Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/24

xviii The third source is the prose Edda, sometimes called the Snorra Edda, after the famous Icelander Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241), to whom it was ascribed. The author was acquainted with both the poetic Edda and the Völsungasaga, and follows these accounts closely. The younger Edda is not really a tale, but a book of poetics; it relates, however, the Siegfried saga briefly. It is considered an original source, since it evidently made use of songs that have not come down to us, especially in the account of the origin of the treasure, which is here told more in detail and with considerable differences. The Nornagestsaga or Nornageststhattr, the story of Nornagest, forms the fourth source of the Siegfried story. It is really a part of the Olaf saga, but contains the story of Sigurd and Gunnar (the Norse forms of Siegfried and Gunther), which an old man Nornagest relates to King Olaf Tryggvason, who converted the Norwegians to Christianity. The story was written about 1250 to illustrate the transition from heathendom to the Christian faith. It is based on the Edda and the Völsungasaga, and is therefore of minor importance as a source.

These four sources represent the early introduction of the Siegfried legend into Skandinavia. A second introduction took place about the middle of the thirteenth century, at the time of the flourishing of the Hanseatic League, when the story was introduced together with other popular German epics. These poems are products of the age of chivalry, and are characterized by the romantic and courtly features of this movement. The one which concerns us here, as the fifth source of the Siegfried story, is the so-called Thidreksaga,