LAY OF THE LAST NIBELUNGERS. Das Nibelungen Lied; or, Lay of the Last Nibelungers. Translated into English Verse, after Prof. Carl Lachmann's collated and corrected Text. By Jona. Birch. Berlin, Duncker; London, Williams & Norgate. It seems that the translator of this remarkable poem-the only known production of Indo-German origin that bears any real analogy to the Homeric epic -- must have taken it for granted that all his readers have already been acquainted with what has been ascertained concerning its origin and history, His version appears without preface, notes, or other critical or explanatory matter; and, therefore, can scarcely be intended for those by whom such aids may be wanted for a proper understanding of the poem. Now, as this Lay of the Last Nibelungers" is a poem of very recent discovery, and by no means so popularly current in Europe that all, even of well-educated persons, may be supposed familiar with its general character,—to send it forth in an English dress, without a word to introduce or illustrate its strange and almost savage rhapsodies, is tantamount to declining the notice of all but the very few even among studious readers of poetry. Beyond that class, indeed, it could hardly penetrate in the dress of a new language, however well furnished with such notes as are indispensible to the most cursory view of any rude fragment of antiquity suddenly restored to the sight of a totally different world. In the naked state in which Mr. Birch offers it to English readers it can attract little notice, except from those who are already in some degree familiar with the poem in the original or in modern German versions, and who may be curious to compare its appearance in these with the manner in which Mr. Birch has presented it in a new language. Such readers must, of course, be acquainted with its native and proper aspect; and they, of all others, are the least likely to perfer to that any foreign version of a work depending so largely for its effect upon peculiarities of tone that no translation can hope to reproduce. We cannot pretend to undertake the task which we think Mr. Birch ought to have attempted, in order to give English readers any taste whatever of the long poem he has been at the pains to translate. The matter in question here, we may observe in passing, is not a creation of poetry under those ordinary conditions that enable it to speak for itself, as all true poems in general will sufficiently do where their speech can be understood. Here something is wanted, in the nature of an interpretation of the very speech itself, which a mere transfer of words from one tongue into another will not afford,-which, indeed, is necessary to those even who may fully understand the literal meaning of the original text. The whole substance of the work belongs to a time in which the modes of life, the beliefs, the motives of every kind, in short, were totally dif ferent from those of modern Europe; and the mere value of written or spoken symbols of these cannot be truly represented, without some kind of mediation, in such equivalents as can be found in expressions moulded on a different scale of ideas. In a case like this, therefore, the most essential part of the translator's office can scarcely be said to regard the verbal structure of the poem. It must always remain, in a great measure, closed to the modern sense; but in order to such an approximation as may still be possible to a feeling of what the old poet really meant to say or sing, we are to place ourselves, by such aids as we can get from a study of the times and notions he represents, in some degree at least nearer to him. The antiquarian must in this instance be the usher to the bard; and to lend him our forms of speech, without a syllable explaining what ideas he may have annexed to the words we thus render, is no more to give an effectual translation of his work than would a display of his remains (could the grave be tempted to give them up,) dressed in the costume of our times, be a true exhibition of the living person of the singer of this rude but noble epic. A few words only we shall say concerning its general history and features. The original, as we have received it from ancient times, is itself no more than the recast, in Christian days, of materials belonging to an age when Europe was still heathen. It was first restored to the light from its long sleep in monastic libraries, about a century since, by Bodmer of Zurich, published, from the Hohenems MS.* (now in Munich,) considerable portions of the text of the poem. Some time afterwards it was printed entire by John Von Müller in his collection of who *There exist, we believe, six complete MSS. of the Lay, in various libraries, four in Germany. Munich; one in Vienna; another in the WallensteinThe oldest belongs to St. Gallen; there are two in Ottingen Library. Of the whole number, two only, if we remember right, are on parchment; the others are transcripts on paper, dating at various periods between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. One is said to be still in Paris, and another in the Vatican. Old German poems. The first critical edition of the text by Van der Hagen, as well as his first translation into modern German, dates in the present century, between 1810 and 1820. Since that period it has been studied with improved attention; and we cannot here enumerate all the eminent names connected with the illustration of a poem which Germany now claims, with some pride, as her national epic. Among these may be mentioned Zeune, Simrock, Grimm, August Schlegel, and Lachmann, whose edition of the original (Urtext) Mr. Birch's translation professes to follow.