The Nibelungenlied
By George Henry Needler, Translator

Preface

Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens
Albert Pinkham Ryder
Oil on canvas, 1888-91
National Gallery, Washington

This translation of the Nibelungenlied is published with the simple purpose of placing one of the world’s great epic poems within the reach of English readers. Translations are at best but poor substitutes for originals. A new translation of a poem implies also a criticism of those that have preceded it. My apology for presenting this new English version of the Nibelungenlied is that none of those hitherto made has reproduced the metrical form of the original. In the hope of making the outlines of the poem clearer for the modern reader, I have endeavored to supply in the Introduction a historical background by summing up the results of investigation into its origin and growth. The translation itself was begun many years ago, when I studied the original under Zarncke in Leipzig.

G. H. N.

University College, Toronto, September, 1904.

I. The Nibelungen Saga

1. Origin of the Saga

All the Aryan peoples have had their heroic age, the achievements of which form the basis of later saga. For the Germans this was the period of the Migrations, as it is called, in round numbers the two hundred years from 400 to 600, at the close of which we find them settled in those regions which they have, generally speaking, occupied ever since. During these two centuries kaleidoscopic changes had been taking place in the position of the various Germanic tribes. Impelled partly by a native love of wandering, partly by the pressure of hostile peoples of other race, they moved with astonishing rapidity hither and thither over the face of Europe, generally in conflict with one another or buffeted by the Romans in the west and south, and by the Huns in the east. In this stern struggle for existence and search for a permanent place of settlement some of them even perished utterly; amid the changing fortunes of all of them deeds were performed that fixed themselves in the memory of the whole people, great victories or great disasters became the subject of story and song. We need only to recall such names as those of Ermanric and Theodoric to remind ourselves what an important part was played by the Germanic peoples of that Migration Period in the history of Europe. During it a national consciousness was engendered, and in it we have the faint beginnings of a national literature. Germanic saga rests almost entirely upon the events of these two centuries, the fifth and sixth. Although we get glimpses of the Germans during the four or five preceding centuries, none of the historic characters of those earlier times have been preserved in the national sagas.

With these sagas based on history, however, have been mingled in most cases primeval Germanic myths, possessions of the people from prehistoric times. A most conspicuous example of this union of mythical and originally historical elements is the Nibelungen saga, out of which grew in course of time the great national epic, the Nibelungenlied.

The Nibelungen saga is made up of two parts, on the one hand the mythical story of Siegfried and on the other the story, founded on historic fact, of the Burgundians. When and how the Siegfried myth arose it is impossible to say; its origin takes us back into the impenetrable mists of the unrecorded life of our Germanic forefathers, and its form was moulded by the popular poetic spirit. The other part of the saga is based upon the historic incident of the overthrow of the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns in the year 437. This annihilation of a whole tribe naturally impressed itself vividly upon the imagination of contemporaries. Then the fact of history soon began to pass over into the realm of legend, and, from causes which can no longer be determined, this tradition of the vanished Burgundians became united with the mythical story of Siegfried. This composite Siegfried-Burgundian saga then became a common possession of the Germanic peoples, was borne with many of them to lands far distant from the place of its origin, and was further moulded by each according to its peculiar genius and surroundings. In the Icelandic Eddas, the oldest of which we have as they were written down in the latter part of the ninth century, are preserved the earliest records of the form it had taken among the northern Germanic peoples. Our Nibelungenlied, which is the chief source of our knowledge of the story as it developed in Germany, dates from about the year 1200. These two versions, the Northern and the German, though originating in this common source, had diverged very widely in the centuries that elapsed between their beginning and the time when the manuscripts were written in which they are preserved. Each curtailed, re-arranged, or enlarged the incidents of the story in its own way. The character of the chief actors and the motives underlying what we may call the dramatic development assumed widely dissimilar forms. The German Nibelungenlied may be read and appreciated as one of the world’s great epic poems without an acquaintance on the part of the reader with the Northern version of the saga. In order, however, to furnish the setting for a few episodes that would in that case remain either obscure or colorless, and with a view to placing the readers of this translation in a position to judge better the deeper significance of the epic as the eloquent narrative of a thousand years of the life of the people among whom it grew, the broad outlines of the saga in its Northern form will be given here.

2. The Northern Form of the Saga

Starting at the middle of the fifth century from the territory about Worms on the Rhine where the Burgundians were overthrown, the saga soon spread from the Franks to the other Germanic peoples. We have evidence of its presence in northern Germany and Denmark. Allusions to it in the Anglo-Saxon poem, the Wanderer, of the seventh century and in the great Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf of a short time later, show us that it had early become part of the national saga stock in England. Among the people of Norway and Iceland it took root and grew with particular vigor. Here, farthest away from its original home and least exposed to outward influences, it preserved on the whole most fully its heathen Germanic character, especially in its mythical part. By a fortunate turn of events, too, the written record of it here is of considerably earlier date than that which we have from Germany. The Eddas, as the extensive collection of early Icelandic poems is called, are the fullest record of Germanic mythology and saga that has been handed down to us, and in them the saga of Siegfried and the Nibelungen looms up prominently. The earliest of these poems date from about the year 850, and the most important of them were probably written down within a couple of centuries of that time. They are thus in part some three centuries older than the German Nibelungenlied, and on the whole, too, they preserve more of the original outlines of the saga. By bringing together the various episodes of the saga from the Eddas and the Volsung saga, a prose account of the mythical race of the Volsungs, we arrive at the following narrative.

On their wanderings through the world the three gods Odin, Honir, and Loki come to a waterfall where an otter is devouring a fish that it has caught. Loki kills the otter with a stone, and they take off its skin. In the evening they seek a lodging at the house of Hreidmar, to whom they show the skin. Hreidmar recognizes it as that of his son, whom Loki has killed when he had taken on the form of an otter. Assisted by his sons Fafnir and Regin, Hreidmar seizes the three gods, and spares their lives only on the promise that they will fill the skin, and also cover it outwardly, with gold. Loki is sent to procure the ransom. With a net borrowed from the sea-goddess Ran he catches at the waterfall the dwarf Andvari in form of a fish and compels him to supply the required gold. Andvari tries to keep back a ring, but this also Loki takes from him, whereupon the dwarf utters a curse upon the gold and whosoever may possess it. The ransom is now paid to Hreidmar; even the ring must, on Hreidmar’s demand, be given in order to complete the covering of the otter’s skin. Loki tells him of the curse connected with the ownership of the gold. When Hreidmar refuses Fafnir and Regin a share in the treasure, he is killed by Fafnir, who takes possession of the hoard to the exclusion of Regin. In the form of a dragon Fafnir dwells on Gnita Heath guarding the hoard, while Regin broods revenge.

From Odin is descended King Volsung, who has a family of ten sons and one daughter. The eldest son is Sigmund, twin-born with his sister Signy. King Siggeir of Gautland sues for the hand of Signy, whom her father gives to Siggeir against her will. In the midst of King Volsung’s hall stood a mighty oak-tree. As the wedding-feast is being held there enters a stranger, an old man with one eye, his hat drawn down over his face and bearing in his hand a sword. This sword he thrusts to the hilt into the tree, saying that it shall belong to him who can draw it out again; after which he disappears as he had come. All the guests try their strength in vain upon the sword, but Sigmund alone is able to draw it forth. He refuses to sell it to Siggeir for all his proffered gold. Siggeir plans vengeance. He invites Volsung and his sons to Gautland, and returns home thither with his bride Signy, who before going warns her father to be upon his guard.

At the appointed time King Volsung and his sons go as invited to Gautland. In spite of Signy’s repeated warning he will not flee from danger, and falls in combat with Siggeir; his ten sons are taken prisoners, and placed in stocks in the forest. For nine successive nights a she-wolf comes and devours each night one of them, till only Sigmund remains. By the aid of Signy he escapes. The she-wolf, it was said, was the mother of Siggeir.

To Sigmund, who has hidden in a wood, Signy sends her eldest boy of ten years that Sigmund may test his courage and see if he is fit to be a helper in seeking revenge. Neither he, however, nor his younger brother stands the test. Signy sees that only a scion of the race of Volsung will suffice, and accordingly disguises herself and lives three days with Sigmund in the wood. From their union a son Sinfiotli is born, whom also, after ten years, she sends out to Sigmund. He stands every test of courage, and is trained by Sigmund, who thinks he is Siggeir’s son.

Bent on revenge, Sigmund repairs with Sinfiotli to Siggeir’s castle. After Sinfiotli has slain the king’s two sons, he and Sigmund are overpowered and condemned to be buried alive. With Sigmund’s sword, however, which Signy has managed to place in their hands, they cut their way out, then set fire to Siggeir’s hall. Signy comes forth and reveals to Sigmund that Sinfiotli is their own son; and then, saying that her work of revenge is complete and that she can live no longer, she returns into the burning hall and perishes with Siggeir and all his race.

Sigmund now returns home and rules as a mighty king. He marries Borghild, who later kills Sinfiotli with a poisoned drink, and is cast away by Sigmund. He then marries Hjordis. Lyngvi, the son of King Hunding, was also a suitor and now invades Sigmund’s land. The latter hews down many of his enemies, until an old man with one eye, in hat and dark cloak, interposes his spear, against which Sigmund’s sword breaks in two. Sigmund falls severely wounded.

In the night Hjordis seeks the scene of the combat and finds Sigmund still alive. He refuses to allow her to heal his wounds, saying that Odin no longer wills that he swing the sword. He tells Hjordis to preserve carefully the pieces of the broken sword; the son she bears in her womb shall yet swing the sword when welded anew, and win thereby a glorious name. At dawn Sigmund dies. Hjordis is borne off by Vikings and, after the birth of her son, she becomes the wife of the Danish prince Alf.

The son of Hjordis was called Sigurd. He grew up a boy of wondrous strength and beauty, with eyes that sparkled brightly, and lived at the court of King Hjalprek, the father of Alf. Regin, the dwarfish brother of Fafnir, was his tutor. Regin welds together the pieces of the broken sword Gram, so sharp and strong that with it Sigurd cleaves Regin’s anvil in twain. With men and ships that he has received from King Hjalprek Sigurd goes against the sons of Hunding, whom he slays, thereby avenging the death of his father. Regin has urged him to kill Fafnir and take possession of the hoard. On the Gnita Heath he digs a ditch from which, as the dragon Fafnir passes over it, he plunges the sword into his heart. The dying Fafnir warns him of the curse attached to the possession of the gold; also that Regin is to be guarded against. The latter bids him roast the heart of Fafnir. While doing so he burns his finger by dipping it in the blood to see if the heart is done, and to cool his finger puts it into his mouth. Suddenly he is able to understand the language of the birds in the wood. They warn him to beware of Regin, whom he straightway slays. The birds tell him further of the beautiful valkyrie Brynhild, who sleeps on the fire-encircled mountain awaiting her deliverer. Then Sigurd places Fafnir’s hoard upon his steed Grani, takes with him also Fafnir’s helm, and rides away to Frankenland. He sees a mountain encircled by a zone of fire, makes his way into it and beholds there, as he deems it, a man in full armor asleep. When he takes off the helmet he finds that it is a woman. With his sword he cuts loose the armor. The woman wakes and asks if it be the hero Sigurd who has awakened her. In joy that it is so, Brynhild relates to him how Odin had punished her by this magic sleep for disobedience, and how that she had yet obtained from him the promise that she should be wakened only by a hero who knew no fear. She now teaches Sigurd many wise runes, and tells him of harm to fear through love of her. In spite of all, however, Sigurd does not waver, and they swear an oath of mutual faithful love.

Next Sigurd comes to King Gjuki at the Rhine, and joins in friendship with him and his sons Gunnar and Hogni. Queen Grimhild gives Sigurd a potion which causes him to forget Brynhild and be filled with love for her own daughter Gudrun, whom he marries. Gunnar now seeks Brynhild for wife, and Sigurd goes with him on his wooing-journey. They come to the castle encircled by fire, where Brynhild lives. She will be wooed only by him who will ride to her through the flames. Gunnar tries in vain to do this, even when mounted on Sigurd’s steed Grani. Sigurd and Gunnar then exchange shapes and the former spurs Grani through the flames. He calls himself Gunnar the son of Gjuki, and finally Brynhild consents to become his wife. Three nights he shares her couch, but always his sharp sword lies between them. He takes the ring from her finger and places in its stead one from Fafnir’s treasure. Then he exchanges form again with Gunnar, who is soon after wedded to Brynhild. Only now does Sigurd recollect the oath that he once swore to Brynhild himself.

