Page:The Nibelungenlied - tr. Shumway - 1909.pdf/391

Rh Zeisenmauer (M. H. G. Zeizenmûre). All the MSS. but C and D have this reading. The latter have Treysenmoure and treisem moure, which corresponds better to the modern name, as Zeiselmauer lies between Tulln and Vienna. It is possible, however, that the town on the Traisem was originally called Zeiselmauer, as the road leading from Traismauer to Tulln still bears the name of Zeiselstrasse. See Lachmann, Anmerkungen, 1272, and Piper,, 289, note to str. 1333.

Kiev (M. H. G. Kiew) is now a government in the southwestern part of Russia. Its capital of the same name, situated on the Dnieper, is the oldest of the better known cities of Russia, and in the later Middle Ages was an important station of the Hanseatic league.

Petschenegere, a Turkish tribe originally dwelling to the north of the Caspian. By conquest they acquired a kingdom extending from the Don to Transylvania. They were feared for their ferociousness and because they continually invaded the surrounding countries, especially Kiev.

Tulna (M. H. G. Tulne) is the modern Tulln, a walled town of Lower Austria, seventeen miles northwest of Vienna on the Danube.

Ramung and Gibeck (M. H. G. Gibeche) appear only in our poem, nothing else is known of them.

Hornbog is frequently mentioned in the Thidreksaga, but nothing otherwise is known of him.

Hawart is perhaps identical with the Saxon duke Hadugot, who is reputed to have played an important part in the conquest of Thuringia. He evidently comes from the Low German version.

Iring is considered by Wilmanns to have been originally an ancient deity, as the Milky Way is called Iringe strâze or Iringi. He occurs in a legend of the fall of the Thuringian kingdom, where he played such a prominent rôle that the Milky Way was named after him. See W. Grimm, Heldensage, p. 394, who thinks, however, that the connection of Iring with the Milky Way is the result of a confusion.

Irnfried is considered to be Hermanfrid of Thuringia, who was overthrown and killed in 535 by Theuderich with the aid of the Saxons. See Felix Dahn, Urgeschichte,, 73-79. He, too, comes from the Low German tradition.