1
INTRODUCTION: The Nibelungenlied and its Homerian Context: Creating the
Germany’s National Myth
The exhibition is divided into eight thematic sections. The first is an introduction to texts
that conditioned the reception of the Nibelungenlied, particularly treatises on poetic
theory and earlier German translations of Greek and Roman epics. The second shows the
transformation of European perspectives on Greek and Roman art and culture, which
Johann Joachim Winckelmann set into motion and had a profound effect on the reception
and depiction of the Nibelungenlied. The third section is devoted to 18th- and 19thcentury responses to the Nibelungenlied in the form of new editions, poetic
interpretations, and early reviews. Illustrated editions and adaptations for the stage, both
key components of the popularization of the Nibelungenlied over the course of the 19th
century, make up the fourth and fifth sections, while 20th-century re-workings and
English translations find a place in the sixth and seventh. The exhibition concludes with a
digital facsimile of a medieval manuscript of the Nibelungenlied.
THE CATALOGUE
I. THEORETICAL AND POETIC INFLUENCES ON THE RECEPTION OF THE
NIBELUNGENLIED
1. Martin Opitz. Buch von der Deutschen Poeterey. In welchem alle ihre eigenschafft und
zuegehör gründtlich erzehlet / und mit exempeln außgeführet wird. Brieg: Bey Augustino
Gründern. In Verlegung David Müllers Buchhandlers in Bretzlaw, 1624.
The first and most prominent of the 17th-century theorists, Martin Opitz (1597-1639), led
his contemporaries to the first flowering of German poetry in the modern era with his
Buch von der Deutschen Poeterey (1624), in which he describes poetic technique and
encourages Germans to write poetry themselves. It is noteworthy that Opitz treats Homer
as one great poet among the many greats of ancient Greek and Rome, while Virgil is
considered the greatest classical poet, a sentiment typical of the period.
2. Johann Christian Gottsched. Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst vor die Deutschen:
darinnen erstlich die allgemeinen Regeln der Poesie, hernach alle besondere Gattungen
der Gedichte abgehandelt und mit Exempeln erläutert werden ... / Anstatt einer
Einleitung ist Horatii Dichtkunst in deutsche Versse übersetzt, und mit anmerckungen
erläutert von M. Joh. Christoph Gottsched. Leipzig: B.C. Breitkopf, 1730.
This text made Gottsched’s name. In it, he emphasizes the eternal quality of literary
standards, ignoring historical aspects of literature in favor of proscriptive formal and
moral arguments as criteria of literary criticism. Gottsched believes the heroic epic to be
the “true magnum opus of all poetry”:1
Homer is, as far as we know, the very first to attempt this type of work, and carried it out
with such luck, or better, with such skill, that […] he is presented to all his successors as
1
“das rechte Hauptwerk und Meisterstück der ganzen Poesie” (Gottsched 1751, II.4 469).
2
the paradigm. […] Homer is therefore the father and the first inventor of this [type of]
poem, and thus a truly great intellect, a man of special ability… 2
3. Johann Jakob Bodmer. Character der Teutschen Gedichte ... Zürich: 1734 [bound with
Haller, A. von. Versuch schweizerischer Gedichten. Bern, 1732].
Early Modern German literary critics often complain that the German language itself
makes writing poetry impossible; however, a young Bodmer (1698-1783) argues in this
verse essay on the subject: “even Germans can vault themselves onto Mount Parnassus.”3
Some twenty years later, Bodmer would hold up the newly rediscovered Nibelungenlied
as proof of this argument.
4. Simon Schnaidenreißer (trans). Odyssea, das seind die aller zierlichsten vnd lustigsten
vier vnd zwaintzig Bücher ... Homeri, von der zehen järigen Irrfart ... Vlyssis ... / durch
Meister Simon Schaidenreißer, genant Mineruium ... zü Teütsch transsferiert ...
[Augsburg]: Alexander Weißenhorn, 1538.
This is the first modern-language translation of the Odyssey. Thirty printings of Latin
translations of the Odyssey and Iliad had been produced in German-speaking territories
before it, and Schaidenreißer’s translation represents the Humanist push for the
dissemination of ancient texts to an audience beyond traditional learned circles.
Translators feared that the less educated could misunderstand or misuse classical thought,
but obviously believed the benefits were great enough to attempt the undertaking. For
these reasons, 16th-century translators took steps to ensure a ‘proper’ understanding of
classical authors. Schaidenreißer (ca. 1500-1573) employs a contextualizing introduction
and illustrations that highlight the most pedagogically useful content to make the story
relevant to readers of Reformation-era Germany and to downplay morally ambiguous
content. The size of the book and quality of the paper suggest a wealthy target audience,
likely members of the rising merchant class. Weißenhorn printed two title pages for
Odyssea (one reading 1537, the other 1538), but it seems that there was only a single
print run (Weidling, xi-xii).
5. Ibid. Homeri des aller hoch berümbsten [!] und griechischen Poeten Odissea: ein
schöne nützliche und lustige Beschreibung von dem Leben, Glück uñ Vnglück des
dapffern klugen vnnd anschlegigen Helden Vlyssis ... / verdeutscht durch den ... Herrn M.
