HKB
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Often appears with: textual criticism · lettsom · language, naming, and meaning · lachmann theory · history and the writing of history
Usually: argument (1) · skepticism (1)
“He [Lachmann] has in fact put every stanza and every verse on its trial.” Anonymous (Volks-epic tradition); special introduction by William H. Carpenter, The Nibelungenlied · observation
“The dream, however, is beyond all doubt the introduction, the fit and appropriate introduction, to a poem that must go on at least to the marriage of Kriemhild and the death of her husband.” Anonymous (Volks-epic tradition); special introduction by William H. Carpenter, The Nibelungenlied · insight
It summarizes Lachmann’s theory that the poem is a patchwork of twenty distinct lays by different authors, largely rejected by critics, and explains why the unity of episodes and abrupt transitions undermine it.
the poem, taking Wolf's Prolegomena to Homer for his model, set up the theory that has since played an important part in the discussion of the genesis of the "Nibelungenlied." According to the Lachmann theory, the poem consists of no less than twenty distinct lays, each differing inherently from the rest, and each, with the exception of the Eighth and Ninth, by different authors. To arrive at this result, more than …