One day Brynhild and Gudrun are bathing in the Rhine. A quarrel arises between them when Brynhild takes precedence of Gudrun by going into the water above her in the stream, saying that her husband is a braver and mightier man than Gudrun’s. Gudrun retorts by revealing the secret that it was Sigurd in Gunnar’s form, and not Gunnar himself, who rode through the flame, and in proof thereof shows her the ring taken by Sigurd from Brynhild’s finger. Pale as death, Brynhild goes quietly home: Gunnar must die, she says in wrath. Sigurd tries to pacify her, even offering to desert Gudrun. Now she will have neither him nor another, and when Gunnar appears she demands of him Sigurd’s death. In spite of Hogni’s protest Gunnar’s stepbrother Gutthorm, who has not sworn blood-friendship with Sigurd, is got to do the deed. He is given the flesh of wolf and serpent to eat in order to make him savage. Twice Gutthorm goes to kill Sigurd, but cowers before the piercing glance of his eyes; at last he steals upon Sigurd asleep and thrusts his sword through him. The dying Sigurd hurls the sword after the fleeing murderer and cuts him in two. To Gudrun, who wakes from sleep by his side, he points to Brynhild as the instigator of the crime, and dies. Brynhild rejoices at the sound of Gudrun’s wailing. Gudrun cannot find relief for her grief, the tears will not flow. Men and women seek to console her by tales of greater woes befallen them. But still Gudrun cannot weep as she sits by Sigurd’s corpse. At last one of the women lifts the cloth from Sigurd’s face and lays his head upon Gudrun’s lap. Then Gudrun gazes on his blood-besmirched hair, his dimmed eyes, and breast pierced by the sword: she sinks down upon the couch and a flood of tears bursts at length from her eyes.

Brynhild now tells Gunnar that Sigurd had really kept faith with him on the wooing journey; but she will live with him no longer and pierces herself with a sword, after foretelling to Gunnar his future fate and that of Gudrun. In accord with her own request she is burned on one funeral-pyre with Sigurd, the sword between them as once before.

Atli,[1] king of the Huns, now seeks Gudrun for wife. She refuses, but Grimhild gives her a potion which causes her to forget Sigurd and the past, and then she becomes the wife of Atli. After Sigurd’s death Gunnar had taken possession of the Niflungen hoard, and this Atli now covets. He treacherously invites Gunnar and the others to visit him, which they do in spite of Gudrun’s warnings, first of all, however, sinking the hoard in the Rhine. On their arrival Atli demands of them the hoard, which, he says, belongs of right to Gudrun. On their refusal he attacks them. Hosts of fighters on both sides fall and in the end Gunnar and Hogni, the only two of their number remaining, are bound in fetters. Gunnar refuses Atli’s command to reveal the hiding-place of the hoard, bidding them bring to him the heart of Hogni. They kill a servant and bring his heart to Gunnar; but Gunnar sees how it still quivers with fear, and knows it is not the heart of the fearless Hogni. Then the latter is really killed, and his heart is brought to Gunnar, who cries exultingly that now only the Rhine knows where the hoard lies hidden. In spite of Gudrun Atli orders that Gunnar be thrown into a den of serpents. With a harp communicated to him by Gudrun he pacifies them all but one, which stings him to the heart, and thus Gunnar dies. Gudrun is nominally reconciled with Atli, but in secret plans revenge for the death of her brothers. She kills Atli’s two sons, gives him at a banquet their blood to drink and their hearts to eat. In the night she plunges a sword into his own heart, confesses herself to him as his murderer, and sets fire to the castle, in which Atli and all his remaining men are consumed.

[1] That is, Attila; the Etzel of the Nibelungenlied.

3. The Saga as preserved in the Nibelungenlied

The saga as we find it in the German Nibelungenlied differs very widely in form and substance from the Northern version which has just been outlined, though the two have still enough points of similarity to indicate clearly a common origin. Each bears the stamp of the poetic genius of the people among whom it grew. Of all the sagas of the Germanic peoples none holds so prominent a place as the Nibelungen saga, and it may safely be said that the epic literature of the world, though offering poems of more refined literary worth, has none that are at the same time such valuable records of the growth of the poetic genius of two kindred peoples through many centuries of their early civilization as the Edda poems of this saga and the Nibelungenlied. It is impossible here to undertake a comparison of the two and point out in detail their parallelism and their respective significance as monuments of civilization; suffice it to indicate briefly the chief points of difference in the two stories, and note particularly those parts of the Nibelungenlied that have, as it were, suffered atrophy, and that point to earlier stages of the saga in which, as in the Northern version, they played a more important role.

First, as to the hoard. The Nibelungenlied knows nothing of its being taken by Loki from Andvari, of the latter’s curse upon it, and how it came finally into the possession of Fafnir, the giant-dragon. Here it belongs, as we learn from Hagen’s account (strophes 86-99), to Siegfried (Sigurd), who has slain the previous owners of it, Schilbung and Nibelung, and wrested it from its guardian the dwarf Alberich (Andvari). From this point onward its history runs nearly parallel in the two versions. After Siegfried’s death it remains for a time with Kriemhild (Gudrun), is treacherously taken from her by Gunther (Gunnar) and Hagen (Hogni), and finally, before their journey to Etzel (Atli), sunk in the Rhine.

The protracted narrative of Sigurd’s ancestry and his descent from Odin has no counterpart in the Nibelungenlied. Here we learn merely that Siegfried is the son of Siegmund. His father plays an entirely different part; and his mother’s name is not Hjordis, as in the Edda, but Siegelind.

Of Siegfried’s youth the Nibelungenlied knows very little. No mention is made of his tutelage to the dwarf smith Regin and preparation for the slaying of the dragon Fafnir. The account of him placed in the mouth of Hagen (strophes 86-501), how he won the hoard, the tarnkappe, and the sword Balmung, and slew the dragon, is evidently a faint echo of an earlier version of this episode, which sounds out of place in the more modern German form of the story. From the latter the mythical element has almost entirely vanished. It is worthy of note, moreover, that the very brief account of Siegfried’s slaying of the dragon is given in the Nibelungenlied as separate from his acquisition of the hoard, and differs in detail from that of the Edda. Of Sigurd’s steed Grani, his ride to Frankenland, and his awakening of Brynhild the Nibelungenlied has nothing to tell us. Through the account of Siegfried’s assistance to Gunther in the latter’s wooing of Brunhild (Adventures 6 and 7) shimmers faintly, however, the earlier tradition of the mythical Siegfried’s awakening of the fire-encircled valkyrie. Only by our knowledge of a more original version can we explain, for example, Siegfried’s previous acquaintance with Brunhild which the Nibelungenlied takes for granted but says nothing of. On this point of the relation between Sigurd and Brynhild it is difficult to form a clear account owing to the confusion and even contradictions that exist when the various Northern versions themselves are placed side by side. The name of the valkyrie whom Sigurd awakens from her magic sleep is not directly mentioned. Some of the accounts are based on the presupposition that she is one with the Brynhild whom Sigurd later wooes for Gunnar, while others either know nothing of the sleeping valkyrie or treat the two as separate personages. The situation in the Nibelungenlied is more satisfactorily explained by the theory that they were originally identical. But we see at once that the figure of Brunhild has here lost much of its original significance. It is her quarrel with Kriemhild (Gudrun) that leads to Siegfried’s death, though the motives are not just the same in the two cases; and after the death of Siegfried she passes unaccountably from the scene.

But it is in the concluding part of the story–the part which, as we shall see, has its basis in actual history–that the two accounts diverge most widely. So strange, indeed, has been the evolution of the saga that the central character of it, Kriemhild (Gudrun) holds a diametrically opposite relation to her husband Etzel (Atli) at the final catastrophe in the two versions. In the Nibelungenlied as in the Edda the widowed Kriemhild (Gudrun) marries King Etzel (Atli), her consent in the former resulting from a desire for revenge upon the murderers of Siegfried, in the latter from the drinking of a potion which takes away her memory of him; in the Nibelungenlied it is Kriemhild who treacherously lures Gunther and his men to their destruction unknown to Etzel, in the Edda the invitation comes from Atli, while Gudrun tries to warn them to stay at home; in the former Kriemhild is the author of the attack on the guests, in the latter Atli; in the former Kriemhild is the frenzied avenger of her former husband Siegfried’s death upon her brother Gunther, in the latter Gudrun is the avenger of her brothers’ death upon her husband Atli.

4. Mythical Element and Historical Element

A sifting of the Nibelungen saga reveals a mythical element (the story of Siegfried) and a historical element (the story of the Burgundians and Etzel). How, when, and where these two elements were blended together must remain largely a matter of conjecture. This united central body received then from time to time accessions of other elements, some of them originally historical in character, some of them pure inventions of the poetic imagination.

The Siegfried myth is the oldest portion of the Nibelungen saga, and had already passed through a long period of development before its union with the story of the Burgundian kings. Like so many others of its kind, it is part of the spiritual equipment of our Germanic ancestors at the dawn of their recorded history. It grew gradually with the people themselves and has its counterpart among other peoples. Such myths are a record of the impressions made upon the mind of man by the mighty manifestations of the world of nature in which he lives; their formation may be likened to the unconscious impressions of its surroundings on the mind of the child. And just as the grown man is unable to trace back the formation of his own individuality to its very beginnings in infancy, so is it impossible for the later nation in its advanced stage to peer back beyond the dawn of its history. It is in the gloom beyond the dawn that such myths as this of Siegfried have their origin.

Though modern authorities differ greatly in their conjectures, it is generally agreed that the Siegfried story was in its original form a nature-myth. The young day slays the mist-dragon and awakens the sun-maiden that sleeps on the mountain; at evening he falls a prey to the powers of gloom that draw the sun down again beneath the earth. With this day-myth was probably combined the parallel myth of the changing seasons: the light returns in spring, slays the cloud-dragon, and frees the budding earth from the bonds of winter.[2]

[2] For the Siegfried saga in general see Symons in Paul’s Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, 2d ed., vol. III, pp. 651-671.

In the course of time this nature-myth became transformed into a hero-saga; the liberating power of light was humanized into the person of the light-hero Siegfried. This stage of development had already been reached at the time of our earliest records, and the evidences point to the Rhine Franks, a West Germanic tribe settled in the fifth century in the country about Cologne, as the people among whom the transformation from nature-myth to hero-saga took place, for it is among them that the saga in its earliest form is localized. By the Rhine Siegfried is born, there he wins the Nibelungen hoard, and in Frankenland he finds the sleeping valkyrie. By the Rhine, too, he enters into service with the Nibelungen kings and weds their sister.

The Franks had as neighbors up-stream in the first half of the fifth century the Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe. These Burgundians, who were closely allied to the Goths, had originally dwelt in the Baltic region between the Vistula and the Oder, whence they had made their way south westward across Germany and settled in the year 413 in Germania prima on the west bank of the Rhine about Worms. Here a tragic fate was soon to overtake them. In the year 435 they had already suffered a reverse in a conflict with the Romans under Aetius, and two years later, in 437, they were practically annihilated by the Huns. Twenty thousand of them, we are told, fell in battle, the remainder were scattered southward. Beyond the brief record by a contemporary, Prosper, we know but little of this event. It has been conjectured that the Huns were on this occasion acting as auxiliaries of Aetius. At any rate it is fairly certain that Attila was not personally on the scene.

We can easily imagine what a profound impression this extinction of the Burgundians would produce upon the minds of their neighbors the Rhine Franks. Fact, too, would soon become mingled with fiction. This new feat was ascribed to Attila himself, already too well known as the scourge of Europe and the subduer of so many German tribes. A very few years later, however, fate was to subdue the mighty conqueror himself. With the great battle of Chalons in 451 the tide turned against him, and two years afterwards he died a mysterious death. The historian Jordanes of the sixth century relates that on the morning after Attila’s wedding with a German princess named Ildico (Hildiko) he was found lying in bed in a pool of blood, having died of a hemorrhage. The mysteriousness of Attila’s ending inspired his contemporaries with awe, and the popular fancy was not slow to clothe this event also in a dress of fiction. The attendant circumstances peculiarly favored such a process. Historians soon recorded the belief that Attila had perished at the hands of his wife, and it was only a step further for the imagination to find the motive for the deed in the desire of Hildiko to avenge the death of her German kinsmen who had perished through Attila. The saga of Attila’s death is before long connected with the growing Burgundian saga, Hildiko becomes the sister of the Burgundian kings Gundahari, Godomar, and Gislahari, and her deed is vengeance taken upon Attila for his destruction of her brothers. As is seen at once from the outline I have already given (Chapter 2.) of the saga as we find it in the Edda, this is the stage of development it had reached when it began to find its way northward from the Rhine country to Norway and Iceland.

