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lar sacrifices, with belief in ghosts, etc.; the upper, of doctrines introduced by Christianity. To the latter belong the Last Battle to be fought by WarriorAngels and the Elect against the Beast, the Dragon, and the Demons of Fire (Corp. Poet. 2: 459).

Odin or Woden was first the god of the heaven, or heaven itself, then husband of earth, god of war and of wisdom, lord of the ravens, lord of the gallows (which was called Woden's tree or Woden's steed). Frigga is Mother Earth. Thor is the lord of the hammer - the thunderbolt, the adversary of giants and all oppressors of man. He is dear to man, always connected with earth,the husband of Sif (the Norse Ceres). His goat-drawn car makes the rumbling of the thunder. Freyr means lord; patron of the Swedes, harvestgod. Balder means also lord or king. On the one hand, his attributes recall those of Apollo; on the other hand, his story appeals to, and is colored by, the Christian imagination. He is another figure of that radiant type to which belong all bright and genial heroes, righters of wrong, blazing to consume evil, gentle and strong to uplift weakness: Apollo, Hercules, Perseus, Achilles, Sigurd, St. George, and many another. Hoder is the "adversary."

Nanna, Balder's wife, is the ensample of constancy; her name is maiden. § 185. The Volsunga Saga. - The songs of the Elder Edda, from which Eirikr Magnússon and Willam Morris draw their admirable Story of the Völsungs and the Niblungs (London, 1870), are The Lay of Helgi Hunding'sBane, The Lay of Sigrdrifa, The Short Lay of Sigurd, The Hell-Ride of Brynhild, The Lay of Brynhild, The Ancient Lay of Gudrun, The Song of Atli, The Whetting of Gudrun, The Lay of Hamdir, The Lament of Oddrun. For translations of these fragments, see pp. 167-270 of the volume mentioned above. For the originals and literal translations of these and other Norse lays of importance, see Vigfusson and Powell's Corpus Poeticum Boreale; and Vigfusson's Sturlunga Saga, 2 vols. For the story of Sigurd, read William Morris' admirable and spirited epic, Sigurd the Völsung. Illustrative of the Norse Spirit are Motherwell's Battle-Flag of Sigurd, the Wooing Song of Jarl Egill Skallagrim, and the Sword Chant of Thorstein Raudi; also Dora Greenwell's Battle-Flag of Sigurd; and Charles Kingsley's Longbeard's Saga, in Hypatia.

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The Nibelungenlied. The little book entitled Echoes from Mist Land, by Auber Forestier (Griggs & Co., Chicago, 1877) will be of value to the beginner. Other translations are made by A. G. Foster-Barham (Lond.: 1887) and by W. N. Lettsom, The Fall of the Nibelungers (Lond.: 1874), both in verse. See also T. Carlyle, Nibelungenlied (Crit. Miscell.) Essays, 2:220. Modern German editions by Simrock, Bartsch, Marbach, and Gerlach are procurable. The edition by Werner Hahn (Uebersetzung d. Handschrift A, Collection Spemann Berlin u. Stuttgart) has been used in the prepa

ration of this account. The original was published in part by Bodmer in 1757; later, in full by C. H. Myller, by K. K. Lachmann, Nibelunge Nôt mit der Klage, 1826; by K. F. Bartsch, Der Nibelunge Nôt, 2 v. in 3, 18701880, and in Pfeiffer's Deutsch. Classik. des Mittelalt. v. 3, 1872; and by others (see James Sime's Nibelungenlied, Encyc. Brit.). Of marvellous artistic and antiquarian worth were Dr. W. Jordan's Studies and Recitations of the Nibelunge, which comprised the Siegfried Saga, and Hildebrandt's Return. Especially of artistic value is Richard Wagner's series of operas, The Ring of the Nibelungs, finished in 1876. The composer is responsible not only for the musical score, but for the text and scenic arrangements of four of the grandest musical dramas that the world has possessed: RhineGold, Siegfried, The Valkyrias, and The Twilight of the Gods. In painting, especially famous are Schnorr von Carolsfeld's wall-pictures illustrative of the Nibelungenlied, in the royal palace at Munich; also the illustrations of the four operas by J. Hoffmann, and by Th. Pixis. See, also, under Baldwin, p. 540. §§ 185, 186. Historically: Siegfried has been identified, variously, with (1) the great German warrior Arminius (or Hermann), the son of Sigimer, chief of the tribe of the Cherusci, who inhabited the southern part of what is now Hanover and Brunswick; born 18 B.C. and trained in the Roman army, in the year 9 A.D. he overcame with fearful slaughter the Roman tyrants of Germany, defeating the Roman commander Varus and his legions in the Teutoburg Forest in the Valley of the Lippe; (2) Sigibert, king of the Ripuarian Franks, who in 508 A.D. was treacherously slain while taking a mid-day nap in the forest; (3) Sigibert, king of the Austrasian Franks whose history recalls more than one event of the Sigurd and Siegfried stories; for he discovered a treasure, fought with and overcame foreign nations, the Huns, the Saxons, the Danes, and finally in consequence of a quarrel between his wife Brünhilde and his sister-in-law Fredegunde, was, in 576 A.D. assassinated by the retainers of the latter; (4) Julius, or Claudius Civilis, the leader of the Batavi in the revolt against Rome, 69-70 A.D. It is probable that in Sigurd and Siegfried we have recollections combined of two or more of these historic characters.

