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Vienna (pte055/31.03.2003/17:35) - Historians at an Austrian Abbey have found the oldest existing fragments of the Nibelungen Song, the most famous Germanic text of the Middle Ages.
The ten fragments which date from the 12th century are part of an epic saga that tells of the rise and fall of the Burgundian empire through the adventures of the mythical hero Siegfried. It was later adapted by Richard Wagner in his opera "The Ring of the Nibelungen", which became a favourite propaganda tool of the Nazi movement.
Historian Charlotte Ziegler found the parchments at the library of Stift Zwettl http://www.stift-zwettl.co.at , an abbey about 75 miles north-west of Vienna. They had been placed in a box "probably centuries ago" together with other text fragments from the Medieval times.
Mrs Ziegler, who works as an archivist at Zwettl Abbey, recognised their real value when she was given the box to examine its contents.
Speaking today at the official unveiling of the fragments in Vienna, Mrs Ziegler said: "About ten years ago I was given the box to archive all the handwritten fragments it contained." She said 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 three centimetres by eight centimetres and covered in small handwriting. Mrs Ziegler believes a monk had cut up a formerly larger sheet into small pieces to use for binding books, and the fragments were later removed from the spine and kept for reuse.
Mrs Ziegler said: "I believe the monk did not find the text very interesting and used the parchment for the spine of a new book. The long forgotten fragments are very difficult to decipher but we are absolutely certain the texts are from the Nibelungen," she said.
The fragments, which were passed on to Austrian scholars and are currently being transcribed, include Middle High German terms that are typical for the German epic such as 'Siverit' for 'Siegfried' and 'Swamerole' for minstrel (German: Spielmann)
Dr Karin Lichtblau from Vienna University http://www.univie.ac.at , who is an expert on Old German Literature, said the discovery was a great find even tough it is no clear yet whether the fragments contain a new version of already existing saga of the Nibelungen or whether their content is entirely novel.
She said: "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."
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 rhyme but the recently discovered fragments do not follow this style. Mrs Ziegler said: "The fragments contain the themes of the Nibelungen legend, but in prose, not in verse like in the later written versions of the Nibelungen Saga."
The Song of the Nibelungen is the most important German epic of the Middle Ages and it includes various stories that were orally passed on from generation to generation until the first written version was compiled by an unknown poet around 1210. Five years ago Nibelungen fragments dating back to the 13th century were found in Melk Abbey but Mrs Ziegler says the latest discovery is of the earliest written Nibelungen version. She said: "They are the oldest findings referring to the Nibelungen myth".
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