Epic poetry, German -- Translations into English; Nibelungen -- Poetry
(St. XXXIX.) I scarcely know whether I have translated this stanza
properly. The variegated work (expressed by _geströut_ in the original)
seems to have been produced by different sorts of fur. The _grâ unde
bunt_ of St. XVI, Third Adventure, seems to mean the same thing. Gold
thread or wire, and something like gold lace appear to have been
fashionable ornaments in the dress of both sexes. Precious stones, too,
were in great request. But I own I have been much puzzled by the
milliners' and tailors' work in the poem, and I dare say have made
mistakes. I may observe that the women were both tailors and milliners.
Kriemhild herself was an accomplished cutter (see St. XLIV, Sixth
Adventure), and, if it had not been for her assistance, her brother and
his companions would not have been fit to be seen at the splendid court
of Brunhild. The men were expert cutters in their line, but their
instrument was the broadsword.
(St. XL.) In this poem the edges of a sword are constantly spoken of in
the plural. The warriors seem to have had only two-edged swords.
(St. LIV.) The fourth line of this stanza, which is admitted as genuine
by Professor Lachmann, is one of those passages which are at variance
not merely with his theory, but with that which attributes the two parts
of the poem to two different authors. It refers to the slaughter toward
the close of the second part, and would be impertinent and out of place
in a poem that concluded with the death of one hero only.
(St. LVIII.) The poet says _the_ broad linden, according to Lachmann,
assuming that the story of Siegfried's death under a linden tree was
generally known.
(St. LXII.) _Intelletto veloce più che pardo._--"Petrarch, Sonn." 286.
(St. LXIV.) Johnson quotes from Ecclesiasticus, "I have no thank for all
my good deed." So in St. Luke vi. 33--"If ye do good to them that do
good to you, what thank have ye?"
SEVENTEENTH ADVENTURE
(St. II.) Lachmann's Ninth Lay begins here and ends with St. LXXI,
Seventeenth Adventure. The Professor has no objection to considering
this and the preceding Lay as works of the same author.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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