RECENT RESEARCH ON TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY.
THE new fasciculus of Paul’s Grundriss der germanischen Philologie (Bd. ii, Abteilung i, Lief, i,[1] contains a conspectus of the chief epic cycles of the Teutons by B. Symons, Heldensage; a short sketch of the history of the Gothic fragments by E. Sievers, Gotische Literatur; and an article on the classic Old Northern literature by E. Mogk, Nordische Literatur, Norwegisch-Isländische.
Neither of these papers, which are good enough summaries of accepted knowledge, with fair bibliographies attached, shows any advance; but they will be useful enough to the student who wishes for a general introduction to the subjects treated.
Symons’ paper is based chiefly on Müllenhoff and Wülcker; it has notices of the legends of Beowulf, the Nibelungs, Wolf-Dietrich and the Hardings, Ermanric Theodric, and Attila, Hilda, Waldhere of Burgundy, Wayland, Orwandil, and Iron. The sketch requires to be supplemented by the later work of Vigfússon, Rhys, Rydberg, and by some knowledge of the sculptured representations of the Sigfred, Gunnere, Egil, and Wayland legends in Britain and Scandinavia; for instance, the Leeds Cross contains a different version of the rape of Beaduhild from that in Völundarqurða, while the Egil tragedy is shown upon the Franks casket. Some important identifications are passed over, such as the Eriphyle = Cordelia = Hilda equation pointed out six years ago. Saxo is hardly sufficiently used. Bugge’s “classical borrowing”
- ↑ Strassburg: K. Trübner, 1889.
