilde sore. 
 
 Then 'gan they shape their journey Towards 
 
 the River Maine, 
 All on through East Franconia, King Gun- 
 
 ther and his train ; 
 Hagen he was their leader, Of old did know 
 
 the way ; 
 Dank wart did keep, as marshal, Their ranks 
 
 in good array. 
 
 As they, from Bast Franconia, The Salfield 
 rode along, 
 
 * These are the Nibelungen proper who had come 
 to Worms with Siegfried, on the famed bridal journey 
 from Isenstein, long ago. Observe, at the same 
 time, that ever since the Nibelungen Hoard was 
 transferred to the Rhineland, the whole subjects of 
 King Gunther are often called Nibelungen, and 
 their subsequent history is this " Nibelungen Song."
 
 ^be IRlbelungcn XlcD 107 
 
 Might you have seen them prancing, A 
 
 bright and lordl}^ throng, 
 The Princes and their vassals, All heroes of 
 
 great fame : 
 The twelfth mom brave King Gunther Unto 
 
 the Donau came. 
 
 Then rode Von Troneg Hagen, The foremost 
 
 of that host, 
 He was to the Nibelungen The guide they 
 
 lov'd the most : 
 The Ritter keen dismounted. Set foot on 
 
 the sandy ground, 
 His steed to a tree he tied, Ivooked wistful 
 
 all around. 
 
 "Much scaith," Von Troneg said, ''May 
 
 lightly chance to thee, 
 King Gunther, by this tide, As thou with 
 
 eyes mayst see : 
 The river is overflowing, Full strong runs 
 
 here its stream, 
 For crossing of this Donau Some counsel 
 
 might well beseem." 
 
 "What counsel hast thou, brave Hagen," 
 King Gunther then did say,
 
 io8 ^be Ifttbclungen XieD 
 
 " Of thy own wit and cunning ? Dishearten 
 
 me not, I pray : 
 Thyself the ford wilt find us, If knightly 
 
 skill it can, 
 That safe to yonder shore We may pass both 
 
 horse and man." 
 
 " To me, I trow," spake Hagen, " Life hath 
 
 not grown so cheap, 
 To go with will and drown me In riding 
 
 these waters deep ; 
 But first, of men some few By this hand of 
 
 mine shall die, 
 In great King Etzel's country, As best 
 
 good-will have I. 
 
 " But bide ye here by the River, Ye Ritters 
 
 brisk and sound. 
 Myself will seek some boatman. If boatman 
 
 here be found. 
 To row us at his ferry, Across to Gelfrat's 
 
 land : " 
 The Troueger grasped his buckler, l-'ared 
 
 forth along the strand.
 
 Zbc Blbelungcn XieD 109 
 
 He was full bravely harness' d, Himself lie 
 
 knightly bore, 
 With buckler and with helmet, Which 
 
 bright enough he wore ; 
 And, bound above his hauberk, A weapon 
 
 broad was seen. 
 That cut with both its edges, Was never 
 
 sword so keen. 
 
 Then hither he and thither Search 'd for 
 
 the Ferryman, 
 He heard a splashing of waters, To watch 
 
 the same he 'gan. 
 It was the white Mer-women, That in a 
 
 fountain clear, 
 To cool their fair bodyes, Were merrily 
 
 bathing here. 
 
 From these Mer-women, who " skim- 
 med aloof like white cygnets ' ' at sight 
 of him, Hagen snatches up " their won- 
 drous raiment " ; on condition of return- 
 ing which, they rede him his fortune ; 
 how his expedition is to speed. At 
 first favorably :
 
 ^be IFlibelungen XicO 
 
 She said : **To Btzel's country Of a truth 
 
 ye well may hie, 
 For here I pledge my hand, Now kill me if 
 
 Hie, 
 That heroes seeking honor Did never arrive 
 
 thereat 
 So richly as ye shall do, Believe thou 
 
 surely that." 
 
 But no sooner is the wondrous rai- 
 ment restored them than they change 
 their tale ; for in spite of that match- 
 less honor, it appears every one of the 
 adventurous Recken is to perish. 
 
 Outspake the wild Mer-woman : "I tell 
 thee it will arrive, 
 
 Of all your gallant host No man shall be 
 left alive, 
 
 Except King Gunther's chaplain, As we 
 full well do know ; 
 
 He only, home returning, To the Rhine- 
 land back shall go."
 
 ^be IKlibcIungen XieD 
 
 Then spake Von Troneg Hagen, His wrath 
 
 did fiercely swell : 
 "Such tidings to my master I were right 
 
 loath to tell, 
 That in King Etzel's country We all must 
 
 lose our life : 
 Yet show me over the water, Thou wise 
 
 all-knowing wifey 
 
 Thereupon, seeing him bent on ruin, 
 she gives directions how to find the 
 ferry, but withal counsels him to deal 
 warily ; the ferry-house stands on the 
 other side of the river ; the boat- 
 man, too, is not only the hottest-tem- 
 pered of men, but rich and indolent ; 
 nevertheless, if nothing else will serve, 
 let Hagen call himself Amelrich, and 
 that will bring him. All happens as 
 predicted : the boatman, heedless of 
 all shouting and offers of gold clasps, 
 bestirs him lustily at the name of Amel- 
 rich ; but the more indignant is he, on
 
 ^be naibelungcn XieO 
 
 taking-in his fare, to find it counterfeit. 
 He orders Hagen, if he loves his life, 
 to leap out. 
 