It is unnecessary here to record the speculations–for beyond speculations we cannot go–as to how the union of this historical saga of the Burgundians and Attila with the Siegfried saga took place. In the course of time, and naturally with greatest probability among the Rhine Franks who followed the Burgundians as occupants of Germania prima, the two were brought together, and the three Burgundian kings and their sister were identified with the three Nibelungen kings and their sister of the already localized Siegfried saga. It is also beyond the scope of this introduction to follow the course of the saga northward or to note its further evolution during its wanderings and in its new home until it was finally recorded in poetic form in the Edda. We have now to consider briefly the transformation it passed through in Germany between this date (about 500) and the time (about 1200) when it emerges in written record as the Nibelungenlied.

An account has already been given (Chapter 3.) of the chief features in which the Nibelungenlied differs from the Northern form. As we saw there, the mythical element of the Siegfried saga has almost entirely evaporated and the historical saga of the Burgundian kings and Attila has undergone a complete transformation. That the originally mythical and heathen Siegfried saga should dwindle away with the progress of civilization and under the influence of Christianity was but natural. The character of the valkyrie Brynhild who avenges upon Sigurd his infidelity to her, yet voluntarily unites herself with him in death, as heathen custom demanded, is no longer intelligible. She recedes into the background, and after Siegfried’s death, though she is still living, she plays no further part. The Nibelungenlied found its final form on Upper German, doubtless Austrian, territory. Here alone was it possible that that greatest of all transformations could take place, namely, in the character of Attila. The Franks of the Rhine knew him only as the awe-inspiring conqueror who had annihilated their neighbors the Burgundians. In Austrian lands it was quite otherwise. Many Germanic tribes, particularly the East Goths, had fought under the banner of Attila, and in the tradition handed down from them he lived as the embodiment of wisdom and generosity. Here it was impossible that epic story should picture him as slaying the Burgundian kings through a covetous desire for their gold. The annihilation of the Burgundians is thus left without a motive. To supply this, Kriemhild’s character is placed upon an entirely different basis. Instead of avenging upon Attila the death of her brothers the Burgundian kings, Kriemhild now avenges upon her brothers the slaying of her first husband Siegfried. This fundamental change in the character of Kriemhild has a deep ethical reason. To the ancient heathen Germans the tie of blood-relationship was stronger than that of wedlock, and thus in the original version of the story Attila’s wife avenges upon him the death of her brothers; to the Christianized Germans of later times the marriage bond was the stronger, and accordingly from the altered motive Kriemhild avenges upon her brothers the slaying of her husband. In accordance, too, with this ethical transformation the scene of the catastrophe is transferred from Worms to Attila’s court. Kriemhild now looms up as the central figure of the second half of the drama, while Etzel remains to the last ignorant of her designs for revenge.

This transformation of the fundamental parts of the saga was accompanied by another process, namely, the addition of new characters. Some of these are the product of the poetic faculty of the people or individuals who preserved and remoulded the story in the course of centuries, others are based upon history. To the former class belong the Margrave Ruediger, the ideal of gentle chivalry, and Volker the Fiddler-knight, doubtless a creation of the spielleute. To the second class belong Dietrich of Bern, in whom we see the mighty East Gothic king, Theodoric of Verona; also Bishop Pilgrim of Passau, a very late importation, besides several others in whom are perpetuated in more or less faint outline actual persons of history. This introduction of fresh characters from time to time as the saga grew has led to some strange anachronisms, which however are a disturbing element only to us readers of a modern day, who with sacrilegious hand lift the veil through which they were seen in a uniform haze of romance by the eye of the knights and ladies of seven centuries ago. They neither knew nor cared to know, for instance, that Attila was dead before Theodoric was born, and that Bishop Pilgrim flourished at Passau the trifling space of five hundred years later still.[3]

[3] Attila lived from about 406 to 453; Theodoric, 475 to 526. Pilgrim was Bishop of Passau, 971 to 991.

II. The Nibelungenlied

1. The Manuscripts

Among the German epic poems of the Middle Ages the Nibelungenlied [4] enjoyed an exceptional popularity, as is evident from the large number of manuscripts–some thirty, either complete or fragmentary–that have been preserved from the centuries immediately following its appearance. Three are of prime importance as texts, namely, those preserved now in Munich, St. Gall, and Donaueschingen, and cited as A, B, and C respectively. Since the time when Lachmann, about a century ago, made the first scientific study of the poem, a whole flood of writings has been poured forth discussing the relative merits of these texts. Each in turn has had its claims advocated with warmth and even acrimony. None of these three principal manuscripts, however, offers the poem in its earliest form; they all point to a still earlier version. It is now generally admitted that the St. Gall manuscript (B), according to which the present translation has been made, contains the best and most nearly original text.

[4] The closing strophe of MS. C calls the poem der Nibelunge liet, or Nibelungenlied, i.e. the lay of the Nibelungen, and this is the title by which it is commonly known. MSS. A and B have in the corresponding strophe der Nibelunge not, i.e. the ’need’, ’distress’, ’downfall’ of the Nibelungen. In the title of the poem ’Nibelungen’ is simply equivalent to ’Burgundians’: the poem relates the downfall of the Burgundian kings and their people. Originally the Nibelungen were, as their name, which is connected with nebel, ’mist’, ’gloom’, signifies, the powers of darkness to whom the light-hero Siegfried fell a prey. After Siegfried obtains possession of the treasure the name Nibelungen is still applied to Alberich and the dwarfs who guard it and who are now Siegfried’s vassals. Then after Siegfried’s death the name is given to the Burgundians. It is a mistake to suppose that the name was applied in each case to those who became possessors of the hoard, for Siegfried himself is never so designated.

2. Stages in the Evolution of the Poem

Hand in hand with the discussion of the relative authenticity of the manuscripts went the consideration of another more important literary question,–the evolution of the poem itself. Even if we knew nothing of the history of the Nibelungen saga as revealed in the Edda and through other literary and historic sources, a reading of the poem would give us unmistakable hints that it is not, in its present form, a perfect literary unit. We detect inconsistencies in matter and inequalities of style that prove it to be a remodelling of material already existing in some earlier form. What, then, has been the history of its evolution? How did this primeval Siegfried myth, this historical saga of the Burgundians and Attila, first come to be part of the poetic stock of the German people? What was its earliest poetic form, and what series of transformations did it pass through during seven centuries of growth? These and many kindred questions present themselves, and the search for answers to them takes us through many winding labyrinths of the nation’s contemporary history. Few products of German literature have so exercised and tantalized critics as the Nibelungenlied.

In this connection we have to remind ourselves that comparatively little of what must have been the large body of native poetry in Germany previous to the eleventh century has come down to us. Barely enough has been preserved to show the path of the nation’s literary progress. Some of the important monuments have been saved by chance, while others of equal or perhaps greater value have been irrecoverably lost. The interest in the various incidents of the Nibelungen story was sufficient to keep it alive among the people and hand it down orally through many generations. If we could observe it as it passed from age to age we should doubtless see it undergoing continuous change according to the time and the class of the people that were the preservers of the native literature in its many ups and downs. Lachmann in the year 1816 was the first to bring scientific criticism to bear on the question of the Nibelungenlied and its origin. Applying to it the same methods as had recently been used by Wolf in his criticism of the Homeric poems, he thought he was able to discover as the basis of the complete epic a cycle of twenty separate lieder, ballads or shorter episodic poems, on the strength of which belief he went so far as to publish an edition of the poem in which he made the division into the twenty separate lays and eliminated those strophes (more than one third of the whole number) that he deemed not genuine. It is now generally admitted, however, that the pioneer of Nibelungen investigation fell here into over-positive refinements of literary criticism. Separate shorter poems there doubtless existed narrating separate episodes of the story, but these are no longer to be arrived at by a process of critical disintegration and pruning of the epic as we have it. An examination of the twenty lieder according to Lachmann’s division convinces us that they are not separate units in the sense he conceived them to be. Though these twenty lieder may be based upon a number of earlier episodic poems, yet the latter already constituted a connected series. They were already like so many scenes of a gradually developing drama. Events were foreshadowed in one that were only fulfilled in another, and the incidents of later ones are often only intelligible on the supposition of an acquaintance with motives that originated in preceding ones. It is in this sense only, not according to Lachmann’s overwrought theory, that we are justified in speaking of a liedercyclus, or cycle of separate episodic poems, as the stage of the epic antecedent to the complete form in which we now have it. But beyond this cycle we cannot trace it back. How the mythical saga of Siegfried and the Nibelungen, and the story of the Burgundians and Attila, were first sung in alliterative lays in the Migration Period, how as heathen song they were pushed aside or slowly influenced by the spirit of Christianity, how with changing time they changed also their outward poetical garb from alliteration to rhyme and altered verse-form, till at last in the twelfth century they have become the cycle of poems from which the great epic of the Nibelungenlied could be constructed–of all this we may form a faint picture from the development of the literature in general, but direct written record of it is almost completely wanting.

3. Character of the Poem

The twelfth and thirteenth centuries witnessed far-reaching changes in the social and intellectual life of the German lands, the leading feature of which is the high development of all that is included under the name of chivalry. It is marked, too, by a revival of the native literature such as had not been known before, a revival which is due almost entirely to its cultivation by the nobility. From emperor down to the simple knight they were patrons of poetry and, what is most striking, nearly all the poets themselves belong to the knightly class. The drama has not yet begun, but in the field of epic and lyric there appear about the year 1200 poets who are among the greatest that German literature even down to the present time has to show. The epic poetry of that period, though written almost entirely by the knights, is of two distinct kinds according to its subject: on the one hand what is called the Court Epic, on the other hand the National, or Popular, Epic. The Court Epic follows for the most part French models and deals chiefly with the life of chivalry, whose ideals were embodied in king Arthur and his circle of knights; the National Epic drew its subjects from the national German saga, its two great products being the Nibelungenlied and the poem of Gudrun. Court Epic and National Epic are further distinct in form, the Court Epic being written in the rhymed couplets popularized in modern times in English by Sir Walter Scott, while the National Epic is composed in four-lined strophes.

Though we know the name and more or less of the life of the authors of the many court epics of the period, the name of the poet who gave the Nibelungenlied its final form has not been recorded. As we have seen, the poem is at bottom of a truly popular, national character, having its beginnings in mythology and early national history. For centuries the subject had been national property and connected with the name of no one individual. We have it now in the form in which it was remodelled to suit the taste of the court and the nobility, and like the court epic to be read aloud in castle hall. That it is written in four-lined strophes[5] and not in the usual rhymed couplets of the court epics is doubtless due to the fact that the former verse-form had already been used in the earlier ballads upon which it is based, and was simply taken over by the final moulder of the poem. This latter was probably a member of the nobility like the great majority of the epic poets of the time; he must at least have been well acquainted with the manners, tastes, sentiments, and general life of the nobility. Through him the poem was brought outwardly more into line with the literary ideals of the court circles. This shows itself chiefly in a negative way, namely, in the almost complete avoidance of the coarse language and farcical situations so common with the popular poet, the spielmann. Beyond this no violence is done to the simple form of the original. The style is still inornate and direct, facts still speak rather than words, and there is nothing approaching the refined psychological dissection of characters and motives such as we find in Wolfram von Eschenbach and the other court writers.

[5] For description of the Nibelungen strophe see below, Chapter 7.

