tion it is Attila who invites the Nibelungs to his court and
attacks them in order to gain possession of the treasure, while Gudrun
(Kriemhild) first tries to reconcile the warring parties, and, not
succeeding in this, snatches up a sword and fights on the side of
her brothers and later kills her husband as an act of revenge. In the
"Thidreksaga" and the "Nibelungenlied", however, she is the instigator
of the fight and the cause of her brothers' death, and finally suffers
death herself at the hands of Master Hildebrand, who is furious that
such noble heroes should fall at a woman's hand. The second part of
the poem is grewsome reading at best, with its weltering corpses and
torrents of blood. The horror is relieved only by the grim humor of
Hagen and by the charming scene at Rudeger's court, where the young
prince Giselher is betrothed to Rudeger's daughter. Rudeger is without
doubt the most tragic figure of this part. He is bound on the one hand
by his oath of allegiance to Kriemhild and on the other by ties of
friendship to the Burgundians. His agony of mind at the dilemma in which
Kriemhild's command to attack the Burgundians places him is pitiful.
Divided between love and duty, the conviction that he must fulfill his
vow, cost what it may, gradually forces itself upon him and he rushes to
his death in combat with his dearest friends.

Towering above all others in its gloomy grandeur stands the figure of
Hagen, the real hero of the second half of the poem. Fully aware that
he is going to his death, he nevertheless scorns to desert his
companions-in-arms, and awaits the fate in store for him with a stoicism
that would do honor to a Spartan. He calmly accepts the consequences of
his crime, and to the last mocks and scoffs at Kriemhild, until her fury
knows no bounds. No character shows so little the refining influences of
Christianity as does his. In all essential respects he is still the same
old gigantic Teuton, who meets us in the earliest forms of the legend.

As to the various minor characters, many of which appear only in the
"Nibelungenlied", space will not permit of their discussion here,
although they will be treated of briefly in the notes. Suffice it to
say, that the "Nibelungenlied" has introduced a number of effective
scenes for the purpose of bringing some of them, especially Folker and
Dankwart, into prominence. Among the best of these are, first, the night
watch, when Folker first plays the Burgundians