The Nibelungenlied Part 152

(St. XIII.) Lachmann's First Lay begins here, and ends with St.

Lx.x.xVIII, Second Adventure.

(St. XVII.) _Liebe_, here, is not _Love_, but _Joy_, _Pleasure_. See Lachmann's Treatise on the Original Form of the Poem, p. 91.

SECOND ADVENTURE

(St. XIII.) _Swertdegne_ are young n.o.ble squires destined for knighthood. The _manic richer kneht_ of St. x.x.xIV are also squires, the same as the _edeln knehte_ at the end of the poem. The mere _knehte_ were an inferior cla.s.s, like our yeomen. Nine thousand of these last accompanied Gunther to Etzel's court, and were entertained apart.

THIRD ADVENTURE

(St. V.) _Make_, an old form for _mate_. Spenser has among other pa.s.sages

And of fair Britomart ensample take, That was as true in love as turtle to her make.

"Faerie Queene," III, ii. 2.

It is common in German romances of a certain period for brides to be carried off by force, and maidens to be wooed by suitors who have never set eyes on them. See Gervinus's Abridgment of his History of German poetry. See also the Gudrun.

(St. XXVII.) Lachmann observes on the third verse: "This verse cannot be explained from our Lays (_i.e._, from anything in the poem); the Netherlanders lost no friend but Siegfried. Is there an allusion to other legends, or is the departure adorned with the usual coloring?" It really almost seems as if the writer of this particular stanza had confounded Nibelungers, Netherlanders and Burgundians all together.

(St. LI.) Most of the marvels of modern romantic poetry may be traced back to much older tales reported by Greek authorities. The Scythian griffins, who watched the treasures coveted by their neighbors the Arimaspians, the dragon Ladon, who guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides, the more celebrated bullionist, who kept an eye on the golden fleece, are the undoubted ancestors of the more modern specimens of the serpent tribe, who inherited the like miserly pa.s.sion, and allured such champions as Siegfried and Orlando to tread in the steps of Hercules and Jason. The volatile disposition of Wayland the Smith reminds us of Daedalus; his skill in his art exhibits him as a rival of Vulcan; his grandfather Wiking, like Ulysses, "_aequoreas torsit amore Deas_." The Alcinas and Armidas of the modern Italians are only heightened copies of Calypso and Circe; Siegfried, Orlando and Ferrau, with their invulnerable hides and superfluous armor, are each of them a modernized Achilles. This list might be easily lengthened. I am not, however, aware that the fancy of giving names to swords can be traced to the cla.s.sics. Durindana, the sword of Orlando, Fusberta, that of Rinaldo, Excalibur, of King Arthur, Joyeuse, of Charlemagne, and others, may be paralleled by the following list from Northern fable, Gram and Balmung belonging to Siegfried, Mimung to Wayland and Wittich, Nagelring to Dietrich, Brinnig to Hildebrand, Sachs to Eck, Blutang to Heime, Schrit to Biterolf, Welsung to Sintram the Greek and Dietlieb, Waske to Iring, etc. This list is anything but perfect.

(St. LV.) The _tarnkappe_, from an old word _tarnen_ to conceal, and _kappe_, _a mantle or cloak_, otherwise called _nebelkappe_, from _nebel_, mist, obscurity, was a long and broad mantle, which made the wearer invisible, and gave him the strength of twelve men. For want of a better word I have translated it "cloud-cloak."

FOURTH ADVENTURE

(St. I.) Lachmann's Second Lay begins here, and ends with St. CXXII, Fourth Adventure.

(St. XLIV)

A Skottysshe knight hoved upon te bent, A wache I dare well saye; So was he ware on the n.o.ble Percy In the dawnynge of the daye.

English "Battle of Otterbourne."

(St. LXVII.) In this poem "_the Rhine_" is used to express the dominion of Gunther, though, strictly speaking, Siegfried was himself from the Rhine, being a native of Xanten. It is remarkable that at St. I, Second Adventure, this last circ.u.mstance is stated, and yet at St. XIII and St.