Simon Mineruium ... sutzt auffs neu vbersehen und corrigiert. Gedruckt zu Franckfurt:
[durch Johannem Schmidt: in Verlegung Hieronimi Feyerabends], 1570.
This 2nd edition of Schaidenreißer’s Odyssea likely was unauthorized. The text has been
abridged somewhat; the expensive large-format woodcuts replaced by smaller, less
2
Homer ist, so viel wir wissen, der allererste, der dergleichen Werk unternommen, und mit
solchem Glücke, oder vielmehr mit solchem Geschicklichkeit ausgeführet hat […] und allen seinen
Nachfolgern zum Muster vorgeleget wird. […] Homer ist also der Vater und der erste Erfinder dieses
Gedichtes, und folglich ein recht großer Geist, ein Mann, von besonderer Fähigkeit gewesen
[…](Gottsched 1751, II.4 469).
3
“Auch Teutsche können sich auf den Parnassus schwingen” (Bodmer 1734).
3
detailed ones. The practical, diminutive size suggests the volume was not intended to
become an ornamental or status-conferring possession for the newly wealthy, but made
for reading.
6. Johann Spreng (trans). Ilias Homeri: das ist Homeri dess ... griechischen Poeten
XXIIII. Bücher: von dem gewaltigen Krieg der Griechen wider die Troianer ... :
Dessgleichen die 12. Bücher Æneidos dess ... lateinischen Poeten Publij Virgilij Maronis
... / in artliche Teutsche Reimen gebract von weilund Magistro Johann Sprengen,
gewesenem Kays. Notario, Teutschen Poeten, vnd Burgern zu Augsburg. Gedruckt zu
Augspurg: durch Christoff Mangen, In Verlegung Eliæ Willers, 1610.
Each of Homer’s epics was translated into German only once from the advent of the
printing press until the beginning of the 18th century, although both Schaidenreißer and
Spreng’s translations went through multiple editions (two and five, respectively).4
Despite this, it took seventy years for the Iliad to join the Odyssey in German translation.
The aim of Spreng’s translation is, like Schaidenreißer’s, to disseminate a venerable work
to the widest possible audience. Published after the translator’s death, the book begins
with a commemorative portrait and poem. In the poem, a colleague named Christoph
Weinenmair praises Spreng as a great scholar and poet in his own right, while also
lauding the Augsburg bureaucrat and Meistersinger’s use of his free time to translate the
knowledge of the world into German:
While of his station aware,
He did occupy his time so spare
With translating books to German,
His Fatherland to emblazon…5
7. Christian Heinrich Postel (trans). Die listige Juno. Wie solche von dem grossen Homer,
im vierzehenden Buche der Ilias abgebildet, Nachmals von dem Bischoff zu Thessalonich
Eustachius ausgelaget, numehr in Teutschen Versen vorgestellet und mit Anmärckungen
erklähret durch Christian Henrich Postel. Hamburg: Gedruckt und verlegt durch
Nicolaus Spieringk, 1700.
In 1700, Christian Heinrich Postel (1658-1705), a well-known opera librettist with a
passion for philology, published an excerpt from the Iliad under the title Die Listige Juno
(Cunning Juno). Postel employs an approach that seems quite modern in comparison to
the translations by Schaidenreißer and Spreng – the translator includes the original Greek
beside the German translation as well as exposition and criticism by himself and an
ancient author. After the Homer fragment, an exegesis of the text by an ancient scholar
appears, followed by Postel’s own interpretation. In place of the expository marginalia of
the earlier translations, which mostly summarize the text, Postel employs footnotes to
describe his sources very precisely. Interestingly, no knowledge of Greek or Latin is
4
Data are difficult to come by, but it appears that by the 16th century, editions reached between
three and four thousand copies; smaller editions could of course be made, but at correspondingly higher
prices (Hirsch 1974, 68).
5
“Inmittelst seines Ampts bedacht/ Hat er die ubrig zeit zu bracht/ Mit Bücher Teutsch zu
transferieren/ Dardurch sein Vatterland to zieren/…” (Spreng 1610, n.p.).
4
necessary to read Postel, because every quotation is translated; this suggests that Postel,
too, was aiming for an audience who may have been closer to monolingual than
trilingual. On the other hand, the use of German no longer had to suggest a less educated
audience; over the course of the 17th century, the movement toward the vernacular as an
acceptable language for learned texts had grown tremendously.
Like Opitz and Bodmer, Postel is quick to refute the idea that German is inferior to other
languages: in the introduction he writes, “our noble German language is just as suitable to
that for which the other European languages are used”6 and therefore able to produce as
elegant a translation of Homer as had been made in English and French. Postel’s Cunning
Juno is representative of the ascendance of Homer in German thought; always a great
figure, Homer’s shadow came to envelop other ancient poets. Postel himself considers
Homer incomparably great:
he is the most beautiful and also the most effortless of all Greek poets; the great and
immortal Homer, of whom ancient and modern scholars rightly believed that the treasure
of all knowledge and human science lies hidden within him. 7
In addition, Postel pointedly attacks previous translations of Homer into German, which
serves to highlight the radically changing norms of translation over the course of the
Early Modern Period. Given the small number of Early Modern translations, it must be
assumed that he includes at least Spreng's Iliad, if not Schaidenreißer's Odyssea in this
complaint.
