For this obscurity of authorship there is, in the case of the Nibelungenlied, more reason than with the other epics. What is conjectural12 with respect to the Iliad and the Chanson, is indubitable with respect to the Lied, viz. that both in its origin and in its construction it was composite, that the elements of which it is a union are in date, perhaps in place of origin, widely remote from each other. The Saga13 of the Niblungs, of which the Nibelungenlied is the finished poetical14 development, is a union of mythical16 and historical elements.
1. The Mythical Element, The groundwork of this is the Saga of Siegfried, or Sigurd, as he is named in the Northern versions of the myth. In the old heroic age of the Teuton tribes, perhaps during the period of the Migrations18 of the Peoples, in the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries, there took shape this legend of a demigod hero[3]. The supernatural pervades19 the whole atmosphere of this primitive form of the myth. The Gods still walk the earth, the hero is descended20 from a God, he woos a cloud-maiden, there is something more than earthly in his sword, in his horse, in the glance of his eyes. But as the Germanic tribes to whom this myth was a common inheritance broke up and wandered far apart, it came to pass that it was just with those who remained in the ancient home, the birth-land of the myth, that it became most modified, and that its supernatural elements were removed or toned down, as the result of admixture with more civilized21 peoples, and, still more, of the acceptance of Christianity by the Germans themselves. Christian22 teachers were too grimly in earnest to tolerate poems which assumed the existence of heathen deities23, and glorified24 non-Christian virtues25. Hence it came {p. ix} to pass that the tribes of Teutonic origin which longest preserved the original form of the myth were those which wandered farthest from the old home-land, and which were the last to abandon the old faith.
The Norse form of the legend, which is most fully26 preserved for us in the Eddas, or prose epics of Iceland, presents us with the original story, transfigured with all gleams of fancy and splendours of imagination which had gathered round it as it was handed down through generations of bards27. There is no need here to tell the story of this Northern version of the Saga, since it has been told for all English lovers of noble poetry by William Morris in his Story of Sigurd, which has well been characterized as “the one great English epic of the nineteenth century,” and which is the most Homeric-spirited poem since Homer. It is an expanded verse-rendering of the Volsunga-saga of the prose Edda, a literal prose version of which is also accessible to all readers, executed by the same author[4].
We will confine ourselves to indicating the features which reappear, under some form or other, in the Nibelungenlied[5]. Sigurd, son of Sigmund, slays28 Fafnir, the man who had been transformed into a dragon, and takes the dragon-guarded treasure, three horse-loads of gold, with a magic ring, the begetter29 of gold. But to this Hoard30 cleaves31 the curse pronounced by the Dwarf32 Andvari, from whom it had been taken, that it should prove the destruction of every possessor. With this he rides away, and comes to a hill-top begirt with a wall of fire. He rides through the fire, and finds Brynhild, a Valkyr-maid, who had been cast into a trance-sleep by Odin for transgressing33 his behests. He awakens34 her; they love, and plight35 their troth. But Sigurd, to fulfil his destiny, has to ride on, and so comes to the realm of the Niblungs (people of Mistland), who dwell by the Rhine. Here Grimhild, mother of King Gunnar, gives him a drugged wine-cup which makes him forget Brynhild, and so he weds36 Gudrun, the sister of the King. He goes with Gunnar to help him to win Brynhild, who is again begirt with the wall of fire. Gunnar cannot ride through it; {p. x} so Sigurd, transformed by a spell into Gunnar’s semblance37, does so, and, still in his shape, lies three nights by Brynhild, but lays his sword between them. Gunnar is wedded38 to Brynhild, who sees at his palace Sigurd wedded to Gudrun, while Sigurd at the same time recovers memory of the past, and knows how he has been beguiled39 into proving false to his first love. The queens in their jealousy40 quarrel, and Gudrun tells Brynhild the truth about her wooing. The latter insists upon having vengeance41 in Sigurd’s death, and he is murdered in his sleep. Brynhild, after brief exultation42 in her revenge, slays herself to be united in her death to the only man she has ever loved: her body is burnt with his, and together they enter Valhalla. After this, the story, though with many differences of detail, follows substantially the same broad lines as the Nibelungenlied, in the second marriage of Gudrun, and the great vengeance wreaked43 in the hall of the Hun-king.
