This work has been undertaken in the belief that a literal translation
of as famous an epic as the "Nibelungenlied" would be acceptable to the
general reading public whose interest in the story of Siegfried has
been stimulated by Wagner's operas and by the reading of such poems as
William Morris' "Sigurd the Volsung". Prose has been selected as the
medium of translation, since it is hardly possible to give an accurate
rendering and at the same time to meet the demands imposed by rhyme
and metre; at least, none of the verse translations made thus far have
succeeded in doing this. The prose translations, on the other hand,
mostly err in being too continuous and in condensing too much, so that
they retell the story instead of translating it. The present translator
has tried to avoid these two extremes. He has endeavored to translate
literally and accurately, and to reproduce the spirit of the original,
as far as a prose translation will permit. To this end the language has
been made as simple and as Saxon in character as possible. An exception
has been made, however, in the case of such Romance words as were in use
in England during the age of the romances of chivalry, and which would
help to land a Romance coloring; these have been frequently employed.
Very few obsolete words have been used, and these are explained in the
notes, but the language has been made to some extent archaic, especially
in dialogue, in order to give the impression of age. At the request of
the publishers the Introduction Sketch has been shorn of the apparatus
of scholarship and made as popular as a study of the poem and its
sources would allow. The advanced student who may be interested in
consulting authorities will find them given in the introduction to the
parallel edition in the Riverside Literature Series. A short list of
English works on the subject had, however, been added.
In conclusion the translator would like to thank his colleagues, C.G.
Child and Cornelius Weygandt, for their helpful suggestions in starting
the work, and also to acknowledge his indebtedness to the German edition
of Paul Piper, especially in preparing the notes.
--DANIEL BUSSIER SHUMWAY.
Philadelphia, February 15, 1909.