Studies in National Inspiration and Characteristic Forms
No. 3, The Nibelungenlied
Frederick Norman ,
Reader in German at King's College,
London
In this third talk in a series designed to show the various types of poetry produced by various races, with their special tastes and characteristics, Professor Norman will discuss that typically Teutonic epic, the ' Nibelungenlied '.
The ' Nibelungenlied ', one of the sources from which Wagner drew the material for Der Ring des Nibelungen, probably dates from about the twelfth century, though the manuscripts were not rediscovered till the latter half of the eighteenth century. The story it tells is apparently half-historical, half-mythical ; Etzel, King of the Huns, for instance, is obviously the Attila of history, but Siegfried is as mysterious a figure as our own King Arthur.