Tiny parchment pieces traced to German epic

April 02, 2003 - London Times
Tiny parchment pieces traced to German epic
From Irene Zoech in Vienna

THE oldest existing fragments of the Nibelungen Song, the most famous Germanic text of the Middle Ages, have been discovered by historians.
The ten fragments, which date from the 12th century, are part of an epic saga detailing the rise and fall of the Burgundian Empire through the adventures of the mythical hero Siegfried.

The tale was later adapted by Richard Wagner into his four-opera Ring Cycle ?- Der Ring des Nibelungen ?- which, with its 12 hours of stirring orchestral homage to the themes of power and honour, became a favourite of the Nazi regime.

Charlotte Ziegler, an historian, found the parchments at the library of Stift Zwettl, an abbey 75 miles northwest of Vienna. She said that they had been placed in a box "probably centuries ago" together with other text fragments from the Middle Ages.

Frau Ziegler said that she had been given the fragments ten years ago, but the language was so hard to translate that it had taken "until now to realise how valuable they are".

The pieces of parchment are all of the same size, about 3cm (1in) by 8cm (3in), and covered in small handwriting.

Frau Ziegler believes that a monk had cut up a larger sheet into pieces to use for binding books and that later the fragments were removed from the spine and kept for reuse.

"I believe the monk did not find the text very interesting and used the parchment for the spine of a new book," she said. "The long-forgotten fragments are very difficult to decipher, but we are absolutely certain the texts are from the Nibelungen."

The fragments, which are being transcribed by Austrian scholars, include Middle High German terms that are typical for the German epic, such as Siverit for Siegfried and swamerole for minstrel.

Karin Lichtblau, an expert on Old German literature from Vienna University, described the discovery as a great find even though it is not clear whether the fragments contain a new version of an already existing saga of the Nibelungen or whether their content is entirely new.

"It is a wonderful discovery. We still have to wait until the texts are transcribed. Of course, it would be utterly exhilarating if the text was new and would add a new twist to the Nibelungen. But it still remains an interesting find, even if the texts are already known," Dr Lichtblau said.

The 2,400-verse Middle High German epic about the warrior Siegfried and his wife, Kriemhild, who possess the Nibelungen hoard of gold, is written in verse, but the recently discovered fragments are in a prose style.

The Nibelungen Song is the most important German epic of the Middle Ages and includes various stories that were passed orally from generation to generation until the first written version was compiled by an unknown poet in the late 12th century.

Five years ago Nibelungen fragments dating from the 13th century were found in Melk Abbey, but Frau Ziegler said that the latest discovery was of the earliest written version of the Nibelungen. "They are the oldest findings referring to the Nibelungen myth," she added.

The Nibelungen epic inspired many composers, writers and artists to offer their own interpretations, but Wagner's opera cyle remains the most famous.