When we look to the inner substance we see that the ground ideals are still those of the original Germanic heroic age. The chief characters are still those of the first stages of the story–Siegfried, Brunhild, Gunther, Kriemhild, Hagen. The fundamental theme is the ancient theme of triuwe, unswerving personal loyalty and devotion, which manifests itself above all in the characters of Kriemhild and Hagen. Kriemhild’s husband Siegfried is treacherously slain: her sorrow and revenge are the motives of the drama. Hagen’s mistress has, though with no evil intent on Siegfried’s part, received an insult to her honor: to avenge that insult is Hagen’s absorbing duty, which he fulfils with an utter disregard of consequences. Over this their fundamental character the various persons of the story have received a gloss of outward conduct in keeping with the close of the twelfth century. The poet is at pains to picture them as models of courtly bearing, excelling in hofscheit, zuht, tugent. Great attention is paid to dress, and the preparation of fitting apparel for court festivities is described and re-described with wearisome prolixity. A cardinal virtue is milte, liberality in the bestowal of gifts. Courtesy toward women is observed with the careful formality of the age of the minnesingers. It was above all Siegfried, the light-hero of the original myth, whose character lent itself to an idealization of knighthood. Ruediger holds a like place in the latter part of the poem. In the evident pleasure with which the minstrel-knight Volker of the sword-fiddlebow is depicted, as well doubtless as in occasional gleams of broader humor, the hand of the minstrels who wrought on the story in its earlier ballad stages may be seen. And the whole poem, in keeping with its form in an age strongly under church influence, has been tinged with the ideals of Christianity. Not only does the ordinary conversation of all the characters, including even the heathen Etzel, contain a great number of formal imprecations of God, but Christian institutions and Christian ethics come frequently into play. Mass is sung in the minster, baptism, marriage, burial are celebrated in Christian fashion, the devil is mentioned according to the Christian conception, we hear of priest, chaplain, and bishop, Christians are contrasted with heathen, and Kriemhild, in marrying Etzel, has a hope of turning him to Christianity. In Hagen’s attempt to drown the chaplain whom the Burgundians have with them as they set out for the land of the Huns we have perhaps an expression of the conflict between the heathen and the Christian elements, possibly also a reflection of the traditional animosity of the spielmann to his clerical rival.

The Nibelungenlied and the Iliad of Homer have often been compared, but after all to no great purpose. The two epics are alike in having their roots deep in national origins, but beyond this we have contrasts rather than resemblances. The Iliad is a more varied and complete picture of the whole Greek world than the Nibelungenlied is of the German, its religious atmosphere has not been disturbed in the same way as that of the saga of early Germanic times projected several centuries into a later Christian age, and it possesses in every way a greater unity of sentiment. In the varied beauty of its language, its wealth of imagery, its depth of feeling and copiousness of incident the Iliad is superior to the Nibelungenlied with its language of simple directness, its few lyrical passages, its expression of feeling by deeds rather than by words. Homer, too, is in general buoyant, the Nibelungenlied is sombre and stern. And in one last respect the two epics differ most of all: the Iliad is essentially narrative and descriptive, a series of episodes; the Nibelungenlied is essentially dramatic, scene following scene of dramatic necessity and pointing steadily to a final and inevitable catastrophe.

4. Later Forms of the Saga

In the Northern Edda and in the German Nibelungenlied the Nibelungen saga found its fullest and most poetic expression. But these were not to be the only literary records of it. Both in Scandinavian lands and in Germany various other monuments, scattered over the intervening centuries, bear witness to the fact that it lived on in more or less divergent forms. The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus of the latter part of the twelfth century has a reference to the story of Kriemhild’s treachery toward her brothers. About the year 1250 an extensive prose narrative, known as the Thidrekssaga, was written by a Norwegian from oral accounts given him by men from Bremen and Munster. This narrative is interesting as showing the form the saga had taken by that date on Low German territory, and holds an important place in the history of the development of the saga. It has much more to say of the early history of Siegfried than we find in the Nibelungenlied, and yet in the main outlines of the story of Kriemhild’s revenge it corresponds with the German epic and not with the Northern Edda. A chronicle of the island of Hven in the Sound, dating in its original form from the sixteenth century, as well as Danish ballads on the same island that have lived on into modern times, tell of Sivard (Siegfried), Brynhild, and also of Grimild’s (Kriemhild’s) revenge. In Norway and Sweden traces of the saga have recently been discovered; while songs that are sung on the Faroe Islands, as an accompaniment to the dance on festive occasions, have been recorded, containing over six hundred strophes in which is related in more or less distorted form the Nibelungen story.

In Germany the two poems known as the Klage and Hurnen Seyfrid are the most noteworthy additional records of the Nibelungen saga, as offering in part at least independent material. The Klage is a poem of over four thousand lines in rhymed couplets, about half of it being an account of the mourning of Etzel, Dietrich, and Hildebrand as they seek out the slain and prepare them for burial, the other half telling of the bringing of the news to Bechlaren, Passau, and Worms. The poem was written evidently very soon after the Nibelungenlied, the substance of which was familiar to the author, though he also draws in part from other sources. Compared with the Nibelungenlied it possesses but little poetic merit and is written with distinctly Christian sentiment which is out of harmony with the ground-tone of the Germanic tragedy.

The Hurnen Seyfrid is a poem of 179 four-lined strophes which is preserved only in a print of the sixteenth century, but at least a portion of whose substance reaches back in its original form to a period preceding the composition of the Nibelungenlied. It is evidently, as we have it, formed by the union of two earlier separate poems, which are indeed to a certain extent contradictory of each other. The first tells of the boyhood of Seyfrid (Siegfried) and his apprenticeship to the smith; how he slew many dragons, burned them, and smeared over his body with the resulting fluid horny substance (hence his name hurnen), which made him invulnerable; how he further found the hoard of the dwarf Nybling, and by service to King Gybich won the latter’s daughter for his wife. The second part tells how King Gybich reigned at Worms. He has three sons, Gunther, Hagen, Gyrnot, and one daughter, Kriemhild. The latter is borne off by a dragon, but finally rescued by Seyfrid, to whom she is given in marriage. The three brothers are jealous of the might and fame of Seyfrid, and after eight years Hagen slays him beside a cool spring in the Ottenwald.

The poem Biterolf, written soon after the Nibelungenlied, and Rosengarten of perhaps a half-century later, represent Dietrich in conflict with Siegfried at Worms. The famous shoemaker-poet Hans Sachs of Nuremberg in 1557 constructed a tragedy, Der hornen Sewfriedt, on the story of Siegfried as he knew it from the Hurnen Seyfrid and the Rosengarten. A prose version of the Hurnen Seyfrid, with free additions and alterations, is preserved in the Volksbuch vom gehornten Sigfrid, the oldest print of which dates from the year 1726. Of the vast number of Fairy Tales, those most genuine creations of the poetic imagination of the people, in which live on, often to be sure in scarcely recognizable form, many of the myths and sagas of the nation’s infancy, there are several that may with justice be taken as relics of the Siegfried myth, for instance, The Two Brothers, The Young Giant, The Earth-Manikin, The King of the Golden Mount, The Raven, The Skilled Huntsman, and perhaps also the Golden Bird and The Water of Life;[6] though it would seem from recent investigations that Thorn-Rose or the Sleeping Beauty, is no longer to be looked upon as the counterpart of the sleeping Brynhild. Finally, it is probable that several names in Germany and in Northern countries preserve localized memories of the saga.

[6] These will be found in Grimm’s Marchen as numbers 60, 90-93, 111, 57, and 97.

5. Poem and Saga in Modern Literature

Fundamentally different from the foregoing natural outgrowths of the Nibelungen saga are the modern dramas and poems founded upon it since the time of the romanticists at the beginning of the nineteenth century.[7] Nearly all of these have already vanished as so much chaff from the winnowing-mill of time: only two, perhaps, are now considered seriously, namely, Hebbel’s Die Nibelungen and Richard Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen. Hebbel in his grandly conceived drama in three parts follows closely the story as we have it in our epic poem the Nibelungenlied, and the skill with which he makes use of its tragic elements shows his dramatic genius at its best. But not even the genius of Hebbel could make these forms of myth and saga live again for us upon a modern stage, and the failure of this work with its wealth of poetic beauty and many scenes of highest dramatic effectiveness to maintain its place as an acting drama is sufficient evidence that the yawning gap that separates the sentiment of the modern world from that of the early centuries in which these sagas grew is not to be bridged over by the drama, however easy and indeed delightful it may be for us to allow ourselves to be transported thither to that romantic land upon the wings of epic story. Wagner in his music-drama in three parts and prelude has followed in the main the saga in its Northern form [8] up to the death of Siegfried and Brunhild, but to the entire exclusion of the latter part of the story in which Atli (Etzel) figures; his work has accordingly hardly any connection with the Nibelungenlied here offered in translation. Only the pious loyalty of national sentiment can assign a high place in dramatic literature to Wagner’s work with its intended imitation of the alliterative form of verse; while his philosophizing gods and goddesses are also but decadent modern representatives of their rugged heathen originals.

[7] The curious will find a list of these in the introduction to Piper’s edition, cited below, Chapter 7. [8] See above, Chapter 2.

6. Modern German Translations

The language of the Nibelungenlied presents about the same difficulty to the German reader of to-day as that of our English Chaucer to us. Many translations into modern German have accordingly been made to render it accessible to the average reader without special study. In the year 1767 Bodmer in Zurich published a translation into hexameters of a portion of it, and since the investigations of Lachmann raised it to the position of a national epic of first magnitude many more have appeared, both in prose and verse. The best in prose is that by Scherr, of the year 1860. Of the metrical translations that by Simrock, which in its later editions follows pretty closely the text of MS. C, is deservedly the most popular and has passed through a great number of editions. Bartsch has also made a translation based on his edition of MS. B. These modern versions by Simrock and Bartsch reproduce best the metrical quality of the original strophe. Easily obtainable recent translations are those by Junghans (in Reclam’s Universalbibliothek) of text C, and by Hahn (Collection Spemann) of text A.

7. English Translations[9]

[9] For a complete list of these, also of magazine articles, etc., relating to the Nibelungenlied, see F. E. Sandbach, The Nibelungenlied and Gudrun in England and America, London, 1903.

Early in last century interest in the Nibelungenlied began to manifest itself in England. A synopsis of it, with metrical translation of several strophes, appeared in the year 1814 in Weber, Jamieson and Scott’s "Illustrations of Northern Antiquities” (London and Edinburgh), in which, according to Lockhart, Sir Walter Scott’s hand may perhaps be seen. Carlyle, laboring as a pioneer to spread a knowledge of German literature in England, contributed to the Westminster Review in 1831 his well-known essay on the Nibelungenlied which, though containing an additional mass of rather ill-arranged matter and now antiquated in many particulars, is still well worth reading for its enthusiastic account of the epic itself in the genuine style of the author. Carlyle here reproduces in metrical form a few strophes. He has said elsewhere that one of his ambitions was to make a complete English version of the poem. Since then an endless number of accounts of it, chiefly worthless, has appeared in magazines and elsewhere. The first attempt at a complete metrical translation was made in 1848 by Jonathan Birch, who however only reproduces Lachmann’s twenty lieder, with some fifty-one strophes added on his own account. His version of the first strophe runs thus:

Legends of by-gone times reveal wonders and prodigies,

  Of heroes worthy endless fame,–of matchless braveries,–
  Of jubilees and festal sports,–of tears and sorrows great,–
  And knights who daring combats fought:–the like I now relate.

In 1850 appeared William Nansom Lettsom’s translation of the whole poem according to Braunfels’ edition, with the opening strophe turned as follows:

In stories of our fathers high marvels we are told

  Of champions well approved in perils manifold.

  Of feasts and merry meetings, of weeping and of wail,

  And deeds of gallant daring I’ll tell you in my tale.

The next metrical rendering is that by A. G. Foster-Barham in the year 1887. His first strophe reads:

Many a wondrous story have the tales of old,

  Of feats of knightly glory, and of the Heroes bold,

  Of the delights of feasting, of weeping and of wail,

  Of noble deeds of daring; you may list strange things in my tale.

In the year 1898 follows still another, by Alice Horton (edited by E. Bell). This latest translation is based on Bartsch’s text of MS. B, and is prefaced by Carlyle’s essay. First strophe:

To us, in olden legends, / is many a marvel told

  Of praise-deserving heroes, / of labours manifold,

  Of weeping and of wailing, / of joy and festival;

  Of bold knights’ battling shall you / now hear a wondrous tale.

