[244] Cf. Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme, p. 582 ff., where a much earlier date is suggested.
[245] It is impossible here to enter into a criticism of theories such as those brought forward in Boer's Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Entwickelung der Nibelungensage.
[246] Owing to the great lacuna in the MS. of the Edda (cf. p. [13]) the poems which dealt with this part of the story are lost.
[247] The story may have come to the North in two different forms, one of which related the wooing of Brynhildr by Sigurðr, while the other, a later form, contained the incident of the supernatural disguise. But it is also possible that even the original poem or poems on the subject dealt with this incident, though without altogether suppressing the previous relations between Sigurðr and Brynhildr.
[248] There is no need to assume that the story of Guthhere's death was embodied in the same poem, though the two were doubtless connected from quite early times.
[249] It would be difficult to doubt its historical origin if it could be proved that the hero's father was originally identical with Sigemund the son of Waelse (Völsungr), who figures in Beowulf; for the two stories are almost entirely independent of each other and refer to quite different regions. The adventure with the dragon, which is related both of Sigurðr and Sigemund, shows that they were connected in very early times. Still I know no real proof of original identity.
CHAPTER IX.
THE HEROIC AGE OF GREECE.
The literary records of the Heroic Age of Greece resemble those of the northern Heroic Age in several respects. Both literatures alike begin with heroic poems which, as we shall see later, possess many common characteristics. Then, at a much later date, we find in both literatures a new series of narrative works dealing again with the old stories. Lastly, in both cases works of all periods, both poetic and prose, contain frequent incidental references to the same stories, testifying thereby to their popularity. In Greek literature indeed such references occur more frequently than in that of the Teutonic peoples—a fact doubtless due to the preservation of great poems of the former period, which at an early date came to be regarded as classics or something more. Among the northern peoples, as we have seen, it was only in England that any considerable amount of the early heroic poetry was preserved; but here the continuity of literary development was broken through political causes, and consequently all memory of the Heroic Age was practically lost.