The Nibelungenlied: The Lay of the Nibelungs (Oxford World's Classics) (45 page)

fish-skins
: another echo, perhaps, of
Parzival
. In Book XI the churl who threatens Gawan wears ‘a surcoat and bonnet of fish-skin’ (p. 240).

ermine skins
: white ermine was regarded as valuable, but black furs, such as sable, even more so. See Elke Brüggen,
Kleidung und Mode in der höfischen Epik des 12. und 13. fahrhuńderts
(Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1989).

vowed … taking Lady Kriemhilt’s hand
: literally, ‘vowed into Lady Kriemhilt’s hand’. An oath-taking gesture rather than a mark of affection.

famed
: an archaic epithet, MHG
mœre
.

[Sivrit said]
: the identification of the speaker is omitted in the text, as often happens in the
Nibelungenlied
.

honoured by that
: Sivrit is leading Gunther’s charger onto the beach, part of the pretence that he is Gunther’s vassal. Despite his knowledge that this is merely a stratagem, Gunther feels flattered.

Great numbers of bold warriors
: these are the male warriors in Prünhilt’s retinue.

ahead of this noble warrior who stands before me here … lord
: Sivrit’s pretending to be Gunther’s vassal means that Gunther stands before him, and etiquette would require him to be greeted first.

a silken shift beneath her armour
: literally ‘armour-shift’, a word that only occurs here.

phellel-silk
: a costly silk from the Arab world, met with several times in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s
Parzival
.

rink
: the ring or circle for combat. In the courtly romance this is usually a round space close by the castle. A fine example survives at Abenberg in Bavaria, which is referred to in Wolfram’s
Parzival
. The outlandish Icelandic games are deliberately cast in a very different mould from courtly tournaments, but the choice of the word
rink
shows the poet’s awareness of the parallel.

Azagouc
: an oriental country which figures in Book I of Wolfram’s
Parzival
.

ingots
: the original has
messe
, from Latin
massa
, a measurement of uncertain weight. Mowatt suggests ‘a good half ton of metal’.

severe gale
: a nonce-word in the original,
sunderstarc
, literally ‘exceptionally strong’.

an iron pole
: the pole or club, of wood or iron, is the customary weapon of the giant in medieval German literature.

a whip of gold in his hand
: the whip or scourge is the customary weapon of the dwarf, both in the heroic epic and in courtly romances such as Hartmann von Aue’s
Erec
.

chastisement
: a rare pun on the part of the author. The MHG word
zuht
can mean ‘good breeding’, ‘punishment’, but also ‘pulling’.

Clary
: a mixture of wine, clarified honey, and spices. Both clary and candles occur in a hospitality scene in Wolfram’s
Parzival
(p. 103), again suggesting influence.

Giselher’s vassal
: some manuscripts have ‘Gunther’s vassal’, but A and B have Giselher. A feudal relationship between Giselher and Dancwart is also suggested by strophe 521.

so generous a chamberlain
: it is uncertain whether this last sentence is in the mouth of the narrator or of Prünhilt.

guarding their garments
: this seems at first an unlikely role for Hagen, but, looking forward, it may have cemented his close relationship to Prünhilt. This is left unstated.

said the worthy knight
: the double dicit-formula, introducing and concluding Gunther’s speech, occurs frequently in the poem.

messenger’s bread
: the customary reward given to messengers in medieval literature, even to those of high rank. For example, in Book I of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s
Parzival
, the burgrave of Zazamanc asks Queen Belacane for ‘a costly messenger’s reward’ when he brings her the news that Gahmuret is to fight on her side.

riding out beyond Worms to the shore to meet him
: riding out to meet guests is a common act of courtesy in medieval literature.

its walls were all decorated
: presumably tapestries were hung upon the walls.

head-dresses
: the head-dress is the mark of the married woman.

farandine
: a blend of silk and wool or hair.

making his way to the shore
: Gunther and Prünhilt have disembarked further upstream and ridden the last stretch towards Worms along the east bank, and are now about to be ferried across to the city on the west bank.