Apart from the many faults of interpretation all of the metrical translations of the Nibelungenlied here enumerated are defective in one all-important respect: they do not reproduce the poem in its metrical form. Carlyle and other pioneers we may perhaps acquit of any intention of following the original closely in this regard. None of the translators of the complete poem, however, has retained in the English rendering what is after all the very essence of a poem,–its exact metrical quality. Birch has created an entirely different form of strophe in which all four lines are alike, each containing seven principal accents, with the caesura, following the fourth foot. Lettsom makes the first serious attempt to reproduce the original strophe. It is evident from the introduction to his translation (see p. xxvi) that he had made a careful study of its form, and he does in fact reproduce the first three lines exactly. Of the fourth line he says: “I have not thought it expedient to make a rule of thus lengthening the fourth lines of the stanzas, though I have lengthened them occasionally"(!). What moved him thus to deprive the stanza of its most striking feature–and one, moreover, that is easily preserved in English–he does not make clear. The versions of Foster-Barham and of Horton and Bell show the same disfigurement, the latter omitting the extra accent of the fourth line, as they say, “for the sake of euphony"(!). It is just this lengthened close of each strophe that gives the Nibelungenlied its peculiar metrical character and contributes not a little to the avoidance of monotony in a poem of over two thousand strophes. In theory the form of the fourth line as it stands in the original is no more foreign to the genius of the English language than to that of modern German, and few of the many Germans giving a modernized version of the epic have been bold enough to lay sacrilegious hands upon it to shorten it.

A brief account of the Nibelungen strophe may not be out of place here, owing to the fact that its character has generally been misunderstood. The origin and evolution of the strophe have been the subject of much discussion, the results of which we need not pause to formulate here. As it appears in actual practice in our poem of about the year 1200, it was as follows: Each strophe consists of four long lines, the first line rhyming with the second, and the third with the fourth. The rhymes are masculine, that is, rhymes on the end syllable. Each line is divided by a clearly marked caesura into two halves; each half of the first three lines and the first half of the fourth line has three accented syllables, the second half of the fourth line has four accented syllables. The first half of each line ends in an unaccented syllabic–or, strictly speaking, in a syllable bearing a secondary accent; that is, each line has what is called a “ringing” caesura. The metrical character of the Nibelungen strophe is thus due to its fixed number of accented syllables. Of unaccented syllables the number may vary within certain limits. Ordinarily each accented syllable is preceded by an unaccented one; that is, the majority of feet are iambic. The unaccented syllable may, however, at times be wanting, or there may, on the other hand, be two or even three of them together. A characteristic of the second half of the last line is that there is very frequently no unaccented syllable between the second and the third accented ones. Among occasional variations of the normal strophe as here described may be mentioned the following: The end-rhyme is in a few instances feminine instead of masculine; while on the other hand the ending of the first half-lines is occasionally masculine instead of feminine, that is, the caesura is not “ringing.” In a few scattered instances we find strophes that rhyme throughout in the caesura as well as at the end of lines;[10] occasionally the first and second lines, or still less frequently the third and fourth, alone have caesural rhyme.[11] Rhyming of the caesura may be regarded as accidental in most cases, but it is reproduced as exactly as possible in this translation.

[10] Strophes 1, 17, 102, and possibly 841. [11] Strophes 18, 69, 103, 115, 129, 148, 177, 190, 198, 222, 231, 239, 293, 325, 345, 363, 485, 584, 703, 712, 859, 864, 894, 937, 1022, 1032, 1114, 1225, 1432, 1436, 1460, 1530, 1555, 1597, 1855, 1909, 1944, 1956, 2133, 2200, 2206, 2338.

In the original the opening strophe, which is altogether more regular than the average and is, moreover, one of the few that have also complete caesural rhyme, is as follows:

Uns ist in alten maeren / wunders vil geseit

  von heleden lobebaeren, / von grozer arebeit,

  von frouden, hochgeziten, / von weinen und von klagen,

  von kuener recken striten / muget ir nu wunder hoeren sagen.

Here the only place where the unaccented syllable is lacking before the accented is before wunders at the beginning of the second half of the first line. A strophe showing more typical irregularities is, for instance, the twenty-second:

In sinen besten ziten, / bi sinen jungen tagen,

  man mohte michel wunder / von Sivride sagen,

  waz eren an im wuchse / und wie scoene was sin lip.

  sit heten in ze minne / diu vil waetlichen wip.

Here the rhyme of the first and second lines is still masculine, tagen and sagen being pronounced tagn and sagn. The unaccented syllable is lacking, e.g., before the second accent of the second half of line two, also before the first and the third accent of the second half of line four. There are two unaccented syllables at the beginning (Auftakt) of the second half of line three. The absence of the unaccented syllable between the second and the third accent of the last half of the fourth line of a strophe, as here, is so frequent in the poem as to amount almost to a rule; it shows an utter misconception, or disregard, of its true character, nevertheless, to treat this last half-line as having only three accented syllables, as all translators hitherto have done.

8. Editions Of The Nibelungenlied

MS. A. (Hohenems-Munich).
Lachmann, Der Nibelunge Not und die Klage, 5th ed., Berlin, 1878.
Several reprints of the text alone later.

MS. B. (St. Gall).
Bartsch, Das Nibelungenlied, 6th ed., Leipzig, 1886. (Vol. 3 of the series Deutsche Classiker des Mittelalters.)
Piper, Die Nibelungen. (Vol. 6 of Kurschner’s Deutsche National-Litteratur.)

MS. C. (Donaueschingen).
Zarncke, Das Nibelungenlied, 6th ed., Leipzig, 1887.

The Nibelungenlied - First Adventure - Kriemhild’s Dream

1

To us in olden story / are wonders many told

Of heroes rich in glory, / of trials manifold:

Of joy and festive greeting, / of weeping and of woe,

Of keenest warriors meeting, / shall ye now many a wonder know.

2

There once grew up in Burgundy / a maid of noble birth,

Nor might there be a fairer / than she in all the earth:

Kriemhild hight the maiden, / and grew a dame full fair,

Through whom high thanes a many / to lose their lives soon doomed were.

3

’Twould well become the highest / to love the winsome maid,

Keen knights did long to win her, / and none but homage paid.

Beauty without measure, / that in sooth had she,

And virtues wherewith many / ladies else adorned might be.

4

Three noble lords did guard her, / great as well in might,

Gunther and Gernot, / each one a worthy knight,

And Giselher their brother, / a hero young and rare.

The lady was their sister / and lived beneath the princes’ care.

5

These lords were free in giving, / and born of high degree;

Undaunted was the valor / of all the chosen three.

It was the land of Burgundy / o’er which they did command,

And mighty deeds of wonder / they wrought anon in Etzel’s land.

6

At Worms amid their warriors / they dwelt, the Rhine beside,

And in their lands did serve them / knights of mickle pride,

Who till their days were ended / maintained them high in state.

They later sadly perished / beneath two noble women’s hate.

7

A high and royal lady, / Ute their mother hight,

Their father’s name was Dankrat, / a man of mickle might.

To them his wealth bequeathed he / when that his life was done,

For while he yet was youthful / had he in sooth great honor won.

8

In truth were these three rulers, / as I before did say,

Great and high in power, / and homage true had they

Eke of knights the boldest / and best that e’er were known,

Keen men all and valiant, / as they in battle oft had shown.

9

There was of Tronje Hagen, / and of that princely line

His brother valiant Dankwart; / and eke of Metz Ortwein;

Then further the two margraves, / Gere and Eckewart;

Of Alzei was Volker, / a doughty man of dauntless heart.

10

Rumold the High Steward, / a chosen man was he,

Sindold and Hunold / they tended carefully

Each his lofty office / in their three masters’ state,

And many a knight beside them / that I the tale may ne’er relate.

11

Dankwart he was Marshal; / his nephew, then, Ortwein

Upon the monarch waited / when that he did dine;

Sindold was Cup-bearer, / a stately thane was he,

And Chamberlain was Hunold, / masters all in courtesy.

12

Of the kings’ high honor / and their far-reaching might,

Of their full lofty majesty / and how each gallant knight

Found his chiefest pleasure / in the life of chivalry,

In sooth by mortal never / might it full related be.

13

Amid this life so noble / did dream the fair Kriemhild

How that she reared a falcon, / in beauty strong and wild,

That by two eagles perished; / the cruel sight to see

Did fill her heart with sorrow / as great as in this world might be.

14

The dream then to her mother / Queen Ute she told,

But she could not the vision / than thus more clear unfold:

"The falcon that thou rearedst, / doth mean a noble spouse:

God guard him well from evil / or thou thy hero soon must lose.”

15

“Of spouse, O darling mother, / what dost thou tell to me?

Without a knight to woo me, / so will I ever be,

Unto my latest hour / I’ll live a simple maid,

That I through lover’s wooing / ne’er be brought to direst need.”

16

“Forswear it not so rashly," / her mother then replied.

"On earth if thou wilt ever / cast all care aside,

’Tis love alone will do it; / thou shalt be man’s delight,

If God but kindly grant thee / to wed a right good valiant knight.”

17

“Now urge the case, dear mother," / quoth she, “not further here.

Fate of many another / dame hath shown full clear

How joy at last doth sorrow / lead oft-times in its train.

That I no ruth may borrow, / from both alike I’ll far remain.”

18

Long time, too, did Kriemhild / her heart from love hold free,

And many a day the maiden / lived right happily,

Ere good knight saw she any / whom she would wish to woo.

In honor yet she wedded / anon a worthy knight and true.

19

He was that same falcon / she saw the dream within

Unfolded by her mother. / Upon her nearest kin,

That they did slay him later, / how wreaked she vengeance wild!

Through death of this one hero / died many another mother’s child.

Second Adventure - Siegfried

20

There grew likewise in Netherland / a prince of noble kind,

Siegmund hight his father, / his mother Siegelind–
Within a lordly castle / well known the country o’er,

By the Rhine far downward: / Xanten was the name it bore.

21

Siegfried they did call him, / this bold knight and good;

Many a realm he tested, / for brave was he of mood.

He rode to prove his prowess / in many a land around:

Heigh-ho! what thanes of mettle / anon in Burgundy he found!

22

In the springtime of his vigor, / when he was young and bold,

Could tales of mickle wonder / of Siegfried be told,

How he grew up in honor, / and how fair he was to see:

Anon he won the favor / of many a debonair lady.

23

As for a prince was fitting, / they fostered him with care:

Yet how the knightly virtues / to him native were!

’Twas soon the chiefest glory / of his father’s land,

That he in fullest measure / endowed with princely worth did stand.

24

He soon was grown in stature / that he at court did ride.

The people saw him gladly, / lady and maid beside

Did wish that his own liking / might lead him ever there.

That they did lean unto him / the knight was soon right well aware.

25

In youth they let him never / without safe escort ride;

Soon bade Siegmund and Siegelind / apparel rich provide;

Men ripe in wisdom taught him, / who knew whence honor came.

Thus many lands and people / he won by his wide-honored name.

26

Now was he of such stature / that he could weapons bear:

Of what thereto he needed / had he an ample share.

Then to think of loving / fair maids did he begin,

And well might they be honored / for wooer Siegfried bold to win.

27

Then bade his father Siegmund / make known to one and all

That he with his good kinsmen / would hold high festival.

And soon were tidings carried / to all the neighboring kings;

To friends at home and strangers / steeds gave he and rich furnishings.

28

Wherever they found any / who knight was fit to be

By reason of his kindred, / all such were courteously

Unto the land invited / to join the festal throng,

When with the prince so youthful / on them the knightly sword was hung.

29

Of this high time of revelry / might I great wonders tell.

Siegmund and Siegelind / great honor won full well,

Such store of goodly presents / they dealt with generous hand,

That knights were seen full many / from far come pricking to their land.

30

Four hundred lusty squires / were there to be clad

In knight’s full garb with Siegfried. / Full many a beauteous maid

At work did never tire, / for dear they did him hold,

And many a stone full precious / those ladies laid within the gold,

31

That they upon the doublets / embroidered cunningly

Of those soon to be knighted: / ’t was thus it had to be,

Seats bade the host for many / a warrior bold make right

Against the high midsummer, / when Siegfried won the name of knight.

32

Then went unto the minster / full many a noble knight

And gallant squires beside them. / The elder there with right

Did wait upon the younger, / as once for them was done.

They were all light-hearted, / in hope of pleasure every one.

33

God to praise and honor / they sang the mass’ song;

There, too, were crowds of people, / a great and surging throng,

When after knightly custom / knighthood received they then,

In such a stately pageant / as scarce might ever be again.

34

They hastened where they found them / saddled many a steed;

In the court of Siegmund’s castle / they tilted with such speed

That far the din resounded / through castle and through hall,

As in the play with clamor / did join the fiery riders all.

35

Well-tried old knights and youthful / met there in frequent clash,

There was sound of shattered lances / that through the air did crash,

And along before the castle / were splinters seen to fly

From hands of knights a many: / each with other there did vie.

