Bis wir in den Schiffen finden 4175 Irgendwelche Art Häute; Dann schlüpfen wir armen Leute In unsre gute Rüstung. Hat man uns dann eingenäht In die Häute,” sprach der Degen, 4180 “So wollen wir uns legen Oben auf das Schiffsverdeck. So nehmen uns da die Greife Und tragen uns von dannen. Sie können uns nichts anhaben, 4185 Die Greife, wegen der Rüstung, Die uns oft beschirmt hat; Die mag uns noch einmal helfen. Und haben wir uns versichert, Dass die alten auf Beute fort sind, 4190 So schneiden wir uns aus Und steigen zur Erde nieder. Soll es aber anders werden, Will es Gott, dass wir nicht entkommen, So mag es uns doch lieber sein, 4195 Dass wir dort redlich tot liegen, Als dass wir hier diese starke Not So jämmerlich erleiden.” [Notes: 1: The Liver Sea, called also _das geronnene Meer_, or the Curdled Sea; in Latin _mare pigrum et concretum_. For the literature of the curious saga see Bartsch, _Herzog Ernst_, Wien, 1869, p. cxlv.] +XVIII. THE LAY OF THE NIBELUNGS+ The most important poetic production of medieval Germany. It embodies legends that date back, in part, to the 5th century and were handed down from age to age by oral tradition. The different versions known to us point back to a lost original which probably took shape toward the end of the 12th century and was the work of an Austrian poet of whom nothing is known. The form is a four-line strophe, with masculine rimes paired in the order _aa_ _bb_. Each line is divided into two parts by a cesura, which regularly falls after an unstressed syllable. The first seven half-lines usually have three accents each, the eighth four. Reasoning from incongruities in the text, the famous scholar Lachmann concluded that the poem consists of twenty old songs, or ballads, pieced together with new matter in the shape of introductions, transitions, and amplifications. This theory gave rise to a great controversy which still divides scholarship to some extent, with opinion tending more and more to the confirmation of Lachmann’s general view, but to the rejection of his specific conclusions. That is to say: The poem is a working-over of old songs; but just how many of these there were, where the dividing lines come, and how much merit of originality may rightly be claimed for the nameless 12th century poet, cannot be definitely settled. The most popular modernization is that of Simrock, 56th edition, 1902, from which the selections below are taken. It has its defects, but none of the many attempts to improve upon it has met with a generally recognized success. _From Adventure 1:[1] Kriemhild and her dream._ Es wuchs in Burgunden solch edel Mägdelein, Dass in allen Landen nichts Schön’res mochte sein. Kriemhild war sie geheissen und ward ein schönes Weib, Um die viel Degen mussten verlieren Leben und Leib.