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Mythologically, Sigurd (of the shining eyes that no man might face unabashed) has been regarded as a reflection of the god Balder.

Gunnar and Gunther are, historically, recognized in a slightly known king of the Burgundians, Gundicar, who with his people was overwhelmed by the Huns in 437 A.D.

Atli and Etzel are poetic idealizations of the renowned Hunnish chieftain, Attila, who united under his rule the German and Slavonic nations, ravaged the Eastern Roman Empire between 445 and 450 A.D., and, invading the Western Empire, was defeated by the Romans in the great battle of Chalons sur Marne, 451. He died 454 A.D.

Dietrich of Berne (Verona) bears some very slight resemblance to Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, who, between 493 and 526 A.D., ruled from Italy what had been the Western Empire. In these poems, however, his earlier illustrious career is overlooked; he is merely a refugee in the court of the Hunnish king; and, even so, is confounded with uncles of his who had been retainers of Attila: for the historic Theodoric was not born until two years after the historic Attila's death.

These historic figures were, of course, merely suggestions for, or contributions to, the great heroes of the epics, not prototypes; the same is true of any apparently confirmed historic forerunners of Brynhild, or Gudrun, or Kriemhild. The mythological connection of these epics with the Norse myths of the seasons, Sigurd being Balder of the spring, and Hogni Höder of winter and darkness, is ingenious; but, except as reminding us of the mythic material which the bards were likely to recall and utilize, it is not of material worth.

In the Norse version, the name Niblung is interchangeable with the patronymic Giuking, — it is the name of the family that ruins Sigurd. But, in the German version, the name is of purely mythical import: the Nibelungs are not a human race; none but Siegfried may have intercourse with them. The land of the Nibelungs is equally vague in the German poem; it is at one time an island, again a mountain, and in one manuscript it is confounded with Norway. But mythically it is connected with Niflheim, the kingdom of Hela, the shadowy realm of death. The earth, that gathers to her bosom the dead, cherishes also in her bosom the hoard of gold. Naturally, therefore, the hoard is guarded by Alberic, the dwarf, for dwarfs have always preferred the underworld. So (according to Werner Hahn, and others) there is a deep mythical meaning in the Lay of the Nibelungs: beings that dwell far from the light of day; or that, possessing the riches of mortality, march toward the land of death.

A FEW

RULES FOR THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

OF

GREEK AND LATIN PROPER NAMES.

[These rules will cover most cases, but they are not intended to exhaust the subject. The reader is referred to the Latin grammars and the English dictionaries.]

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I. Quantity. The reader must first ascertain whether the second last syllable of the word is long. In general a syllable is long in quantity:

(1) If it contain a diphthong, or a long vowel: Bau-cis, Ac-tae-on, Me-tis, O-ri-on, Flō-ra.

(2) If its vowel, whether long or short, is followed by j, x, or z, or by any two consonants except a mute and a liquid: A'-jax, Meg-a-ba-zus, A-dras'-tus. Note (a). Sometimes two vowels come together without forming a diphthong. In such cases the diæresis is, in this volume, used to indicate the division; eg. Men-e-la'üs, Pe-ne'üs.

Note (b). The syllable formed by a short vowel before a mute with / or r, is sometimes long and sometimes short; eg. Cle-o-pa'-tra, or Cle-op'-ǎ-tra; Pa-tro'-clus, or Pat'-ro-clus.

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(1) The accent may be principal, or subordinate: Hel2-les-pon'-tus.

(2) The principal accent falls on the second last syllable (penult): Amphi-tri'-te; or on the third last syllable (antepenult): Am-phit'-ry-on.

(a) In words of two syllables, it falls on the penult: Cir'-ce.

(b) In words of more than two syllables, it falls on the penult when that syllable is long; otherwise, on the antepenult: E-ne'-as, Her'-cu-les.

(3) The subordinate accent:

(a) If only two syllables precede the principal accent, the subordinate accent falls on the first syllable of the word: Hip2-po-cre'ne.

(b) If more than two syllables precede the principal accent, the laws gov erning the principal accent apply to those preceding syllables: Cas2-si-o-pē'-a.

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