36

The king he bade give over: / they led the chargers out:

There was seen all shattered / many a boss well-wrought,

And many a stone full costly / lay there upon the sward

From erstwhile shining shield-bands, / now broken in the jousting hard.

37

The guests all went thereafter / where seats for them were reared;

They by the choicest viands / from weariness were cheered,

And wine, of all the rarest, / that then in plenty flowed.

Upon both friends and strangers / were fitting honors rich bestowed.

38

In such merry manner / all day did last the feast.

Many a wandering minstrel / knew not any rest,

But sang to win the presents / dealt out with bounteous hand;

And with their praise was honored / far and wide King Siegmund’s land.

39

The monarch then did order / Siegfried his youthful son

In fee give lands and castles, / as he erstwhile had done.

To all his sword-companions / he gave with such full hand,

That joyed they o’er the journey / they now had made unto that land.

40

The festival yet lasted / until the seventh day.

Siegelind after old custom / in plenty gave away

–For so her son she honored– / rich gifts of shining gold:

In sooth deserved she richly / that all should him in honor hold.

41

Never a wandering minstrel / was unprovided found:

Horses there and raiment / so free were dealt around,

As if to live they had not / beyond it one day more.

I ween a monarch’s household / ne’er bestowed such gifts before.

42

Thus closed the merry feasting / in this right worthy way,

And ’t was well known thereafter / how those good knights did say

That they the youthful hero / for king would gladly have;

But this nowise he wished for, / Siegfried the stately knight and brave.

43

While that they both were living, / Siegmund and Siegelind,

No crown their son desired, / –thereto he had no mind.

Yet would he fain be master / o’er all the hostile might

That in the lands around him / opposed the keen and fiery knight.

Third Adventure - How Siegfried came to Worms

44

Seldom in sooth, if ever, / the hero’s heart was sad.

He heard them tell the story, / how that a winsome maid

There lived afar in Burgundy, / surpassing fair to see:

Great joy she brought him later, / but eke she brought him misery.

45

Of her exceeding beauty / the fame spread far and near,

And of the thing, moreover, / were knights oft-times aware

How the maid’s high spirit / no mortal could command:

The thing lured many a stranger / from far unto King Gunther’s land.

46

Although to win her favor / were many wooers bent,

In her own heart would never / Kriemhild thereto consent

That any one amongst them / for lover she would have:

Still to her was he a stranger / to whom anon her troth she gave.

47

To true love turned his fancy / the son of Siegelind.

’Gainst his, all others’ wooing / was like an idle wind:

Full well did he merit / a lady fair to woo,

And soon the noble Kriemhild / to Siegfried bold was wedded true.

48

By friends he oft was counselled, / and many a faithful man,

Since to think of wooing / in earnest he began,

That he a wife should find him / of fitting high degree.

Then spoke the noble Siegfried: / “In sooth fair Kriemhild shall it be,

49

“The noble royal maiden / in Burgundy that dwells,

For sake of all her beauty. / Of her the story tells,

Ne’er monarch was so mighty / that, if for spouse he sighed,

’Twere not for him befitting / to take the princess for his bride.”

50

Unto King Siegmund also / the thing was soon made known.

His people talked about it, / whereby to him was shown

The Prince’s fixed purpose. / It grieved him sorely, too,

That his son intent was / the full stately maid to woo.

51

Siegelind asked and learned it, / the noble monarch’s wife.

For her loved son she sorrowed / lest he should lose his life,

For well she knew the humor / of Gunther and his men.

Then gan they from the wooing / strive to turn the noble thane.

52

Then said the doughty Siegfried: / “O father dear to me,

Without the love of woman / would I ever be,

Could I not woo in freedom / where’er my heart is set.

Whate’er be said by any, / I’ll keep the selfsame purpose yet.”

53

“Since thou wilt not give over," / the king in answer said,

"Am I of this thy purpose / inwardly full glad,

And straightway to fulfil it / I’ll help as best I can,

Yet in King Gunther’s service / is many a haughty-minded man.

54

“And were there yet none other / than Hagen, warrior-knight,

He with such haughty bearing / is wont to show his might,

That I do fear right sorely / that sad our end may be,

If we set out with purpose / to win the stately maid for thee.”

55

“Shall we by that be hindered?" / outspake Siegfried then;

"Whate’er in friendly fashion / I cannot obtain

I’ll yet in other manner / take that, with sword in hand.

I trow from them I’ll further / wrest both their vassals and their land.”

56

“I grieve to hear thy purpose," / said Siegmund the king;

"If any one this story / unto the Rhine should bring,

Then durst thou never after / within that land be seen.

Gunther and Gernot, / –well known to me they long have been.

57

“By force, however mighty, / no man can win the maid,"

Spake King Siegmund further, / “to me hath oft been said.

But if with knightly escort / thither thou wilt ride,

Good friends–an have we any– / shall soon be summoned to thy side.”

58

“No wish,” then answered Siegfried, / “it ever was of mine,

That warrior knights should follow / with me unto the Rhine

As if arrayed for battle: / ’twould make my heart full sad,

To force in hostile manner / to yield to me the stately maid.

59

“By my own hand–thus only– / trust I to win my bride;

With none but twelve in company / to Gunther’s land I’ll ride.

In this, O royal father, / thy present help I pray."

Gray and white fur raiment / had his companions for the way.

60

Siegelind his mother / then heard the story too,

And grieved she was on hearing / what her dear son would do,

For she did fear to lose him / at hands of Gunther’s men.

Thereat with heart full heavy / began to weep the noble queen.

61

Then came forth Sir Siegfried / where the queen he sought,

And to his weeping mother / thus gently spake his thought:

"No tear of grief thou shouldest / ever shed for me,

For I care not a tittle / for all the warriors that be.

62

“So help me on my journey / to the land of Burgundy,

And furnish such apparel / for all my knights and me,

As warriors of our station / might well with honor wear.

Then I in turn right truly / to thee my gratitude will swear.”

63

“Since thou wilt not give over," / Siegelind then replied,

"My only son, I’ll help thee / as fits thee forth to ride,

With the best apparel / that riders ever wore,

Thee and thy companions: / ye shall of all have goodly store.”

64

Then bowed the youthful Siegfried / the royal dame before,

And said: “Upon the journey / will I take no more,

But twelve good knights only: / for these rich dress provide,

For I would know full gladly / how ’t doth with Kriemhild betide.”

65

Then sat at work fair women / by night and eke by day,

And rest indeed but little / from busy toil had they,

Until they had made ready / the dress Siegfried should wear.

Firm bent upon the journey, / no other counsel would he hear.

66

His father bade a costly / garb for him prepare,

That leaving Siegmund’s country / he the same might wear.

For all their glittering breastplates / were soon prepared beside,

And helmets firmly welded, / and shining shields long and wide.

67

Then fast the day grew nearer / when they should thence depart.

Men and likewise women / went sorrowing in heart,

If that they should ever / see more their native land.

With full equipment laden / the sumpter horses there did stand.

68

Their steeds were stately, furnished / with trappings rich with gold;

It were a task all bootless / to seek for knights more bold

Than were the gallant Siegfried / and his chosen band.

He longed to take departure / straightway for Burgundian land.

69

Leave granted they with sadness, / both the king and queen,

The which to turn to gladness / sought the warrior keen,

And spake then: “Weep ye shall not / at all for sake of me,

Forever free from doubtings / about my safety may ye be.”

70

Stern warriors stood there sorrowing, / –in tears was many a maid.

I ween their hearts erred nothing, / as sad forebodings said

That ’mongst their friends so many / thereby were doomed to die.

Good cause had they to sorrow / at last o’er all their misery.

71

Upon the seventh morning / to Worms upon the strand

Did come the keen knights riding. / Bright shone many a band

Of gold from their apparel / and rich equipment then;

And gently went their chargers / with Siegfried and his chosen men.

72

New-made shields they carried / that were both strong and wide

And brightly shone their helmets / as thus to court did ride

Siegfried the keen warrior / into King Gunther’s land.

Of knights before was never / beheld so richly clad a band.

73

The points of their long scabbards / reached down unto the spur,

And spear full sharply pointed / bore each chosen warrior.

The one that Siegfried carried / in breadth was two good span,

And grimly cut its edges / when driven by the fearless man.

74

Reins with gold all gleaming / held they in the hand,

The saddle-bands were silken. / So came they to the land.

On every side the people / to gape at them began,

And also out to meet them / the men that served King Gunther ran.

75

Gallant men high-hearted, / knight and squire too,

Hastened to receive them, / for such respect was due,

And bade the guests be welcome / unto their master’s land.

They took from them their chargers, / and shields as well from out the

      hand.

76

Then would they eke the chargers / lead forth unto their rest;

But straight the doughty Siegfried / to them these words addressed:

"Yet shall ye let our chargers / stand the while near by;

Soon take we hence our journey; / thereon resolved full well am I.

77

“If that be known to any, / let him not delay,

Where I your royal master / now shall find, to say,–
Gunther, king so mighty / o’er the land of Burgundy."

Then told him one amongst them / to whom was known where that might be:

78

“If that the king thou seekest, / right soon may he be found.

Within that wide hall yonder / with his good knights around

But now I saw him sitting. / Thither do thou repair,

And thou may’st find around him / many a stately warrior there.”

79

Now also to the monarch / were the tidings told,

That within his castle / were knights arrived full bold,

All clad in shining armor / and apparelled gorgeously;

But not a man did know them / within the land of Burgundy.

80

Thereat the king did wonder / whence were come to him

These knights adventure seeking / in dress so bright and trim,

And shields adorned so richly / that new and mighty were.

That none the thing could tell him / did grieve him sorely to hear.

81

Outspake a knight then straightway, / Ortwein by name was he,

Strong and keen as any / well was he known to be:

"Since we of them know nothing, / bid some one quickly go

And fetch my uncle Hagen: / to him thou shalt the strangers show.

82

“To him are known far kingdoms / and every foreign land,

And if he know these strangers / we soon shall understand."

The king then sent to fetch him: / with his train of men

Unto the king’s high presence / in stately gear went he then.

83

What were the king’s good pleasure, / asked Hagen grim in war.

"In the court within my castle / are warriors from afar,

And no one here doth know them: / if them thou e’er didst see

In any land far distant, / now shalt thou, Hagen, tell to me.”

84

“That will I do, ’tis certain."– / To a window then he went,

And on the unknown strangers / his keen eye he bent.

Well pleased him their equipment / and the rich dress they wore,

Yet ne’er had he beheld them / in land of Burgundy before.

85

He said that whencesoever / these knights come to the Rhine,

They bear a royal message, / or are of princely line.

"Their steeds are so bedizened, / and their apparel rare:

No matter whence they journey, / high-hearted men in truth they are.”

86

Further then spake Hagen: / “As far as goes my ken,

Though I the noble Siegfried / yet have never seen,

Yet will I say meseemeth, / howe’er the thing may be,

This knight who seeks adventure, / and yonder stands so proud, is he.

87

“’Tis some new thing he bringeth / hither to our land.

The valiant Nibelungen / fell by the hero’s hand,

Schilbung and Nibelung, / from royal sire sprung;

Deeds he wrought most wondrous / anon when his strong arm he swung.

88

“As once alone the hero / rode without company,

Found he before a mountain / –as hath been told to me–
With the hoard of Nibelung / full many stalwart men;

To him had they been strangers / until he chanced to find them then.

89

“The hoard of King Nibelung / entire did they bear

Forth from a mountain hollow. / And now the wonder hear,

How that they would share it, / these two Nibelung men.

This saw the fearless Siegfried, / and filled he was with wonder then.

90

“He came so near unto them / that he the knights espied,

And they in turn him also. / One amongst them said:

’Here comes the doughty Siegfried, / hero of Netherland.’
Since ’mongst the Nibelungen / strange wonders wrought his mighty hand.

91

“Right well did they receive him, / Schilbung and Nibelung,

And straight they both together, / these noble princes young,

Bade him mete out the treasure, / the full valorous man,

And so long time besought him / that he at last the task began.

92

“As we have heard in story, / he saw of gems such store

That they might not be laden / on wagons full five score;

More still of gold all shining / from Nibelungenland.

’Twas all to be divided / between them by keen Siegfried’s hand.

93

“Then gave they him for hire / King Nibelung’s sword.

And sooth to say, that service / brought them but small reward,

That for them there performed / Siegfried of dauntless mood.

