MISCELLANEA.
The Nibelung Treasure in English.
References to the Nibelung story are not frequent in early English literature, and they are all old (Beowulf, Widsith) except possibly a reference in Sir Degrevant, which has apparently not yet been noticed:
Y hade leve she were myne
Thane alle the gold in the Reyne
ffausoned one florene,
She is myne so dere.
The gold of Rhine can hardly be anything but the hoard of the Nibelungs. How it came down to a fifteenth-century English scribe, whether by continuous tradition from the old times or by later communication with Germany, may be left as a problem.
Some Highland Folklore.
In the spring of 1896 I received from a native of Farr, Sutherlandshire, a few notes on some traditions of the district, "told by most respectable and trustworthy people—stories which they said came under their own observation." Finding that two or three of these were fairly interesting, I afterwards got him to tell them over in Gaelic, which I took down at the time, retaining as far as possible the peculiarities of his dialect. As so little has been done in the way of printing local Gaelic, I append some of the originals to the English translations.[1]
- ↑ Those acquainted with Gaelic will notice considerable uncertainty with regard to the forms of some words; this is due to the speaker himself, who may have been trying at times to conform his dialect to the usual literary standard. It will also be noticed that a principle akin to eclipsis in Irish,
