pectre over the rich treasures of the world.

"The treasure itself, which the Nibelungs have gathered, is the metal
found in the bowels of the earth which enables us to improve the
earth, and to fashion weapons and golden crowns, the means of power
and its symbols. The divine hero Siegfried, who first obtained it and
thus became a Nibelung, left to his race the claim to the treasure. To
revenge the slain hero and regain the treasure is the aim of the whole
race of the Nibelung-Franks, and by it they are recognized in history
as well as in legend."

Accordingly we find the noblest hero of the "Wibelungen," Friedrich
Barbarossa, of the Hohenstauffen race ruling in the mountain,
surrounded by Wotan's ravens. It is possible that the Franks were the
ruling tribe even in the Indo-germanic home; at all events they laid
claim to the mastery of the world as soon as they appear in history.
Of this impulse or desire Charlemagne must have been conscious when
he gathered the old tribal songs which contained the religious ideas
of the race. Upon it Napoleon based his claim to the realm of
Charlemagne. Is it not even possible that the Hohenzollerns were
influenced by the recollection of this Germanic past when they
endeavored to regain their old tribal seat in the Hohenstauffen land?

Here we close the intimate connection of the Nibelungen legend with
our history. Temporal power, however, is not the highest destiny of a
civilizing people. That our ancestors were conscious of this is shown
in the fact that the treasure, or gold, and its power, was transformed
into the Holy Grail. Worldly aims gave place to spiritual desires.
With this interpretation of the Nibelungen myth, Wagner acknowledged
the grand and eternal truth that this life is tragic throughout, and
that the will which would mould a world to accord with one's desires
can finally lead to no greater satisfaction than to break itself in a
noble death. This latter truth, which even the ancient Orient saw
clearly when in its history the Lord himself breaks the self-will of
Jacob in a dream, moves as a deep consciousness through the Germanic
myths, and induced the Germans to accept not only the higher faith
developed from such a basis to which alone they owe the preservation
of their impetuous activity, but also tended to give this Christian
truth itself a wider and deeper significance. In their myths they had
already indicated that the possession of this world is not the only