A sifting of the Nibelungen saga reveals a mythical element (the story of
Siegfried) and a historical element (the story of the Burgundians and
Etzel). How, when, and where these two elements were blended together
must remain largely a matter of conjecture. This united central body
received then from time to time accessions of other elements, some of
them originally historical in character, some of them pure inventions of
the poetic imagination.

The Siegfried myth is the oldest portion of the Nibelungen saga, and had
already passed through a long period of development before its union with
the story of the Burgundian kings. Like so many others of its kind, it is
part of the spiritual equipment of our Germanic ancestors at the dawn of
their recorded history. It grew gradually with the people themselves and
has its counterpart among other peoples. Such myths are a record of the
impressions made upon the mind of man by the mighty manifestations of the
world of nature in which he lives; their formation may be likened to the
unconscious impressions of its surroundings on the mind of the child. And
just as the grown man is unable to trace back the formation of his own
individuality to its very beginnings in infancy, so is it impossible for
the later nation in its advanced stage to peer back beyond the dawn of
its history. It is in the gloom beyond the dawn that such myths as this
of Siegfried have their origin.

Though modern authorities differ greatly in their conjectures, it is
generally agreed that the Siegfried story was in its original form a
nature-myth. The young day slays the mist-dragon and awakens the
sun-maiden that sleeps on the mountain; at evening he falls a prey to the
powers of gloom that draw the sun down again beneath the earth. With this
day-myth was probably combined the parallel myth of the changing seasons:
the light returns in spring, slays the cloud-dragon, and frees the