The Lay of the Nibelung Men. Anonymous

      Published by Good Press, 2019

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      EAN 4057664588821

Table of Contents

       INTRODUCTION

       THE LAY OF THE NIBELUNG MEN

       I. Of Kriemhild, and of her Dream

       II. Of the Fostering and the Knighting of Siegfried

       III. How Siegfried rode to the City of Worms

       IV. How Siegfried warred against the Saxons

       V. How Siegfried first saw Kriemhild

       VI. How they Voyaged on Love-quest to Isen-land

       VII. How the Warrior-maid was won to be Gunther’s Bride

       VIII. How Siegfried went to the Niblung Land for his Knights

       IX. How Siegfried bare Tidings to the Royal City

       X. Of the strange Bridal of Gunther and Brunhild

       XI. How Siegfried and his Wife journeyed Home

       XII. How Gunther bade Siegfried to a Festival

       XIII. How they Fared to the Feast-tide

       XIV. How the Queens spake bitter Words Each unto Other

       XV. How woven for Siegfried was the Net of Betrayal

       XVI. How Siegfried was Murdered

       XVII. How Siegfried was Mourned and Buried

       XVIII. How Kriemhild would not return to the Lowland with Siegmund

       XIX. How the Hoard of the Niblungs came to Worms

       XX. How Queen Kriemhild was Wooed for the King of the Huns

       XXI. Of Kriemhild’s journeying to the Land of the Huns

       XXII. How King Etzel wedded Kriemhild

       XXIII. How Kriemhild thought on Vengeance for her Wrongs

       XXIV. How the Hun-King’s Minstrels bade the Burgundians to the Feast

       XXV. How the Princes rode to the Land of the Huns

       XXVI. How Foes fell on them as they journeyed by Night

       XXVII. How they came to Bechlaren

       XXVIII. How the Burgundians came to Etzel’s strong City

       XXIX. How Hagen refused to rise up in Presence of the Queen

       XXX. How Hagen and Volker kept Watch while Men slept

       XXXI. How they bore them at Mass and Tourney

       XXXII. Of the Slaughter of the Squires and the Slaying of the Slayer

       XXXIII. How the Fight began in Etzel’s Hall

       XXXIV. How they cast forth the Dead

       XXXV. How Iring fought and died

       XXXVI. How the Queen bade set fire to the Hall

       XXXVII. How the Margrave Rüdiger was slain

       XXXVIII. How Dietrich’s Men were all slain

       XXXIX. How Gunther, Hagen, and Kriemhild were slain

INTRODUCTION

       Table of Contents

      If we accept as our definition of an Epic:—(a) A long poem, (b) of an interest not less than national[1], describing (c) in noble language (d) a series of naturally and organically connected actions (e) of heroic actors, we shall find that, while we must deny the name to some so-called epics[2], we have to thank the spirit, the imagination, the genius, of the Middle Ages for two great epics. If some critics are inclined to place these on a lower plane, for the alleged reason that the language is lacking in nobility, we may reply that it is a rash literary judgment which appraises the language and style of a far-off time by the standards either of a later civilization and culture, or by those of a quite different race, as of Greece. That is entitled to be called noble language