Now this older version was a tale of a dateless past, when men lived who were near in birth to Gods, and when Gods came down to earth as freely as they do in Homer. It is suffused44 with a glamour45 of the supernatural, with a weird46 magnificence, both of nature and of man. Its actors are led on, or thrust on, by inevitable47 doom48, their fates are foretold49 to them, and they go clear-eyed to the consummation of all. There is no pettiness about any of them, they are all moulded on the heroic scale, and the light about them is not the light of common day. But the poet of the Nibelungenlied, as we have it (however it may have been with the lost original form of the lay), essayed a practically impossible task, namely, to bring the essential characters of the old Saga into the scenes and social atmosphere of the twelfth century, with the supernatural elements left out. Hence he makes a different story of the early life of Siegfried, which has the effect of making his parents’ fears for his safety, on his departure for Burgundy, unreasonable50 in the light of his past exploits. He makes a different tale of the slaying51 of the dragon, and of the winning of the Hoard, the amount of which he enormously exaggerates, while omitting all mention of the curse attached to it, though it does work in the poem. He has to construct a different Brynhild, and a different wooing, while he leaves unexplained Siegfried’s previous acquaintance with her, and her antipathy52 to him from the beginning. These flaws in construction are not all; the characters also suffer. Deeds of violence and wrong, which are accepted in the old Saga much as we accept the incidents of a fairy-tale, {p. xi} especially as the actors are not masters of their own fate, are now transferred to men and women who are made as amenable54 to our judgment as, say, our early Norman Kings, and who, moreover, live in a Christian land of minsters, monasteries55 and priests. Hence they cannot but lose in moral dignity; and it needs a mediaevally constituted mind to admire or respect a man simply on the score of his unflinching courage and fidelity56 to a cause which he has made a tainted57 cause. This weakness of treatment, which we may fairly say was inevitable for any poet, however great, who undertook to transfer the original story into so alien a setting, is confined to the first half of the poem, which ends with the death of Siegfried and its immediate58 sequel. In this first part he redeems59 his work from failure, and (with its inevitable limitations) makes it a triumphant60 success, by his charm of description, his beauty of execution, his fertility in the invention of incident, and the unfailing vivacity61 and energy with which it is described, and by his command of pathos62 and power to stir the deepest springs of sympathy. In the second part, where the poet has no longer to mutilate an old-world giant, in order to fit him to a latter-day bed of Procrustes, he treads surely and strongly, and proceeds unfalteringly to his goal, steadily63 rising with his theme to its magnificent climax64. It is in this second part that the mythical element is largely superseded65 by the historical.
2. The Historical Element. The Siegfried myth is supposed to have taken shape as a connected story, as a sort of primitive epic, somewhere about the fifth century, among that German tribe known as the Rhine Franks, who lived between the east of Belgium and the Rhine and Moselle, Cologne being about the middle of their territory. Their next neighbours up the Rhine were another Germanic tribe, the Burgundians, dwelling66 in a more mountainous district, of which Worms may have been the middle point. Among these the Niblungs of the original story seem to have been located; and it is curious that in ancient Burgundian records may be found the names of three kings, Gundahar, Godomer and Gislahar, the resemblance of whose names to those in the Lied is sufficiently67 suggestive. In the year 437 A.D. this Burgundian tribe, with its king, whose name (as latinized by the chronicler) was Gundicarius, was utterly68 defeated and practically annihilated69 by an invasion of the Huns in the reign70 of Attila. This disaster preceded, and perhaps gave the most powerful impulse to, that general break-up of the old {p. xii} Germanic settlements, and the period of stormy wanderings and wars, which lasted through nearly two hundred years, and is known as the Migration17 of the Peoples. The destruction of the Burgundians by Attila’s host became incorporated with the story as the destruction of the Niblungs by Atli. Its locality was shifted (perhaps for the honour of the race) from a German district invaded by Huns to the capital of Hunland into which the heroes are entrapped71 by treachery.
