lla," we come upon a word in consonance with "Nibelung."

Then the wars which the Frankish Kaiser Karl waged against the Saxons of
Witukind, have been held to be indicated in the war which the Frankish
Siegfried, in the "Nibelungen Lied," wages against the Saxons. To all
appearance, however, the tale is a mixture of mythological and
historical traditions. In the Middle Ages, and still much later,
Siegfried was looked upon as an undoubtedly historical figure. His
praise was sung through all Germany. His very tomb, one of his weapons,
as well as his carved image, were shown under the name of Siegfried's
grave, Siegfried's spear, and Siegfried's statue. So persistent was this
belief that when, in the fifteenth century, Kaiser Frederick III. came
to Worms, he had the alleged grave of "that second Hector and powerful
giant" opened, to see whether his bones could be found. Only a head and
a few bones were dug up, "larger than men's heads and bones usually
are." At Worms, the Siegfried story was pictured, in ancient times, in
the Town Hall and on the Mint. All round Worms, place-names connected
with the Nibelung tale occur with remarkable frequency. If the lost
rhapsodic songs could be recovered, both mythological and historical
allusions would, in all likelihood, be found in them.

An eminently Frankish tale, the Nibelungen cycle, has arisen in that
martial German tribe which once held sway in the greater part of Europe.
In its origin, the tale is considered by many careful investigators--so
also by Richard Wagner, who founded his famous music-drama on it--to
have been a Nature myth, upon which real events became engrafted. From
this point of view, the earliest meaning of Siegfried's victory over the
Dragon would signify the triumph of the God of Light over the monster of
the chaotic aboriginal Night. It would be, on German ground, the
overthrow of Python by Apollon. In this connection it is to be pointed
out that Sigurd appears in the "Edda" as the hero "with the shining
eyes," and that, in one of the German Rose Garden tales, twelve swords
are attributed to him--a description which might be referred to the
zodiac and to sunshine; so that he would be a solar hero. And even as
Day is, in its turn, vanquished by Night; as Summer must yield to
Winter; so also Siegfried falls in the end. The god which he originally
was thus becomes human; the sad fate of so noble a champion gives rise
to feelings of revenge for what is held to b