[Footnote 108: For the verse originals see Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_ (Oxford, 1883), vol. i. The verse and prose alike will be found conveniently translated in a cheap little volume of the "Camelot Library," _The Volsunga Saga_, by W. Morris and E. Magnusson (London, 1888).] The author of the _Nibelungenlied_ (or rather the "Nibelungen-_Noth_," for this is the older title of the poem, which has a very inferior sequel called _Die Klage_) has dealt with the story very differently. He pays no attention to the ancestry of Sifrit (Sigurd), and little to his acquisition of the hoard, diminishes the part of Brynhild, stripping it of all romantic interest as regards Sifrit, and very largely increases the importance of the revenge of Gudrun, now called Kriemhild. Only sixteen of the thirty-nine "aventiuren" or "fyttes" (into which the poem in the edition here used is divided) are allotted to the part up to and including the murder of Sifrit; the remaining twenty-three deal with the vengeance of Kriemhild, who is herself slain just when this vengeance is complete, the after-piece of her third marriage and the fate of Swanhild being thus rendered impossible. Among the idler parts of Nibelungen discussions perhaps the idlest are the attempts made by partisans of Icelandic and German literature respectively to exalt or depress these two handlings, each in comparison with the other. There is no real question of superiority or inferiority, but only one of difference. The older handling, in the _Volsunga Saga_ to some extent, but still more in the Eddaic songs, has perhaps the finer touches of pure clear poetry in single passages and phrases; the story of Sigurd and Brynhild has a passion which is not found in the German version; the defeat of Fafnir and the treacherous Regin is excellent; and the wild and ferocious story of Sinfioetli, with which the saga opens, has unmatched intensity, well brought out in Mr Morris's splendid verse-rendering, _The Story of Sigurd the Volsung_.[109] [Footnote 109: 4th edition. London, 1887.] [Sidenote: _The German version._]