fought under the banner of Attila, and in the tradition handed down from
them he lived as the embodiment of wisdom and generosity. Here it was
impossible that epic story should picture him as slaying the Burgundian
kings through a covetous desire for their gold. The annihilation of the
Burgundians is thus left without a motive. To supply this, Kriemhild's
character is placed upon an entirely different basis. Instead of avenging
upon Attila the death of her brothers the Burgundian kings, Kriemhild now
avenges upon her brothers the slaying of her first husband Siegfried.
This fundamental change in the character of Kriemhild has a deep ethical
reason. To the ancient heathen Germans the tie of blood-relationship was
stronger than that of wedlock, and thus in the original version of the
story Attila's wife avenges upon him the death of her _brothers_; to the
Christianized Germans of later times the marriage bond was the stronger,
and accordingly from the altered motive Kriemhild avenges upon her
brothers the slaying of her _husband_. In accordance, too, with this
ethical transformation the scene of the catastrophe is transferred from
Worms to Attila's court. Kriemhild now looms up as the central figure of
the second half of the drama, while Etzel remains to the last ignorant of
her designs for revenge.

This transformation of the fundamental parts of the saga was accompanied
by another process, namely, the addition of new characters. Some of these
are the product of the poetic faculty of the people or individuals who
preserved and remoulded the story in the course of centuries, others are
based upon history. To the former class belong the Margrave Ruediger, the
ideal of gentle chivalry, and Volker the Fiddler-knight, doubtless a
creation of the _spielleute_. To the second class belong Dietrich of
Bern, in whom we see the mighty East Gothic king, Theodoric of Verona;
also Bishop Pilgrim of Passau, a very late importation, besides several
others in whom are perpetuated in more or less faint outline actual