 "Now say not that," spake Hagen ; "Right 
 
 hard am I bested, 
 Take from me for good friendship This 
 
 clasp of gold so red ; 
 And row our thousand heroes And steeds 
 
 across this river," 
 Then spake the wrathful boatman, "That 
 
 will I surely never." 
 
 Then one of his oars he lifted. Right broad 
 
 it was and long, 
 He struck it down on Hagen, Did the hero 
 
 mickle wrong. 
 That in the boat he staggered, And alighted 
 
 on his knee ; 
 Other such wrathful boatman. Did never 
 
 the Troneger see. 
 
 His proud unbidden guest He would now 
 provoke still more,
 
 Zbc IRibelungcn XieO 113 
 
 He struck his head so stoutly That it broke 
 
 in twain the oar, 
 With strokes on head of Hagen ; He was a 
 
 sturdy wight : 
 Nathless had Gelfrat's boatman Small profit 
 
 of that fight. 
 
 With fiercely raging spirit The Troneger 
 
 tum'd him round, 
 Clutch' d quick enough his scabbard, And a 
 
 weapon there he found ; 
 He smote his head from off him, And cast 
 
 it on the sand, 
 Thus had that wrathful boatman His death 
 
 from Hagen's hand. 
 
 Even as Von Troneg Hagen The wrathful 
 
 boatman slew, 
 The boat whirl' d round to the river, He had 
 
 work enough to do : 
 Or ever he turn'd it shorewards. To weary 
 
 he began, 
 But kept full stoutly rowing. The bold King 
 
 Gunther's man.
 
 114 ^be Iftibelun^en XteD 
 
 He wheel'd it back, brave Hagen, With 
 many a lusty stroke, 
 
 The strong oar, with such rowing, In his 
 hand asunder broke ; 
 
 He fain would reach the Recken, All wait- 
 ing on the shore. 
 
 No tackle now he had ; Hei,* how deftly he 
 spliced the oar, 
 
 With thong from off his buckler ! It was a 
 
 slender band ; 
 Right over against a forest He drove the 
 
 boat to land ; 
 Where Gunther's Recken waited, In crowds 
 
 along the beach ; 
 Full many a goodly hero Moved down his 
 
 boat to reach. 
 
 * These apparently insignificant circumstances, 
 down even to mending the oar from his shield, are 
 preserved with a singular fidelity in the most dis- 
 torted editions of the Tale ; see, for example, the 
 Danish ballad, '%ady Grimhild's Wrack ' ' (translated 
 in the " Northern Antiquities," p. 275, by Mr. Jamie- 
 son). This " Hei !" is a brisk interjection, whereby 
 the worthy old Singer now and then introduces his 
 own person, when any thing very eminent is going 
 forward.
 
 ^be IFllbelungcn %icb 115 
 
 Hagen ferries them over himself 
 *' into the unknown land, ' ' like a right 
 yare steersman ; yet ever brooding 
 fiercely on that prediction of the wild 
 Mer- woman, which had outdone even 
 his own dark forebodings. Seeing the 
 Chaplain, who alone of them all was to 
 return, standing in the boat beside his 
 chappelsoume (pyxes and other sacred 
 furniture), he determines to belie at 
 least this part of the prophecy, and on 
 a sudden hurls the chaplain overboard. 
 Nay, as the poor priest swims after the 
 boat, he pushes him down, regardless 
 of all remonstrance, resolved that he 
 shall die. Nevertheless it proved not 
 so : the chaplain made for the other 
 side ; when his strength failed, ' ' then 
 God's hand helped him," and at length 
 he reached the shore. Thus does the 
 stem truth stand revealed to Hagen, 
 by the ver}^ means he took for eluding
 
 ii6 ZTbe IRibelungen Xie^ 
 
 it : " he thought with himself these 
 Recken must all lose their lives." 
 From this time, a grim, reckless spirit 
 takes possession of him ; a courage, an 
 audacit}^, waxing more and more into 
 the fixed strength of desperation. The 
 passage once finished, he dashes the 
 boat in pieces, and casts it in the 
 stream, greatly as the others wonder at 
 him. 
 
 ' * Why do ye this, good brother ? ' ' Said the 
 
 Ritter Dankwart then ; 
 " How shall we cross this river. When the 
 
 road we come again ? 
 Returning home from Hunlaud, Here must 
 
 we lingering stay ? " — 
 Not then did Hagen tell him That return 
 
 no more could they. 
 