II. PERCEPTIONS OF ANTIQUITY AFTER WINCKELMANN
8. Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen
Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst. Dresden und Leipzig: Im Verlag der
Waltherischen Handlung, 1756.
As modern scientific methods developed during the Enlightenment, so did archaeology,
making a more accurate understanding of ancient Greece possible. Johann Joachim
Winckelmann (1717-1768) was the first and most influential of early archaeologists and a
pioneer in the field of art history. He considered the aesthetics of ancient Greece to be the
absolute and timeless standard of beauty, a point of view that soon became dominant in
German-speaking lands.
9. Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the
Greeks. [“With Instructions for the Connoisseur, and an Essay on Grace in Works of Art.
Translated from the German Original of the Abbé Winckelmann, Librarian of the
Vatican, F.R.S. &c. &c. Henry Fusseli, A. M.”] London: Printed for the Translator, and
Sold by A. Millar, in the Strand, 1765.
“unsere edele Teutsche Sprache [ist] eben da zu geschickt / wo zu die andern Europäischen
Sprachen gebrauchet warden” (Postel 1700, n.p).
7
“er sei der schönste und dabei der leichteste aller Greichischen Poeten; de[r] gross[e] und
unsterblich[e] Homerus / von dem mit recht die Gelahrten alter und neuer Zeiten schon gehalten / daß der
Schatz aller Weißheit und menschlicher Wissenschafft in ihm verborgen lege” (Postel 1700, n. p.).
6
5
The Swiss-born British painter Johann Heinrich Füssli (1741-1825), also known as Henry
Fuseli, was a friend and student of Bodmer and translated Winckelmann’s best-known
work into English. Füssli also was greatly interested in the Nibelungenlied and created a
number of paintings and drawings based on the epic, but which did not make their way
into print during Füssli's lifetime. Many of these artworks are held in the Kunsthaus in
Zürich.
10. Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Abbildungen zu Johann Winckelmanns sämtlichen
Werken. Donauöschingen: bei J. Velten, 1835.
Winckelmann’s espousal of Grecian aesthetics cemented the high estimation of ancient
Greek art in Germany. To him, it embodied “noble Simplicity [and] silent Greatness;” a
mindset that influenced 19th-century painters so strongly that artists began to illustrate
the medieval German poem in the style of ancient Greece.
11. Johann Heinrich Voß (trans). Homers Odüßee. Wien: [publisher unknown], 1789.
Over the course of the 18th century, and certainly after Winckelmann’s prodigious
contributions to the study of ancient Greece, the conceptualization and illustration of
Homer’s epics more accurately reflected the original composition and content of the
poems. The poet Johann Heinrich Voß (1751-1826) translated the Odyssey (1781) and the
Iliad with astounding fidelity to the original, using dactylic-spondaic hexameter with very
few trochees. Voß’s translations are still greatly admired today.
12. Johann Heinrich Voß (trans). Homers Odysee. [“Mit 40 Original-Compositionen von
Friedrich Preller.”] Leipzig: Verlag von Alphons Dürr, 1877 (3rd ed).
In this volume we can see how Winckelmann’s celebration of Greek aesthetics influenced
the illustration of Homer’s works.
III. THE NIBELUNGENLIED AFTER ITS REDISCOVERY
13. Johann Jakob Bodmer. “[Zürich. Wir zählen gegen dreyzig verschiedene
Helden=Gedichte…].” In: Freymüthige Nachrichten von neuen Büchern, und andern zur
Gelehrtheit gehörigen Sachen. 13.12 (“Mittwochs, am 24. Merz, 1756”): 92-94.
News of the rediscovery of the Nibelungenlied first reached the public in the modest
format of this journal article from 1756. Bodmer writes,
a year ago, I had the pleasure of discovering such [a manuscript], which seemed more
worthy than others to be torn from the obscurity of its fate. The latter half is so conceived
that it seems to be quite a regular work, even in the sense of plan and composition. The
content is no less warlike than Homer’s Iliad; we have heroes of various character, of
various kinds of valor …8
“Ich hatte vorm Jahre des Vergnügen ein solches zu entdecken, weches mir vor andern würdig
scheint, daß mit dem Untergange, dem es zuteilt, sollte entrissen werden. Die hintere Häfte ist so
8
6
Despite Bodmer’s implications, he did not discover the manuscript of the Nibelungenlied
himself; a medieval manuscript version (known today as MS C) was sent to him by a
Swiss doctor, Jakob Hermann Obereit (1725-1798), who stumbled across it in the ducal
library of Hohenems in Voralberg, Austria. Bodmer and his colleague Johann Jakob
Breitinger did, however, work energetically to convince academics and the general public
of the Nibelungenlied’s importance. In the following years, the Freymüthige Nachrichten
published many such articles by Bodmer concerning the Nibelungenlied.
14 Johann Jakob Bodmer. Chriemhilden Rache, und die Klage; zwey Heldengedichte aus
dem schvvæbischen Zeitpuncte. Sammt Fragmenten aus dem Gedichte von den
Nibelungen und aus dem Josaphat. Darzu kœmmt ein glossarium. Zyrich: Verlegen Orell
und comp., 1757.