XV, Third Adventure, in the conversation between Siegfried and his father, both of whom were then at Xanten, the phrase _ze Rine_ is used with reference to Gunther's country.

(St. LXIX.) "slew him many a slain." This phrase is borrowed from Samson Agonistes.

FIFTH ADVENTURE

(St. I.) Lachmann's Third Lay begins here, and ends with St. LX of this Adventure.

(St. XX.)

Ne she was derke ne browne, but bright, And clear as the Moone light, Againe whom all the starres s.e.m.e.n But small candles, as we demen.

Chaucer's "Romaunt of the Rose" in the description of Beauty.

For all afore, that seemed fayre and bright, Now base and contemptible did appeare, Compar'd to her that shone as Phebes light Among the lesser starres in evening clear.

"Faerie Queene," IV, v. 14.

(St. XXIII.) So Chaucer says of Mirth in the "Romaunt of the Rose":

He seemed like a portreiture, So n.o.ble was he of his stature.

(St. XXVIII.) In the last verse of this stanza Lachmann thinks _magetlichen_, not _minnelichen_, was the original word; "We have,"

says he rather austerely, "love enough and to spare in St. x.x.x, Fifth Adventure;" and certainly, if he be justified in rejecting St. CCXCVIII, and consequently in putting St. CCXCIX next to St. CCXCVII, there is rather a superabundance of the tender pa.s.sion with _minnelichen_, in two successive lines, and _minne_ in a third. On the other hand, it may be said that this very superabundance is produced by Lachmann's own rejection of St. CCXCVIII, and that to alter the text of the preceding stanza in consequence of that rejection, is something like what lawyers call taking advantage of one's own wrong. But however that may be, it cannot be denied, that _magetlichen_ is in St. CCXCVII far more appropriate than _minnelichen_, and its suits my convenience as a translator infinitely better. I have therefore gladly adopted it.

(St. XL.)

In fame's eternal beadroll worthy to be fil'd.

"Faerie Queene."

SIXTH ADVENTURE

(St. II.) Lachmann's Fourth Lay begins here, and ends with St. Lx.x.xVIII.

The poem, which we now possess under the name of the Nibelungenlied, throws into the shade the early history of Siegfried and Brunhild, and retains only a few obscure allusions to the fact that they were old acquaintances. See the Preface.

_Issland_, the Kingdom of Brunhild, which I have thus written to distinguish it from our English word _island_, is identified by von der Hagen with Iceland; Wackernagel, in the Glossary to his "Alt-deutsches Lesebuch" prefers to derive it from _Itisland_ (_itis_, woman in old German), the land of women or Amazons. It is however against this derivation, that, though Brunhild was a "Martial Maid" herself, her kingdom was not a kingdom of Amazons, like that of Radigund in the "Faerie Queene." Her female attendants were like other women, and her knights and the officers of her court were of the other s.e.x.

(St. XVI.) In this stanza and those that follow we may clearly discern that several versions of the same tale have been huddled together. The same thing may be observed in other parts of the poem, but nowhere so clearly as here. For the _tarnkappe_ see the note to St. CI.

(St. x.x.xVIII.)

tuus, O Regina, quid optes Explorare labor, mihi jussa capessere fas est.

(St. XLV.) Zazamanc, according to von der Hagen, is a city in Asia Minor; Lachmann seems to place it in the Land of Romance.

(St. XLVI.) The hides here meant, according to von der Hagen, are the hairy ones of warm-blooded marine animals rather than the skins of fishes properly so called.

(St. LII.) This stanza (not to mention some others) must have been interpolated by a poetical tailor.

(St. LXIII.) According to von der Hagen, the best Rhenish wine is produced about Worms. It is called "Our Lady's Milk," and is superior to Lacryma Christi.

SEVENTH ADVENTURE

(St. XII.) The Ballad of Lord Thomas and Fair Annet has something similar of the lady's horse:

Four and twenty siller bells Wer a' tyed till his mane, And yae tift of the norland wind, They tinkled ane by ane.