 In this shipment ' ' into the unknown 
 land," there lies, for the more pene- 
 trating sort of commentators, some
 
 XLbc 'UibclnrxQcn %ictf 117 
 
 hidden meaning and allusion. The 
 destruction of the unretuming Ship, as 
 of the Ship Argo, of Eneas' Ships, 
 and the like, is a constant feature of 
 such traditions. It is thought, this 
 ferrying of the Nibelungen has a ref- 
 erence to old Scandinavian Mythuses ; 
 nay, to the oldest, most universal 
 emblems shaped out by man's Imagi- 
 nation ; Hagen the ferr^^man being, in 
 some sort, a type of Death, who ferries 
 over his thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands into a I^and still more unknown.* 
 But leaving these considerations, let 
 us remark the deep, fearful interest 
 which, in gathering strength, rises to 
 a really tragical height in the close of 
 this Poem. Strangely has the old 
 Singer, in these his loose melodies, 
 modulated the wild narrative into a 
 
 * See Von der Hagen 's " Nibelungen, ihre Bedeu- 
 tung," etc.
 
 ii8 ZTbe Bibelungen %ic^ 
 
 poetic whole, with, what we might call 
 true art, were it not rather an instinct 
 of genius still more unerring. A 
 fateful gloom now hangs over the 
 fortunes of the Nibelungen, which 
 deepens and deepens as they march 
 onwards to the judgment-bar, till all 
 are engulfed in utter night. 
 
 Hagen himself rises in tragic great- 
 ness ; so helpful, so prompt and strong 
 is he, and true to the death, though 
 without hope. If sin can ever be 
 pardoned, then that one act of his is 
 pardonable ; by loyal faith, by free 
 daring and heroic constancy, he has 
 made amends for it. Well does he 
 know what is coming ; yet he goes 
 forth to meet it, offers to Ruin his 
 sullen welcome. Warnings thicken on 
 him, which he treats lightly, as things 
 now superfluous. Spite of our love for 
 Siegfried, we must pity and almost
 
 ZTbe IRibelun^en %ict> 119 
 
 respect the lost Hagen now in his 
 extreme need, and fronting it so nobly. 
 * ' Mixed was his hair with a gray color, 
 his limbs strong, and threatening his 
 look." Nay, his sterner qualities are 
 beautifulty tempered by another feel- 
 ing, of which till now we understood 
 not that he was capable, — the feeling 
 of friendship. There is a certain Volker 
 of Alsace here introduced, not for the 
 first time, yet first in decided energy, 
 who is more to Hagen than a brother. 
 This Volker, a courtier and noble, is 
 also a Spielma7i7i (minstrel), a Fidelere 
 gut (fiddler good) ; and surely the 
 prince of all Fideleres ; in truth a very 
 phoenix, melodious as the soft nightin- 
 gale, 3^et strong as the royal eagle : for 
 also in the brunt of battle he can play 
 tunes ; and with a Steel Fiddlebow beats 
 strange music from the cleft helmets 
 of his enemies. There is, in this con-
 
 I20 ^be Bibclunaen XteD 
 
 tinual allusion to Volker's Schwert- 
 Jidelboge7i (Sword-fiddlebow), as rude 
 as it sounds to us, a barbaric greatness 
 and depth ; the light minstrel of kingly 
 and queenly halls is gay also in the 
 storm of Fate ; its dire rushing pipes 
 and whistles to him : is he not the 
 image of every brave man fighting 
 with Necessity, be that duel when and 
 where it may ; smiting the fiend with 
 giant strokes, yet every stroke musical f 
 — This Volker and Hagen are united 
 inseparably, and defy death together. 
 * ' Whatever Volker said pleased Ha- 
 gen ; whatever Hagen did pleased 
 Volker." 
 
 But into these last Ten AventiureSy 
 almost like the image of a Doomsday, 
 we must hardly glance at present. 
 Seldom, perhaps, in the poetry of 
 that or any other age, has a grander 
 scene of pity and terror been exhibited
 
 ^be IRlbelunoen XleO 
 
 than here, could we look into it clearl3\ 
 At ever>^ new step new shapes of fear 
 arise. Dietrich of Bern meets the 
 Nibelungen on their way, with omi- 
 nous warnings : but warnings, as we 
 said, are now superfluous, when the 
 evil itself is apparent and inevitable. 
 Chriemhild, w^asted and exasperated 
 here into a frightful Medea, openly 
 threatens Hagen, but is openly defied 
 b}^ him ; he and Volker retire to a seat 
 before her palace, and sit there, while 
 she advances in angry tears, with a 
 crowd of armed Huns, to destro}'- them. 
 But Hagen has Siegfried's Balmung 
 lying naked on his knee, the Minstrel 
 also has drawn his keen Fiddlebow, 
 and the Huns dare not provoke the 
 battle. Chriemhild would fain single 
 out Hagen for vengeance ; but Hagen, 
 Hke other men, stands not alone ; and 
 sin is an infection which will not rest
 
 122 ^be IRibelungcn XieD 
 
 with one victim. Partakers or not of 
 his crime, the others also must share 
 his punishment. Singularly touching, 
 in the meanwhile, is King Etzel's 
 ignorance of what every one else un- 
 derstands too well ; and how, in peace- 
 ful, hospitable spirit, he exerts himself 
 to testify his joy over these royal guests 
 of his, who are bidden hither for far 
 other ends. That night the wayworn 
 Nibelungen are sumptuously lodged ; 
 yet Hagen and Volker see good to keep 
 watch. Volker plays them to sleep. 
 '' Under the porch of the house he sat 
 on the stone : bolder fiddler was there 
 never any ; when the tones flowed so 
 sweetly, they all gave him thanks. 
 Then sounded his strings till all the 
 house rang ; his strength and the art 
 were great ; sweeter and sweeter he 
 began to play, till flitted forth from 
 him into sleep full many a careworn
 
 ^be Wbelungcn %ict> 123 
 
 soul. ' ' It was their last lullaby ; they 
 were to sleep no more. Armed men 
 appear, but suddenly vanish, in the 
 night ; assassins sent by Chriemhild, 
 expecting no sentinel : it is plain that 
 the last hour draws nigh. 
 