Chriemhilden Rache or Chriemhild’s Revenge is the first printing of any part of the
Nibelungenlied. Bodmer trimmed the story drastically when he prepared the long epic for
publication, causing the Nibelungenlied to read more like a biography. Although Bodmer
does his best to legitimate the plot structure of the Nibelungenlied, it is clear that he finds
it inferior in comparison to Homer’s epics. In the introduction to Chriemhild’s Revenge,
Bodmer makes excuses for what he considers flaws and justifies the substantial cuts he
makes to the text by comparing his own work to Homer’s:
I cut all these parts, and I think with the same authority with which Homer left out the
kidnapping of Helen, the sacrifice of Iphigenia and all the happenings of the ten years
before the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon, of which he only mentions
familiar aspects as the occasion arises.9
Bodmer also goes to great lengths to show similarities between the style of the
Nibelungenlied and Homer’s epics. He wishes his discovery could become the great
national, even universal, epic, but like Opitz and Gottsched, Bodmer does not trust the
competence of Germanic poets, judging them only in relation to Homer’s epics rather
than on their own terms.
15. Johann Jakob Bodmer. “Die Rache der Schwester.” In: Calliope (v 2). Zürich: bey
Orell, Geßner und Compagnie, 1767. 309-372.
In the years following the discovery of the Nibelungenlied, Bodmer did his best to attract
readers to the poem. This longer poem, entitled “The Sister’s Revenge,” is a rewriting of
the latter half of the epic in hexameter. In it, Bodmer again attempts to create a more
Homeric text.
beschaffen, daß sie für sich allein ein ziemlich regelmäßiges Werk ausmachet, selbst in Absicht auf den
Plan und die Einrichtung. Der Innhalt ist nicht weniger kriegerisch als Homers Ilias, wir haben da Helden
von verschiedenen Charakter, von verschiedener Art der Dapferkeit…” (92).
9
“Alle diese Stüke habe ich abgeschnitten, und ich glaube mit demselben Rechte, mit welchem
Homer die Entführung der Helena, die Aufopferung der Iphigenia, und alle Begegnisse der zehn Jahre, die
vor dem Zwiste zwischen Achilles und Agamemnon vorgergegangen sind, weglassen hat, auf die er nur
bey Gelegenheiten sich als auf bekannte Sachen beziehet” (Bodmer 1757, vii).
7
16. Gerhard Anton Gramberg. “Etwas vom Nibelungen Liede” In: Deutsches Museum. 2.
1783, 49-73. Leipzig, Weygand, 1783.
Gramberg dismisses Bodmer’s use of hexameter in “The Sister’s Revenge” as
“inappropriate” [“nicht angemessen”]. For his own “Verjüngung” or “rejuvenation” of a
few quatrains of the Nibelungenlied, Gramberg uses the ballad form (abab). The aural
effect is less ‘Grecian’ than Bodmer’s adaptation and thus considered more ‘Germanic’
by Gramberg. Nonetheless, it does not replicate the sounds of the original rhyme scheme
(aabb). [Online exhibition only.]
17. Johannes von Müller. “Der Nibelungenlied” In: Sämmtliche Werke, vol. 26
[Historische Kritik]. Ed. Johann Georg Müller. Stuttgart und Tübingen: J.G. Cotta, 1834
[1st pub. 1783 in Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen]. 36-40.
The comparison of the Nibelungenlied to ancient Grecian epic touched on in the
introduction to Chriemhilden Rache is integral to its reception history. In 1783, the wellknown 18th-century Swiss historian Johannes von Müller (1752-1809) commented on
“diese[s?] vortreffliche Gedicht, auf welches die Nation stolz thun darf.”10 In this short
essay, von Müller, whom Körner calls the “erste einsichtsvolle Stimme” to comment on
the epic,11 draws attention to particular similarities between the Nibelungenlied and the
Iliad: the age of composition is distinct from that in which the story takes place in both
poems, the time separating composition from the historical acts described is
approximately the same and that “in both poems there are more great passions than great
men, greater heroes than kings, and portrayals of accidents that could leave no human
soul unmoved.”12 Despite honest praise, von Müller considers the Nibelungenlied deeply
inferior to the Iliad:
This is not the place to describe in detail how and why the Greek is so far above the
German as Jupiter, whose eyebrows’ motion shake the heavens, is above the dwarf
Alberich; but we may be assured, that, if the Nibelungenlied is revised (not too much, but
rather without harming its antique form), our nation too will be able to prove to what
degree Nature succeeded in the North.13
Müller, Johannes von. “Der Nibelungenlied” In: Sämmtliche Werke, vOL. 26 [Historische
Kritik]. Ed. Johann Georg Müller. Stuttgart und Tübingen : J.G. Cotta, 1834 [1st pub. 1783 in Göttingische
gelehrte Anzeigen]. 37.
11
Körner 1911, 12.
12
“In beiden Gedichten sind mehr große Leidenschaften als große Menschen, größere Helden als
Könige, und Gemälde von Unfällen, welche keine menschliche Seele kalt lassen können” (Müller
1783/1834, 40).
