223 



NIBELUNGENLIED NICARAGUA. 



rsl Form, from the Manuscript of St Gall, with a 

 Comparison of the other Manuscripts. The second 

 edition, with a dictionary and notes, was published 

 at Frankfort on the Maine (1824), in two volumes. 

 To the works on this poem belong Gottling's Ueber 

 das Geschichtliche im Nibelungenliedc (Rudolstadt, 

 1814), and his Nibelungen itnd Gibellinen (Rudol- 

 stadt, 1816) ; Charles Lachmann, Ueber die urs- 

 prilngliche Gestalt des Gedichts von der Nibelungen 

 NotA (Berlin, 1816), and the edition of the poem 

 itself by the same. There is also an edition by 

 Hinsberg; an unsuccessful translation, in prose, by 

 Zeune; a metrical translation, carefully following 

 the original, by Busching (1815) ; and one by Sim- 

 rock (Berlin, 1827). See A. W. von Schlegel's 

 opinion, in the Deutsches Museum (i. 67); Mone's 

 Einleitung in das Nibelungen-Lied (Heidelberg, 

 1818) ; Von der Hagen Die Nibelungen, ihre Bedeu- 

 tung fiir die Gegenwart und rmmer (Breslau, 1819) ; 

 his preface to his edition and translation of the Edda 

 Songs (18171814), and of ihe IVblsungasaga (1813 

 1815). See also Grimm's Anmerkungen zu den 

 altdiinischen Heldenliedcrn, and Miiller's Sagabib- 

 liothek. 



German critics speak highly of the Nibelungenlied, 

 and prefer it in many respects to the Iliad. The 

 language of the Iliad is, they admit, superior to that 

 of the Nibelungenlied, both as to the idiom itself and 

 the mastership with which the Greek poet wields it, 

 though the German epic has a childlike and vene- 

 rable simplicity. On the other hand, they argue, 

 that the plan of the latter is vastly superior to that 

 of the former. It is a great plan, from beginning to 

 end, and embraces a whole event ; the Iliad but a 

 part of an event ; though we do not deny a unity of 

 plan to the Greek poem, whether this was original, 

 or only the work of a later age, which joined together 

 disconnected rhapsodies. The heroes of the Nibel- 

 ungenlied deserve the name for their characters, as 

 well as their deeds. Characters are developed in 

 this poem as in a drama of Shakspeare, whilst we 

 find little of this in the Iliad, excepting, perhaps, in 

 the case of Achilles. The difference, too, between 

 the chief heroes of the two poems, is striking. 

 Achilles is a grand, but a wilful and violent charac- 

 ter, whilst Siegfried is noble in action, pure in soul, 

 and full of love. In both poems, the chief hero 

 appears but for a short time. The Iliad does not 

 bring him prominently forward till late hi the action, 

 while the Nibelungenlied soon removes him from the 

 stage ; yet, in both poems, the whole action turns 

 upon this individual. The Iliad celebrates friend- 

 ship, in the instance of its first hero, as one of the 

 highest blessings of mortals ; in the other epic, 

 secondary heroes illustrate the beauty of this con- 

 nexion. In the former, the world of gods is an 

 essential element of the whole poem ; in the latter, 

 this element is entirely wanting. The Iliad abounds 

 in descriptions of scenes and actions ; the Nibelun- 

 genlied describes but little ; yet German painters, of 

 the first rank, justly consider this epic as of a plastic 

 character throughout. The rhyme in the German 

 poem would, of itself, prevent so easy a flow of nar- 

 rative as distinguishes the Homeric epic ; yet it 

 never misleads the German poet into affected point 

 or rounded phrase, such as we so often meet in the 

 more modem poems ; for instance, in Tasso. The 

 origin of the whole catastrophe, in both poems, is 

 love; but what a difference is there in the love 

 depicted, and the use made of it, in the two poems ! 

