No More Learning

He rubbed
his eyes, but could find neither goats nor dog; wondered at the
long-grown grass, at the bushes and trees which he had never
noticed here before. Not knowing what to make of it, he went
on thro' all the roads and tracks, where he was wont to rove
daily with his goats; but nowhere could he find any trace of
these. In the hollow he saw Sittendorf, and at length hastened
down to inquire after them there.
'The people whom he met about the village were all unknown
to him; were dressed otherwise, spoke otherwise, than his ac-
quaintances; moreover they all gazed at him, when he asked for
his goats; and caught themselves by the chin. Peter, at length,
almost involuntarily, did the like; and found to his amazement
that his beard was a foot long. He began to think himself and
the whole world about him enchanted; and yet he knew the moun-
tain he had just come from as the old Kyffhauser: the houses
too, with their gardens and front-plots, were mostly well known
to him. Some boys also, to the question of a traveller, answer-
ed "Sittendorf. "
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? 42
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
'In many doubts, he entered the village, and made for
his own cottage. He found it much wrecked; and at the door
lay a stranger ragged herdsboy, with a lean dog, that snarl-
ed at Peter when he spoke. He passed on thro' the opening,
which had once had a door; but within all was so waste and
empty, that, like a drunk man, he staggered out again, thro'
the back-door, and began calling on his wife and children.
But none heard him, no voice answered him.
'Ere long a crowd of women and boys gathered round the
inquiring Peter, with the long ice-gray beard; and asked him,
each faster than the other: what he was wanting? To ques-
tion strangers, beside his own house, about his own wife and
children, nay about himself, seemed so unheard of, that to
rid himself of these importunities, he bawled out any name
that came into his head. "Kurt Steffen! " The most were
silent, and looked at one another; at length an old woman
said: "He has lived these twelve years at the Sachsenburg;
thither you will not get today. "--"Velt Meier! "--"God rest
his soul! " said an old mother, bent over her crutch, "he
has lain fifteen years in the house he will never leave. "
'With a shudder Klaus recognised these women, all at
once grown old; but the humour for questioning them farther
had left him. Suddenly a young brisk woman pressed thro'
the gaping crowd, with a boy some twelvemonth old on her
arm, and a girl of four years in her hand; all three the very
picture of his wife. "What is your name? " cried he in won-
der. -- "Maria. "--"And your father's? "--"God rest him!
Peter Klaus: it is twenty years now since we sought him night
and day on the Kyffhauser, when his flock came home without
him: I was seven then. "
'The Goatherd could restrain himself no longer. "I am
Peter Klaus, " cried he, "and no other! " taking the boy from
his daughter's arm. For a moment all stood as changed to
stone; then voice after voice cried out: "Yes, it is Peter
Klaus ! Welcome neighbour, welcome after twenty years. " '
We shall now take a peep at Redbeard himself, the heart of
all these mysteries, as he sits there 'winking and nodding, ' with
his beard grown thro' the table. However, let us not suppose
that the Tradition dates no farther back than Friedrich Barbar-
ossa, that is, than six centuries and odd years. The notion of
great Princes, that were dear and beneficent to their people, be-
ing still alive, and destined to reappear, when times are at the
worst, and to right all that has been wronged, is a loyal, devout
imagination to be met with in many kingdoms, and originates in
a quite unknown antiquity. Thus long before Friedrich's day, the
great Karl (Charlemagne) with his Paladins was fabled to be hold-
ing court underground at Salzburg; from whom, no doubt, as the
memory of him grew dim among the German People, this kind
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
43
tale descended to Rothbart, as the next and probably the last
heir thereof.
'The Enchanted Kaiser. 132
'A Miner, of a pious and quiet town, went once, on the
third day of Easter, to the Kyffhauser. There, on the high
Watch-tower, he found a Monk sitting, with a long white
beard that reached down to his knee. At sight of the Miner,
the Monk closed a large Volume he was reading in; and said
kindly: "Come with me to Kaiser Friedrich; he has been
waiting for us this hour. The Dwarf has already brought me
the Springwurzel. "*
A cold shudder crept over the Miner's flesh: nevertheless
the Monk spoke so comfortingly to him that he went quite
cheerfully, and promised not to speak a word, let come what
* Literally, the Start-root. 133 This invaluable root, or fibre,
for it is of the smallest dimensions, can no more be dispensed
with in Treasure-digging than Wunschelruthe (Divining-rod), 134
and may perhaps be as old as it, that is, older than Tacitus'
day. For if the rod by its trembling point out where the Treas-
ure is, the Springwurzel must start all locks and bolts, natur-
al or preternatural, that secure it there. To Housebreakers,
especially to Bank-robbers, it were an invaluable acquire-
ment; for the most cunning Bramah-lockl35 yields to it like
water; nay at sight of it, the portals of the hugest, rustiest
Donjon, tho' for the first time in centuries, will burst wide open,
with a clangour like cannon-vollies. But how to procure it
is the great question. Take the advice of 'Neighbour Bias,
an ancient herdsman, ' in the above-cited Tale of Musaus:
'You manage it best, ' says he, 'by help of a Woodpecker.