13
“Es ist hier der Ort nicht, ausführlich darzuthun, worin und warum der Grieche so hoch über den
Deutschen ist, als der Jupiter, dessen Augenbrauendurch ihre Bewegung den Himmel erschüttern, über den
Zwerg Alberich; aber das düren wir versichern, daß, wenn der Nibelungen Lied nach Verdienst bearbeitet
wird (nicht aber zu sehr, sondern seiner antiken Gestalt ohne Schaden), auch unsere Nation eine Probe wird
aufstellen dürfen, wie weit es die Natur im Norden zu bringen vermochte” (Müller 1783/1834; compare to
Wyss 1990 or Ehrismann 2002).
10
8
Von Müller’s most famous pronouncement on the Nibelungenlied is that it “could
become the German Iliad,” but that it “will never become as widely known as it deserves,
if scholarly hands do not give it the help, which Homer received from those who first
made him the favorite book of all Greeks.”14
Whatever one thinks of the Iliad-comparison, Müller was the first to attempt a historical
reading of the Nibelungenlied. In it, he was the first to recognize Attila the Hun as Etzel.
As for its author, the Swiss historian suggested a Swiss aristocrat, Eschenbach von
Uspunnen. Although Müller’s commentary on the Nibelungenlied did not awake interest
in the epic immediately, it was of the same importance for the reception of the
Nibelungenlied as Lessing’s Seventeenth Literary Epistle for the reception of
Shakespeare in Germany (Körner 1911, 12). [Online exhibition only.]
18. A. W. Schlegel. “Aus einer noch ungedruckten historischen Untersuchung über das
Lied der Nibelungen.” In: Deutsches Museum (v1); Friedrich Schlegel (ed.). Wien: In der
Camesinaschen Buchhandlung, 1812. 9-36.
In the 19th century, evaluation of the Nibelungenlied underwent a significant change, but
one that remained intimately connected to the relationship of German literature to foreign
literatures. German literary criticism became markedly politicized during the years
leading up to the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon (1813-1814) – desire for a national
epic took on a new urgency after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire of the German
Nation and French occupation (Schulte-Wülwer 1980, 30). Comparisons to the Iliad were
still omnipresent, but the Iliad was losing ground. The Schlegel brothers at the center of
the German Romantic movement (and representative of this new approach to the
Nibelungenlied) were both interested in the epic as part of a medieval literature that
would unify German culturally and politically (Frembs 2001, 18). In this article, August
Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845) comments with dismay on the difficulty of popularizing
the Nibelungenlied:
It is unbelievable how much must be done before a poetic transmission [Überlieferung],
once known everywhere but now the long-forgotten lore of Antiquity, is brought into
circulation again and breaks through to make a universal and vital impact, after one has
picked it out of the dust and mildew of old parchment… 15
19. E. Julius Leichtlen. “Neuaufgefundenes Bruchstück des Nibelungenliedes aus dem
XIII. Jahrhundert. Mit Bemerkungen über die Gesangsweise und die geschichtlichen
Personen des Liedes.” In: Forschungen in Gebiet der Geschichte, Alterthums und
Schriftenkunde Deutschlands. Freiburg im Breisgau: Franz Xaver Wangler, Wagner’sche
Buchhandlung, 1820 (Bd. 1, Hft. 2). Courtesy of Sterling Memorial Library.
Das Nibelungenlied “wird nie so allgemein bekannt werden, als es verdient, wenn ihm nicht
gelehrte Hände den Dienst leisten, welchen Homer von denen empfing, die ihn zuerst allen Griechen zum
Lieblingsbuch machten“ (Müller 1783/1834, 37; see Wyss 1990, 158).
15
“Es ist unglaublich, wie viel dazu gehört, ehe eine dichterische Ueberlieferung, eine vormahls
allverbreitete aber längst verschollene Kunde der Vorzeit, nachdem man sie aus dem Staube und Moder
alter Pergamente hervor sucht, wiederum in Umlauf gebracht wird, und bis zu einer allgemeinen und
lebendigen Wirkung hindurchdringt” (9).
14
9
Following Johannes von Müller’s lead, much of the early critical work on the
Nibelungenlied focused on drawing connections between the poem and historical figures
and events. This chart outlines the familial relationships of characters from the epic.
20. Karl Lachmann. Der Nibelunge Not, mit der Klage : in der ältesten Gestalt mit den
Abweichungen der gemeinen Lesart. Berlin: G. Reimer, 1826.