hair-bands
: the hair-band or garland is the head-dress of an unmarried woman.

no trace of deception
: like his contemporary, Wolfram von Eschenbach, the poet objects to the use of make-up.

into the shade
: sunburn was frowned upon in the Middle Ages.

brought the water
: it was the custom for the nobility in the Middle Ages to wash hands before and after eating.

the oath that your hand swore
: oaths were sworn with accompanying hand-gestures. Hands might be clasped, or fingers held up.

ring
: the circle around the couple is a legal confirmation of their marriage.

the seat facing Gunther
: the seat opposite the host is one of special distinction, as at Victorian dinner-parties.

he wore a crown that day
: the crown is worn in honour of the marriage of Gunther and Prünhilt.

under the bedclothes
: the meaning is uncertain here. Hatto suggests ‘behind the bed-curtains’, but we know little of medieval bedding. Evidently, however, Gunther is intent on concealing Sivrit’s stratagem from Prünhilt.

monstrous desire
: Prünhilt’s desire to leave the marriage unconsummated is meant.

girdle… spirits
: the symbolism of the girdle is obvious. Hatto describes the narrator’s comment as ‘diplomatic ignorance’. This is the weakest point in the plotting of the
Nibelungenlied
, a relic of an older, more robust version of the epic. See Appendix II.

learned of it
: the decision-making is Sivrit’s own, Kriemhilt not being consulted—a reflection of the heroic ethos.

samite
: a rich silk fabric, sometimes interwoven with gold, or a garment of the same. It occurs often in Wolfram’s
Parzival
.

Norway
: the land of the Nibelungs, the Netherlands, and Norway are fused as one indeterminate northern land-mass. This is the only reference to Norway in the poem.

shrewish
: MHG
wortrœze
occurs only here.

stand in a circle
: the ring confers legality upon the oath.

breed bastards
: literally, ‘rear cuckoos’. It is not clear whether the reference is to Prünhilt’s son, or to Sivrit himself. It seems probable that Hagen is alluding to the possibility of future impropriety on Sivrit’s part.

wondrously valiant
: the original has the unique compound
wundernküene
here.

sent the squires ahead on the journey
: the ‘squires’ are the Burgundian support troops.

bercelet
: a small hound, probably of the spaniel family, used in tracking.

posted their relays
: relays were posted at points where the game ‘was expected to pass, and at which fresh hounds were held’ (David Dalby,
Lexicon of the Mediœval German Hunt
(Berlin: de Gruyter, 1965), 286).

tasted its reward
: a hound which has frequently tasted its reward at the end of a chase and is therefore experienced and keen. The reward would be to eat certain parts of the quarry, such as blood and intestines. (Dalby,
Lexicon
, 66.)

panther’s skin … sweet scent
: the sweet scent of the panther figures in medieval bestiaries, such as the thirteenth-century Oxford Bestiary (MS. Bodley 764): ‘When [the panther] has eaten and is full, he hides in his lair and sleeps. After three days he rouses himself from sleep and lets forth a great roar; and out of his mouth comes a very sweet smell that seems to contain every kind of scent. When the other animals hear his voice they gather from far and near, and follow him wherever he goes on account of the sweetness of his breath’ (
Bestiary. Being an English version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford M.S. 764
, trans. Richard Barber (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1993), 30).

drawn by an engine
: presumably a spring-bow or crossbow. See Jim Bradbury,
The Medieval Archer
(Woodbridge: Boydell, 1985), 8–11.

otter skin
: this is something of a guess, as the MHG word
ludem
is only attested here.

