SIXTH ADVENTURE
([St. II.]) Lachmann's Fourth Lay begins here, and ends with St. LXXXVIII. The poem, which we now possess under the name of the Nibelungenlied, throws into the shade the early history of Siegfried and Brunhild, and retains only a few obscure allusions to the fact that they were old acquaintances. See the Preface.
Issland, the Kingdom of Brunhild, which I have thus written to distinguish it from our English word island, is identified by von der Hagen with Iceland; Wackernagel, in the Glossary to his "Alt-deutsches Lesebuch" prefers to derive it from Itisland (itis, woman in old German), the land of women or Amazons. It is however against this derivation, that, though Brunhild was a "Martial Maid" herself, her kingdom was not a kingdom of Amazons, like that of Radigund in the "Faerie Queene." Her female attendants were like other women, and her knights and the officers of her court were of the other sex.
([St. XVI.]) In this stanza and those that follow we may clearly discern that several versions of the same tale have been huddled together. The same thing may be observed in other parts of the poem, but nowhere so clearly as here. For the tarnkappe see the note to St. CI.
([St. XXXVIII.]) tuus, O Regina, quid optes
Explorare labor, mihi jussa capessere fas est.
([St. XLV.]) Zazamanc, according to von der Hagen, is a city in Asia Minor; Lachmann seems to place it in the Land of Romance.
([St. XLVI.]) The hides here meant, according to von der Hagen, are the hairy ones of warm-blooded marine animals rather than the skins of fishes properly so called.
([St. LII.]) This stanza (not to mention some others) must have been interpolated by a poetical tailor.
([St. LXIII.]) According to von der Hagen, the best Rhenish wine is produced about Worms. It is called "Our Lady's Milk," and is superior to Lacryma Christi.
SEVENTH ADVENTURE