Karl Lachmann (1793-1851) was the most prominent Nibelungen-scholar of the 19th
century and began his work on the Nibelungenlied with his Habilitationsschrift (Berlin,
1816), “Über die ursprüngliche Gestalt des Gedichts von der Nibelungen Noth“ (“On the
original form of the poem on the Downfall of the Nibelungs”). Lachmann’s 1826 and
subsequent editions of the Nibelungenlied served as the standard for much of the 19th
century. Lachmann based his edition on manuscript A, which he felt was closest to a lost
original version made up of individual songs (“lays” or Lieder) pieced together, due to its
relative roughness of form (Gentry 2002, 210). This theory of composition was adapted
by Lachmann from his mentor Friedrich August Wolf’s theories about the structure of
Homer’s epics. In addition, he developed the “Lachmann Method,” the descendant of
which, stemmatics, is still used to understand the relationships of manuscripts editions of
a text. Although Lachmann’s hypothesis about the origin of the Nibelungenlied was
eventually discredited, he was instrumental in applying classical philology to later
literatures, an important step in the development of modern literary studies (see Timpano
2005). This is Lachmann’s corrected and annotated personal copy of the first edition,
which was acquired by the Beinecke in 2008. (An interesting side note: Lachmann
assigned the signatures A, B and C to the surviving complete manuscript versions of the
Nibelungenlied.)
21. Anastasius Grün. Nibelungen im Frack. Ein Gedicht von Anastasius Grün
[pseud.=Auersperg, Anton Alexander Graf von]. Leipzig: Weidmann’sche
Buchhandlung, 1843.
The Austrian earl Anton Alexander Graf von Auersperg (1806-1876) was a popular
liberal author of politically motivated poetry. The mock epic, Nibelungs in Tailcoats, is
an example of Auersperg’s brand of social critique couched in humor.
22. Ludwig Laistner (ed). Das Nibelungenlied nach der Hohenems=Münchener
Handschrift (A) in phototypischer Nachbildung nebst Proben der Handschriften B und C.
Mit einer Einleitung von Ludwig Laistner. München: Verlagsanstalt für Kunst und
Wissenschaft vormals Friedrich Bruckmann, 1886 (=1; Berühmte Handschriften des
Mittelalters in phototypischer Nachbildung).
Although popular renderings of the Nibelungenlied remained influenced by German
reception of Homer’s epics, critical work began to tend toward a reading of
Nibelungenlied within its medieval context over the course of the 19th century. To my
knowledge, Laistner’s edition is the earliest photo-facsimile edition of a Nibelungenlied
manuscript.
1
0
IV. THE ILLUSTRATED EDITIONS OF THE 19TH CENTURY
23. Joseph von Laßberg (ed). Der Nibelunge Lied. Abdruck der Handschrift des
Freiherrn Joseph von Laßberg. [Mit Holzschnitten nach Originalzeichnungen von
Eduard Bendemann und Julius Hübner.] Leipzig: Otto und Georg Wigand, 1840.
The ‘improvement’ of the Nibelungenlied took many forms, including changes to the text
itself and Grecian-influenced illustration. At the same time, the historical context of the
Nibelungenlied was communicated solely though the illustrations; such editions did not
contain introductions or appendices with background information. The illustrators of this
edition were Eduard Bendemann (1811-89) and Julius Hübner (1806-82), members of the
Düsseldorf School, which was known for Christian scenes in the Romantic style. Close
friends and brothers-in-law, Bendemann and Hübner painted monumental historical and
allegorical murals in palaces, churches, universities, and governmental buildings.
24. Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen (ed). Der Nibelungen Lied in der alten vollendeten
Gestalt. Illustr. L.W. Gubitz [“nach Zeichnungen von Holbein”]. Berlin: VereinsBuchhandlung, 1842. [Online exhibition only.]
Against the backdrop of Romantic reevaluation of the Middle Ages and a new spirit of
nationalism, Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen’s publication of Manuscript C in 1807
ignited interest in a way earlier editions had not. Von der Hagen described his illustrated
edition of 1842 as an “inexpensive edition of the old heroic poem in the original language
printed in the ancient style”16; in combination with Holbein-like illustrations, the volume
represents a “regeneration” of the poem “suited for the people” [eine volksmäßige
Erneuung desselben] (Hagen 1842, iii). In the introduction to the 1842 edition, von der
Hagen describes contemporary artistic endeavors concerning the Nibelungenlied:
The best new artists – Bendemann, Hübner, Schnorr, Neureuther – have endowed [the
Nibelungenlied] with such figurative depictions that along with the early pages from
Cornelius and Schnorr’s murals in the Royal Palace in Munich, we already have a
handsome Nibelungen Gallery to show for ourselves.17
A student of A. W. Schlegel in Berlin, von der Hagen (1780-1856) had attended and been
inspired by the famous lectures concerning the Nibelungenlied, and it was von der Hagen
who first called the Nibelungenlied Germany’s national epic (Körner 1911, 71). At the
same time, von der Hagen’s illustrated editions assimilated the Nibelungenlied into a
haphazard pseudo-antiquity, as in all 19th-century illustrated editions.
Von der Hagen was quite pleased with the spread of new representations of the
Nibelungenlied, as he was interested primarily in its effect on the present. As Susanne
“wohlfeile Ausgabe des alten Heldenliedes in der Ursprache mit der alterthümlichen Schrift
gedruckt” (Hagen 1842, iii).
17
Mit solchen bildlichen Darstellungen haben es die besten neueren Künstler ausgestattet,
Bendemann, Hübner, Schnorr, Neureuther: so daß wir, mit den früheren Blättern von Cornelius und
Schnorrs Wandgemälden in[m?] Münchener Königsbau, schon eine ansehnliche Nibelungen=Galerie
aufzuweisen haben (Hagen 1842, iii).
