The Nibelungenlied: A Literary Analysis

196 Pages·1971·9.612 MB·English

by  Hugo Bekker

The Nibelungenlied: A Literary Analysis
HUGO BEKKER
In the last fifty or so years there has been a gradual shift of
attention in scholarship on the Nibelungenlied from reconstruction
of the texts, and tracing of the poem's multiple and complex
antecedents, to interpretation. In spite of this trend, there is still a
pressing need for a critical analysis of the Nibelungenlied as a
whole that draws together its various literary qualities and
examines in detail the epic's unity, depth, and meaning. Professor
Bekker's study provides this kind of analysis. It takes a fresh
approach, viewing the poem as a work of literary merit worthy to
be read for its own sake. It traces the new designs which the poet
brings to the tradition and provides detailed examinations of the
main aspects of technique and structure in the epic. The approach
is based on close consultation of the text, with little digression, in
an attempt to guide the reader to an understanding and appreciation
of the poem as the author intended it to be read.
Professor Bekker points out that the poet of the Nibelungenlied
does not aim at psychological character delineation and
deliberately refrains from seeking to establish the various
prominent figures in the epic as individuals in the modern sense of
the term. Instead, they emerge as representative figures whose
interrelationships, though interesting, are less important for the
unity and meaning of the epic than are their common relationships
to the world in which they exist. The question of personal guilt or
innocence becomes irrelevant, and Professor Bekker sees the work
ultimately as a poetic pageant of a noble way of life and its
destruction. Symbolism, imagery, parallelism, symmetry, and other
structural devices all contribute to the design which expresses the
nature of this noble life, and Professor Bekker's book is a valuable
guide to the complex architecture of this thirteenth-century
masterpiece.
HUGO BEKKER was born in Burgh, The Netherlands, in 1925. He
studied at the University of Michigan, receiving his PHD in 1958,
and taught at the University of Oregon for the next three years. He
is at present Professor of German, Ohio State University.
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the nibelungenlied"
a literary analysis
university of toronto press
© University of Toronto Press 1971
Printed in Canada by
University of Toronto Press
Toronto and Buffalo
ISBN 0-8020-5235-5
FOR ELIZABETH
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BY KIND PERMISSION of the editors of the Germanic Review, "King-
ship in the 'Nibelungenlied,'" GR, XLI (1966), 251-63, and "The
Eigenmann-Motif in the 'Nibelungenlied,' " GR, XLII (1967), 5-15, are
incorporated into this volume in the studies on Brunhild. Endeavors
have been made to hone the pertinent arguments presented in those
articles, and to add desirable notes on literary criticism of the Brunhild
figure.
The manuscript of this book was finished when Mowatt and
Sacker's The Nibelungenlied: An Interpretative Commentary appeared.
Because it seemed desirable to relate their work to this, various notes
have been inserted to present interpretations advanced by the Com-
mentary's authors. Whereas the present work might benefit from tak-
ing portions of Mowatt and Sacker's introduction as its own, there are
differences - some basic - between the Commentary proper and the
suggestions presented in the following pages. Hence most of the
citations have been allowed to stand by themselves to give the reader
the opportunity to draw his own conclusions about divergent views.
I wish to express my debt of gratitude to the late W. Robert Jones
for going over the manuscript and cleansing it of stylistic impurities.
This volume was published with the aid of the Publications Fund
of the University of Toronto Press.
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CONTENTS
Introduction xi
I
Gems, clothes, festivities 3
II
Huns and Burgundians 24
III
Kriemhild 50
IV
Brunhild: the kingship motif 69
v
Brunhild: the Eigenmann motif 84
VI
Siegfried 101
VII
Hagen in relation to Siegfried 118
VIII
Hagen in relation to minor characters 135
IX
Conclusion: structural devices and their consequences 149
Abbreviations 166
Bibliography 167
Index 173