All those … accursed because of this
: Sivrit views the treachery as a hereditary disgrace.

court clothes
: normally men would dress with extra care when they appeared before ladies at court.

helmets buckled on
: or possibly ‘their swords raised’. This phrase is problematic in the manuscripts.

marked murderer
: the MHG has the unique word
mortmeilen
.

as also happened there
: Dickens shows how long the folk-belief lasted: ‘Pity there had not been a word of truth in that superstition about bodies bleeding when touched by the hand of the right person; you never got a sign out of bodies.’
Our Mutual Friend
(1865), ch. 3.

suffer hardship
: this refers to the hardship of the wake over the corpse.

giving him away
: some manuscripts have ‘his handsome person’ rather than ‘him’; this half-line is metrically defective.

to kiss her
: a formal kiss of reconciliation is meant.

rod of gold
: an entirely blind motif. The rod or wand never recurs.

whom you’ve seen here
: this is the first indication in the lay that Sivrit’s travels had included Hungary.

that little might be taken from them
: a hint at the fear of robbers on the roads. As the poet’s contemporary, Walther von der Vogelweide, puts it: ‘violence rides along the roads.’ Chronicles confirm that in the years of the civil war between the Welfs and the Hohenstaufen (1198–1208), any journey was a hazardous undertaking.

the host
: MHG
wirt
denotes both a host and the lord of a castle or household.

the lands of the Huns
: in the Latin epic
Waltharius
Hagen is an exile at Attila’s court.

for what he has done for our sake
: another reference to how Hagen was treated as an exile at Attila’s court, where Rüedeger must have been a fellow-exile.

Without my allies’ counsel
: this is a sign of the special favour accorded Rüedeger.

Sir Gunther
: the epithet ‘bold’ is found in one group of manuscripts (AD). In others this half-line is metrically defective. Here I follow Bartsch’s edition rather than de Boor’s.

[Hagen replied]
: as often in the original, the person speaking is not named.

heartfelt love
: the term
herzeliebe
occurs in the contemporary love-lyric, for instance in the songs of the Austrian poet Walther von der Vogelweide, temporally and geographically close to the poet of the
Nibelungenlied
.

from the Elbe to the Mediterranean
: the river topos is a common motif in MHG literature. Compare a lyric preserved in the
Carmina Burana
manuscript of
c
.1230: ‘If all the world were mine | from the sea to the Rhine | I would gladly renounce it | if only the King of England lay in my arms.’ The king in question is probably Richard I of England, so the lyric is roughly contemporary with the
Nibelungenlied
.

the noble prince’s
: i.e. Gunther’s.

carried … shields
: the warriors carry shields for fear of ambush in Bavaria.

The lodgings there were emptied
: presumably in anticipation of accommodating the guests.

Bishop Pilgrim
: in the tenth century there was a bishop of Passau who bore the name Pilgrim; a cult of this bishop is attested in the late twelfth century. In
Diu Klage
, the lachrymose sequel to the
Nibelungenlied
, Bishop Pilgrim of Passau is named as the patron of a Latin version of the story. There have been attempts to identify the fictitious Pilgrim with Wolfger von Erla, bishop of Passau 1191–1204, later patriarch of Aquileia. Wolfger was one of the patrons of Walther von der Vogelweide, but whether he was also the patron of the poet of the
Nibelungenlied
is a matter for speculation.

many splinters … from the warriors’ hands
: the splinters are from the wooden lances of the jousting knights.

Botelunc’s son
: i.e. Etzel.

Traismauer
: Traismauer is confused in the central manuscripts with Zeiselmauer.

Wallachians
: Romance-speaking habitants of Romania.

Pechenegs
: a Turkic people living in the Steppes between the sixth and twelfth centuries.

welcome the proud king here
: here the translation follows Bartsch’s reading in emphasizing the special importance assigned to Rüedeger. De Boor’s reading is: ‘the proud king wishes to welcome you here.’

the queen’s wealth
: here again the translation follows Bartsch, while de Boor has, less cynically, ‘the good queen’. Strophe 2129 confirms Bartsch’s interpretation.

that he should kindly grant her
: the switch from direct to indirect speech is characteristic of the heroic epic, occurring also in the Old High German
Hildebrandslied
, the only heroic lay to survive from the Carolingian epoch.

took their silver and garments from them
: another allusion to the notorious robbers of Bavaria.

willing to accept the clothes
: usually minstrels, travelling people, are the recipients of such gifts rather than their generous donors.

long-toothed in vengeance
: the original has the rare compound adjective
lancrœche
.