16
1
1
Frembs notes, von der Hagen’s pathetic concept of the Nibelungenlied acted as war
propaganda, and it is precisely this "misinterpretation" that would haunt the
Nibelungenlied in the 20th century (see Frembs 2001, 21).
25. Gustav Pfizer. Der Nibelungen Noth. [Illustriert mit Holzschnitten nach Zeichnungen
von Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld und Eugen Neureuther.] Stuttgart und Tübingen: J. G.
Cotta’scher Verlag, 1843.
It has been claimed that no other literary work was so often illustrated in Germany as the
Nibelungenlied in the early decades of the 19th century (Lankheit 1991, 197). Julius
Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794–1872) is the most famous illustrator of the Nibelungenlied
and these illustrations have appeared in countless editions.
26. Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. The Nibelungen-Saga as displayed in the fresco
paintings of Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld in the Royal Palace at Munich. Photographed
for His Majesty King Louis II. of Bavaria by Jos. Albert. Munich: J. Albert, [ca. 1880].
Courtesy of Sterling Memorial Library.
Schnorr spent four decades decorating the walls of the Royal Palace in Munich with
scenes from the Nibelungenlied.
V. EARLY INTERPRETATIONS FOR THE STAGE
27. Dr. Ernst Raupach. Der Nibelungen-Hort. Tragödie in fünf Aufzügen mit einem
Vorspiel. Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1834. Courtesy of Sterling Memorial Library.
One of the most influential theater directors of his time, Ernst Raupach (1784-1852)
wrote the first Nibelungen drama, a very free interpretation of the Nibelungenlied, which
ignores the mythological substance of the epic in favor of theatrical effects. The play was
first performed in 1828.
28. Richard Wagner. Siegfrieds Tod. Autograph libretto (Dresden, 28 November 1848).
38 pp. From the Frederick R. Koch Collection.
Wagner’s work on what would become the Ring Cycle (The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie,
Siegfried, Twilight of the Gods) began with Siegfrieds Tod (The Death of Siegfried).
Wagner originally planned only The Death of Siegfried, basing it primarily on the
Nibelungenlied. After completing The Death of Siegfried, Wagner rethought the project
and created the four-part Ring Cycle, placing The Death of Siegfried at the end of the
cycle as Götterdämmerung (The Twighlight of the Gods). Wagner based The Valkyrie and
Siegfried on the Volsunga Saga and created Rheingold by bringing together many
elements from the Eddas.18 Wagner’s personal library contained at least five versions of
the epic including a Lachmann edition (2nd ed, 1836), a Simrock translation (3rd ed,
18
Patrick McCreless was kind enough to share these observations with me in discussion (see Patrick
McCreless’s Wagner's "Siegfried" : its drama, history, and music. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press,
1982 for more).
1
2
1843) and Schnorr’s illustrated edition of 1843 (entry 24).19 This manuscript is the
libretto of The Death of Siegfried in Wagner’s own hand.
29. “The original contract for the Ring der Niebelungen.” [With: English trans. in
accompanying volume: "Translations. Letters and contract for the Ring..."]
This contract, signed by Richard Wagner and imprinted with his seal in red wax, outlines
terms for the first printing of the Ring cycle.
30. Richard Wagner. To Hans Richter. Autograph letter. June 13, 1876.
Two months before the first performance of the entire Ring Cycle, Wagner wrote this
warm letter about the production’s progress to the conductor, Hans Richter (1843-1916).
31. Max Brückner. Ring des Nibelungen von Richard Wagner. Dekorationsentwuerfe von
Prof. Max Brueckner in Coburg. Zur Auffuehrung in Bayreuth im Jahre 1896.
Max Brückner (1836-1919) was a prominent set designer renowned among his
contemporaries for his realistic sets. Brückner published this portfolio of designs for the
twentieth annual performance of the Ring Cycle in Bayreuth.
32. Friedrich Hebbel. Die Nibelungen. Ein deutsches Trauerspiel in drei Abtheilungen.
Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1862.
The Nibelungen is arguably Friedrich Hebbel’s (1813-1863) greatest work. For this
trilogy (Horned Siegfried, The Death of Siegfried, Kriemhild’s Revenge) the leading
German Realist dramatist won the first Schiller Prize.
VI. THE NIBELUNGENLIED IN THE 20TH CENTURY
33. Hermann Degering. Der Nibelungen not in der Simrockschen übersetzung nach dem
versbestande der Hundeshagenschen handschrift bearbeitet und mit ihren bildern...
Berlin: Volksverband der Bücherfreunde, Wegweiser Verlag, 1924.
Hermann Degering reproduced the only surviving medieval illustrations of the
Nibelungenlied in a format reminiscent of medieval manuscripts in this edition based on
the translation of Karl Joseph Simrock (1802-1876). First published in 1827, Simrock’s
translation went through countless editions, and is said to have done the most, of all
translations, to popularize the Nibelungenlied. In this way, Degering brought early 20thcentury readers closer to the haptic experience of the original.
34. Friedrich Hebbel. Die Nibelungen [“Mit 44 Original-Radierungen von Alois Kolb.”].
Witkowski, Georg (ed). Leipzig, K.W. Hiersemann [1924].
