The story of the greatest nations, from the dawn of history to the twentieth century : a comprehensive history, founded upon the leading authorities, including a complete chronology of the world, and a pronouncing vocabulary of each nation . older than this, and in these Siegfried is a demigod, the daylight per-haps or the splendor of the sun. There are many different songs about him,some of them coming even from Norway and far-off Iceland, and of course theydo not all tell the story in precisely the same way. They all agree, however,on the main points. The hero was a prince of the lower Rhine
The story of the greatest nations, from the dawn of history to the twentieth century : a comprehensive history, founded upon the leading authorities, including a complete chronology of the world, and a pronouncing vocabulary of each nation . older than this, and in these Siegfried is a demigod, the daylight per-haps or the splendor of the sun. There are many different songs about him,some of them coming even from Norway and far-off Iceland, and of course theydo not all tell the story in precisely the same way. They all agree, however,on the main points. The hero was a prince of the lower Rhineland, that is to say, of the Franks,with his capital at Xanthen. He slew the dragon that guarded an immensetreasure, so vast that Were all the world brought from it, and all the price outpaid, Not one the less would the jewels seem, nor the gold heap lower laid. This was the Nibelungs hoard. The Nibelungs were a vague and mysteri-ous people, who dwelt in the land of darkness, Norway perhaps, or possibly theearth itself underground, where there were the gnomes and dwarfs, the humandead, and all the phantasms of gloom and night. The treasure, according to thepoetic form of the story preserved in the North, was brought to earth by the I. Germany—The Nibelungen Legends 519 gods themselves. Once Woden, having taken human form, was snared by amagician and threatened with death. He secured a respite by promising hiscaptor endless wealth, and Loki, who was with him, was sent to seize the treas-ure which the earth dwarfs had been gathering since the beginning of crafty Alberich, their king, attempted to evade Loki by assuming a thou-sand different forms of beast and fish; but Loki, more subtle even than he,followed him through all and seized him at last. Alberich gave up the wholeNibelung hoard, and then Loki insisted that he give also his ring, which car-ried with it the sovereignty of the Nibelungs. Whoever owned it became thushimself a Nibelung, their king. Alberich had to
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidg, booksubjectworldhistory