Find his nest in the hollow of a tree, and after his young are
hatched, watch him when he flies out to seek food for them;
then drive a hard wedge into the opening he enters by. Hide
behind the tree till he returns at feeding-time: when he sees
his nest plugged up, he will scream and flutter round, and at
last suddenly take flight toward the west. This done, take
care to have a red scarlet mantle, or in fault thereof, go to
the shop and buy four ells of red cloth; hide this under your
coat, and wait all day, or even two days long, till the Wood-
pecker come back, with the Springwurzel in his bill. He will
touch the wedge with it, and this will fly out, like a cork from
a fermenting bottle: then be sharp, and spread your red mantle
under the tree; the woodpecker will think it is fire, will be
frightened for it, and let the Springwurzel fall. -- Is it now once
in your hand, forget not to tie a little piece of buckthorn wood
to it; for were you to lay it down by itself, it would fly away
and be lost. ' -- Musaus Volksmahrchen der Deutschen. V. 150--
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? 44
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
might. They now proceeded to an open space begirt with a
wall. The Monk here made a large cross, with his crosier,
and wrote some strange characters in the sand. Then he
read prayers, long and loud, from his large Book, none of
which however did the Miner understand. At last he struck
thrice with his crosier on the ground, and cried: Open!
There arose under their feet a muffled noise, as of dis-
tant thunder; the Earth shook beneath them. And now the
Miner with the Monk who had taken his hand sink|;] down, and
down, together with a space of ground so far as the circle
had marked out. They step off at the bottom; and the ground
again slowly mounts up. They were in a large vault.
The Monk advances with firm step; the miner with quiver-
ing knees behind him. They went along thro' some passages,
till it began to grow quite dark round them. Ere long, how-
ever, they came to a perpetual Lamp; and now saw that they
were in a spacious cloister. The Monk here kindled two
torches, for himself and his companion. They walk on; and
all at once find themselves before a large iron church-door.
The Monk prays; holds the Springwurzel, which no charm-
ed bolt can resist, to the lock, and cries: Open, door! And
with the crash of thunder, all the iron bars and locks start
out; and a round Chapel lies opened. The floor was smooth-
polished as a mirror, and whoever had not lived chaste and
devout (so the Monk said afterwards) broke both his legs here,
and never got back. The vaulted ceiling and the round walls
gleamed and flamed in the light of the torches. Great teethl37
of crystal and diamonds hung down, and between them still
greater of pure gold. On the one side stood a golden altar; on
the other a golden fount, with feet of silver. 138 The Monk
now beckoned his companion to stand right in the centre, and
to hold the torches one in each hand. He himself went for-
ward to a door all silver; knocked thrice with his crosier, and
the door sprang open.
'Straight opposite the door, on a golden throne, sat Kaiser
Friedrich; not hewn out of stone; no, but as he looked and lived;
a golden crown on his head, with which he continually nodded,
puckering his large eyebrows. His long red beard had grown
thro' the stone table before him, and reached down to his feet.
The Miner lost sight and hearing at the first glance of him.
'After a while the Monk came back, and in silence took his
companion away. The silver door shut of itself; the iron gate
dashed together with a horrid jar behind them. When they got
It is worthy of remark that the lively Compiler of the Causes
Cele~bres, whose son might be still living, mentions this Spring-
wurzel ~s a real scientific implement, or desideratum; and"
proof of what can be well proved otherwise, the imperfection of
men's Understanding. 136
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? TRADITIONARY LORE
45
back, along the cloister, to the outer vault, the circle of
ground again slowly sank: both stept on it, and were gently
borne aloft.
'Above ground the Monk gave his companion two little
bars of an unknown ore, which he had brought with him from
the chapel: these the Miner's descendants keep, in. memory
of the occurrence, to this day. '*
With which rather lame and impotent conclusion, we also,
like the Monk and Miner, must leave that enchanted region,
where, it is to be feared, we have truanted too long. Whether
those two Mahrchen are 'two little bars of an unknown ore, ' that
will keep for any time, may be doubted.
* Volks-Sagen, Mahrchen und Legenden, Gesammelt von
J. G. Busching[,j S. 320-333[actually, 327-31, 336-39]. -- Dr
Busching, our worthy Antiquarian, is son of the well-known
Geographer ;139 and himself, in this other province, not less
noted, and meritorious. Whoever wishes for true insight,
whether scientific or poetic, into the Popular Fable-world of
the Germans, will consult his Writings, and those of the Bro-
thers Grimm, as the best guides in that inquiry.
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? Chap[terJ IV140
[Modern Interest in Medieval Popular Poetry. The Two Main
German Monuments of Long-written Popular Poetry, Helden-
buch and Nibelungen Lied: Their Undetermined Antiquity and
Authorship. Account of the Former Monument, with Stress on
Siegfried as a Center of Northern Tradition]
IN 1757, the Swiss Professor, Bodmer, 141 printed an ancient
poetical manuscript under the title of Chriemhilden Rache und
die Klage (Chriemhilde's Revenge and the Lament); which may
be considered as the first of a series, or stream of publications
and speculations, still rolling on, with increased current, to
the present day. Not indeed that all these originated in so in-
significant a cause;their source, or rather thousand sources,
lay far elsewhere. In fact, a certain antiquarian tendency, a
fonder, more earnest looking back into the Past, began about
that time to manifest itself in all nations (for example, our own
Percy's Reliques): this was among the first distinct symptoms
of it in Germany; where, as with ourselves, it has produced and
is producing the most remarkable results. 142
Some fifteen years after Bodmer's Publication, which, for
the rest, is not celebrated as an editorial feat, C. H. Muller
had undertaken a Sammlung deutscher Gedichte (Collection of
German Poems from the 12th, 13th and 14th Centuries); 143
wherein, among other articles, he reprinted Bodmer's Chriem-
hilde and Klage, with a highly remarkable addition prefixed to
it, essential indeed to the right understanding thereof; and the
whole now stood before the world as one Poem, under the name
of the Nibelungen Lied, or Lay of the Nibelungen. Out of this,
ere long, proceeded innumerable new inquiries, and kindred
enterprises. For, much as the Poem, in the shape it here bore,
was defaced and marred, it failed not to attract observation:
to all open-minded lovers of Poetry, especially where a strong
patriotic feeling existed, the antique Nibelungen was an interest-
ing appearance. Johannes von Muller, in his famous Swiss His-
tory, 144 spoke of it in warm terms; and subsequently, A. W.