 In the morning the Nibelungen are 
 for the Minster to hear mass ; thej^ 
 are putting on gay raiment ; but Ha- 
 gen tells them a different tale : "ye 
 must take other garments, Recken ; 
 instead of silk shirts hauberks, for 
 rich mantles 3'our good shields ; and, 
 beloved masters, moreover squires and 
 men, ye shall full earnestly go to the 
 church, and plain to God the powerful 
 (Gof dem richeii) of your sorrow and 
 utmost need ; and know of a surety 
 that death for us is nigh." In Ktzel's 
 Hall, where the Nibelungen appear 
 at the ro3^al feast in complete armor, 
 the Strife, incited b}^ Chriemhild, be-
 
 124 XTbe IFlibelunGcn XieD 
 
 gins ; the first answer to her provoca- 
 tion is from Hagen, who hews off the 
 head of her own and Ktzel's son, 
 making it bound into the mother's 
 bosom : " then began among the 
 Recken a murder grim and great." 
 Dietrich, with a voice of preternatural 
 power, commands pause ; retires with 
 Ktzel and Chriemhild ; and now the 
 blood}^ work has free course. We have 
 heard of battles, and massacres, and 
 deadly struggles in siege and storm ; 
 but seldom has even the poet's im- 
 agination pictured any thing so fierce 
 and terrible as this. Host after host, 
 as they enter that huge vaulted Hall, 
 perish in conflict wnth the doomed 
 Nibelungen ; and ever after the terrific 
 uproar, ensues a still more terrific 
 silence. All night and through morn- 
 ing it lasts. They throw the dead 
 from the windows : blood runs like
 
 ^be IRlljelungen XteD 125 
 
 water ; the Hall is set fire to, they 
 quench it with blood, their own burn- 
 ing thirst they slake with blood. It is 
 a tumult like the Crack of Doom, a 
 thousand-voiced, wild-stunning hub- 
 bub ; and, frightful like a Trump of 
 doom, the Sword-fiddlebow of Volker, 
 who guards the door, makes music to 
 that death-dance. Nor are traits of 
 heroism wanting, and thrilling tones 
 of pity and love ; as in that act of 
 Rudiger, Etzel's and Chriemhild's 
 champion, who, bound by oath, " lays 
 his soul in God's hand," and enters 
 that Golgotha to die fighting against 
 his friends ; yet first changes shields 
 with Hagen, whose own, also given 
 him by Rudiger in a far other hour, 
 had been shattered in the fight. ' ' When 
 he so lovingly bade give him the shield, 
 there were eyes enough red with hot 
 tears ; it was the last gift which Rudi-
 
 126 tibe IWibelungcn XleD 
 
 ger of Bechelaren gave to any Recke. 
 As grim as Hagen was, and as hard of 
 mind, he wept at this gift which the 
 hero good, so near his last times, had 
 given him ; full many a noble Ritter 
 began to weep." 
 
 At last Volker is slain ; they are all 
 slain, save only Hagen and Gunther, 
 faint and wounded, yet still uncon- 
 quered among the bodies of the dead, 
 Dietrich the warj^, though strong and 
 invincible, whose Recken too, except 
 old Hildebrand, he now finds are all 
 killed, though he had charged them 
 strictly not to mix in the quarrel, at 
 last arms himself to finish it. He sub- 
 dues the two wearied Nibelungen, binds 
 them, delivers them to Chriemhild ; 
 ' ' and Herr Dietrich went away with 
 weeping eyes, worthily from the he- 
 roes." These never saw each other 
 more. Chriemhild demands of Hagen,
 
 ^be IRibclungen XleO 127 
 
 Where the Nebelungen Hoard is ? 
 But he answers her, that he has sworn 
 never to disclose it while any of her 
 brothers live. ' ' I bring it to an end, ' ' 
 said the infuriated woman ; orders her 
 brother's head to be struck off, and 
 holds it up to Hagen. *' * Thou hast 
 it now according to thy will,' said 
 Hagen ; ' of the Hoard knoweth none 
 but God and I ; from thee, she-devil 
 {valendinne) , shall it forever be hid.' " 
 She kills him with his owm sw^ord, 
 once her husband's ; and is herself 
 struck dead by Hildebrand, indignant 
 at the woe she has wrought; King 
 Ktzel, there present, not opposing the 
 deed. Whereupon the curtain drops 
 over that wild scene. ' ' The full highly 
 honored were lying dead ; the people 
 all had sorrow and lamentation ; in 
 grief had the king's feast ended, as all 
 love is wont to do."
 
 128 XLbc IFlibelungen %ict> 
 
 Ine chan hi nicht bescheiden Waz sider da 
 
 geschach, 
 Wan ritter unde wrovven Weinen man do 
 
 sack, 
 Dar-zuo die edeln chnechte Ir lieben vri- 
 
 unde tot : 
 Da hat das mcsre ein ende ; Diz ist der 
 
 Nibelunge not. 
 
