onster of the chaotic night--Siegfried's struggle with the
dragon.

But as the day surrenders to the night and summer is followed by
winter, so Siegfried finally is conquered and the god is changed into
mortal man. Now that he has fallen, he kindles in the human heart a
deeper sympathy. As the victim of a struggle that enriches us, he
arouses the moral sense of vengeance against the murderer. The
primeval struggle in nature is therefore continued by ourselves and
its success is seen in the vicissitudes of human life through the
ages, moving on from life to death, from joy to grief, and thus in
perpetual rejuvenescence clearly discloses the character of man as
well as of nature. The embodiment of this constant motion, the active
life itself, however, ultimately finds in Wotan (Zeus) as the father
of light, its distinct form. Although Zeus reigned supreme as the
father of all the gods, yet his origin is due to the advanced
knowledge of man while the God of light, Siegfried, is natural and so
to speak born with him.

"The most important part of this tribal legend of the Franks is
the treasure which Siegfried obtains and which henceforth bears
his attributes as opposed to those of the primeval myth. The
Scandinavians, for instance, have preserved a Nifelheim as the abode
of the black demigods in contrast to the demigods of light. These
Niflungars, children of night and of death, search the interior of the
earth, discover its hidden treasures and invest them with new life by
forging them into weapons and ornaments. The Nibelungs, whom we also
find as the Myrmidons accompanying Achilles, the Siegfried of the
Greeks--are now with their treasure elevated by the Franks to a moral
importance. When Siegfried slew the Nibelungen dragon he gained its
treasure. The possession of it increases his power immeasurably
inasmuch as he now commands the Nibelungs, but it is at the same time
the cause of his death, for the heir of the dragon seeks to regain the
treasure and treacherously slays him as night does the day and draws
him into the dark realm of death. Siegfried is transformed into a
Nibelung! Although the acquisition of the treasure dooms it to death,
still each new generation inevitably strives to obtain it. The
treasure represents the embodiment of worldly power. It is the earth
with all its glory as we see it at dawn, our own sunny property after
the night has been driven away which had spread its dragon wings like
a horrid s