The twelfth and thirteenth centuries witnessed far-reaching changes in
the social and intellectual life of the German lands, the leading feature
of which is the high development of all that is included under the name
of chivalry. It is marked, too, by a revival of the native literature
such as had not been known before, a revival which is due almost entirely
to its cultivation by the nobility. From emperor down to the simple
knight they were patrons of poetry and, what is most striking, nearly all
the poets themselves belong to the knightly class. The drama has not yet
begun, but in the field of epic and lyric there appear about the year
1200 poets who are among the greatest that German literature even down to
the present time has to show. The epic poetry of that period, though
written almost entirely by the knights, is of two distinct kinds
according to its subject: on the one hand what is called the Court Epic,
on the other hand the National, or Popular, Epic. The Court Epic follows
for the most part French models and deals chiefly with the life of
chivalry, whose ideals were embodied in king Arthur and his circle of
knights; the National Epic drew its subjects from the national German
saga, its two great products being the Nibelungenlied and the poem of
Gudrun. Court Epic and National Epic are further distinct in form, the
Court Epic being written in the rhymed couplets popularized in modern
times in English by Sir Walter Scott, while the National Epic is composed
in four-lined strophes.
Though we know the name and more or less of the life of the authors of
the many court epics of the period, the name of the poet who gave the
Nibelungenlied its final form has not been recorded. As we have seen, the
poem is at bottom of a truly popular, national character, having its
beginnings in mythology and early national history. For centuries the
subject had been national property and connected with the name of no one
individual. We have it now in the form in which it was remodelled to suit
the taste of the court and the nobility, and like the court epic to be
read aloud in castle hall. That it is written in four-lined strophes[5]
and not in the usual rhymed couplets of the court epics is doubtless due
to the fact that the former verse-form had already been used in the
earlier ballads upon which it is based, and was simply taken over by the
final moulder of the poem. This latter was probably a member of the
nobility like the great majority of the epic poets of the time; he must
at least have been well acquainted with the manners, tastes, sentiments,
and general life of the nobility. Through him the poem was brought
outwardly more into line with the literary ideals of the court circles.
This shows itself chiefly in a negative way, namely, in the almost
complete avoidance of the coarse language and farcical situations so
common with the popular poet, the _spielmann_. Beyond this no violence is
done to the simple form of the original. The style is still inornate and
direct, facts still speak rather than words, and there is nothing
approaching the refined psychological dissection of characters and
motives such as we find in Wolfram von Eschenbach and the other court
writers.
[5] For description of the Nibelungen strophe see below, Chapter 7.
When we look to the inner substance we see that the ground ideals are
still those of the original Germanic heroic age. The chief characters are
still those of the first stages of the story--Siegfried, Brunhild,
Gunther, Kriemhild, Hagen. The fundamental theme is the ancient theme of
_triuwe_, unswerving personal loyalty and devotion, which manifests
itself above all in the characters of Kriemhild and Hagen. Kriemhild's
husband Siegfried is treacherously slain: her sorrow and revenge are the
motives of the drama. Hagen's mistress has, though with no evil intent on
Siegfried's part, received an insult to her honor: to avenge that insult
is Hagen's absorbing duty, which he fulfils with an utter disregard of
consequences. Over this their fundamental character the various persons
of the story have received a gloss of outward conduct in keeping with the
close of the twelfth century. The poet is at pains to picture them as
models of courtly bearing, excelling in _hofscheit_, _zuht_, _tugent_.
Great attention is paid to dress, and the preparation of fitting apparel
for court festivities is described and re-described with wearisome
prolixity. A cardinal virtue is _milte_, liberality in the bestowal of
gifts. Courtesy toward women is observed with the careful formality of
the age of the minnesingers. It was above all Siegfried, the light-hero
of the original myth, whose character lent itself to an idealization of
knighthood. Ruediger holds a like place in the latter part of the poem.
In the evident pleasure with which the minstrel-knight Volker of the
sword-fiddlebow is depicted, as well doubtless as in occasional gleams of
broader humor, the hand of the minstrels who wrought on the story in its
earlier ballad stages may be seen. And the whole poem, in keeping with
its form in an age strongly under church influence, has been tinged with
the ideals of Christianity. Not only does the ordinary conversation of
all the characters, including even the heathen Etzel, contain a great
number of formal imprecations of God, but Christian institutions and
Christian ethics come frequently into play. Mass is sung in the minster,
baptism, marriage, burial are celebrated in Christian fashion, the devil
is mentioned according to the Christian conception, we hear of priest,
chaplain, and bishop, Christians are contrasted with heathen, and
Kriemhild, in marrying Etzel, has a hope of turning him to Christianity.
In Hagen's attempt to drown the chaplain whom the Burgundians have with
them as they set out for the land of the Huns we have perhaps an
expression of the conflict between the heathen and the Christian
elements, possibly also a reflection of the traditional animosity of the
_spielmann_ to his clerical rival.
The Nibelungenlied and the Iliad of Homer have often been compared, but
after all to no great purpose. The two epics are alike in having their
roots deep in national origins, but beyond this we have contrasts rather
than resemblances. The Iliad is a more varied and complete picture of the
whole Greek world than the Nibelungenlied is of the German, its religious
atmosphere has not been disturbed in the same way as that of the saga of
early Germanic times projected several centuries into a later Christian
age, and it possesses in every way a greater unity of sentiment. In the
varied beauty of its language, its wealth of imagery, its depth of
feeling and copiousness of incident the Iliad is superior to the
Nibelungenlied with its language of simple directness, its few lyrical
passages, its expression of feeling by deeds rather than by words. Homer,
too, is in general buoyant, the Nibelungenlied is sombre and stern. And
in one last respect the two epics differ most of all: the Iliad is
essentially narrative and descriptive, a series of episodes; the
Nibelungenlied is essentially dramatic, scene following scene of dramatic
necessity and pointing steadily to a final and inevitable catastrophe.