His task he could not finish; / thereat they raged as were they wood.

94

“They had there of their followers / twelve warriors keen,

And strong they were as giants: / what booted giants e’en?

Them slew straightway in anger / Siegfried’s mighty hand,

And warriors seven hundred / he felled in Nibelungenland

95

“With the sword full trusty, / Balmung that hight.

Full many a youthful warrior / from terror at the sight

Of that deadly weapon / swung by his mighty hand

Did render up his castle / and pledge him fealty in the land.

96

“Thereto the kings so mighty, / them slew he both as well.

But into gravest danger / through Alberich he fell,

Who thought for his slain masters / vengeance to wreak straightway,

Until the mighty Siegfried / his wrath with strong arm did stay.

97

“Nor could prevail against him / the Dwarf, howe’er he tried.

E’en as two wild lions / they coursed the mountainside,

Where he the sightless mantle[1] / from Alberich soon won.

Then Siegfried, knight undaunted, / held the treasure for his own.

[1] This is the tarnkappe, a cloak that made the wearer invisible, and also gave him the strength of twelve men.

98

“Who then dared join the struggle, / all slain around they lay.

Then he bade the treasure / to draw and bear away

Thither whence ’twas taken / by the Nibelungen men.

Alberich for his valor / was then appointed Chamberlain.

99

“An oath he had to swear him, / he’d serve him as his slave;

To do all kinds of service / his willing pledge he gave"–
Thus spake of Tronje Hagen– / “That has the hero done;

Might as great before him / was never in a warrior known.

100

“Still know I more about him, / that has to me been told.

A dragon, wormlike monster, / slew once the hero bold.

Then in its blood he bathed him, / since when his skin hath been

So horn-hard, ne’er a weapon / can pierce it, as hath oft been seen.

101

“Let us the brave knight-errant / receive so courteously

That we in nought shall merit / his hate, for strong is he.

He is so keen of spirit / he must be treated fair:

He has by his own valor / done many a deed of prowess rare.”

102

The monarch spake in wonder: / “In sooth thou tellest right.

Now see how proudly yonder / he stands prepared for fight,

He and his thanes together, / the hero wondrous keen!

To greet him we’ll go thither, / and let our fair intent be seen.”

103

“That canst thou,” out spake Hagen, / “well in honor do.

He is of noble kindred, / a high king’s son thereto.

’Tis seen in all his bearing; / meseems in truth, God wot,

The tale is worth the hearing / that this bold knight has hither

      brought.”

104

Then spake the mighty monarch: / “Be he right welcome here.

Keen is he and noble, / of fame known far and near.

So shall he be fair treated / in the land of Burgundy."

Down then went King Gunther, / and Siegfried with his men found he.

105

The king and his knights with him / received so well the guest,

That the hearty greeting / did their good will attest.

Thereat in turn the stranger / in reverence bowed low,

That in their welcome to him / they did such courtesy bestow.

106

“To me it is a wonder," / straightway spake the host,

"From whence, O noble Siegfried, / come to our land thou dost,

Or what here thou seekest / at Worms upon the Rhine."

Him the stranger answered: / “Put thou away all doubts of thine.

107

“I oft have heard the tiding / within my sire’s domain,

How at thy court resided / –and know this would I fain–
Knights, of all the keenest, / –’tis often told me so–
That e’er a monarch boasted: / now come I hither this to know.

108

“Thyself have I heard also / high praised for knightly worth;

’Tis said a nobler monarch / ne’er lived in all the earth.

Thus speak of thee the people / in all the lands around.

Nor will I e’er give over / until in this the truth I’ve found.

109

“I too am warrior noble / and born to wear a crown;

So would I right gladly / that thou of me shouldst own

That I of right am master / o’er people and o’er land.

Of this shall now my honor / and eke my head as pledges stand.

110

“And art thou then so valiant / as hath to me been told,

I reck not, will he nill he / thy best warrior bold,

I’ll wrest from thee in combat / whatever thou may’st have;

Thy lands and all thy castles / shall naught from change of masters

      save.”

111

The king was seized with wonder / and all his men beside,

To see the manner haughty / in which the knight replied

That he was fully minded / to take from him his land.

It chafed his thanes to hear it, / who soon in raging mood did stand.

112

“How could it be my fortune," / Gunther the king outspoke,

"What my sire long ruled over / in honor for his folk,

Now to lose so basely / through any vaunter’s might?

In sooth ’twere nobly showing / that we too merit name of knight!”

113

“Nowise will I give over," / was the keen reply.

"If peace through thine own valor / thy land cannot enjoy,

To me shall all be subject: / if heritage of mine

Through thy arm’s might thou winnest, / of right shall all hence-forth be

      thine.

114

“Thy land and all that mine is, / at stake shall equal lie.

Whiche’er of us be victor / when now our strength we try,

To him shall all be subject, / the folk and eke the land."

But Hagen spake against it, / and Gernot too was quick at hand.

115

“Such purpose have we never," / Gernot then said,

"For lands to combat ever, / that any warrior dead

Should lie in bloody battle. / We’ve mighty lands and strong;

Of right they call us master, / and better they to none belong.”

116

There stood full grim and moody / Gernot’s friends around,

And there as well amongst them / was Ortwein to be found.

He spake: “This mild peace-making / doth grieve me sore at heart,

For by the doughty Siegfried / attacked all undeserved thou art.

117

“If thou and thy two brothers / yourselves to help had naught,

And if a mighty army / he too had hither brought,

I trow I’d soon be able / to make this man so keen

His manner now so haughty / of need replace by meeker mien.”

118

Thereat did rage full sorely / the hero of Netherland:

"Never shall be measured / ’gainst me in fight thy hand.

I am a mighty monarch, / thou a king’s serving-knight;

Of such as thou a dozen / dare not withstand me in the fight.”

119

For swords then called in anger / of Metz Sir Ortwein:

Son of Hagen’s sister / he was, of Tronje’s line.

That Hagen so long was silent / did grieve the king to see.

Gernot made peace between them: / a gallant knight and keen was he.

120

Spake he thus to Ortwein: / “Curb now thy wrathful tongue,

For here the noble Siegfried / hath done us no such wrong;

We yet can end the quarrel / in peace,–such is my rede–
And live with him in friendship; / that were for us a worthier deed.”

121

Then spake the mighty Hagen: / “Sad things do I forebode

For all thy train of warriors, / that this knight ever rode

Unto the Rhine thus armed. / ’Twere best he stayed at home;

For from my masters never / to him such wrong as this had come.”

122

But outspake Siegfried proudly, / whose heart was ne’er dismayed:

"An’t please thee not, Sir Hagen, / what I now have said,

This arm shall give example / whereby thou plain shall see

How stern anon its power / here in Burgundy will be.”

123

“Yet that myself will hinder," / said then Gernot.

All his men forbade he / henceforth to say aught

With such unbridled spirit / to stir the stranger’s ire.

Then Siegfried eke was mindful / of one most stately maid and fair.

124

“Such strife would ill befit us," / Gernot spake again;

"For though should die in battle / a host of valiant men

’Twould bring us little honor / and ye could profit none."

Thereto gave Siegfried answer, / good King Siegmund’s noble son:

125

“Wherefore bides thus grim Hagen, / and Ortwein tardy is

To begin the combat / with all those friends of his,

Of whom he hath so many / here in Burgundy?"

Answer him they durst not, / for such was Gernot’s stern decree.

126

“Thou shalt to us be welcome," / outspake young Giselher,

"And all thy brave companions / that hither with thee fare.

Full gladly we’ll attend thee, / I and all friends of mine."

For the guests then bade they / pour out in store of Gunther’s wine.

127

Then spake the stately monarch: / “But ask thou courteously,

And all that we call ours / stands at thy service free;

So with thee our fortune / we’ll share in ill and good."

Thereat the noble Siegfried / a little milder was of mood.

128

Then carefully was tended / all their knightly gear,

And housed in goodly manner / in sooth the strangers were,

All that followed Siegfried; / they found a welcome rest.

In Burgundy full gladly / anon was seen the noble guest.

129

They showed him mickle honor / thereafter many a day,

And more by times a thousand / than I to you could say.

His might respect did merit, / ye may full well know that.

Scarce a man e’er saw him / who bore him longer any hate.

130

And when they held their pastime, / the kings with many a man,

Then was he ever foremost; / whatever they began,

None there that was his equal, / –so mickle was his might–
If they the stone were putting, / or hurling shaft with rival knight.

131

As is the knightly custom, / before the ladies fair

To games they turned for pastime, / these knights of mettle rare;

Then ever saw they gladly / the hero of Netherland.

But he had fixed his fancy / to win one fairest maiden’s hand.

132

In all that they were doing / he’d take a ready part.

A winsome loving maiden / he bore within his heart;

Him only loved that lady, / whose face he ne’er had seen,

But she full oft in secret / of him spake fairest words, I ween.

133

And when before the castle / they sped in tournament,

The good knights and squires, / oft-times the maiden went

And gazed adown from casement, / Kriemhild the princess rare.

Pastime there was none other / for her that could with this compare.

134

And knew he she was gazing / whom in his heart he bore,

He joy enough had found him / in jousting evermore.

And might he only see her, / –that can I well believe–
On earth through sight none other / his eyes could such delight receive.

135

Whene’er with his companions / to castle court he went,

E’en as do now the people / whene’er on pleasure bent,

There stood ’fore all so graceful / Siegelind’s noble son,

For whom in love did languish / the hearts of ladies many a one.

136

Eke thought he full often: / “How shall it ever be,

That I the noble maiden / with my own eyes may see,

Whom I do love so dearly / and have for many a day?

To me is she a stranger, / which sorely grieves my heart to say.”

137

Whene’er the kings so mighty / rode o’er their broad domain,

Then of valiant warriors / they took a stately train.

With them abroad rode Siegfried, / which grieved those ladies sore:

–He too for one fair maiden / at heart a mickle burden bore.

138

Thus with his hosts he lingered / –’tis every tittle true–
In King Gunther’s country / a year completely through,

And never once the meanwhile / the lovely maid did see,

Through whom such joy thereafter / for him, and eke such grief should be.

Fourth Adventure - How Siegfried fought with the Saxons

139

Now come wondrous tidings / to King Gunther’s land,

By messengers brought hither / from far upon command

Of knights unknown who harbored / against him secret hate.

When there was heard the story, / at heart in sooth the grief was great.

140

Of these I now will tell you: / There was King Luedeger

From out the land of Saxons, / a mighty warrior,

And eke from land of Denmark / Luedegast the king:

Whene’er they rode to battle / went they with mighty following.

141

Come were now their messengers / to the land of Burgundy,

Sent forth by these foemen / in proud hostility.

Then asked they of the strangers / what tidings they did bring:

And when they heard it, straightway / led them to court before the king.

142

Then spake to them King Gunther: / “A welcome, on my word.

Who ’tis that send you hither, / that have I not yet heard:

Now shall ye let me know it," / spake the monarch keen.

Then dreaded they full sorely / to see King Gunther’s angry mien.

143

“Wilt them, O king, permit us / the tidings straight to tell

That we now have brought thee, / no whit will we conceal,

But name thee both our masters / who us have hither sent:

Luedegast and Luedeger, / –to waste thy land is their intent.

144

“Their hate hast thou incurred, / and thou shalt know in sooth

That high enraged against thee / are the monarchs both.

Their hosts they will lead hither / to Worms upon the Rhine;

They’re helped by thanes full many– / of this put off all doubts of

      thine.

145

“Within weeks a dozen / their march will they begin;

And if thy friends be valiant, / let that full quick be seen,

To help thee keep in safety / thy castles and thy land:

Full many a shield and helmet / shall here be cleft by warrior’s hand.

146

“Or wilt thou with them parley, / so let it quick be known,

Before their hosts so mighty / of warlike men come down

To Worms upon Rhine river / sad havoc here to make,

Whereby must death most certain / many a gallant knight o’ertake.”

147

“Bide ye now the meanwhile," / the king did answer kind,

"Till I take better counsel; / then shall ye know my mind.

Have I yet warriors faithful, / from these I’ll naught conceal,

But to my friends I’ll straightway / these warlike tidings strange

      reveal.”

148

The lordly Gunther wondered / thereat and troubled sore,

As he the message pondered / in heart and brooded o’er.

He sent to fetch grim Hagen / and others of his men,

And bade likewise in hurry / to court bring hither Gernot then.

149

Thus at his word his trusted / advisers straight attend.

