No character shows so little the refining influences of
Christianity as does his. In all essential respects he is still
the same old gigantic Teuton, who meets us in the earliest forms
of the legend.

As to the various minor characters, many of which appear only in
the "Nibelungenlied", space will not permit of their discussion
here, although they will be treated of briefly in the notes.
Suffice it to say, that the "Nibelungenlied" has introduced a
number of effective scenes for the purpose of bringing some of
them, especially Folker and Dankwart, into prominence. Among the
best of these are, first, the night watch, when Folker first
plays the Burgundians to sleep with his violin, and then stands
guard with Hagen, thus preventing the surprise planned by
Kriemhild; further, the visit to the church on the following
morning, when the men of both parties clash; and lastly the
tournament between the Huns and the Burgundians, which gives the
author an excellent chance to show the prowess of the various
heroes.

Let us pass now to the consideration of the strophic form of the
"Nibelungenlied". The two Danish ballads of "Grimhild's Revenge"
("Grimhild's Haevn"), which are based upon the first combination
of the Low German, i.e., Saxon, and the Rhenish traditions, prove
that the strophe is considerably older than the preserved
redactions of our poem, and that it was probably of Saxon origin.
The metrical form goes back most probably to the four-accented
verse of the poet Otfrid of the ninth century, although some have
thought that Latin hymns, others that the French epic verse, may
have been of influence. The direct derivation from Otfrid seems,