persons of history. This introduction of fresh characters from time to
time as the saga grew has led to some strange anachronisms, which however
are a disturbing element only to us readers of a modern day, who with
sacrilegious hand lift the veil through which they were seen in a uniform
haze of romance by the eye of the knights and ladies of seven centuries
ago. _They_ neither knew nor cared to know, for instance, that Attila was
dead before Theodoric was born, and that Bishop Pilgrim flourished at
Passau the trifling space of five hundred years later still.[3]


[3] Attila lived from about 406 to 453; Theodoric, 475 to 526. Pilgrim
was Bishop of Passau, 971 to 991.




II. THE NIBELUNGENLIED

1. The Manuscripts

Among the German epic poems of the Middle Ages the Nibelungenlied [4]
enjoyed an exceptional popularity, as is evident from the large number of
manuscripts--some thirty, either complete or fragmentary--that have been
preserved from the centuries immediately following its appearance. Three
are of prime importance as texts, namely, those preserved now in Munich,
St. Gall, and Donaueschingen, and cited as A, B, and C respectively.
Since the time when Lachmann, about a century ago, made the first
scientific study of the poem, a whole flood of writings has been poured
forth discussing the relative merits of these texts. Each in turn has had
its claims advocated with warmth and even acrimony. None of these three