This in brief is the story of Siegfried, as it has been handed
down to us in the Skandinavian sources. It is universally
acknowledged that this version, though more original than the
Gorman tradition, does not represent the simplest and most
original form of the tale; but what the original form was, has
long been and still is a matter of dispute. Two distinctly
opposite views are held, the one seeing in the story the
personification of the forces of nature, the other, scouting the
possibility of a mythological interpretation, seeks a purely
human origin for the tale, namely, a quarrel among relatives for
the possession of treasure. The former view is the older, and
obtained almost exclusively at one time. The latter has been
gaining ground of recent years, and is held by many of the
younger students of the legend. According to the mythological
view, the maiden slumbering upon the lonely heights is the sun,
the wall of flames surrounding her the morning red
("Morgenrote"). Siegfried is the youthful day who is destined to
rouse the sun from her slumber. At the appointed time he
ascends, and before his splendor the morning red disappears. He
awakens the maiden; radiantly the sun rises from its couch and
joyously greets the world of nature. But light and shade are
indissolubly connected; day changes of itself into night. When
at evening the sun sinks to rest and surrounds herself once more
with a wall of flames, the day again approaches, but no longer in
the youthful form of the morning to arouse her from her slumber,
but in the sombre shape of Gunther, to rest at her side. Day has
turned into night; this is the meaning of the change of forms.
The wall of flame vanishes, day and sun descend into the realm of
darkness. Under this aspect the Siegfried story is a day myth;
but under another it is a myth of the year. The dragon is the