Schlegel, 145 thro' the medium of the Deutsche Museum, awaken-
ed a universal attention to it, which not only continues among
the Germans, but has now extended itself into neighbouring na-
tions .
In its own country, the Nibelungen has since been, investi-
gated, translated, collated, and commented upon, with the pa-
tient, unwearied fidelity characteristic of that people: be the
harvest great or not, the reapers have neither been few nor slug-
gish; we have versions, into the modern tongue, by Hagen, by
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? HELDENBUCH
47
Hinsberg, 1*6 Zeune, 147 Busching; Criticisms, Introductions,
Keys, and so forth by innumerable others, of whom we mention
only Docenl48 and the Brothers Grimm. By which means not
only has the Nibelungen been elucidated with all manner of re-
searches, but its whole environment also has come forth in
new light; the scene and personages it relates to, the other fic-
tions and traditions connected with it have attained a new im-
portance and coherence. Manuscripts that for ages had lain dor-
mant have issued from their archives into the light of day: Books
that had circulated only in mean guise for the amusement of the
people, have become important not to one or two virtuosos, but
to the general body of the learned: and now a whole system of
antique Fiction and Mythology discloses itself, shedding here
and there a real tho' feeble and uncertain glimmer over what
was once the total Darkness of the old time. No fewer than four-
teen ancient Traditionary Poems, all strangely intertwined, and
growing out of and into one another, have come to light among
the Germans; who now, in looking back, find that they too, as
well as the Greeks, have their Heroic Age; and round the pld
Valhalla, as their Northern Pantheon, a world of demigods and
wonders. Into this mighty maze of written Tradition, as we
have already done into the unwritten, which is but the cloud-fore-
court of that cloud-palace, it will be proper to look in passing.
Far be it from us, meanwhile, to venture rashly, or deeper
than is needful, into that Labyrinth; where we hear of winding
passages, or of Poems, 'containing a hundred thousand verses'
and 'se(ye ? ]nty-seven 149 thousand verses, ' as of a quite natural
affair! And no less confused, inextricable, are their windings,
than interminable. It is a Hall of Mirrors[,J that Cloud-palace;
where in pale light each Mirror reflects, convexly or concavely,
not only some real object, but the shadows of this in other Mir-
rors; which again do the like for it, in endless series; till, with
such reflection and re-reflection, the whole Immensity is filled
with dimmer and dimmer shapes; and no firm scene lies round
us, but a dislocated, distorted chaos, fades away on all hands
in the distance into utter Night. Only to some brave Von der
Hagen, furnished with indefatigable ardour, and a deep, almost
religious love, is it given to find some footing there, and see
his way. These Dukes of Aquitania, Etzel's Housekeepings, and
Dietrichs and Sigenots, we shall leave all where they are; re-
stricting ourselves to two, indeed chiefly to one, of those Works,
the Heldenbuch (Hero-Book), 150 and the Nibelungen Lied;l5l the
latter of which as a real Poem, apart from its antiquity, deserves
to be inquired into; the former as a long-established Popular Book,
and for the light it throws on the other. Such as desire further
information will find an intelligible notice of the whole series in
Messrs Weber and Jamieson's Illustrations of Northern Antiquities;*
* Edinburgh, 1814. 152
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? 48
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
and all possible furtherance in the numerous German Works
above alluded to; among which, Von der Hagen's writings, * tho'
not the readiest, are probably the safest guides.
Our first question naturally respects the age of these Tra-
ditions; to which question, however, no sure answer can be given.
It is known from History that Eginhart, the Secretary and happy
son-in-law of Charlemagne, compiled by order of that monarch
a collection of the Ancient German Songs; among whichQ 153 it
is fondly believed by antiquarians, this Nibelungen and the main
traditions of the Heldenbuch connected therewith, may have had
honourable place. Unluckily Eginhart' s Collection has quite
perished; and only his Life of the Great Charles, 154 in which
this circumstance stands noted, survives to provoke curiosity.
One thing is certain, Fulco Archbishop of Rheims, in the year
885, is introduced as citing certain 'German Books, ' to enforce
some argument of his, by instance of 'King Ermenrich's crime
towards his relations';t which King Ermenrich and his crime
are at this day part and parcel of the Heldenbuch, and presup-
posed in the Nibelungen. Later notices of a more decisive sort
occur in abundance. Saxo Grammaticus, 156 who flourished in
the twelfth century, relates that about the year 1130, a Saxon
minstrel, being sent to Iceland, with a treacherous invitation
from one royal Dane to another; and not daring to violate his oath,
yet compassionating the victim, sang to him, by way of indirect
warning, 'the Song of Chriemhilde's Treachery to her Brothers';
that is to say, the latter portion of our actual Nibelungen Lied.
To which direct evidences that these Traditions, in substance,
were universally known in the twelfth century, nay had been in
some shape committed to writing in the ninth, or rather in the
eightjh] -- we have still to add the probability of their being 'An-
cient Songs' even at that earliest date; all which, on a moderate
estimate, may carry us back into the sixth century; yet not far-
ther, inasmuch as certain of the Poetic Personages that figure
in them, belong intrinsically to the fifth.
Other and more open proof of Antiquity lies in the fact that
these Traditions are so universally diffused. There are Danish
and Icelandic versions of them, externally more or less withered
and distorted, yet substantially real copies; professing indeed
to be borrowed from the German: in particular, we have the
Niflunga and Wilkina Saga, 157 composed in the thirteenth cen-
tury, which, still, in many ways, illustrate the German Original.
