that the whole catastrophe of the “Nibelungen” turns. It is true, the “Scourge of God” plays but a tame part here; however, his great acts, though all past, are still visible in their fruits: besides, it is on the Northern or German personages that the tradition chiefly dwells.[1]
Taking farther into account the general “Cycle,” or System of Northern Tradition, whereof this “Nibelungen” is the centre and keystone, there is, as indeed we saw in the “Heldenbuch,” a certain Kaiser Ottnit and a Dietrich of Bern; to whom also it seems unreasonable to deny historical existence. This Bern (Verona), as well as the Rabenschlacht (Battle of Ravenna), is continually figuring in these fictions; though whether under Ottnit we are to understand Odoacer the vanquished, and under Dietrich of Bern Theodoricus Veronensis, the victer both at Verona and Ravenna, is by no means so indubitable. Chronological difficulties stand much in the way. For our Dietrich of Bern, as we saw in the “Nibelungen,” is represented as one of Etzel’s Champions: now Attila died about the year 450; and this Ostrogeth Theodoric did not fight his great Battle at Verona till 489; that of Ravenna, which was followed by a three years’ siege, happening next year. So that before Dietrich could become Dietrich of Bern, Etzel had been gone almost half a century from the scene. Startled by this anachronism, some commentators 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, however, the old Ottnit, or Odoacer, of the “Heldenbuch” must, in his turn, part company; whereby the case is no whit mended. Certain it
- ↑ [There is an historical foundation for the main fact of the story, in that in the year 437 A.D. a certain Burgundian King Gundicarius with his followers suffered an overwhelming defeat at the hands of the Huns. Moreover, in the “Lex Burgundionum” reference is made to three kings, Godomer, Gislahar, and Gundahar, in whose names at least if not their deeds the poem retains some shadowy reminiscence of fact. See preface of Simrock’s edition of the “Nibelungen Lied,” Stuttgart, 1892.—Ed.]
