Epic poetry, German -- Translations into English; Nibelungen -- Poetry
(St. XL.) Medilik, now Mölk. An abbey still renowned for the abundance
and excellence of its wine stores. It supplied Buonaparte's army in
1809.
TWENTY-SECOND ADVENTURE
(St. XIII.) Lachmann rejects stanzas XIII, XVI, XVII (1288, 1291, 1292
of his edition). He thinks that, even if one were determined to defend
the first, nobody could tolerate the frigidity and abject style of the
two last. For my own part, I am more struck by the absurdity of
Rudeger's caution to Kriemhild not to kiss all Etzel's men. I suppose he
was afraid she would have no lips left after such reiterated osculation.
(St. XIX.) These German strangers or guests (_Tiuschen gesten_) are the
Burgundians according to von der Hagen, but Thüringians according to
Lachmann. The latter says, the expression does not occur elsewhere in
the Lays of the Nibelungers. This restricted use of a term, which was
afterward extended to a whole nation, resembles the restricted use of
the word Hellen in Homer.
(St. XXIII.) The good margrave seems here to discharge the duties of a
male duenna.
(St. XL.) Von der Hagen here notices the custom of tilting by the way in
festal processions. Similar descriptions occur elsewhere in this poem,
as for instance at the landing of Gunther and Brunhild (St. VII, Tenth
Adventure). In this respect the Nibelungenlied differs from the "Orlando
Innamorato" and "Furioso," as well as from the "Faerie Queene," in all
of which poems tournaments are exhibited with far more pomp and
ceremony, and as matters of long previous preparation.
(St. XLI.) Haimburg, a town of Hungary on the borders of Austria, was
fortified, according to von der Hagen, by Duke Leopold, of Austria, out
of the ransom of Richard Cœur de Lion.
(St. XLIV.) Etzel's castle, now Buda, so called from Attila's brother,
Buda or Bleda.
TWENTY-THIRD ADVENTURE
(St. III.) Lachmann's Thirteenth Lay begins here and ends with St.
LXXXIV, Twenty-fourth Adventure.
TWENTY-FOURTH ADVENTURE
(St. I.) See the note to St. XLV, Eighth Adventure.
(St. LXIII.) This stanza seems out of its place here. It should come
somewhere before the council of the Burgundian chiefs, for it is
necessary to know when an entertainment is to take place in order to
determine whether one can attend it, and when one ought with propriety
to set out. Hagan, besides, must be considered to have had a knowledge
of this, before he arranged the plan of setting out only a week after
the departure of the ambassadors.
TWENTY-FIFTH ADVENTURE
(St. II.) Lachmann's Fourteenth Lay begins here and ends with St. LVI,
Twenty-sixth Adventure.
(St. XVIII.) This is the only stanza in the second part where the term
Nibelunger is applied to Siegfried's subjects as in the first part. In
all succeeding passages it means the Burgundians.
(St. XIX.) Ostervranken, according to von der Hagen, is Austrasia, or
the Eastern portion of the Empire of the Franks, afterward, though in a
more restricted sense, the Circle of Franconia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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