ted Ostrogothic king; and many other very singular
coincidences of historic names, which appear in the poems. (See Lachman
Kritik der Sage in his volume of various readings to the Nibelungen;
Berlin, 1836, p. 336.)

Chapter XXXIV: Attila.--Part III.

I must acknowledge myself unable to form any satisfactory theory as
to the connection of these poems with the history of the time, or the
period, from which they may date their origin; notwithstanding the
laborious investigations and critical sagacity of the Schlegels, the
Grimms, of P. E. Muller and Lachman, and a whole host of German critics
and antiquaries; not to omit our own countryman, Mr. Herbert, whose
theory concerning Attila is certainly neither deficient in boldness nor
originality. I conceive the only way to obtain any thing like a clear
conception on this point would be what Lachman has begun, (see above,)
patiently to collect and compare the various forms which the traditions
have assumed, without any preconceived, either mythical or poetical,
theory, and, if possible, to discover the original basis of the whole
rich and fantastic legend. One point, which to me is strongly in favor
of the antiquity of this poetic cycle, is, that the manners are so
clearly anterior to chivalry, and to the influence exercised on the
poetic literature of Europe by the chivalrous poems and romances. I
think I find some traces of that influence in the Latin poem, though
strained through the imagination of a monk. The English reader will find
an amusing account of the German Nibelungen and Heldenbuch, and of
some of the Scandinavian Sagas, in the volume of Northern Antiquities
published by Weber, the friend of Sir Walter Scott. Scott himself
contributed a considerable, no doubt far the most valuable, part to the
work. [46] [4611] [47]

See also the various German editions of the Nibelungen, to which
Lachman, with true German perseverance, has compiled a thick volume of
various readings; the Heldenbuch, the old Danish poems by Grimm, the
Eddas, &c. Herbert's Attila, p. 510, et seq.--M.]

[Footnote 46: If we may believe Plutarch, (in Demetrio, tom. v. p. 24,)
it was the custom of the Scythians, when they indulged in the pleasures
of the table, to awaken their languid courage by the martial harmony of
twanging their bow-strings.]

[Footnote 4611: The Scythian was an idiot or lunatic; the Moor a regular
buffcon--M.]

[Footnote 47: The curious narrative of this embassy, whic