The Nibelungenlied
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The Nibelungenlied ANONYMOUS The Nibelungenlied Table of Contents The Nibelungenlied...................................................................................................................................................1 ANONYMOUS..............................................................................................................................................2 PREFACE...............................................................................................................................................3 ADVENTURE I....................................................................................................................................15 ADVENTURE II. Of Siegfried.............................................................................................................18 ADVENTURE III. How Siegfried Came to Worms.............................................................................20 ADVENTURE IV. How He Fought with the Saxons. (1)....................................................................25 ADVENTURE V. How Siegfried First Saw Kriemhild........................................................................31 ADVENTURE VI. How Gunther Fared To Isenland (1) for Brunhild.................................................34 ADVENTURE VII. How Gunther Won Brunhild................................................................................37 ADVENTURE VIII (1). How Siegfried Fared To His Men−At−Arms, the Nibelungs........................41 ADVENTURE IX. How Siegfried Was Sent To Worms......................................................................44 ADVENTURE X. How Brunhild Was Received At Worms................................................................47 ADVENTURE XI. How Siegfried Journeyed Homeward With His Wife...........................................52 ADVENTURE XII. How Gunther Bade Siegfried To The Feasting....................................................54 ADVENTURE XIII. How They Journeyed To The Feasting...............................................................57 ADVENTURE XIV. How The Queens Reviled Each Other................................................................59 ADVENTURE XV. How Siegfried Was Betrayed...............................................................................62 ADVENTURE XVI. How Siegfried Was Slain....................................................................................64 ADVENTURE XVII. How Kriemhild Mourned Her Husband And How He Was Buried..................68 ADVENTURE XVIII. How Siegmund Journeyed Home Again..........................................................71 ADVENTURE XIX. How The Nibelung Hoard Was Brought to Worms............................................73 ADVENTURE XX. How King Etzel (1) Sent To Burgundy For Kriemhild........................................75 ADVENTURE XXI. How Kriemhild Journeyed To The Huns............................................................82 ADVENTURE XXII. How Etzel Made Kriemhild His Bride.............................................................85 ADVENTURE XXIII. How Kriemhild Thought To Avenge Her Wrongs...........................................88 ADVENTURE XXIV. How Werbel And Swemmel Brought The Message........................................90 ADVENTURE XXV. How The Lords All Journeyed To The Huns....................................................94 ADVENTURE XXVI (1). How Gelfrat Was Slain By Dankwart........................................................98 ADVENTURE XXVII. How They Came To Bechelaren...................................................................101 ADVENTURE XXVIII. How The Burgundians Came To Etzel's Castle..........................................104 ADVENTURE XXIX. How Hagen Would Not Rise For Kriemhild.................................................106 ADVENTURE XXX. How They Kept The Watch.............................................................................109 ADVENTURE XXXI. (1) How They Went To Church.....................................................................111 ADVENTURE XXXII (1). How Bloedel Was Slain..........................................................................114 ADVENTURE XXXIII. How The Burgundians Fought The Huns....................................................116 ADVENTURE XXXIV. How They Cast Out The Dead....................................................................119 ADVENTURE XXXV. How Iring Was Slain....................................................................................120 ADVENTURE XXXVI. How The Queen Gave Orders To Burn the Hall.........................................123 ADVENTURE XXXVII. How Margrave Rudeger Was Slain...........................................................126 ADVENTURE XXXVIII. How All Sir Dietrich's Warriors Were Slain............................................131 ADVENTURE XXXIX. How Gunther And Hagen And Kriemhild Were Slain...............................135 i The Nibelungenlied The Nibelungenlied 1 The Nibelungenlied ANONYMOUS Originally written in Middle High German (M.H.G.), sometime around 1200 A.D., although this dating is by no means certain. Author unknown. The text of this edition is based on that published as "The Nibelungenlied", translated by Daniel B. Shumway (Houghton− Mifflin Co., New York, 1909). This edition is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN in the United States. This electronic edition was edited, proofed, and prepared by Douglas B. Killings ([email protected]) PREPARER'S NOTE: In order to make this electronic edition easier to use, the preparer has found it necessary to re−arrange the endnotes of Mr. Shumway's edition, collating them with the chapters themselves and substituting page references with footnote references. The preparer takes full responsibility for these changes. −− DBK. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY: OTHER TRANSLATIONS −− Hatto, A.T. (Trans.): "Nibelungenlied" (Penguin Classics, London, 1962). Prose translation. Ryder, Frank G. (Trans.): "The Song of the Nibelungs" (Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1962). Verse translation. RECOMMENDED READING −− Anonymous: "Kudrun", Translated by Marion E. Gibbs &Sidney Johnson (Garland Pub., New York, 1992). Anonymous: "Volsungasaga", Translated by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson (Walter Scott Press, London, 1888; Reissued by the Online Medieval and Classical Library as E−Text #29, 1997). Saxo Grammaticus: "The First Nine Books of the Danish History", Translated by Oliver Elton (London, 1894; Reissued by the Online Medieval and Classical Library as E−Text OMACL #28, 1997). ANONYMOUS 2 The Nibelungenlied PREFACE This work has been undertaken in the belief that a literal translation of as famous an epic as the "Nibelungenlied" would be acceptable to the general reading public whose interest in the story of Siegfried has been stimulated by Wagner's operas and by the reading of such poems as William Morris' "Sigurd the Volsung". Prose has been selected as the medium of translation, since it is hardly possible to give an accurate rendering and at the same time to meet the demands imposed by rhyme and metre; at least, none of the verse translations made thus far have succeeded in doing this. The prose translations, on the other hand, mostly err in being too continuous and in condensing too much, so that they retell the story instead of translating it. The present translator has tried to avoid these two extremes. He has endeavored to translate literally and accurately, and to reproduce the spirit of the original, as far as a prose translation will permit. To this end the language has been made as simple and as Saxon in character as possible. An exception has been made, however, in the case of such Romance words as were in use in England during the age of the romances of chivalry, and which would help to land a Romance coloring; these have been frequently employed. Very few obsolete words have been used, and these are explained in the notes, but the language has been made to some extent archaic, especially in dialogue, in order to give the impression of age. At the request of the publishers the Introduction Sketch has been shorn of the apparatus of scholarship and made as popular as a study of the poem and its sources would allow. The advanced student who may be interested in consulting authorities will find them given in the introduction to the parallel edition in the Riverside Literature Series. A short list of English works on the subject had, however, been added. In conclusion the translator would like to thank his colleagues, C.G. Child and Cornelius Weygandt, for their helpful suggestions in starting the work, and also to acknowledge his indebtedness to the German edition of Paul Piper, especially in preparing the notes. −− DANIEL BUSSIER SHUMWAY, Philadelphia, February 15, 1909. INTRODUCTORY SKETCH There is probably no poem of German literature that has excited such universal interest, or that has been so much studied and discussed, as the "Nibelungenlied". In its present form it is a product of the age of chivalry, but it reaches back to the earliest epochs of German antiquity, and embraces not only the pageantry of courtly chivalry, but also traits of ancient Germanic folklore and probably of Teutonic mythology. One of its earliest critics fitly called it a German "Iliad", for, like this great Greek epic, it goes back to the remotest times and unites the monumental fragments of half−forgotten myths and historical personages into a poem that is essentially national in character, and the embodiment of all that is great in the antiquity of the