en their notions may have been, and however ignorant they
were, according to our ideas of things, they were strong-hearted, brave
workers; and, so far as opportunity was afforded them, they acted well
their parts. What their notions were of true manhood,--a strong mind in
a strong body, good, brave, and handsome,--may be learned from the story
of Siegfried.

End of The Story of Siegfried.

The Story of Siegfried Endnotes.

[EN#1] Siegfried's Boyhood.

"All men agree that Siegfried was a king's son. He was born, as we here
have good reason to know, 'at Santen in Netherland,' of Siegmund and the
fair Siegelinde; yet by some family misfortune or discord, of which the
accounts are very various, he came into singular straits during boyhood,
having passed that happy period of life, not under the canopies of
costly state, but by the sooty stithy, in one Mimer, a blacksmith's
shop."--Thomas Carlyle, The Nibelungen Lied.

The older versions of this story represent Siegfried, under the name of
Sigurd, as being brought up at the court of the Danish King Hialprek;
his own father Sigmund having been slain in battle, as related in this
chapter. He was early placed under the tuition of Regin, or Regino, an
elf, who instructed his pupil in draughts, runes, languages, and various
other accomplishments.--See Preface to Vollmer's Nibelunge Not, also the
Song of Sigurd Fafnisbane, in the Elder Edda, and the Icelandic Volsunga
Saga.

[EN#2]--Mimer.

"The Vilkinasaga brings before us yet another smith, Mimer, by whom not
only is Velint instructed in his art, but Sigfrit (Siegfried) is brought
up,--another smith's apprentice. He is occasionally mentioned in the
later poem of Biterolf, as Mime the Old. The old name of Munster in
Westphalia was Mimigardiford; the Westphalian Minden was originally
Mimidun; and Memleben on the Unstrut, Mimileba.. .. The elder Norse
tradition names him just as often, and in several different connections.
In one place, a Mimingus, a wood-satyr, and possessor of a sword and
jewels, is interwoven into the myth of Balder and Hoder. The Edda gives
a higher position to its Mimer. He has a fountain, in which wisdom
and understanding lie hidden: drinking of it every morning, he is the
wisest, most intelligent, of men. To Mimer's fountain came Odin, and
desired a drink, but did not receive it till he had given one of his
eyes in pledge, and hidden it in the fountain: this accounts for Odin
being