19
Many thanks to William Whobrey, who suggested the following information about the contents of
Wagner’s library, which can be found in Elizabeth McGee’s Richard Wagner and the Nibelungs (1990),
25–37.
1
3
In the same year as Degering’s edition in the medieval spirit, a fascinating edition of
Hebbel’s Die Nibelungen filled with darkly dramatic, expressionist lithographs was
published. The illustrator was Alois Kolb (1875-1942), a professor of graphic design at
the Grafische Akademie in Leipzig.
35. Thomas Mann. “Richard Wagner und der 'Ring des Nibelungen.'” Zurich: [1938?].
Despite his opposition to the National Socialist movement, whose members used
Wagner’s operas to fascist ends, Thomas Mann (1875-1953) remained a lifelong admirer
of Richard Wagner. This undated typescript copy of a speech given in Zürich on 10
November 1937 was collected for Essays of Three Decades (1947). Corrections are in the
hand of Helen Lowe-Porter, Mann’s English translator.
36. Heiner Müller. Germania Tod in Berlin. Berlin: Rotbuch-Verlag, 1977 (=His Texte; 5
& Rotbuch; 176). [Paperbound. Author’s presentation inscription to A. Leslie Wilson.]
The East German playwright Heiner Müller (1929-95) enjoyed great critical and
commercial success during his lifetime. This play, made up of thirteen short scenes,
reflects Müller’s preoccupation with German culture and history. In stark contrast to
19th-century attempts to build a national myth out of the Nibelungenlied, Müller depicts
Nibelungen warriors mocking fallen German soldiers as effeminate weaklings and
desecrating their corpses, before masturbating together and senselessly murdering one
another. Finally, the scattered remains meld into a gigantic, gruesome monster.
VII: THE ENGLISH NIBELUNGENLIED
37. Henry Weber. “Der Nibelungen Lied. The Song of Nibelungen.” In: Illustrations of
Northern Antiquities, from the earlier Teutonic and Scandinavian Romances; being an
Abstract of the Book of Heroes, and Nibelungen Lay; with translations of Metrical Tales,
from the Old German, Danish, Swedish and Icelandic Languages; with Notes and
Dissertations. Edinburgh: James Ballantyne & Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and
Brown, London, 1814. Courtesy of Sterling Memorial Library.
It is believed that the Scottish poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) translated
or assisted in the translation of these verses from the Nibelungenlied. Whatever role Scott
might have had, this is the first appearance of any part of the Nibelungenlied in English.
38. Jonathan Birch (ed). Das Nibelungen Lied or Lay of the Last Nibelungers. [Translated
into English Verse after Professor Carl Lachmann’s Collated and Corrected Text.] Berlin:
Published by Alexander Duncker, Bookseller to His Majesty the King of Prussia, 1848.
This is the first English translation of the Nibelungenlied for which claims of
completeness were made; however, the translator Jonathan Birch (1783–1847) based his
work on the problematic Lachmann edition.
1
4
39. George Borrow. “Chrimehilt.” Autograph poem [n.d.].
George Borrow (1803-81) was an English linguist and popular 19th-century travel writer.
This is his English verse translation of the first nineteen stanzas of the Nibelungenlied.
Borrow follows the rhyme scheme of the original; each quatrain is made up of two
rhyming couplets.
40. William Morris. The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs.
[Colophon: With two pictures designed by Edward Burne-Jones and engraved by W.H.
Hooper ... Sold by the trustees of the late William Morris at the Kelmscott Press].
Hammersmith: “Printed at the Kelmscott press, Upper Mall and finished on the 19th day
of January, 1898.”
Better known for his role in the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris (1834-96)
created translations of the Aeneid and Odyssey and a number of shorter Icelandic sagas.
Morris based this epic in four chapters, perhaps his most ambitious writing, on the
Volsunga saga. The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs was first
published in 1877, and this volume is one of only six copies on vellum created at the
famed Kelmscott Press shortly after Morris’s death.
41. Friedrich Hebbel. The Niebelungs. A Tragedy in Three Parts. H. Goldberger (trans).
[with seven full-page illustrations by G. H. McCall.] London W.: A. Siegele, [1903?].
Courtesy of Sterling Memorial Library.
An early English translation of Hebbel’s prize-winning play from 1862 with several fullpage illustrations.
VIII. DIGITAL MEDIA
42. Die Sankt Galler Nibelungenhandschrift: Parzival, Nibelungenlied und Klage, Karl,
Willehalm. CD-Rom. Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen und dem Basler Parzival-Projekt (ed). St.
Gallen, 2005.
In the physical exhibition at the Beinecke, an excellent representation of Manuscript B
could be made available through the possibilities of digital media technologies. One of
the three complete manuscripts remaining today, the manuscript is housed in the
monastery of St. Gallen in Switzerland, bound with other medieval manuscripts
(including Parzival) in Codex 857. The study of medieval literature has profited
enormously from new technologies such as high-resolution digital photography,
electronic data storage and online fora. A facsimile of C, the Hohenems manuscripts that
started it all, is also available online through the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe,
where it presently resides.