AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

In the history of literature we find, again and again, old heroic stories such as the tales of the Siege of Troy or the legends of King Arthur or of Charlemagne, retold in different times and used to convey some truth to the existing age. The story of Sigurd is one of these. Representing as it does the hero of our race, and portraying deep conflict of passions, it affords a wide range for picturing the strength of man and his weakness. Primitive humanity, nature, the gods, – for each writer these offer the means of conveying his ideas of life, whether philosophical, religious or socialistic. With this idea in mind, I have outlined the different versions of the story of Sigurd showing their differences in incident and purpose. "The Nibelungenlied" and "The Volsunga Saga" are told rather fully for on these are based the other versions. Wagner and Ibsen both have changed the story in so many ways in order to express their ideas concerning the life of man, that it is necessary to tell their stories in brief. Morris, in reverence for old faiths and truths has merely put the old Saga into poetic form of a freedom and grandeur of spirit that is beautiful. It is not strange that the story is continually recognized as racial by some noble mind and seized as a means for expressing some vital truth to his age; so grand, so purposeful is it, whether in the early "Nibelungenlied," the simple form of the "Saga," the dignified form of Wagner' s "Nibelungen Ring," the drama of Ibsen, "The Vikings at Helgeland," or Morris's finished and graceful "Sigurd the Volsung."