The story had reached this stage of development when the northward-wandering tribes carried it to Norway, and in due course to Iceland, where it underwent much less modification72 than it did among those who remained, or who finally settled down, in central Europe. What changes it underwent during the wanderings of the tribes, by what influences and by what steps a legend originally heathen and tribal73 was modified by Christianity and feudalism, till after some six hundred years it emerges to view in something approaching its present form—of all this we have no real knowledge, and no subject of literary criticism has been more fruitful of conjecture74. We may assume that it was handed down by oral tradition until, with the development of chivalry75, with its natural affinity76 for romance and poetry, there came in the 12th and 13th centuries a great revival77 of interest in the old heroic literature. Its cultivation78 became a passion with the nobility, who followed it on two main lines, leading to the production (or revival) of epic poetry of two classes:—(1) the Court Epic, which took for its subject the romance of knight79-errantry, and (2) the National Epic, which took the old popular heroic tradition, and gave it permanence in a metrical form peculiar80 to itself. The Nibelungenlied is essentially81, in its subject and spirit, a national epic; but, as it was remodelled82 by courtier-poets, their treatment of it made it approximate in some respects very closely to the court epic, especially in what we may call the veneer83 of chivalrous84 refinement85 laid over the more elemental characters of the original story. Hence it bears throughout, both in characters and incidents, evidences of the influence of feudalism and chivalry, on the one hand, and of Christianity on the other.
It is curious to note how the poet, having undertaken to shape a credible86, intelligible87 story, the actors of which have a known geographical88 position, out of a tale of wonders wrought89 in some misty90 land the gate to which has been lost, is sometimes confused by the consequent contradictions, and sometimes triumphantly91 {p. xiii} surmounts92 them. Thus, the Nibelungs are, in the first part of the story, quite distinct from the Burgundians: they seem to be a tribe of warriors93 dwelling by themselves on some uncharted shore. But, after the Kings have got the Nibelung Hoard into their possession, and have set out with their followers95 for Hunland, with a contingent96 of these Nibelungs in their train, we find that the names Nibelung and Burgundian have become interchangeable. For this no reason is given: the possession of the Hoard does not of itself confer its name on the owner, for that title is never applied97 to Siegfried, nor is it applied to the Burgundians during all the years that it remains98 in their hands before they set out for Hunland. The real explanation may be, that there were still extant old folk-songs, familiar to all, which gave all the information required to fill gaps in the Nibelungenlied, and which also gave a full account of Siegfried’s early life and exploits[6], so that the poet felt himself emancipated99 from the necessity of “beginning at the beginning,” which has been a rock steadily avoided by great epic poets from Homer downwards100.
In his treatment of the supernatural, which so dominates the action of the old Saga, but which was based wholly upon that faith in the old Gods which the Christian poet not merely rejected, but ignored, he was far more successful. As Carlyle expresses it:
“Yet neither is the Nibelungen without its wonders; for it is poetry and not prose; here too a supernatural world encompasses101 the natural, and, though at rare intervals102 and in calm manner, reveals itself there. It is truly wonderful with what skill our simple untaught poet deals with the marvellous, admitting it without reluctance103 or criticism, yet precisely104 in the degree and shape that will best avail him. Here, if in no other respect, we should say that he has a decided105 superiority to Homer himself. The whole story of the Nibelungen is fateful, mysterious, guided on by unseen influences; yet the actual marvels106 are few, and done in the far distance: those Dwarfs107, and Cloaks of Darkness, and charmed Treasure-caves, are heard of rather than beheld108; the tidings of them seem to issue from unknown space. Vain were it to inquire where that Nibelungen-land specially53 is: its very {p. xiv} name is Nebel-land or Nifl-land, the land of Darkness, of Invisibility. The Nibelungen Heroes, that muster109 in thousands and tens of thousands, though they march to the Rhine or Danube, and we see their strong limbs and shining armour110, we could almost fancy to be children of the air. Far beyond the firm horizon, that wonder-bearing region swims on the infinite waters, unseen by bodily eye, or at most discerned as a faint streak111, hanging in the blue depths, uncertain whether island or cloud. And thus the Nibelungen Song, though based on the bottomless foundations of Spirit, and not unvisited of skyey messengers, is a real, rounded, habitable earth, where we find firm footing, and the wondrous112 and the common live amicably113 together. Perhaps it would be difficult to find any poet, of ancient or modern times, who in this trying problem has steered114 his way with greater delicacy115 and success.”