Innumerable other Songs and Sagas point more remotely in the
same direction. It appears indeed that certain rhymed Tales
* His Grundriss zur Geschichte der Altdeutschen Poesie (Out-
line of a History of Old-German Poesy); his Editions of the
Nibelungen Lied and Heldenbuch; his Essay, Die Nibelungen,
ihre Bedeutung &c.
t Hagens Nibelungen. Einleit. S. VIII [actually p. DC]. 155
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? HELDENBUCH
49
founded on these old adventures have been recovered from popu-
lar recitation, in the Faroe Islands, even within these few years.
Nay, the worthy Von der Hagen, to whom we owe this last
anecdote, who may well understand the Nibelungen better than
any other man, having rendered it into the modern tongue, and
twice edited it in the original, not without collating some eleven
Manuscripts, and travelling several thousands of miles, to make
the last edition perfect, -- writes a Book, some years ago, rather
boldly denominated, 'The Nibelungen, its Meaning for the Pres-
ent and forever'; wherein, not content with this acknowledged an-
tiquity, of the sixth century, he would fain claim an antiquity far
beyond all dated centuries.
Working his way with feeble mine-
lamps of Etymology, he traces back the rudiments of his beloved
Nibelungen, 'to which the flower of his whole life has been con-
secrated, ' into the thick Darkness of the Scandinavian Niflheim
and Muspelheim, 1 58 and the Hindoo Genesis; connecting it with
the Ship Argo, the Fire-creed of Zerdusht, and even with the
signs of the Zodiac. His reasoning is somewhat abstruse; yet
an honest zeal, very considerable learning, and intellectual force,
bring him tolerably thro' the adventure. So that if ever any Tra-
dition came to us recommended by its antiquity, it is this of which
the Nibelungen forms the nucleus; compared wherewith the Talmud
itself is a mere mushroom.
We hinted above that, in the oldest Fictions and Traditions of
the Germans, there were no distinct historical lineaments; that
the great Northern ImJrrJigrations had well-nigh faded away utterly
from all vernacular records. Some traces, nevertheless, some
names, and dim shadows of events, in that grand movement, still
remain here; which if they have no historical, have a high poeti-
cal value for us. There can be no doubt but this 'Etzel King of
Hun-land, ' for example, is the Attila of History; several of whose
real achievements and relations are faintly, yet still recognis-
ably, pictured forth in these Poems. His first queen is named
Halke, and in the Scandinavian versions, Herka; which, or Erca,
is also the name Priscusl59 gives her, in the well known account
of his Embassy to Attila. Moreover, it is on his second marriage,
which had in reality, so mysterious and tragical a character, that
the whole Catastrophe of the Nibelungen turns. Doubtless the
'Scourge of God' plays but a tame part here; however, his great
acts, tho' all past, are still visible in their fruits: besides, it is
on the Northern or German personages that the Tradition chiefly
dwells. Among these latter, it must farther be remarked are a
certain Ottnit, and a Dietrich of Bern; to whom also it seems un-
reasonable to deny a real historical existence. This Bern (Verona)
as well as the Rabenschlacht (Battle of Ravenna) is continually
figuring in these Fictions; tho' whether under Ottnit we are to un-
derstand Odoacer the vanquished, and under Dietrich of Bern
Theodoricus Veronensis the victor both at Verona and Ravenna,
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? 50
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
is not so indubitable. Chronological difficulties stand much in
the way. For our Dietrich of Bern is represented as one of
Etzel's champions: now Attila died about 450; and this Ostrogoth
Theodoric did not fight his great Battle at Verona till 489; that
of Ravenna, which was followed by a three years siege, happen-
ing next year. Startled by this anachronism, some commenta-
tors have fished out another Theodoric, eighty years prior to
him of Verona, and who actually served in Attila's hosts, with
a retinue of Goths and Germans; with which new Theodoric, how-
ever, the old Ottnit, or Odoacer, of the Heldenbuch, in his turn
must part company; whereby the case is no whit mended. Cer-
tain it seems, in the mean time, that Dietrich, which signifies
Rich in People is the same name which in Greek became Theo-
dericus; for at first, as in Procopius, 160 this very Theodoricus
is always written SeoSepix which almost exactly corresponds
with the German sound. But such are the inconsistencies in-
volved in both hypotheses, that we are forced here to conclude
one of two things: Either that the Poets of the Nibelungen and
Heldenbuch were little read-in the niceties of History, and un-
ambitious of passing for authorities therein, which seems a re-
markably easy conclusion; or else, with Lessing, that they meant
some quite other series of events and persons; some Kaiser Otto,
and his two Anti-Kaisers (in the twellth century); which, from
what has come to light since Lessing's day, seems now an impos-
sible supposition. But the most remarkable coincidence, if genu-
ine, remains yet to be mentioned. 'Thwortz, '161 a Hungarian
Chronicler (or perhaps Chronicle) of we know not what authority,
relates 'that Attila left his kingdom to his two sons Chaba and
Aladar, the former by a Grecian mother, the latter by Krem-
heilch (Chriemhilde) a German; that Theoderic sowed dissention
between them, and took, with the Teutonic nations, the party
of the latter; in consequence of which a great slaughter took place,
which lasted for fifteen days, and terminated in the defeat of
Chaba (the Greek), and his flight into Asia. '* Could we put faith
in this Thwortz, we might fancy that some vague rumour of that
Kremheilch Tragedy, swoln by the way, had reached the German
ear and imagination, where gathering round older ideas and myth-
uses, as matter round its spirit, the first rude form of Chriem-
hilde's Revenge bodied itself forth into Song.