 I cannot say you now What hath befallen 
 
 since ; 
 The women all were weeping, And the Rit- 
 
 ters and the prince, 
 Also the noble squires, Their dear friends 
 
 lying dead : 
 Here hath the story ending ; This is the 
 
 Nibelungen's Need. 
 
 We have now finished our slight 
 analysis of this Poem ; and hope that 
 readers who are curious in this matter, 
 and ask themselves, What is the 
 *' Nibelungen " ? ma}^ have here found 
 some outlines of an answer, some help
 
 XLbc Haibelungen %ic^ 129 
 
 towards farther researches of their own. 
 To such readers another question will 
 suggest itself: Whence this singular 
 production comes to us, When and 
 How it originated ? On which point 
 also, w^hat little light our investigation 
 has yielded may be summarily given. 
 The worthy Von der Hagen, who 
 may well understand the '' Nibe- 
 lungen ' ' better then any other man, 
 having rendered it into the modem 
 tongue, and twice edited it in the 
 original, not without collating some 
 eleven manuscripts, and travelling sev- 
 eral thousands of miles to make the last 
 edition perfect, — writes a Book some 
 years ago, rather boldly denominated 
 " The Nibelungen, its Meaning for the 
 present and forever ' ' ; wherein, not 
 content with any measurable antiquity 
 of centuries, he would fain claim an 
 antiquit}^ beyond all bounds of dated
 
 130 ^be Iftibelungen Xiet) 
 
 time. Working his way with feeble 
 mine-lamps of etymology and the like, 
 he traces back the rudiments of his 
 beloved " Nibelungen," ''to which 
 the flower of his whole life has been 
 consecrated," into the thick darkness 
 of the Scandinavian Niflheim and 
 Muspelhehn^ and the Hindoo Cosmog- 
 ony ; connecting it farther (as already 
 in part we have incidentally pointed 
 out) with the Ship Argo, with Jupiter's 
 goatskin -^gis, the fire-creed of Zer- 
 dusht, and even with the heavenly 
 Constellations. His reasoning is some- 
 what abstruse ; yet an honest zeal, very 
 considerable learning and intellectual 
 force bring him tolerably through. 
 So much he renders plausible or prob- 
 able, that in the " Nibelungen," 
 under more or less defacement, lie 
 fragments, scattered like mysterious 
 Runes, yet still in part decipherable,
 
 Zbc IRlbelun^en XleD 131 
 
 of the earliest Thoughts of men ; that 
 the fiction of the ' ' Nibelungen ' ' was 
 at first a reHgious or philosophical 
 Mythus; and only in later ages, in- 
 corporating itself more or less com- 
 pletely with vague traditions of real 
 events, took the form of a stor>^ or 
 mere Narrative of earthly transactions; 
 in which last form, moreover, our 
 actual ' ' Nibelungen Lied ' ' is nowise 
 the original Narrative, but the second, 
 or even the third redaction of one much 
 earlier. 
 
 At what particular era the primeval 
 fiction of the ' ' Nibelungen ' ' passed 
 from its Mythological into its Histori- 
 cal shape ; and the obscure spiritual 
 elements of it wedded themselves to 
 the obscure remembrances of the 
 Northern Immigrations ; and the 
 Twelve Signs of the Zodiac became 
 Twelve Champions of Attila's Wife,
 
 132 ^be IRtbclungen %ict> 
 
 — there is no fixing with the smallest 
 certainty. It is known from history 
 that Kginhart, the secretary of Charle- 
 magne, compiled, by order of that 
 monarch, a collection of the ancient 
 German Songs ; among which, it is 
 fondly believed by antiquaries, this 
 * ' Nibelungen ' ' (not indeed our actual 
 *' Nibelungen lyied," yet an older one 
 of similar purport), and the main tra- 
 ditions of the ' ' Heldenbuch ' ' con- 
 nected therewith, may have had hon- 
 orable place. Unluckily Kginhart' s 
 Collection has quite perished, and only 
 his lyife of the Great Charles, in which 
 this circumstance stands noted, survives 
 to provoke curiosity. One thing is cer- 
 tain, Fulco, Archbishop of Rheims, in 
 the year 885, is introduced as " citing 
 certain German books," to enforce 
 some argument of his by instance of 
 " King Krmerich's crime toward his
 
 Zbc 'Uibclnngcn %ic^ 133 
 
 relations ' ' ; which King Ermerich and 
 his crime are at this day part and 
 parcel of the '' Cycle of German Fic- 
 tion," and presupposed in the " Nibe- 
 lungen.* Later notices, of a more 
 decisive sort, occur in abundance. 
 Saxo Grammaticus, who flourished in 
 the twelfth century, relates that about 
 the year 1130, a Saxon Minstrel being 
 sent to Seeland, with a treacherous 
 invitation from one royal Dane to 
 another ; and not daring to violate his 
 oath, yet compassionating the victim, 
 sang to him by way of indirect warning 
 " the Song of Chriemhild's Treachery 
 to her Brothers ' ' ; that is to say, the 
 latter portion of the Stor>^ which we 
 still read at greater length in the ex- 
 isting " Nibelungen Lied." To which 
 direct evidence, that these traditions 
 were universally known in the twelfth 
 
 * Von der Hagen's "Nibelungen" Emleitung, § vii.
 