As a drama of action and of destiny, the poem rises to real greatness. To quote Carlyle again:
“The Nibelungen has been called the Northern Epos; yet it has, in great part, a dramatic character: those thirty-nine Aventiuren (Adventures) which it consists of, might be so many scenes in a Tragedy. The catastrophe116 is dimly prophesied117 from the beginning; and, at every fresh step, rises more and more clearly into view. A shadow of coming Fate, as it were, a low inarticulate voice of Doom falls, from the first, out of that charmed Nibelungen-land: the discord118 of two women is as a little spark of evil passion, which ere long enlarges itself into a crime: foul119 murder is done; and now the Sin rolls on like a devouring120 fire, till the guilty and the innocent are alike encircled with it, and a whole land is ashes and a whole race is swept away.”
It is in the delineation122 of character that the poet is most embarrassed by the intractable nature of the old material which he must needs work up with the new. He had the same difficulty as Homer had in dealing123 with Achilles’ revenge on the body of Hector, or with Odysseus’ revenge on the faithless servants; and, if he made the best of a bad case, it must be admitted that in his best there is somewhat jarring. The poem has been called the Northern Iliad, but the all-round nobility of the heroes of Homer, and, indeed, of epics generally (in intention at least), is strangely lacking in the chief Nibelungs. Hagen is a treacherous124 murderer of his niece’s husband, whom he assassinates125 in expiation127 of an offence of which the {p. xv} victim has proved himself innocent; and he is a thief who robs the same helpless woman twice. Gunther is an accomplice128 and an ingrate129. The other champions are fully conscious of the iniquity130 of those whose cause they support: their merit is that which in those times covered a multitude of sins—unflinching bravery and fidelity to their cause and to each other. Hagen shows a cynical131 disregard of righteousness and of honesty: he faces the consequences of his sin without a tremor132: his callous133 contempt for the hearts he tramples134 on is matched by his reckless defiance135 of the retribution which involves a nation with himself. There is no word of repentance136, no hint of remorse137; and it is characteristic that none of his companions reproach him amid their ruin, and that even Rüdiger, the flower of chivalry, receives him as his most honoured guest, confers on him the most distinguished tokens of regard, and sympathizes with him to the end. The author shows less consideration for Kriemhild than for him in the final catastrophe; for, while the King and the stainless138 heroes lament139 his fall, no hand is raised to stay the vengeance upon Kriemhild that swiftly follows, no word of regret is uttered over her. This recalls to our mind certain characteristics of that period: first, the supreme140 importance of a great warrior94 and leader of men, whose life is held of more account, not merely to his party, but to the world, than that of many women. Secondly141, we are reminded how thin was the veneer of courtesy to women in the so-called age of chivalry. It is significant that in the Volsunga-saga, which is instinct with the old unalloyed Teutonic spirit, no man thinks of taking vengeance on a woman: they may poison, betray, or assassinate126, but they are always immune from the last penalty. The third characteristic here exemplified is well set forth by Dr. Arnold:
“Philip de Comines praises his master Louis XI as one of the best of princes, though he witnessed not only the crimes of his life, but the miserable142 fears and suspicions of his latter end, and has even faithfully recorded them. In this respect Philip de Comines is in no respect superior to Froissart, with whom the crimes committed by his knights143 and great lords never interfere144 with his general eulogies145 of them: the habit of deference146 and respect was too strong to be broken, and the facts which he himself relates to their discredit147, appear to have produced on his mind no impression” (Lectures on Modern History, II).