Thus any historical light emitted by these old Poems is little
better than darkness visible; sufficient to indicate that great North-
ern Immigrations, and wars, and rumours of war, have been; but
nowise how and what they have been. Scarcely clearer is the speci-
cial history of the Poems themselves; where they originated, who
have been their successive redactors and composers. In their pres-
ent shape we have internal evidence that they are not older than the
* Weber (Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, p. 39), who cites
G6"rres (Zeitung filr Einsiedler)as his authority. 162
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? HELDENBUCH
51
twelfth century; indeed, great part of the Hero-Book can be
proved to be later. With this last, it is understood that Wolf-
ram von Eschenbachl63 and Heinrich von Ofterdingen, 164 two
singers otherwise noted in that era, were largely concerned:
but neither is there any demonstration of this vague belief;
while in regard to the Author of the Nibelungen, not so much as
a plausible conjecture can be formed. Some vote for a certain
Conrad von Wurzburg;165 others for the above-named Eschen-
bach and Ofterdingen; others again for Klingsohr of Ungerland, 166
a minstrel who once passed also for a magician. It is clear only
that one Conrad, whether of Wurzburg or not, gives himself out
as the Writer, perhaps only as the Transcriber, of the Klage or
Lament, which however, is now seen to be no integral portion of
the Nibelungen Song but a later appendage and Epilogue to it, and
by another hand; so that this Conrad, taking his own word for it,
is not the main singer. But who that same main singer may have
been, only in so far as his work itself proves that there was but
one, and he highly gifted, remains altogether dark; the unweari-
ed Von der Hagen himself, after fullest investigation, gives for
verdict 'We know it not. ' Considering the intrinsic beauty of the
Nibelungen especially, and that many feeble ballad-mongers of
their age have transmitted their names to us, so total an oblivion
in this infinitely more important case might seem surprising:
but those Minnelieder (Love-songs), and Provencal Madrigals,
were the Court Poetry of that time and gained honour in high pla-
ces; while the old national Traditions were common property and
plebeian, and to sing them a labour of love.
It is worthy of remark, moreover, that the Heldenbuch seems
to have been a far higher favourite than the Nibelungen: it was
printed soon after the invention of printing; some think in 1472,
for there is no place or date on the first edition; at all events,
in 1491, in 1509, and repeatedly since; whereas the Nibelungen,
tho' written earlier, and in worth immeasurably superior, had
to remain in manuscript three centuries longer. From which,
for the thousandth time, inferences might be drawn as to the in-
fallibility of popular taste, and its value as a criterion of poetry.
However, it is probably in virtue of this neglect that the Nibelun-
gen boasts of its actual purity; that it now comes before us, clear
and graceful as it issued from the old Poet's soul; not overloaded,
with Ass-eared Giants, Fiery Dragons, Dwarfs and Hairy women,
as the Heldenbuch is; many of which, it is charitable to hope, may
have been the produce of a later era; as indeed one Caspar von
Roen is understood to have repassed that whole Fable thro' his
limbeck, in the fifteenth century; but, like other rectifiers, in-
stead of purifying it, to have only drugged it with fiercer ingredi-
ents suitable to the sick appetite of the time.
Coming now, after this long preface, into closer quarters with
the Poems themselves, we must hasten to dismiss that Hero-Book
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? 52
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
with all speed; reserving what space is possible for the 'glori-
ous Nibelungen. ' Of the Heldenbuch, indeed, except as illus-
trating this other and far worthier Poem; or at most as a na-
tional and still in some measure popular Book, we should have
felt strongly inclined to say, as the Curate in Don Quixote 16?
so often said: Al corral con ello, Out of the window with it!
Doubtless there are touches of real beauty in the work, and even
a sort of heartiness and antique quaintness in its wildest follies:
but on the whole that George-and-Dragon species of composi-
tions has long ceased to find favour with any one; and except for
its groundwork, more or less discernible, of old Northern Fic-
tion, this Heldenbuch has little to distinguish it from the better
sort of these. I shall quote the long title-page of Lessing's copy,
the edition of 1560; from which, with a few intercalated obser-
vations, the reader's curiosity may perhaps obtain what little
satisfaction it wants: 168
'Das Heldenbuch. Welchs auffs neu corrigirt und ge-
bessert ist, mit schonen Figuren geziert. Gedruckt zu
Frankfurt am Mayn, durch Weygand Han und Sygmund Fey-
erabend. ' That is to say,
The Hero-Book. Which is of new corrected and im-
proved, with beautiful. Figures. Printed at Frankfurt on
the Mayn, through Weygand Han and Sygmund Feyerabend.
'First Part saith of Kaiser Ottnit and the Little Ring El-
brich, how they, with great peril, over sea, in Heathen-
dom, won from a King his Daughter (and how he, in lawful
marriage, took her td wife). '
From which announcement the reader already guesses the
contents: How this little King Elbrich was a Dwarf or Elf, some
half-span long, yet full of cunning practices, and the most help-
ful activity, nay stranger still, had been Kaiser Ottnit, of Lam-
partei or Lombardy's father, having had his own reasons for
that indiscretion: how they sailed, with Messina ships, into Pay-
nim-land; fought with that unspeakable Turk, King Machabol, in
and about his Fortress and metropolis, Montebur, all stuck
round with Christian heads; slew from seventy to a hundred thou-
sand of the Infidel at one heat; saw the lady on the battlements;
and at length, chiefly by Dwarf Elbrick's [sic] help, carried her
off in triumph; wedded her in Messina, and without difficulty
rooting out the Mahometan prejudice, converted her to the creed
of Mother Church. The fair runnaway seems to have been of a
soft, tractable disposition, very different from old Machabol;
concerning whom it is here chiefly to be noted that Dwarf El-
berichf sicj, rendering himself invisible, on their first interview
plucks out a handful of hair from his chin; thereby increasing the
a tenfold pitch the royal choler; and what is still more remark-
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? HELDENBUCH
53
able, furnishing the Poet Wieland, 169 six Centuries afterward,
with the chief incident in his Ober on. As for the young lady her-
self, we cannot but admit she was well worth sailing to Heathen-
dom for; and shall here as our sole Specimen of that old German,
give the description of her, as she first appeared on the battle-
ments during the fight; subjoining a version as verbal and literal
as the plainest phrase can make it. As a detached passage it is
the finest I have met with in the Heldenbuch: 170
'Dir Herz brann also schone
Recht als ein rot Rubein,
Gleich dem vollen Mone
Gaben ihr Auglein schein.
