Nibelungenlied its final form has not been recorded. As we have seen, the
poem is at bottom of a truly popular, national character, having its
beginnings in mythology and early national history. For centuries the
subject had been national property and connected with the name of no one
individual. We have it now in the form in which it was remodelled to suit
the taste of the court and the nobility, and like the court epic to be
read aloud in castle hall. That it is written in four-lined strophes[5]
and not in the usual rhymed couplets of the court epics is doubtless due
to the fact that the former verse-form had already been used in the
earlier ballads upon which it is based, and was simply taken over by the
final moulder of the poem. This latter was probably a member of the
nobility like the great majority of the epic poets of the time; he must
at least have been well acquainted with the manners, tastes, sentiments,
and general life of the nobility. Through him the poem was brought
outwardly more into line with the literary ideals of the court circles.
This shows itself chiefly in a negative way, namely, in the almost
complete avoidance of the coarse language and farcical situations so
common with the popular poet, the _spielmann_. Beyond this no violence is
done to the simple form of the original. The style is still inornate and
direct, facts still speak rather than words, and there is nothing
approaching the refined psychological dissection of characters and
motives such as we find in Wolfram von Eschenbach and the other court
writers.

[5] For description of the Nibelungen strophe see below, Chapter 7.

When we look to the inner substance we see that the ground ideals are
still those of the original Germanic heroic age. The chief characters are
still those of the first stages of the story--Siegfried, Brunhild,
Gunther, Kriemhild, Hagen. The fundamental theme is the ancient theme of