In the historical characters which he introduced, the poet probably meant to {p. xvi} adhere to historic truth, as he apprehended148 it; but we have to make large allowances for the utterly uncritical historic lore149 of the time, and for the probability, we might say the certainty, that some of the history was based on popular tradition, which is fruitful in confusion of personalities150 and in anachronisms. These characters are three:—
1. Attila, called Etzel in the Lied. The Atli of the Volsunga-saga much more nearly resembles the Attila of the historians of Rome and Constantinople than does Etzel. He here appears as a just and generous king, whose court is a rendezvous151 of foreign knights from every land, proud to enlist152 in his service. Not only is he no party to the treacherous entrapping153 of the Nibelungs, but he is utterly ignorant of it; and is only driven to countenance154 hostilities155 against them by their slaughter156 of his child and the intolerable insults they hurl157 at himself. The reason for this presentment of him may be, that Attila really was just, generous, and merciful to his own subjects, and to the large numbers of foreign mercenaries, many of them Germans, who took service under him. Some of these, on their return home, would always speak of him as a great king and a good master, whose court was magnificent; and this character of him might well persist in tradition through the generations, and be an essential part of the popular lays which formed the groundwork of the finished epic.
2. Theodoric, called in the Lied Dietrich of Bern, where Bern has nothing to do with Switzerland, but is the German form of Verona. The poet no doubt meant the great Theodoric the Ostrogoth, conqueror158 of Italy. But he (born 455 A.D.) lived a generation after Attila (died 453). Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, was indeed a contemporary of Attila, but he was an enemy, and died fighting against him in the great battle of Chalons, in 451. In Carlyle’s words, “some commentators159 have fished out another Theodoric, eighty years prior to him of Verona, and who actually served in Attila’s hosts with a retinue160 of Goths and Germans.” If this last be really historical, or was even traditional, he might have been the original Dietrich of the old lays who in the Lied serves in proud independence in Attila’s palace-guard. But popular tradition and the poets knew as their only Dietrich the great Theodoric, and were serenely161 unconscious that for him it was, on every ground, as possible to have served under Attila, as for our Alfred the Great to have served under Charlemagne.
{p. xvii}
3. Bishop162 Pilgrim. His introduction is a gross anachronism indeed, for he lived more than 500 years after Attila’s time. He owes his inclusion, or intrusion, to the fact that he had the Saga rendered into Latin verse by his secretary, Konrad, as he heard it from the lips of bards, some two hundred years before the poem took shape as a German epic. No doubt this Latin poem was used by the composers of the epic; and, if they were conscious at all of the anachronism, it would have troubled them as little as Walter Scott was troubled by the anachronisms, of which he cheerfully makes confession163, in Ivanhoe.
We have spoken of a “poet”; but in truth there was a long succession of them. While the names of the authors of several of those trivial romances, the Court Epics, have been carefully handed down, there is no record of the authorship of the great National Epic; and this is the more remarkable164, as, during the period of the Literary Revival, successive remodellings of it by different hands were produced, each, we may presume, regarded as an improvement on its predecessor165; yet no trustworthy clue survives to the name of the composer of any one of them.
The following would appear to have been the different stages through which the Nibelungenlied, as a distinct poem, passed:—
I. The original form, in alliterative verse. (Not extant.) If we could recover this, we might find it, both in metrical form and in literary style, more like our Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf than the existing versions of the Lied.
II. The first 12th century version, cir121. 1140, by an Austrian court poet (the Kürnberg Knight for whom Bartsch argues), in four-line stanzas166, or “strophes,” of iambic basis, with assonant endings. (Not extant.)
III. The second 12th century version, cir. 1170, in which rhyme was partially167 substituted for assonance. (Not extant.)
IV. The third 12th century versions, of two contemporaneous poets, cir. 1190-1200, in which assonances are almost entirely168 superseded by rhymes. Extant in several MSS. which fall under two heads:—
1. MS. A. The Munich manuscript, of which only one single copy exists; this perhaps represents the poem just as this rédacteur left it. It is based on a good and ancient original, but is very carelessly written, and omits (apparently through oversight) a number of strophes. This, the shortest version, was adopted by Lachmann as the basis of his edition.