Sich helt die Magt reine
Mit Rosen wohl bekleid
Und auch mit Berlin kleine
Niemand da tro? st die Meid
Sie war schSn an dem Leibe
Und zu dem Seiten schmal,
Recht als ein Kerlze Scheibe
Wohlgeschaffen u? berall
Ihr beiden Hand gemeine
Pass ihr gantz nichts
gebrach
Ihr Na? glein schon und reine
Dass man sich darinn besach
Her heart burnt (with anxiety)
as beautiful
Just as a red ruby,
Like the full moon
Her eyes (eylings, pretty eyes)
gave shine.
Herself held the maiden pure
Well adorned with roses,
And also with pearls small:
No one there comforted the Maid.
She was fair of body,
And in the waist slender,
Right as a (golden) candlestick
Well-fashioned everywhere:
Her two hands proper
So that she wanted nothing;
Her little nails fair and pure,
That you could see yourself
therein.
Her hair was beautifully girt
Ihr Har war scho? n umb-
fangen
Mit edler Seiden fein
Das liess sie nieder hangen
Das hu? bsche. Magedlein
Sie trug ein Kro? n mit Steinen She wore a crown with jewels
Sie war von Gold so rot It was of gold so red:
Elberich dem viel Kleinen For Elberich the very (much)
small
With noble silk (band) fine;
She let it flow down,
The lovely Maidling.
1
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? 54
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
War zu der Magic not
Da vornen in der Kronen
Lag ein Karfunkelstein
Der in dem Pallast schone
Recht als ein Kerlzerschein
Auf jrem Haupt das Hare
War lauter und auch fein
Es leuchtet also klare
Recht als der Sonnenschein
Die Magt die stand alleine
Gar traurig war jr mut
Ihr Farb und die war reine
Lieblich we fsicj Milch und
Blut
Her durch jr zoppfe reinen
Schien jr Halss als der
Schnee
Elberich dem viel kleinen
That der Maget Jammer
weh
The Maid had need (to console
her).
There in front of the crown
Lay a carbuncle-stone,
Which in the Palace fair
Even as a taper seemed;
On her head the hair
Was glossy and also fine
It shone as bright
Even as the Sun's sheen.
The maid she stood alone
Right sad was her mind;
Her colour it was pure
Lovely as milk and blood,
Out thro' her pure locks
Shone her neck like the snow:
Elberich the very little
Was touched with the maiden's
sorrow.
Happy man was Kaiser Ottnit blessed with such a wife after all
his travail; had not the Turk Machabol cunningly sent him, in
revenge, a box of young Dragons, or Dragon-eggs, by the hands
of a caitiff Infidel, contriver of that mischief, by whom in due
course of time they were hatched and nursed; to the infinite woe
of all Lampartei, and ultimately to the death of Kaiser Ottnit
himself, whom they swallowed, and attempted to digest, once
without effect, but the next time too fatally, crown and all.
'Second Part announceth (meldet) of Herr Hugdietrich and
his son Wolffdietrich; how they, for justice' sake, oft, by
their doughty cuts, succoured distressed persons; with other
bold Heroes that stood by them in extremity. '
Concerning which Hugdietrich, Emperor of Greece, and his
son Wolfdietrich, one day the renowned Dietrich of Bern, we can
here say little more than that the first trained himself to semp-
stress work, and for many weeks plied his needle, in female at-
tire, before he could get wedded, and produce Wolfdietrich; who
com -into f/sicj the world in this clandestine manner was let down
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? HELDENBUCH
55
into the Castle-ditch, and like Romulus and Remus, nursed by
a Wolf, whence his name. However, after never-imagined ad-
ventures, with enchanters and enchantresses, Pagans, and Gi-
ants in all quarters of the world, he finally, with an utmost ef-
fort, slaughtered those Lombardy Dragons; then married Kai-
ser Ottnit's Widow, whom he had rather flirted with before;
and lived universally venerated in his new Empire, performing
yet other notable achievements. One strange property he had,
sometimes useful to him, sometimes hurtful, that his breath
when he became angry, grew flame, redhot, and would take the
temper out of swords. We find him again in the Nibelungen,
among King Etzel's followers; a staid, cautious, yet still in-
vincible man; where, tho' with great reluctance, he is forced
to interfere in that Tragedy and finish it. He is the favourite
Hero of all those Southern Romances; and well acknowledged in
the Northern also, where the chief man, however, as we shall
find, is not he but Siegfried.
