Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-01-17

form of Gunther surmounts all obstacles, and re-
ceiyes the hand of Brunhd. The Valkyria the
first night suspends her bridegroom, the real Gun
Their, by his girde TO a hook in the wall. Gunther
obliged TO apply again for assistance to his brother
in-law, and Sgurd, having assumed again the form
of Gunther, succeeds in the nuphal bed; in unfast
ening the zone of the vakyrian vestal and mindful
of his promise not to play his brother false he places
a sword Gas sharp rs fire between himself and
Brunhild. Sigurd and Gunther return in triumph
with Bruphild as Gunther's bride. Gudrun, Sgurd's
wife, and Brunhild soon become enyious Of each
other. Gudrun, to whom Sigurd had told the adj
ventures by which he had wooed and won Brunhild
for her brother, taunts her with being the wife of
two husbands Brnhild still loves Sigurd, and is
driven to despair and vengeance by the insults of
Gudrun. She therefore engages her husband to
cut off Sigurd, though still loving him. and sacrifices
herself on funeral pile. The sorrow of Gudrun for
her husband deepens into settled purpose OF ven
geance on her brothers for his murder Etzel, or
Attiia, King of Huns, demands her in marriage.
Gudrun at first refuses, but, eager to avenge the
taking off, Of her husband, she at last consents.
Attila soon after invites her three brothers, the
princes of the Nibelungens to visit his court where
they and large body of their followers are slain in
successive combats with the Huns and the Anne
lungen,
Such is the Scandinavian version of this widely
prevalent legend as contained in the V0sunga saga,
the Nornages saga and Wilkina saga of Denmark. We
have not time notice the points in which these several
saga differ from each other nor is it essential their orgi
nal unity prominently exhibited in the personality of
the hero of each and in the main features of his adyen
but that to which wish to call especial attention
the mode in which the Germanc legend differs from the
scandinavian BY comparing the two versions will be
found that almost every thing which has historical refer
significance in the Teutonic story is wanting in the
Sgurd-saga while nearly all that is mythc and marvel
lous sayorng Of the primeva mythology Of Odn is ex
Guided from the Siegfried story This difference might
have been expected prio for two in the first
place the heather mythology of the North with its wild
creations of rugged fancy not expelled from Scan
dnava until centuries after the Teutonc nations had been
partially chrstanized The gospels translated into
MaesoGothic, by Uphilas early the fifth century
while the scandinavian tribes not converted from
their heathenism until the eleventh twelfth. In the
second place, might expect the more northern legend
partake in greater degree of the fabulous than the
Teuonc story because of relative proxmi
y of the in which they respectively laid The
bearing of this element be readily appreciated
moments consideration To the Norsemen the theatre of
Sigurds adventures remote and in those times of geo.
graphical ignorance exceedingly obscure. Ample room
and verge therefore, left for the introduction of the
marvellous and mythc whereas in the German story the
geography of the Nbelungen though sufficiently vague is
much more than in the Sgurdsaga because 1t is
confined to the familiar circle in which the Germanc mi
gratons had been performed For the reason, in
Germany the tendency would be give the legend his
torical aca colorng from the events which would
turally and insensiby be blended with it while in the
more rugged and distant North the tendency of remote
and its consequent obscurty would be invest the
whole legend with the added mystery and wdness of IA
BILE just in History the awful mysteries of distant
Egypt enabled Herodotus impose the easy credul
ty Of his countymen with wonderful Of giants
and dwarfs in that faro land of Msram with its gods
whose names no might UTTER and its statues whose
wells no man might with its strange birds and beasts
and trees or as in the poetry of old Greece the mystic
ous and wonderful in the Odyssey found to increase
with the distance Of Uysess wanderngs from Ithaca and
then In turn gradually disappear he approaches
and nearer his native island his hoeward bound So
too in the ntermnable poem Arioso remember
ed that the fabulous and miraculous laid and
in the far Orient with its hppogryph and enchanted
genii, its gorgons hydras, and chimeras dire" The
NEUROLOGICAL visions that charm infant people, like the
illusions of the magic lantern, always most perfect
when exhibited in the dark The gods and goddesses Of
classic mythology have all fed the earth since Pan az
frighted at the progress proclaimed their empire
end and the genial dvnite faryand been scared
away from each rural haunt and sylvan solitude by the
hoarse whistle Of the locomotive and now meet no more
''on hill, in dale, in forest, or in mead.
! BY paved fountain or by rusty brook,
Or on the beached margent Of the sea,
| To dance their ringlets TO the whstlng wind"
! Or, in the words Of Schiller, beautifully ampfed
by Colerdge, in his matchless translation of Wallen-
stein -
q The ineligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities Of old religion
| The power the beauty and the majesty,
That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain,
Or forest by slow stream, or pebby spring.
Or chasms watry depthsall these have vanished,
And live no longer in the faith of reason"
We recall instance in which this tendency Of the
unknown and remote produce the fabulous and racu
ous las also illustrated in the scandinavian sagal is
more srkngy revealed than in the daring imagery
ployed by Camoens in his Lusad where he represents
the genius Of the river Ganges appearing the King Of
Portugal in dream, in that sublime passage in which
despite the carpng ridcue Of votaire who occasionally
transformed himself into critical zany the Portuguese
bard has eyinced the inspiration and original genius of
genuine poet Vasco de Cana is recounting to his King
the wonders with which the sons Of Lusus met in the
unknown he had traverscd and depicts to him. in
language Of unryaled sublimity, the phantom shape
from the after he had doubled the Cape
Of Good Hope and entered the waters which no
mpous bark before had furrowed II is not until
his hero has thus passed the bounds
- which jealous nature drew
To veil her secret shrine from mortal view"
that in