 The lover in the Iliad appears like a boy, who is 

 very properly scolded for his impetuosity by his 

 relations. The love of Siegfried is of the noblest 

 kind the love of a hero. In the Iliad, love soon 

 ceases to be the prominent agent ; in the Nibelun- 



genlied, it i, throughout the source of the action. 

 The Iliad ends early, and does not even carry us to 

 the death of Achilles, which the poem predicts, in so 

 many passages, as near ; nay, for which it prepares 

 us in that charming passage in which Patroclus 

 requests his friend to let the ashes of both repose in 

 the same urn. The poet seems to be afraid of 

 becoming too tragical. The Nibelungenlied exter- 

 minates a whole tribe, leaving only a few to mourn 

 the tragic end : and what a scene of mourning ! how 

 simple and solemn ! Both the poems, with the sim- 

 plicity of early times, describe the approach of all 

 important events, and the reader is never surprised 

 by unexpected turns ; but the interest is not lessened 

 by this. Homer appears individually in his poem 

 much more than the poet of the Nibelungen, as, for 

 instance, in his frequent appeals to the muses for 

 assistance, and in the epithets which he gives to each 

 hero, and which recall to the mind of the reader the 

 idea of an observer and narrator. The German poet 

 never appears himself; he neither gives epithets to 

 his heroes, nor implores heavenly assistance. The 

 great tragedy unfolds without visible intervention. 

 The genius of the poet, or poets of the Homeric 

 songs appears mostly in the narration, the concep- 

 tion of the plan being not remarkable, and the 

 characters having little heroic about them, except 

 the mighty force with which they hurl their spears, 

 and requiring continually the direct interference of 

 the gods. Pallas must take the 'reins, Apollo inter- 

 pose his shield, &c. It is therefore the story which 

 delights in Homer. In the Nibelungenlied, the 

 greatness of the poet appears more from the plan, 

 and the masterly manner in which the characters 

 are brought out and sustained, and less in the de- 

 scription and narrative. Yet how full of life, how 

 clear every thing happens before you! If we 

 include, in our comparison, the Odyssey, we may 

 say that both the Greek and the German poets make 

 a grave impression. A whole heroic race perishes 

 in the latter ; and, after having read it through, you 

 feel, for a moment, inclined to ask, Why aid the 

 world continue to roll on ? Such a tragic picture of 

 life leaves a different impression from the Greek 

 poet's dark views of human destiny, as shown, for 

 instance, in Ulysses's visit to the departed. How 

 disheartening is the effect of the scenes of pining 

 discontent which he meets there ! a life of labour 

 succeeded by an eternity of gloom. Listen to 

 Achilles's confession in the realm of the dead. 



NICANDER, a learned Greek physician and poet 

 at the court of Pergamus, about 160 years B. C., 

 was born, according to some accounts, at Colophon. 

 Two of his poems are still extant TAeriaca, upon 

 poisonous animals, and the remedies against their 

 bite ; and Alexipharmaca. upon antidotes in general. 

 Both are important in natural history. The best 

 editions are those of Gomeus (Paris, 1557, 4to), of 

 Salvinus (Florence, 1764), and of J. G. Schneider 

 (Halle, 1792). 



NICARAGUA; one of the states of the Guatimalcan 

 confederacy (see Central America), lying between the 

 Caribbean sea on the east, and the Pacific on the 

 west, the state of Honduras on the north, and that 

 of Costa Rica on the south. The chief place is 

 Leon, about thirteen miles from the Pacific (32,000 

 inhabitants), situated on a lake of the same name, 

 which communicates with the lake Nicaragua. The 

 population of the state, in 1824, was about 175,000. 

 The soil is fertile in tropical fruits, cocoa, sugar, 

 indigo, cotton, linen, &c. The country is well 

 wooded, and the forests yield valuable dyewoods 

 and gums. Silver mines, and the gold of the rivers, 

 furnish the inhabitants, who are very ingenious in 

 goldsmith's work, with the materials for their trade. 