'Third Part showeth of the Rose-garden (Rosengarten) at
Worms, which was planted by Chrimhilte, King Gibich's
Daughter; whereby afterwards most part of those Heroes and
Giants came to destruction, and were slain. '
In this Third Part, the Southern or Lombard Heroes come
in contact with another as notable Northern class, who however
in this rencounter come off second best. Chrimhilte, whose ul-
terior history makes such a figure in the Nibelungen, had, near
the ancient city of Worms, a Rose-garden, some seven English
miles in circuit, fenced only by a silk thread; wherein, how-
ever, she maintained Twelve stout fighting men; several of whom,
as Hagen, Folker, her three Brothers, above all the gallant
Siegfried, her Betrothed, we shall meet with again: these, so
unspeakable was their prowess, sufficed to defend the silk-thread
Garden, against all mortals. Our good Antiquarian, Von der
Hagen, imagines that this Rose-garden glances obliquely at Jupi-
ter's fight with the Titans, and we know not what confused skir-
mishing in the Utgard, or Asgard, or Midgard, of the Scandina-
vians. But however that may be, Chrimhilte, as we here learn,
being very beautiful and very wilful, boasts in the pride of her
heart that no Heroes on Earth are to be compared with hers; and
hearing accidentally that Dietrich of Bern has a high character in
that line, forthwith challenges him to visit Worms, and with eleven
picked men to do battle there, against these other Twelve Champ-
ions of Christendom that watch her Rose-garden. Dietrich, in a
towering passion, at the style of the Message, which was 'surly
and stout, ' instantly pitches upon his eleven seconds, who also
are to be principals, and with a retinue of other sixty thousand,
by quick stages, in which obstacles are to be overcome, reaches
Worms, and declares himself ready. Among these Eleven Lom-
bard Heroes of his are likewise several, whom we meet with again
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? 56
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
in the Nibelungen: besides himself, we have the old Duke Hilde-
brand, Wolfhart, Ortwin. Notable among them in another way,
is Monk Ilsan, a truculent graybeard fellow, equal to any Friar
Tuck in Robin Hood. The conditions of fight are soon agreed on:
there are to be twelve successive duels, each challenger being
expected to find his match; and the prize of victory is a Rose-
garland from Crimhilte, and ein Helssen und ein KUssen, that is
to say virtually, one kiss from her fair lips, to each. But here,
as it ever should do, Pride gets a fall; for Chrimhilte's bully-
hectors are, in divers ways, all successively felled to the ground,
and discomfited by the Berners; some of whom, as old Hildebrand,
will not take her kiss when it is due; even Siegfried himself, most
reluctantly engaged with by Dietrich, and for a while victorious,
is at last forced to seek shelter in her lap. Nay, Monk Ilsan, af-
ter the regular fight is over, and his own part in it well perform-
ed, calls out, in succession, fifty-two other idle Champions of
the Garden, part of them Giants, and routs the whole fraternity;
thereby earning, besides his regular allowance, fifty-two spare
garlands, and fifty-two kisses, in the course of which last, Chrim-
hilte's cheek, a just punishment as seemed, was scratched to the
drawing of blood by his rough beard. It only remains to be added
that King Gibich, Chrimhilte's father, is now fain to do homage
for his kingdom to Dietrich; who returns triumphant to his own
country; where also, Monk Ilsan, according to promise, distri-
butes those fifty-two rose-garlands among his fellow Friars,
crushing a garland on the bare crown of each, till 'the red blood
ran down over their ears. ' Under which hard, but not undeserved
treatment, they all agreed to pray for remission of Ilsan's sins:
indeed such as continued refractory, he tied together by the beards,
and hung pair-wise over poles; whereby the stoutest soon gave in.
So endeth here this ditty
Of strife from women's pride:
God on our griefs take pity,
Mary still by us abide. *
'In the Fourth Part is announced (gemelt) of the little King
Laurin, the Dwarf; how encompassed his Rosegarden, with so
great manhood and art-magic till at last he was vanquished by
the Heroes, and forced to become their Juggler (with sundry
other entertaining Histories, told in the other Part of this Hero-
Book, which also hath, into its several descriptions, hathfsicl
been separately ordered). '
Of which Fourth and happily last Part we shall here say no-
* Also nam das streiten ein ende
Das von der Frawen kam;
Gott unsern Kummer wende
Und Maria lobesan. 1 <<1
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? HELDENBUCH
57
thing; inasmuch as, except that certain of our old Heroes again
figure there, it has no coherence or connexion with the rest of
the Heldenbuch; and is simply a new Tale, which, by way of epi-
sode, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, as we learn from his own words,
had subsequently appended thereto. He says:
'Heinrich von Ofterdingen
This story hath been singing,
To the joy of Princes bold,
They gave him silver and gold,
Moreover pennies and garments rich:
Here endeth this Book the which
Doth of our chosen Heroes tell,
God keep us all for ever well. '172
Such is some outline of the famous Heldenbuch: on which it
will not be necessary to add any criticism. The fact that it has
so long been popular betokens a certain worth in it; the kind and
degree of which is now also in some measure apparent. In Po-
etry, 'the rude man, ' it has been said, 'requires only to see
something going on; the man of more refinement wishes to feel;
the truly refined man must be made to reflect. ' For the first of
these classes, our Hero-Book, as has been apparent enough, pro-
vides in abundance; for the other two scantily, indeed for the
second not at all. Nevertheless our estimate of that work, which
as a series of antique Traditions may have much meaning, is apt
rather to be too low. Let us remember that this is not the true
original Heldenbuch which we now see; but only a version of it
into the Knight-errant dialect of the thirteenth, indeed partly of
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with all the fantastic mon-
strosities, now so trivial, pertaining to that style; under which
disguises, the really antique earnest groundwork, interesting as
old thought, if not as old Poetry, is all but quite obscured from
us. But antiquarian Diligence is now busy with the Heldenbuch
also; from which what light is in it will doubtless be elicited; and
here and there a deformity removed. Tho' the Ethiop cannot
change his skin, there is no need that even he should be unwashed
and gagged. *
* My inconsiderable knowledge of the Heldenbuch is derived
from various secondary sources, chiefly from Lessing's
Werke (B. XIII); where the reader will find an epitome of the
whole Poem, with Extracts, by Herr Fulleborn, from which
the above are taken. A still more accessible and larger ab-
stract, with long Specimens translated in verse, stands in the
Illustrations of Northern Antiquities (p. 45-167). Von der
Hagen has since been employed specially on the Heldenbuch,
with what result I yet know only by report. 173
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? 58
HISTORY OF GERMAN LITERATURE
Caspar von Roen, or whoever was the ultimate redactor of
the Heldenbuch whom Lessing designates 'a highly ill-informed
man, ' 1 74 would have done better had he quite omitted that 'little
King Laurin, ' and his 'little Rosegarden, ' which properly is no
Rosegarden at all; and instead thereof, introduced the Gehornte
Siegfried (Behorned Siegfried), whose History lies at the heart
of the whole Northern Traditions; and under a rude prose dress,
is to this day a real child's-book and people's-book among the Ger-
mans. Of this Siegfried we have already seen somewhat in the
Rosegarden at Worms; and shall ere long see much more elsewhere;
for he is the chief hero of the Nibelungen: indeed nowhere can we
dip into those old Fictions, whether in Scandinavia or Saxon-land,
but under one figure or another whether as Dragon-killer and
Prince-royal, or as Blacksmith and Horse-subduer, as Sigurd,
Sivrit, Siegfried, we are sure to light on him. As his early ad-
ventures belong to the strange sort, and will afterwards concern
us not a little, we shall here endeavour to piece together some
consistent outline of them; so far indeed as that may be possible,
for his biographers, agreeing in the main points, differ widely
in the details.
