HKB
drie künege edel unde rich, Gunther unde Gernot, die recken lobelich, und Giselher der iunge, ein uz erwelter degen, diu frouwe was ir swester, die fu'rsten hetens in ir pflegen.
Die herren waren milte, von arde hohe erborn, mit kraft unmazen kuene, die recken uz erkorn, dazen Burgonden so was ir lant genant, si framden starkiu wunder sit in Etzelen lant.
Ze Wormze bidem Rine si wenden mit ir kraft, in diende von ir landen stolziu ritterscaft mit lobelichen eren unz an ir endes zit, sit sturben si inemerliche von zweier edelen frouwen nit.
Some of the final rhymes with proper names, such as "Hagene": "degene" (str. 84) or "Hagene": "tragene" (str. 300) appear to be feminine, but it is really the final "e" that rhymes, and a scansion of the line in question shows that the three accents are not complete without this final "e". In this respect our poem differs from most of the Middle High German poems, as this practice of using the final "e" in rhyme began to die out in the twelfth century, though occasionally found throughout the period. The rhymes are, as a rule, quite exact, the few cases of impure rhymes being mainly those in which short and long vowels are rhymed together, e.g. "mich": "rich" or "man": "han". Caesural rhymes are frequently met with, and were considered by Lachmann to be the marks of interpolated strophes, a view no longer held. A further peculiarity of the "Nibelungen" strophe is the frequent omission of the unaccented syllable in the second half of the last line of the strophe between the second and third stresses. Examples of this will be found in the second, third, and fifth strophes of the passage given above.
The language of the "Nibelungenlied" is the so-called Middle High German, that is, the High German written and spoken in the period between 1100 and 1500, the language of the great romances of chivalry and of the "Minnesingers". More exactly, the poem is written in the Austrian dialect of the close of the twelfth century, but contains many archaisms, which point to the fact of its having undergone a number of revisions.
In closing this brief study of the "Nibelungenlied", just a word or two further with reference to the poem, its character, and its place in German literature. Its theme is the ancient Teutonic ideal of "Treue" (faithfulness or fidelity), which has found here its most magnificent portrayal; faithfulness unto death, the loyalty of the vassal for his lord, as depicted in Hagen, the fidelity of the wife for her husband, as shown by Kriemhild, carried out with unhesitating consistency to the bitter end. This is not the gallantry of medieval chivalry, which colors so largely the opening scenes of the poem, but the heroic valor, the death-despising stoicism of the ancient Germans, before which the masters of the world, the all-conquering Romans, were compelled to bow.