 134 ^be IFUbelungen %ict> 
 
 century, nay, had been in some shape 
 committed to writing, as ' * German 
 Books, ' ' in the ninth or rather in the 
 eighth, — we have still to add the prob- 
 ability of there being ' ' ancient songs, ' ' 
 even at that earliest date; all which 
 may perhaps carry us back into the 
 seventh or even sixth century ; yet not 
 farther, inasmuch as certain of the 
 poetic personages that figure in them 
 belong historically to the fifth. 
 
 Other and more open proof of an- 
 tiquity lies in the fact, that these 
 Traditions are so universally diffused. 
 There are Danish and Icelandic ver- 
 sions of them, externally more or less 
 altered and distorted, yet substantially 
 real copies, professing indeed to be 
 borrowed from the German ; in partic- 
 ular we have the * * Niflinga ' ' and the 
 ' ' Wilkina Saga, ' ' composed in the thir- 
 teenth century, which still in many
 
 ^be IRtbelunaen XicD 135 
 
 ways illustrate the German original. 
 Innumerable other songs and sagas 
 point more remotely in the same direc- 
 tion. Nay, as Von der Hagen informs 
 us, certain rhymed tales, founded on 
 these old adventures, have been re- 
 covered from popular recitation, in the 
 Faroe Islands, within these few years. 
 If we ask now. What lineaments of 
 Fact still exist in these Traditions ; 
 what are the Historical events and 
 persons which our primeval Myth- 
 uses have here united with, and so 
 strangel}^ metamorphosed ? the answer 
 is unsatisfactory enough. The great 
 Northern Immigrations, unspeakably 
 momentous and glorious as they were 
 for the Germans, have wellnigh faded 
 away utterly from all vernacular rec- 
 ords. Some traces, nevertheless, some 
 names and dim shadows of occurrences 
 in that grand movement, still linger
 
 136 ^be IWlbelungen Xic& 
 
 here ; which, in such circumstances, 
 we gather with avidity. There can 
 be no doubt, for example, but this 
 **Etzel, king of Hunland," is the 
 Attila of history, several of whose 
 real achievements and relations are 
 faintly yet still recognizably pictured 
 forth in these Poems. Thus his first 
 queen is named Halke, and in the 
 Scandinavian versions, Herka ; which 
 last (Krca) is also the name that Pris- 
 cus gives her, in the well-known 
 account of his embassy to Attila. 
 Moreover, it is on his second mar- 
 riage, which had in fact so mj^sterious 
 and tragical a character, that the w^hole 
 catastrophe of the '* Nibelungen " 
 turns. It is true, the ' ' Scourge of 
 God ' ' plays but a tame part here ; 
 however, his great acts, though all 
 past, are still visible in their fruits ; 
 besides, it is on the Northern or Ger-
 
 Zbc taibelun^en %ict> 137 
 
 man personages that the tradition 
 chiefly dwells. 
 
 Taking further into account the 
 general " Cycle," or System of North- 
 ern Tradition, whereof this " Nibe- 
 lungen ' ' is the centre and keystone, 
 there is, as we saw in the '^Helden- 
 buch," a certain Kaiser Ottnit and a 
 Dietrich of Bern ; to whom also it 
 seems unreasonable to deny historical 
 existence. This Bern (Verona), as 
 well as the Rabe7ischlacht (Battle of 
 Ravenna), is continually figuring in 
 these fictions ; though whether under 
 Ottnit we are to understand Odoacer 
 the vanquished, and under Dietrich of 
 Bern Theodoricus Veronensis, the vic- 
 tor both at Verona and Ravenna, is 
 by no means so indubitable. Chrono- 
 logical difficulties stand much in the 
 way. For our Dietrich of Bern, as we 
 saw in the " Nibelungen," is repre-
 
 138 XLbc mtbclungen XieD 
 
 sented as one of Etzel's Champions. 
 Now Attila died about the year 450 ; 
 and this Ostrogoth Theodoric did not 
 fight his great battle at Verona till 
 489 ; that of Ravenna, which was fol- 
 lowed by a three years' siege, happen- 
 ing next year. So that before Dietrich 
 could become Dietrich 0/ Bern, Etzel 
 had been gone almost half a century 
 from the scene. Startled by this 
 anachronism, some commentators have 
 fished out another Theodoric, eighty 
 years prior to him of Verona, and who 
 actually served in Attila' s hosts, with 
 a retinue of Goths and Germans ; with 
 which new Theodoric, however, the 
 old Ottnit, or Odoacer, of the " Hel- 
 denbuch ' ' must, in his turn, part 
 company ; whereby the case is no 
 whit mended. Certain it seems, in the 
 meantime, that Dietrich, which signi- 
 fies Rich in People, is the same name
 
 tLbc IRibelungen %ict> 139 
 
 which in Greek becomes Theodoricus ; 
 for at first (as in Procopius) this very 
 Theodoricus'vs, always written Qsvdspix^ 
 which almost exactly corresponds with 
 the German sound. But such are the 
 inconsistencies involved in both hy- 
 potheses, that we are forced to con- 
 clude one of two things : either that 
 the Singers of those old Lays were 
 little versed in the niceties of History, 
 and unambitious of passing for authori- 
 ties therein, which seems a remarkably 
 easy conclusion ; or else, with Lessing, 
 that they meant some quite other 
 series of persons and transactions, 
 some Kaiser Otto, and his two Anti- 
 Kaisers (in the twelfth century) ; 
 which, from what has come to light 
 since Lessing's day, seems now an un- 
 tenable position. 
 