First, then, let no one, from the title Gehornte (Horned, Be-
horned), fancy that our brave Siegfried, who was the loveliest
as well as the bravest of men, was actually cornuted, and had
horns on his brow, tho' like Michael Angelo's Moses; or even
that his skin, to which the epithet Behorned refers, was hard
like a crocodile's, and not softer than the softest kid: for the
truth is, his Hornedness means only an Invulnerability, like that
of Achilles, which he came by in the following manner. All men
agree that Siegfried was a King's son; he was born, as we have
the best reason to believe 'at Santen in Netherland, ' of Siemund
and the fair Sigelinde: yet by some family misfortune or discord,
of which the accounts are very various, he came into singular
straits during boyhood, having passed that happy period of life,
not under canopies of costly state, but by the sooty stithy in one
Mimer, a Blacksmith's shop. Here, however, he was not in his
right place; ever quarrelling with his fellow apprentices; nay, as
some say, breaking the hardest anvils into shivers, by his too
stout hammering; so that Mimer, otherwise a first-rate Smith,
could in no wise do with him there. He sends him accordingly
to the neighbouring forest, to fetch charcoal; well aware that a
monstrous Dragon, one Regin, the Smith's own Brother, would
meet him and devour him. But far otherwise it proved: Siegfried,
by main force, slew this Dragon, or rather dragonized Smith's-
Br other; made broth of him, and warned by some significant phe-
nomena, bathed therein; or as others assert, bathed directly in
the monster's blood, without cookery; and hereby attained that
Invulnerability, complete in all respects, save that between his
shoulders, where a limetree-leaf chanced to pitch and stick dur-
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? HELDENBUCH
59
ing the process, there was one little spot, a fatal spot as it by
and by turned out, left in its natural state. Siegfried, now see-
ing thro' the craft of the Smith, returned home and slew him;
then set forth on adventures the bare catalogue of which were
long to recite. We mention only two, as subsequently of moment
both for him and for us. He is by some said to have courted and
then jilted the fair and proud Queen Brunhilde of Isenland; nay to
have thrown down the seven gates of her Castle, and then ridden
off with her wild-horse Gana, having mounted him in the mejajdow,
and instantly broken him. Some cross passages between him and
Queen Brunhilde, who understood no jesting, there must clearly
have been; so angry is her recognition of him, at first sight, in
the Nibelungen Lied: nay she bears a lasting grudge against him
there; as he, and indeed she also, one day too sorely felt.
His other grand adventure is with the two Sons of the deceased
King Nibelung, in Nibelungen-land: these two youths, whom their
father had left a Hoard, or Treasure, beyond all price or com-
putation, Siegfried, 'riding by alone, ' found on the side of a moun-
tain, in a state of great perplexity. They had brought out the Trea-
sure from the Cave where it usually lay; but how to part it was
the difficulty; for, not to speak of gold, there were as many jew-
els alone 'as twelve waggons in four 175 days and nights, each go-
ing three journeys could carry away'; nay 'however much you took
from it, there was no diminution': besides, in real property, a
'Sword Balmung' of great potency, a 'Divfinjing- rod which gave
power over every one, ' and a 'Tarnkappe' (or Cloak of Darkness)
which rendered the wearer invisible, and gave him twelve men's
strength. So that the two Princes Royal, without counsel save
from their Twelve stupid Giants, knew not how to fall upon any
amicable arrangement; and seeing Siegfried ride by so opportunely,
requested him to be arbiter; offering also the Sword Balmung for
his trouble. Siegfried, who readily undertook the impossible prob-
lem, did his best to accomplish it, but of course without effect;
nay the two Nibelungen Princes, being of choleric temper, grew
impatient, and provoked him; whereupon with the Sword Balmung
he slew them both, and their twelve Giants to boot. Thus did the
famous Nibelungen Hort (Hoard), and indeed the whole Nibelungen
Land come into his possession: wearing the Sword Balmung, and
and [sic] having slain the two Princes and their Champions, what
was there farther to oppose him? Vainly did the Dwarf Alberich,
known to us already from the Hero-Book, who was special Keeper
of this Hoard, attempt some resistance with a Dwarf army: he was
driven back into the Cave; plundered of his Tarnkappe; and obliged
with all his myrmidons to swear fealty to the conqueror, whom in-
deed thenceforth he and they punctually obeyed. Whereby Siegfried
might now farther style himself King of the Nibelungen; Master of
the infinite Nibelungen Hoard (collected doubtless by art-magic,
in the beginning of Time, in the deep bowels of the universe), with
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