mythical growths which surround it that, were
they conscious of the labour which yet remains in this respect, even the
most advanced of our present-day historians would stand aghast at the
task which awaits their successors.

In the Nibelungenlied we have a case in point. What the exact
mythological elements contained in it represent it would indeed
be difficult to say. Students of the Muellerian school have seen in
Siegfried a sun-god, who awakens Brunhild, a nature goddess. This aspect
is not without its likelihood, for in one passage Brunhild tells how
Odin thrust into her side a thorn--evidently the sharp sting of icy
winter--and how the spell rendered her unconscious until awakened by
Siegfried. There are many other mythological factors in the story, and
either a diurnal or seasonal myth may be indicated by it. But it would
require a separate volume to set forth the arguments in favour of a
partial mythological origin of the Nibelungenlied. One point is to be
especially observed--a point which we have not so far seen noted in a
controversy where it would have seemed that every special circumstance
had been laboured to the full--and that is that, besides mythological
matter entering into the original scheme of the Nibelungenlied, a very
considerable mass of mythical matter has crystallized around it since it
was cast into its first form. This will be obvious to any folklorist
of experience who will take the trouble to compare the Scandinavian and
German versions.

The Historical Theory

Abeling and Boer, the most recent protagonists of the historical theory,
profess to see in the Nibelungenlied the misty and confused traditions
of real events and people. Abeling admits that it contains mythical
elements, but identifies Siegfried with Segeric, son of the Burgundian
king Sigismund, Brunhild with the historical Brunichildis, and Hagan
with a certain Hagnerius. The basis of the story, according to him, is
thus a medley of Burgundian historical traditions round which certain
mythological details have crystallized. The historical nucleus is the
overthrow of the Burgundian kingdom of Gundahar by the Huns in A.D.
436. Other events, historical in themselves, were torn from their proper
epochs and grouped around this nucleus. Thus the murder of Segeric,
which happened eighty-nine years later, and the murder of Attila by
his Burgundian wife Ildico, are torn from their proper historical
surroundings and fitted into the stor