hese theories
which considers Kurenberg, one of the earliest of the "Minnesingers",
to be the author, because of the similarity of the strophic form of our
poem to that used by him, is not capable of absolute proof, and
recent investigations go to show that Kurenberg was indebted to
the "Nibelungen" strophe for the form of his lyric, and not the
"Nibelungenlied" to him. The "Nibelungen" strophe is presumably much
older, and, having become popular in Austria through the poem, was
adopted by Kurenberg for his purposes. As to the date of the poem, in
its present form it cannot go back further than about 1190, because of
the exactness of the rhymes, nor could it have been written later
than 1204, because of certain allusions to it in the sixth book of
"Parzival", which we know to have been written at this date. The two
Low German poems which probably form the basis of our epic may have been
united about 1150. It was revised and translated into High German and
circulated at South German courts about 1170, and then received its
present courtly form about 1190, this last version being the immediate
source of our manuscripts.

The story of Siegfried, his tragic death, and the dire vengeance visited
upon his slayers, which lies at the basis of our poem, antedates the
latter by many centuries, and was known to all nations whose languages
prove by their resemblance to the German tongue their original identity
with the German people. Not only along the banks of the Rhine and the
Danube and upon the upland plains of Southern Germany, but also along
the rocky fjords of Norway, among the Angles and Saxons in their new
home across the channel, even in the distant Shetland Islands and on the
snow-covered wastes of Iceland, this story was told around the fires at
night and sung to the harp in the banqueting halls of kings and nobles,
each people and each generation telling it in its own fashion and adding
new elements of its own invention. This great geographical distribution
of the legend, and the variety of forms in which it appears, make it
difficult to know where we must seek its origin. The northern version is
in many respects older and simpler in form than the German, but still it
is probable that Norway was not the home of the saga, but that it took
its rise in Germany along the banks of the Rhine among the ancient
tribe of the Franks, as is shown by the many geographical names that are
reminiscent of the characters of the story,