* It will thus be seen that even in Germany itself the general appreciation of this disinterred masterpiece of a rude age has been somewhat recent; and also that the Germans themselves have very justly perceived that more than a simple version of the text into modern language is necessary in order to appreciate it. The burden of the poem is the tragical fate (Noth) of the Nibelungs, or Niflings, a Burgundian race, according to tradition whether purely mythic or partly historical is still disputed at the Court of Etzel (or Attila) in Hungary, towards the middle of the fifth century. The cause of their destruction is the vengeance of Chriemhild- sister of the Burgundian King Gunther for the slaughter of her first husband, Siegfried, son of King Seigmund, of Santen or Xanten (in Cleves,) on the Rhine, by Von Troneg Hagen, one of Gunther's liegemen. | more. Shortly after her arrival at the Hungarian court, she induces Etzel to invite thither her three brothers, with their liegemen; and they set forth on the ominous journey, in spite of many warnings. Chriemhild secretly stirs up a bloody strife between the warriors of Etzel (amongst whom are his allies the Amelungs) and the Burgundians, which ends, after a long and frightful carnage, in the destruction of the whole Nibelung party. Chriemhild is slain by Dietrich of Born* (Etzel's ally and champion) after she has sated her revenge by giving the last blow to Hagen, who dies refusing to reveal the hiding-place of the fatal Hoard; which is thus lost to sight foreverSuch is a bare outline of the epic, in which some critics have discovered distinct traces of historical fact, and explain, in various ways, the indications of real events supposed to lie in the names and places occuring in the poem. But it is pretty evident that in its present composition, at all events, these are but doubtful fragments, -defying all real connection, whatever they may have been in the several materials from which the last composer is conjectured to have framed it. Of its poetical importance there can be no doubt whatever. Comparatively modern as it appears in the recast we now possess — which is ascribed to some period between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries — it still bears undoubted traces of a living vein of poetry descending, from whatever source, through at least six centuries earlier; and is instinct with simple energy, various and rapid movement, vivid description, and a fearful tragic sternness, in a style artless, but strongly impressive, The object of this treachery was to gain possession of the fabulous Hoard (Hort) which had been conquered by Siegfried's valor from a Dragon, who guarded the treasure of the Nibelungs; but the instigator to the act is Gunther's wife, Brunhilda, who has conceived a violent hatred to Siegfried, on a quarrel with Chriemhild for precedence, which discovers the means that champion had used to subdue Brunhilda-the possessor, in her virgin state, of superhuman powers. to a marriage with Gunther. The first half of the epic is occupied with the wooing and wedding of the two princes- the early feats of Siegfried the quarrel between the rival wives and the assassination of Siegfried by Hagen. The second records the plan and success of Chriemhild's revenge, - and rises by degrees to a strain of rugged grandeur, the climax of which is terribly impressive. The widow, brooding on her beloved hero's death, accepts the hand of Etzel, in the hope of using his power to punish her enemies. We would add the name of Schönhuth, whose convenient little edition (Leipzig, 1841) adopts the text of the Hohenems MS. Ed. Dag. across which there fall by fits some brief dashes of tenderness and gleams of intense feeling, with traits of heroic valor and fidelity to the death, that strike the sense more deeply from the rugged ground by which they are refleeted. There is no other extant picture of the dawn of Modern Europe in its remotest heroic age that can be compared to this for color, distinctness, compass, and true poetic energy. The antiquity of the original poem or poems, as also the authorship of the text which has been handed down to us, have both been a subject of learned disputes, with which we do not presume to interfere. The Nibelungens Noth, as we have it, is assigned, with pretty general consent, to some of the Meistersingers of the thirteenth or fourteenth century, - of whom Wolfram von Eschenbach, Klingsohr, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, Konrad von Würzburg, and Marner, have each found their advocates. The so-called German origin Generally supposed to be meant for Theodoric of Verona. of its sources has been asserted and questioned | however, the loss of which must wholly alter warmly. Opponents of the historical claim its poetical character. The Modern German of this poem as strictly Teutonic, maintain versions, although in a language akin to that that it can be shown to be made up of ele- of the old text, and more apt than ours to the ments nearly all of