{p. xviii}
2. MS. B. The St. Gall169 manuscript. This represents the text as modified by later hands in the 13th and 14th centuries. Of this there are numerous copies. It was adopted by Bartsch as the basis of his edition.
V. MS. C. The fourth 12th century version, of about the same date as the preceding. It presents the same metrical characteristics, but aims
1. In its matter, at reconciling contradictions and inconsistencies in the original Saga;
2. At establishing a connexion between the Lied and Lament for the Niblungs (a poetically170 inferior continuation), which it does by a reference in the concluding strophe, and more especially by the insertion of a series of strophes at various points in the text, the tendency of which is to excite and maintain sympathy with Kriemhild, and to present her in the light of a righteous avenger171. The author also, in the last line of the poem, changes the title from the original Nibelungen-n?t to Nibelungen-lied. Extant in the Donaueschingen manuscript, the additional strophes of which are included in Simrock’s modern German version.
The poem, after the Revival of Learning, suffered the same eclipse through the fascination172 and superior literary finish of classical literature, as did the Chanson de Roland in France. Its rescue from oblivion dates from the year 1757, when the first imperfect edition of it was published from an old manuscript by Prof. Bodmer. The labours of later scholars and critics produced more and more perfect editions; and the interest of the German public in it was gradually awakened173, till it grew to an enthusiasm for what was at last recognised as a great national epic. It was not only a subject for patriotic174 pride, but, from its memories of old-time greatness, from its heroic spirit, and, from that soul of loyalty175 to fatherland and king which pervades it, and which is a fundamental trait of the German character, it became an inspiration to great effort and noble sacrifice, coming just at the time when these were pre-eminently called for. It was when the old spirit of freedom awoke with tenfold strength, and all Germany rose as one man against the Titanic176 tyranny of Napoleon, that this book became for Germans what the Iliad was for Greeks. It helped to fan patriotism177 into a flame of heroism178; it was a voice crying from the past, a great battle-call that blended with the voices of such soldier-singers as K?rner. In the year of Waterloo a cheap edition for the use of soldiers {p. xix} was issued—which reminds us of the claim Aeschylus (in Aristophanes’ Frogs) puts forth for his two dramas of war, that they made every spectator long to be a warrior, and nerved him to resolve to conquer or die. And the national instinct which then recognised and claimed for its own that spirit of loyalty to king and country, through evil report and good report, which takes for its watchword, “My country!—may she always be in the right; but my country, right or wrong!” is fundamentally sound. It recognises that he who sets up his private conscience against that of his country in the hour of her need, must himself beware lest he make himself a traitor179 in sinning against those to whom he owes the greatest earthly debt a man can owe. It recognises that a man may be committing a far deeper wrong by refusing to help his country in a cause in which he thinks he detects some flaw, still more by striving with word or pen to paralyse the efforts of those who are fighting for her, than if he fought in a cause of which his conscience disapproves180. Hence United Germany has been no congenial foster-mother for “the friends of every country save their own”; and her scholars are not wrong in claiming for their great epic its share in thus moulding the patriotic conscience.
This translation is based on the text of Bartsch (edit. 1886), but the strophes of MS. C have been incorporated with it, so that it thus corresponds with the widely read modern German version of Simrock. For the English reader it may be explained that a marginal C denotes that the four lines which follow are taken from that source, and he will note that their ethical181 tendency is designed to be cumulative182, to excite and maintain sympathy for the murdered hero and his widow, and to supply what justification183 can be found for her revenge. They appeal to the modern reader’s sense of justice, and are in themselves poetically not unworthy of being included, as they often elaborate a picturesque184 or stirring scene, and add touches of beauty, tenderness, or pathos which we could not wish away.
The metre adopted is that on which William Morris fixed185, with true poetic15 instinct, for his Story of Sigurd, the great sister-poem to the Nibelungenlied, from which, indeed, he really seems to have taken it, as it preserves the “ringing caesura” of that original, and, accentually, the same measure. It is not in essentials different from that of the Middle High German text, for the basis of that is accentual and not numerical, though other translators have thought that it was {p. xx} best reproduced by rigidly186 adhering to an iambic structure. This, in a long poem, is apt to have a somewhat heavy, monotonous187 effect, whereas the anapaestic-iambic measure not only secures something of the lightness of the movement of the original, but has for English readers a variety, freedom and swiftness, a “lilt,” which has made it of late years widely popular.
