the Burgundians and Attila with the Siegfried saga took place. In the
course of time, and naturally with greatest probability among the Rhine
Franks who followed the Burgundians as occupants of _Germania prima_, the
two were brought together, and the three Burgundian kings and their
sister were identified with the three Nibelungen kings and their sister
of the already localized Siegfried saga. It is also beyond the scope of
this introduction to follow the course of the saga northward or to note
its further evolution during its wanderings and in its new home until it
was finally recorded in poetic form in the Edda. We have now to consider
briefly the transformation it passed through in Germany between this date
(about 500) and the time (about 1200) when it emerges in written record
as the Nibelungenlied.

An account has already been given (Chapter 3.) of the chief features in
which the Nibelungenlied differs from the Northern form. As we saw there,
the mythical element of the Siegfried saga has almost entirely evaporated
and the historical saga of the Burgundian kings and Attila has undergone
a complete transformation. That the originally mythical and heathen
Siegfried saga should dwindle away with the progress of civilization and
under the influence of Christianity was but natural. The character of the
valkyrie Brynhild who avenges upon Sigurd his infidelity to her, yet
voluntarily unites herself with him in death, as heathen custom demanded,
is no longer intelligible. She recedes into the background, and after
Siegfried's death, though she is still living, she plays no further part.
The Nibelungenlied found its final form on Upper German, doubtless
Austrian, territory. Here alone was it possible that that greatest of all
transformations could take place, namely, in the character of Attila. The
Franks of the Rhine knew him only as the awe-inspiring conqueror who had
annihilated their neighbors the Burgundians. In Austrian lands it was
quite otherwise. Many Germanic tribes, particularly the East Goths, had