 However, as concerns the ' ' Nibelun- 
 gen, ' ' the most remarkable coincidence,
 
 140 ^be Blbclungen XicD 
 
 if genuine, remains yet to be men- 
 tioned. "Thwortz," a Hungarian 
 Chronicler (or perhaps Chronicle), of 
 we know not what authority, relates, 
 ' ' that Attila left his kingdom to his 
 two sons Chaba and Aladar, the former 
 by a Grecian mother, the latter by 
 Kremheilch (Chriemhild) a German ; 
 that Theodoric, one of his followers, 
 sowed dissension between them ; and, 
 along with the Teutonic hosts, took 
 part with his half-countryman the 
 younger son ; whereupon rose a great 
 slaughter, which lasted for fifteen 
 days, and terminated in the defeat of 
 Chaba (the Greek), and his flight into 
 Asia." * Could we but put faith in 
 this Thwortz, we might fancy that 
 some vague rumor of that Kremheilch 
 
 * Weber (" Illustrations of Northern Antiquities," 
 p. 39), who cites Gorres (" Zeitung fiir Kinsiedler ") 
 as bis authority.
 
 XLbc mMbclnrxQcn XleD 141 
 
 Tragedy, swoln b}" the way, had 
 reached the German ear and imagina- 
 tion ; where, gathering round older 
 Ideas and Mythuses, as Matter round 
 its Spirit, the first rude form oiChriem- 
 hilde's Revenge and the Wreck of the 
 Nibelungen bodied itself forth in 
 Song, 
 
 Thus any historical light emitted by 
 these old Fictions is little better than 
 darkness visible ; sufficient at most to 
 indicate that great Northern Immigra- 
 tions, and wars and rumors of war have 
 been ; but nowise how and what they 
 have been. Scarcely clearer is the 
 special histor}^ of the Fictions them- 
 selves ; where they were first put 
 together, who have been their succes- 
 sive redactors and new-modellers. Von 
 der Hagen, as we said, supposes that 
 there may have been three several 
 series of such. Two, at all events, are
 
 142 XTbe IRlbelunQen XieD 
 
 clearly indicated. In their present 
 shape we have internal evidence that 
 none of these poems can be older than 
 the twelfth century ; indeed, great part 
 of the ' ' Hero-book ' ' can be proved 
 to be considerably later. With this 
 last it is understood that Wolfram von 
 Kschenbach and Heinrich von Ofter- 
 dingen, two singers otherwise noted in 
 that era, were largely concerned ; but 
 neither is there any demonstration of 
 this vague belief: while again, in 
 regard to the Author of our actual 
 " Nibelungen," not so much as a 
 plausible conjecture can be formed. 
 Some vote for a certain Conrad von 
 Wurzburg ; others for the above- 
 named Eschenbach and Ofterdingen ; 
 others again for Klingsohr of Unger- 
 land, a minstrel who once passed for a 
 magician. Against all and each of 
 which hypotheses there are objections ;
 
 XLbe Haibelungeit XteD 143 
 
 and for i^one of them the smallest 
 conclusive evidence. Who this gifted 
 singer may have been, only in so far as 
 his Work itself proves that there was 
 but One, and the style points to the 
 latter half of the twelfth century, — 
 remains altogether dark : the unwearied 
 Von der Hagen himself, after fullest 
 investigation, gives for verdict, "we 
 know it not. ' ' Considering the high 
 worth of the " Nibelungen," and how 
 many feeble ballad-mongers of that 
 Swabian Era have transmitted us 
 their names, so total an oblivion, in 
 this infinitel}^ more important case, may 
 seem surprising. But those Miyiiielieder 
 (I^ove-songs) and Provencal Madrigals 
 were the Court Poetry of that time, and 
 gained honor in high places ; while the 
 old National Traditions were common 
 property and plebeian, and to sing them 
 an unrewarded labor.
 
 144 ^be IRibcluiiGcn XtcD 
 
 Whoever lie may be, let him have 
 our gratitude, our love. lyOoking back 
 with a farewell glance, over that 
 wondrous old Tale, with its many- 
 colored texture " of joy ances and high- 
 tides, of weeping and of woe," so 
 skilfully yet artlessly knit-up into a 
 whole, we cannot but repeat that a 
 true epic spirit lives in it ; that in many 
 ways it has meaning and charms foi 
 us. Not only as the oldest Tradition 
 of Modem Europe, does it possess a 
 high antiquarian interest ; but further, 
 and even in the shape we now see it 
 under, unless the ' * Epics of the Son of 
 Fingal ' ' had some sort of authenticity, 
 it is our oldest Poem also ; the earliest 
 product of these New Ages, which on 
 its own merits, both in form and es- 
 sence, can be named Poetical. Con- 
 sidering its chivalrous, romantic tone, 
 it may rank as a piece of literary com-
 