The old division into “strophes” has been discarded. It has always seemed to me a literary offence so to print an epic as to convey the suggestion that it is but a long ballad188. I cannot help thinking that this device was one adopted for convenience’ sake by the mediaeval reciters or chanters of the Lied, as was the gap in the line after the caesura, to mark artificially the cadence189 of the line. These, however, have a somewhat pedantic190, formal, and so irritating effect on the modern reader who wants to enter into the spirit of an epic. The literary argument against the division into strophes is well stated by Bartsch: “I do not think that, fine as the Nibelungen strophe is in itself, and admirably as it lends itself to lyric191 treatment, its employment for the epic was a happy inspiration. A division into regular strophes is altogether antagonistic192 to the Epic: the even flow of the epic narrative193 does indeed require pauses, not, however, at prescribed, but at free intervals. And this principle we see invariably adhered to wherever a true epic has developed itself, in India, in Greece, in France.”
In dropping the strophic arrangement, I have of course dropped the extra two syllables194 which lengthened196 the fourth line of each strophe. I incline to think that their presence is another indication that the Lied was originally intended, not for reading, but for chanting or recitative, like the older lays on which it was founded. It is a common device of singers thus to lengthen195 the last line of a verse; it helps to the satisfaction of the ear: but the effect is quite different in reading. As a reviewer in the Athen?um says: “No doubt it is theoretically proper to follow the original form with absolute fidelity, but unfortunately the line in English, or even, for that matter, in Modern German, is very different from the line in Middle High German. It drags grievously, and though it breaks the monotony to a certain extent, and occasionally produces a fine effect, yet more often it is merely irritating.” The adoption197 of the principle laid down by the only English translator who has preserved this peculiarity198, that “the very essence of a poem is its exact metrical quality,” would at once condemn199 all translations of {p. xxi} Homer and Virgil into blank or heroic verse, or indeed, into anything but English hexameters, and all translations of the classical drama into anything but trimeter iambics and unrhymed choruses in the impossible metres of the originals—a theory which surely needs only to be stated to expose its untenability. The essence of a poem lies in its spirit more than its formal structure; and whatever jars on the reader, and puts a drag on the swift and easy movement of the verse, so far interferes200 with his entering into the spirit of that poem.
A. S. W.
October, 1911.
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epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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epics
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| n.叙事诗( epic的名词复数 )；壮举；惊人之举；史诗般的电影（或书籍） | |
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alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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appraises
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| v.估价( appraise的第三人称单数 )；估计；估量；评价 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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10
pulsate
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| v.有规律的跳动 | |
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11
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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12
conjectural
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| adj.推测的 | |
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13
saga
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| n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇 | |
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poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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16
mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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17
migration
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| n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙 | |
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18
migrations
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| n.迁移，移居( migration的名词复数 ) | |
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19
pervades
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的第三人称单数 ) | |
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20
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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21
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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22
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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23
deities
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| n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明 | |
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24
glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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25
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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26
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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27
bards
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| n.诗人( bard的名词复数 ) | |
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28
slays
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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29
begetter
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| n.生产者，父 | |
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30
hoard
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| n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积 | |
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31
cleaves
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的第三人称单数 ) | |
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32
dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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33
transgressing
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| v.超越( transgress的现在分词 )；越过；违反；违背 | |
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34
awakens
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的第三人称单数 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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35
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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36
weds
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| v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的第三人称单数 ) | |
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37
semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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38
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
beguiled
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| v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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40
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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41
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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42
exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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43
wreaked
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| 诉诸（武力），施行（暴力），发（脾气）( wreak的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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46
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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47
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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48
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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49
foretold
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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51
slaying
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| 杀戮。 | |
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52
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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53
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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54
amenable
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| adj.经得起检验的；顺从的；对负有义务的 | |
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55
monasteries
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| 修道院( monastery的名词复数 ) | |
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56
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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57
tainted
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| adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏 | |
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58
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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59
redeems
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| 补偿( redeem的第三人称单数 )； 实践； 解救； 使…免受责难 | |
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60
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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61
vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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62
pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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63
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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64
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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65
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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66
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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67
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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68
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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69
annihilated
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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70
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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71
entrapped
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| v.使陷入圈套，使入陷阱( entrap的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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73
tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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74
conjecture
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|
| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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75
chivalry
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|
| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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76
affinity
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| n.亲和力，密切关系 | |
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77
revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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78
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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79
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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80
peculiar
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|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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81
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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82
remodelled
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|
| v.改变…的结构[形状]( remodel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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83
veneer
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| n.(墙上的)饰面，虚饰 | |
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84
chivalrous
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|
| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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85
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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86
credible
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| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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87
intelligible
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|
| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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88
geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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89
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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90
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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91
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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92
surmounts
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| 战胜( surmount的第三人称单数 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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93