He spake: “Our land to harry / foes all unknown will send

Of men a mighty army; / a grievous wrong is this.

Small cause have we e’er given / that they should wish us aught amiss.”

150

“Our swords ward such things from us," / Gernot then said;

"Since but the fated dieth, / so let all such lie dead.

Wherefore I’ll e’er remember / what honor asks of me:

Whoe’er hath hate against us / shall ever here right welcome be.”

151

Then spake the doughty Hagen: / “Methinks ’twould scarce be good;

Luedegast and Luedeger / are men of wrathful mood.

Help can we never summon, / the days are now so few."

So spake the keen old warrior, / “’Twere well Siegfried the tidings

      knew.”

152

The messengers in the borough / were harbored well the while,

And though their sight was hateful, / in hospitable style

As his own guests to tend them / King Gunther gave command,

Till ’mongst his friends he learned / who by him in his need would

      stand.

153

The king was filled with sorrow / and his heart was sad.

Then saw his mournful visage / a knight to help full glad,

Who could not well imagine / what ’twas that grieved him so.

Then begged he of King Gunther / the tale of this his grief to know.

154

“To me it is great wonder," / said Siegfried to the king,

"How thou of late hast changed / to silent sorrowing

The joyous ways that ever / with us thy wont have been."

Then unto him gave answer / Gunther the full stately thane:

155

“’Tis not to every person / I can the burden say

That ever now in secret / upon my heart doth weigh:

To well-tried friends and steady / are told our inmost woes."

–Siegfried at first was pallid, / but soon his blood like fire up-rose.

156

He spake unto the monarch: / “To thee I’ve naught denied.

All ills that now do threaten / I’ll help to turn aside.

And if but friends thou seekest, / of them the first I’ll be,

And trow I well with honor / till death to serve thee faithfully.”

157

“God speed thee well, Sir Siegfried, / for this thy purpose fair:

And though such help in earnest / thy arm should render ne’er,

Yet do I joy at hearing / thou art so true to me.

And live I yet a season, / right heartily repaid ’twill be.

158

“Know will I also let thee / wherefore I sorrowing stand.

Through messengers from my foemen / have tidings reached my land

That they with hosts of warriors / will ride my country o’er;

Such thing to us did never / thanes of any land before.”

159

“Small cause is that for grieving," / said then Siegfried;

"But calm thy troubled spirit / and hearken to my rede:

Let me for thee acquire / honor and vantage too,

And bid thou now assemble / for service eke thy warriors true.

160

“And had thy mighty enemies / to help them now at hand

Good thanes full thirty thousand, / against them all I’d stand,

Had I but one good thousand: / put all thy trust in me."

Then answered him King Gunther: / “Thy help shall full requited be.”

161

“Then bid for me to summon / a thousand of thy men,

Since I now have with me / of all my knightly train

None but twelve knights only; / then will I guard thy land.

For thee shall service faithful / be done alway by Siegfried’s hand.

162

“Herein shall help us Hagen / and eke Ortwein,

Dankwart and Sindold, / those trusted knights of thine;

And with us too shall journey / Volker, the valiant man;

The banner he shall carry: / bestow it better ne’er I can.

163

“Back to their native country / the messengers may go;

They’ll see us there right quickly, / let them full surely know,

So that all our castles / peace undisturbed shall have."

Then bade the king to summon / his friends with all their warriors brave.

164

To court returned the heralds / King Luedeger had sent,

And on their journey homeward / full joyfully they went.

King Gunther gave them presents / that costly were and good,

And granted them safe convoy; / whereat they were of merry mood.

165

“Tell ye my foes,” spake Gunther, / “when to your land ye come,

Than making journeys hither / they better were at home;

But if they still be eager / to make such visit here,

Unless my friends forsake me, / cold in sooth shall be their cheer.”

166

Then for the messengers / rich presents forth they bore,

Whereof in sooth to give them / Gunther had goodly store:

And they durst not refuse them / whom Luedeger had sent.

Leave then they took immediate, / and homeward joyfully they went.

167

When to their native Denmark / the messengers returned,

And the king Luedegast / the answer too had learned,

They at the Rhine had sent him, / –when that to him was told,

His wrath was all unbounded / to have reply in words so bold.

168

’Twas said their warriors numbered / many a man full keen:

"There likewise among them / with Gunther have we seen

Of Netherland a hero, / the same that Siegfried hight."

King Luedegast was grieved, / when he their words had heard aright.

169

When throughout all Denmark / the tidings quick spread o’er,

Then in hot haste they summoned / helpers all the more,

So that King Luedegast, / ’twixt friends from far and near,

Had knights full twenty thousand / all furnished well with shield and

      spear.

170

Then too his men did summon / of Saxony Luedeger,

Till they good forty thousand, / and more, had gathered there,

With whom to make the journey / ’gainst the land of Burgundy.

–At home likewise the meanwhile / King Gunther had sent forth decree

171

Mighty men to summon / of his own and brothers twain,

Who against the foemen / would join the armed train.

In haste they made them ready, / for right good cause they had.

Amongst them must thereafter / full many a noble thane lie dead.

172

To march they quick made ready. / And when they thence would fare,

The banner to the valiant / Volker was given to bear,

As they began the journey / from Worms across the Rhine;

Strong of arm grim Hagen / was chosen leader of the line.

173

With them there rode Sindold / and eke the keen Hunold

Who oft at hands of Gunther / had won rewards of gold;

Dankwart, Hagen’s brother, / and Ortwein beside,

Who all could well with honor / in train of noble warriors ride.

174

“King Gunther,” spake then Siegfried, / “stay thou here at home;

Since now thy knights so gallant / with me will gladly come,

Rest thou here with fair ladies, / and be of merry mood:

I trow we’ll keep in safety / thy land and honor as we should.

175

“And well will I see to it / that they at home remain,

Who fain would ride against thee / to Worms upon the Rhine.

Against them straight we’ll journey / into their land so far

That they’ll be meeker minded / who now such haughty vaunters are.”

176

Then from the Rhine through Hesse / the hosts of knights rode on

Toward the land of Saxons, / where battle was anon.

With fire and sword they harried / and laid the country waste,

So that both the monarchs / full well the woes of war did taste.

177

When came they to the border / the train-men onward pressed.

With thought of battle-order / Siegfried the thanes addressed:

"Who now shall guard our followers / from danger in the rear?"

In sooth like this the Saxons / in battle worsted never were.

178

Then said they: “On the journey / the men shall guarded be

By the valiant Dankwart, / –a warrior swift is he;

So shall we lose the fewer / by men of Luedeger.

Let him and Ortwein with him / be chosen now to guard the rear.”

179

Spake then the valiant Siegfried: / “Myself will now ride on,

And against our enemies / will keep watch in the van,

Till I aright discover / where they perchance may be."

The son of fair Queen Siegelind / did arm him then immediately.

180

The folk he left to Hagen / when ready to depart,

And as well to Gernot, / a man of dauntless heart.

Into the land of Saxons / alone he rode away,

And by his hand was severed / many a helmet’s band that day.

181

He found a mighty army / that lay athwart the plain,

Small part of which outnumbered / all those in his own train:

Full forty thousand were they / or more good men of might.

The hero high in spirit / saw right joyfully the sight.

182

Then had eke a warrior / from out the enemy

To guard the van gone forward, / all armed cap-a-pie.

Him saw the noble Siegfried, / and he the valiant man;

Each one straight the other / to view with angry mien began.

183

Who he was I’ll tell you / that rode his men before,

–A shield of gold all shining / upon his arm he bore–
In sooth it was King Luedegast / who there the van did guard.

Straightway the noble Siegfried / full eagerly against him spurred.

184

Now singled out for combat / him, too, had Luedegast.

Then full upon each other / they spurred their chargers fast,

As on their shields they lowered / their lances firm and tight,

Whereat the lordly monarch / soon found himself in sorry plight.

185

After the shock their chargers / bore the knights so fast

Onward past each other / as flew they on the blast.

Then turned they deftly backward / obedient to the rein,

As with their swords contested / the grim and doughty fighters twain.

186

When Siegfried struck in anger / far off was heard the blow,

And flew from off the helmet, / as if ’twere all aglow,

The fiery sparks all crackling / beneath his hand around.

Each warrior in the other / a foeman worth his mettle found.

187

Full many a stroke with vigor / dealt eke King Luedegast,

And on each other’s buckler / the blows fell thick and fast.

Then thirty men discovered / their master’s sorry plight:

But ere they came to help him / had doughty Siegfried won the fight.

188

With three mighty gashes / which he had dealt the king

Through his shining breastplate / made fast with many a ring.

The sword with sharpest edges / from wounds brought forth the blood,

Whereat King Luedegast / apace fell into gloomy mood.

189

To spare his life he begged him, / his land he pledged the knight,

And told him straight moreover, / that Luedegast he hight.

Then came his knights to help him, / they who there had seen

How that upon the vanguard / fierce fight betwixt the twain had been.

190

After duel ended, / did thirty yet withstand

Of knights that him attended; / but there the hero’s hand

Kept safe his noble captive / with blows of wondrous might.

And soon wrought greater ruin / Siegfried the full gallant knight.

191

Beneath his arm of valor / the thirty soon lay dead.

But one the knight left living, / who thence full quickly sped

To tell abroad the story / how he the others slew;

In sooth the blood-red helmet / spake all the hapless tidings true.

192

Then had the men of Denmark / for all their grief good cause,

When it was told them truly / their king a captive was.

They told it to King Luedeger, / when he to rage began

In anger all unbounded: / for him had grievous harm been done.

193

The noble King Luedegast / was led a prisoner then

By hand of mighty Siegfried / back to King Gunther’s men,

And placed in hands of Hagen: / and when they did hear

That ’twas the king of Denmark / they not a little joyful were.

194

He bade the men of Burgundy / then bind the banners on.

"Now forward!” Siegfried shouted, / “here shall yet more be done,

An I but live to see it; / ere this day’s sun depart,

Shall mourn in land of Saxons / full many a goodly matron’s heart.

195

“Ye warriors from Rhineland, / to follow me take heed,

And I unto the army / of Luedeger will lead.

Ere we again turn backward / to the land of Burgundy

Helms many hewn asunder / by hand of good knights there shall be.”

196

To horse then hastened Gernot / and with him mighty men.

Volker keen in battle / took up the banner then;

He was a doughty Fiddler / and rode the host before.

There, too, every follower / a stately suit of armor wore.

197

More than a thousand warriors / they there had not a man,

Saving twelve knights-errant. / To rise the dust began

In clouds along the highway / as they rode across the fields,

And gleaming in the sunlight / were seen the brightly shining shields.

198

Meanwhile eke was nearing / of Saxons a great throng,

Each a broadsword bearing / that mickle was and long,

With blade that cut full sorely / when swung in strong right hand.

’Gainst strangers were they ready / to guard their castles and their

      land.

199

The leaders forth to battle / led the warriors then.

Come was also Siegfried / with his twelve chosen men,

Whom he with him hither / had brought from Netherland.

That day in storm of battle / was blood-bespattered many a hand.

200

Sindold and Hunold / and Gernot as well,

Beneath their hands in battle / full many a hero fell,

Ere that their deeds of valor / were known throughout the host.

Through them must many a stately / matron weep for warrior lost.

201

Volker and Hagen / and Ortwein in the fight

Lustily extinguished / full many a helmet’s light

With blood from wounds down flowing,– / keen fighters every one.

And there by Dankwart also / was many a mickle wonder done.

202

The knights of Denmark tested / how they could weapons wield.

Clashing there together / heard ye many a shield

And ’neath sharp swords resounding, / swung by many an arm.

The Saxons keen in combat / wrought ’mid their foes a grievous harm.

203

When the men of Burgundy / pressed forward to the fight,

Gaping wounds full many / hewed they there with might.

Then flowing down o’er saddle / in streams was seen the blood,

So fought for sake of honor / these valiant riders keen and good.

204

Loudly were heard ringing, / wielded by hero’s hand,

The sharply-cutting weapons, / where they of Netherland

Their master followed after / into the thickest throng:

Wherever Siegfried led them / rode too those valiant knights along.

205

Of warriors from Rhine river / could follow not a one.

There could be seen by any / a stream of blood flow down

O’er brightly gleaming helmet / ’neath Siegfried’s mighty hand,

Until King Luedeger / before him with his men did stand.

206

Three times hither and thither / had he the host cut through

From on