 Zbc naibelungcn XieD 145 
 
 position, perhaps considerably higher 
 than the Spanish ' ' Cid ' ' ; taking 
 in its historical significance and deep 
 ramifications into the remote Time, it 
 ranks indubitably and greatly higher. 
 It has been called a Northern * ' Il- 
 iad ' ' ; but except in the fact that both 
 Poems have a narrative character, and 
 both sing ' ' the destructive rage ' ' of 
 men, the two have scarcely any simi- 
 larity. The Singer of the ' ' Nibelun- 
 gen " is a far different person from 
 Homer ; far inferior both in culture 
 and in genius. Nothing of the 
 glowing imager}^, of the fierce, burst- 
 ing energy, of the mingled fire and 
 gloom, that dwell in the old Greek, 
 makes its appearance here. The 
 German Singer is comparatively a 
 simple nature ; has never penetrated 
 deep into life ; never ' ' questioned 
 Fate " ; or struggled with fearful mys-
 
 146 Zhc IFllbelun^cn XleO 
 
 teries ; of all which we find traces in 
 Homer, still more in Shakespeare ; but 
 with meek, believing submission, has 
 taken the Universe as he found it 
 represented to him ; and rejoices with 
 a fine childlike gladness in the mere 
 outward shows of things. He has little 
 power of delineating character ; per- 
 haps he had no decisive vision thereof. 
 His persons are superficially distin- 
 guished, and not altogether without 
 generic difference ; but the portraiture 
 is imperfectly brought out ; there lay 
 no true living original within him. 
 He has little Fancy ; we find scarcely 
 one or two similitudes in his whole 
 Poem ; and these one or two, which 
 moreover are repeated, betoken no 
 special faculty that way. He speaks 
 of the ' ' moon among stars ' ' ; says 
 often of sparks struck from steel armor 
 in battle, and so forth, that they were
 
 Zbc IFlibclungen 3LieD 147 
 
 wte es wehte der wind — ' ' as if the wind 
 were blowing them." We have men- 
 tioned Tasso along with him ; yet 
 neither in this case is there any close 
 resemblance ; the light, playful grace, 
 still more the Italian pomp and sunny 
 luxuriance of Tasso are wanting in 
 the other. His are humble wood- 
 notes wild ; no nightingale's, but yet 
 a sweet sky-hidden lark's. In all the 
 rhetorical gifts, to say nothing of rhe- 
 thorical attainments, we should pro- 
 nounce him even poor. 
 
 Nevertheless, a noble soul he must 
 have been, and furnished with far 
 more essential requisites for Poetry 
 than these are — namely, with the heart 
 and feeling of a Poet. He has a clear 
 eye for the Beautiful and True ; all 
 unites itself gracefully and compactly 
 in his imagination. It is strange with 
 what careless felicity he winds his way
 
 148 ^be IRtbelungen XieD 
 
 in that complex Narrative, and, be the 
 subject what it will, comes through it 
 unsullied, and with a smile. His great 
 strength is an unconscious instinctive 
 strength ; wherein truly lies his high- 
 est merit. The whole spirit of Chiv- 
 alry, of lyove, and heroic Valor must 
 have lived in him and inspired him. 
 Kverywhere he shows a noble Sensi- 
 bility ; the sad accents of parting 
 friends, the lamentings of women, the 
 high daring of men, all that is worthy 
 and lovely prolongs itself in melodious 
 echoes through his heart. A true old 
 Singer, and taught of Nature herself ! 
 Neither let us call him an inglorious 
 Milton, since now he is no longer a 
 mute one. What good were it that 
 the four or five lyCtters composing his 
 Name could be printed, and pro- 
 nounced, with absolute certainty ? All 
 that was mortal in him is gone utterly ;
 
 ^be IRibclungen XleD 149 
 
 of his life, and its environment, as of 
 the bodily tabernacle he dwelt in, the 
 very ashes remain not. Like a fair 
 heavenly Apparition, which indeed he 
 waSy he has melted into air, and only 
 the Voice he uttered, in virtue of its 
 inspired gift, yet lives and will live. 
 
 To the Germans this ' ' Nibelungen 
 Song ' ' is naturally an object of no com- 
 mon love ; neither if they sometimes 
 overvalue it, and vague antiquarian 
 wonder is more common than just 
 criticism, should the fault be too 
 heavily visited. After long ages of 
 concealment, they have found it in 
 the remote wilderness, still standing 
 like the trunk of some almost ante- 
 diluvian oak ; nay with boughs on it 
 still green, after all the wind and 
 weather of twelve hundred years. To 
 many a patriotic feeling, which lingers 
 fondlj^ in solitary places of the Past,
 
 150 XTbe IFllbelungcn XieD 
 
 it may well be a rallying-point and 
 * ' lyOvers' Try sting-tree. ' ' 
 
 For us also it has its worth. A 
 creation from the old ages, still bright 
 and balmy, if we visit it ; and opening 
 into the first History of Europe, of 
 Mankind. Thus all is not oblivion ; 
 but on the edge of the abyss that 
 separates the Old world from the New, 
 there hangs a fair Rainbow-land ; 
 which also, in curious repetitions of 
 itself (twiee over, say the critics), as it 
 were in a secondary and even a ternary 
 reflex, sheds some feeble twilight far 
 into the deeps of the primeval Time. 
 
 the; e;nd
 
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