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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94
warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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95
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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96
contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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97
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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98
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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99
emancipated
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|
| adj.被解放的，不受约束的v.解放某人（尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚）( emancipate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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100
downwards
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|
| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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101
encompasses
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| v.围绕( encompass的第三人称单数 )；包围；包含；包括 | |
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102
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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103
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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104
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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105
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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106
marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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107
dwarfs
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| n.侏儒，矮子（dwarf的复数形式）vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的第三人称单数形式） | |
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108
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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109
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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110
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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111
streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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112
wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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113
amicably
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| adv.友善地 | |
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114
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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115
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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116
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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117
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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118
discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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119
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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120
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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121
cir
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| abbr.circular 通知；circulation （货币，货物等的）流通；circle 圆；circa (Latin=about) （拉丁语）大约 | |
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122
delineation
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| n.记述；描写 | |
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123
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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124
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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125
assassinates
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| v.暗杀( assassinate的第三人称单数 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏 | |
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126
assassinate
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| vt.暗杀，行刺，中伤 | |
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127
expiation
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| n.赎罪，补偿 | |
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128
accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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129
ingrate
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| n.忘恩负义的人 | |
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130
iniquity
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| n.邪恶；不公正 | |
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131
cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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132
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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133
callous
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| adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的 | |
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134
tramples
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| 踩( trample的第三人称单数 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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135
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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136
repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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137
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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138
stainless
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| adj.无瑕疵的，不锈的 | |
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139
lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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140
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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141
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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142
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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143
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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144
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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145
eulogies
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| n.颂词，颂文( eulogy的名词复数 ) | |
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146
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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147
discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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148
apprehended
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| 逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解 | |
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149
lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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150
personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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151
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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152
enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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153
entrapping
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| v.使陷入圈套，使入陷阱( entrap的现在分词 ) | |
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154
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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155
hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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156
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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157
hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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158
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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159
commentators
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| n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员 | |
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160
retinue
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| n.侍从；随员 | |
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161
serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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162
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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163
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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164
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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166
stanzas
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| 节，段( stanza的名词复数 ) | |
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167
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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168
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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169
gall
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| v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难 | |
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poetically
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| adv.有诗意地，用韵文 | |
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171
avenger
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| n. 复仇者 | |
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172
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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173
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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174
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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175
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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176
titanic
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| adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的 | |
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177
patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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178
heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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179
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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180
disapproves
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| v.不赞成( disapprove的第三人称单数 ) | |
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181
ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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182
cumulative
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| adj.累积的，渐增的 | |
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183
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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184
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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185
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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186
rigidly
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| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
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187
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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188
ballad
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| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
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189
cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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190
pedantic
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| adj.卖弄学问的；迂腐的 | |
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191
lyric
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| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
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192
antagonistic
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| adj.敌对的 | |
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193
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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194
syllables
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| n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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195
lengthen
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| vt.使伸长，延长 | |
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196
lengthened
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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197
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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198
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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199
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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200
interferes
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| vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉 | |
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