which are found in the old simple and homely in expression, are not Scandinavian lays, or saga. those, namely, always successful in avoiding this defect. Mr. relative to Sigurd Fafnirsbane and his race; Birch, we fear, has done less than might have and "that these Pagan fragments," as a late been achieved, even in our less flexible and critic in the Edinburgh Review sums up the more conventional idiom, in preserving the debate, "are the foundation, or rather are the picturesque ærugo of his original. The litwhole, of the poem of the Nibelungens eral sense he presents, on the whole, with Noth,' only in a different form and dialect of sufficient accuracy; but the color of the the Teutonic." He adds, "Some writers strain, which determines its virtual expressuppose that these have existed in the Teu- sion, is not always that of the old poem: touie as well as in the Scandinavian tongue; and he is apt to give it a purely modern air and that the saga of the latter have been by using words that sound affectedly in a lay taken from the former. But the existence of of old times, when a quicker feeling of its these saga from Pagan times, in the Icelandic character might have discovered fitter lanor Scandinavian tongue, is a reality; their guage. Of his performance we shall give a existence at all, except in the Christianized specimen from one of the passages in the form of the Nibelungens Noth' of the thir- second part, that we have never been able to teenth century, is but a supposition." On the read in the original without a certain creeping whole, this conclusion appears to be the most sense of supernatural awe. The Burgundian probable; and until certain evidence of earlier warriors have set forth on their fatal journey, Teutonic sagas shall be discovered, to over- -and are stayed, on reaching the Danube, throw the claim of priority founded on what is by the want of a ferryman to put them across already known to exist in the Icelandic le- the river. The destined chief of the party, gends, it may be assumed that the German Von Hagen, goes along the stream to seek for Meistersinger got his materials, either directly a boat, and falls in with a bevy of water-witches or through some intermediate tradition, from (Merwiper, Mere-women) playing in a founthose northern sources. To pursue the details tain near the stream. He seizes their clothes; of this argument is not in our power. What and, by the law of such beings, they are thus we have thus briefly said of the significance compelled to answer his inquires: but the and of the relation of the poem, as we know first answer turns out to be a terrible mockit, to subjects of great interest, in literary and ery, and the next is a fearful warning. In the ethnological points of view, may at least serve original, the episode is like the first glimpse to show the disadvantage with which it must behind the curtain that hides a terrible future; appear without some notice of the circumstan- and the effect, grim and depressing, prepares ces that render it peculiar, or of the conditions us for the coming woe. In the version before by which its poetical character have been us, scarcely a trace of this character, we determined. apprehend, will be found; and the passage will serve as a pretty fair instance of what has been done and omitted by the translator. We italicize some of the words that might have been replaced by others better chosen, and in which his choice has affected the tone of the picce. Otherwise, as we have said, its substance is rendered faithfully enough. Of the merits of Mr. Birch's version we desire to speak with every allowance for the difficulty of his task. The object, in translating a work like this, is not merely to convey the substantial meaning, but to clothe it in language as nearly as may be repeating the tones of the original. This, in modern English, is no easy matter, when the text to be copied is of the rudest mould of the Old German; and to accomplish it with any degree of the writer must have a thorough use of all the stores of our language of all times, from Chaucer downwards, as well as a nice feeling of the particular word or phrase that will suit not only the sense, but the color of the ancient lay. With all these aids, we say, it will be scarcely possible for a translator of our times to revive in English the naïveté and simple vigor of such an original,- qualities, success, Said she, 66 With safety you may ride into King Etzel's land: I pledge thereon my truth and troth-and, in idea, my hand; That never noble king's array obtained in foreign state, Such honor, and such lofty fame:-believe what I relate!" The mermaid's words made Hagen's heart to palpitate with joy; He gave them back the captured clothes-and left the virgins coy. No sooner had they hurried on their wondrous garmentry, Than they foretold, in truthful words, his fate in Hungarie. Loud spake another water-nymph-this one Sieglinda hight "I warn you, Tronyie Hagen brave,-Sir Adrian's son of might! That to obtain the clothes, my aunt has said what is not true: For shouldst thou journey to the Huns, that journey thou wilt rue. Trust me, you should ride back again, there yet is time, I ween: For you bold knights of Burgundie have only bidden been That you should miserably die in royal Etzel's land: Whoever rides to Hungarie, has death within his hand!" A few of the closing stanzas may be added, to show the manner in which the fatal story comes to its end. All the Burgundian knights have fallen, except King Gunther and Von | Troneg Hagen. He, sorely wounded, is handed to the vengeful Chriemhild, bound as a prisoner, by Dietrich of Born. Then went the queen Chriemhild to where Sir Hagen met her sight: I wot, full ruthless proved her speech unto the captive knight! "Will you return, without delay, that which you took from me? Then may you reach with life your home, in distant Burgundie." Thereto replied the angered chief, "Your prayer is made in vain, Most noble daughter of a king! for I an oath have ta'en That I will ne'er divulge the place where lies the hoard concealed; So long as either king doth live, it will not be revealed!" "Then will I make short work of it!" so said the lofty wife: She gave behest that Gunther brave should forthwith lose his life. His head was hewn from off its trunk-which by the hair she took, And bore it to the Tronyie chief, who mournfully did look Upon the ghastly, dripping head of this much honored king; Then to Chriemhilda he again severe remark did bring: "Thou hast indeed thy will fulfilled-ending with brother's blood! And, verily, in such a way, as I did fear you would. Now is the noble Burgund king prepared for early grave! Eke Giselher, the young and good—and Gerenot the brave! Where the said hoard lies hid is, now, known but to God and me! And shall from thee, accursed wife! forever hidden be." Thereon did Master Hildebrand run at the fair | flaming ruin quenched in a sea of blood; the Chriemhild record of which, it may be felt, is too stern and rude to admit of holiday phrases or to suit the These have composite terms of modern usage. been drawn upon by Mr. Birch more largely, we think, than was at all necessary; and this greatly injures the poetical effect of his translation. But we may add, that whoever may here read the story told in this fierce old epic, without going to the source and can remember to allow duly for the varnish of Mr. Birch's style-will probably desire to know more of the original poem. He will find, even in this who was terribly in carnest, the outlines of a rather too jaunty version of a Meistersinger, huge Titanic past; and be invited to measure with his own eyes the striking monument by which its image has been in some measure preserved.-Athenæum. FRANK FORESTER'S FIELD SPORTS IN THE UNITED STATES. Mr. Forester is an Englishman, the son of a Dean of Manchester, who has resided for the last sixteen or seventeen years in America. Ardently addicted to field sports, he has pursued them in the new country with as much zest as in the old; though his tastes have induced him to prefer a class of sport analogous to our partridge, pheasant, and grouseshooting, rather than water-fowling. Want of opportunity, or of liking, has prevented him from engaging in the more perilous but less scientific chase of the far West, or of the remote forests of Canada and the Hudson's Bay territory but he knows the theory of every kind of sport pursued on the continent of North America, from rail and plover-shooting up to the moose, the elk, and the grisly bear of the Rocky Mountains; and he has examined both written and oral accounts with a critical mind, so as to deduce the principles of the sport from the practical facts. Mr. Forester also appears to have used his pen, in conjunction with other sporting spirits of the Western world, in periodical writings for the American public, with objects something more than literary. The description of a fine week's sport, or the dramatized account of an extraordinary feat is all very well; but some of the writers have had higher aims. They would urge upon the State Legislatures the necessity of more stringent game-laws, and upon the public mind the propriety of observing such as do exist; they denounce the gluttony of "snobs" and citizens, who encourage poachers and pothunters by purchasing their ill-gotten trophies in season and out of season; they would direct the public mind to the approaching extinction not only of vermin and beasts of prey, but of some of the noblest animals or handsomest birds with which the States once abounded; and they hold up to odium the rustic "savages" who take advantage of the accidents of the seasons to massacre entire masses of creatures for some wretchedly small gain, as well as the unsystematic, unsportsmanlike slaughter continually carried on by town loafers and village idlers, with bad guns and lowbred curs. In fact, "sporting" would seem to be in a transition state in America; the condition of nature past, and that of art not yet attained. It being understood that by sporting is not meant lying on your back or your belly in a punt, or some such contrivance, for an indefinate number of hours, in the worst kind of weather, in order to massacre large numbers of water-fowl, or the dangerous but exciting chase of the wild or savage animals of the wilderness. In Mr. Forester's ideas, "sporting" embraces the enjoyment of air, exercise, and varying landscape; the exhibition of animal instinct, increased by breeding, cultivated by art, and displaying sagacity that looks like a high effort of mind, together with the exhibition of judgment, readiness, and gunner-like skill on the part of the sportsman. And these, it strikes |