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 ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
GERMAN LITERATURE

Volume 18

HEROIC LEGENDS OF THE NORTH

HEROIC LEGENDS OF THE NORTH
An Introduction to the Nibelung and
Dietrich Cycles

EDWARD R. HAYMES AND

SUSANN T. SAMPLES
First published in 1996 by Garland Publishing Inc
This edition first published in 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1996 Edward R. Haymes and Susann T. Samples
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-367-41588-4 (Set)

ISBN: 978-1-00-301460-7 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-43984-2 (Volume 18) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-43988-0 (Volume 18) (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-00-300693-0 (Volume 18) (ebk)

Publisher’s Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but
points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome
correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
HEROIC LEGENDS
OF THE NORTH

GARLAND REFERENCE L I B R A R Y OF THE H U M A N I T I E S

VOLUME 1403
THE DEATH OF SIEGFRIED (From Lienhart Scheubel's Heldenbuch, 15th century)
MS 15478, Folio 291 recto, Austrian National Library, Vienna.
HEROIC LEGENDS
OF THE NORTH
AN I N T R O D U C T I O N
TO THE N l B E L U N G
AND DIETRICH CYCLES

EDWARD R. HAYMES
SUSANN T. SAMPLES

G A R L A N D P U B L I S H I N G , INC.
NEW YORK AND L O N D O N
1996
Copyright © 1996 by Edward R. Haymes and Susann T. Samples
All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Haymes, Edward, 1940-

Heroic legends of the North : an introduction to the Nibelung and
Dietrich cycles / by Edward R. Haymes and Susann T. Samples.
p. cm. — (Garland reference library of the humanities ; vol.1403)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8153-0033-6 (alk. paper)
1. German poetry—Middle High German, 1050-1500—History and
criticism. 2. Epic poetry, German—History and criticism. 3. Old Norse
poetry—History and criticism. 4. Nibelungen—Legends—History and
criticism. 5. Dietrich, von Bern—Legends—History and criticism.
I. Samples, Susann T. II. Title. III. Series.
PT204.H38 1996
830—dc20 96-5800
CIP

Cover illustration: Sigurd Stabbing the Dragon Fdfnir (from the Hylestad Stave
Church) Museum of National Antiquities, Oslo, Norway.

Printed on acid-free, 250-year-life paper

Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents

Preface ix
A Note on Languages and Alphabets x
Chronological Chart xi

Abbreviations xix

PART ONE: BACKGROUND 1

The Germanic Legends 3

The Medieval Literary Versions 5
The Hero, Heroic Poetry, and the Heroic Age 7
The Germanic Peoples and Their Heroic Tradition 8
Germanic Among the European Language Families 8
The Germanic Peoples 9
The Heroic Legends 11
Formation and Transmission of Heroic Legend 11
The First Stage: Eyewitness Reports 12
The Second Stage: Oral Epic Poetry 12
The Third Stage: Medieval Literature 13

Historical Background 15
The Roman Empire in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Centuries 15
Errnanaric 18
The Burgundians on the Rhine 18
Attila 19
Theoderic the Great 20
Brunhild 21

Historical Sources 25
Primary Historical Sources 25
Lex Rurgundionum 25
V
 Jordanes 25
Gregory the Great 26
Gregory of Tours 26
Gesta Theoderici 27
Medieval Chronicles 29
Quedlinburg Annals 29
Frutolf von Michelsberg 31
Kaiserchronik 32
Other High Medieval Historical Sources 33

Oral Transmission 35
Epic Theory from the Nineteenth Century 35
Oral Poetry 37
Germanic Oral Narrative Poetry 39
The Common Form 40
The Development of the Middle High German Form 42
The Special Case of Old Norse 43
The Oral Transmission of Germanic Heroic Legend 45

PART TWO: LITERARY WORKS 51

Literary Works 53

Table of Motifs 54

Traces in Early Literature 57

Deor and Widsip 57
WulfandEadwacer 59
Beowulf 59
Walther and Hildegund 60
Waltharius 61
Waldere 62
Walther und Htidegtnt 63
Valtari (in the Pitirekssaga) 63
Wayland (Wieland, Velent) die Smith 63
Volundarkmtla 63
Velent's Story (from the Nftrekssaga) 64

The Dietrich Legend 67

Pidrekssaga of Bern (The Saga of Eidrek of Bern) 68
Hildebrandslied^ Older and Younger 75
Das Buck von Bern (Dietrichs Fluent) 77
Rabenschlacht 79
Alpharts Tod 81
vi
 The poems in Bernerton 82
Virginal 82
Eckenliet 84
Ekka (in die Pidrekssaga) 87
Sigenot 87
Goldetnar 89
BiterolfundDietleip 89
Laurin 92
Walberan 94
Dietrich und Wm^elan 95
D<?r Wundenr 96
lELrmenrikes Dot 97
Heldenbuch Prose 98

Hie Nibelung Legend 101

Nibelungenlied 101
DiuKIage 111
Sigurd's Youth and Murder in the Pidrekssaga 113
Volsungasaga 114
Nomagests Pattr 117
Niflunga saga in the Ndrekssaga 118
Poetic Edda 119
Helgi Hundingsbani 120
Sigurd and Brynhild 121
Gudrun 123
Oddrun 124
Adi 124
YLamftismdl 126
SnorraEdda 126
^osengarten %u Worms 127
D*r L?W ^ow H«f»«* ^Q5/^V 129

Related Legends 133

Wolfdietrich-Ortnit 133
Orftw/ 133
Wolfdietrich D(B) 134
Wolfdietrich A 135
Wolfdietrich C 135
Kudrun 136
R0//W 140

Glossary of Names 145

Index 159

vii
Preface

Most English-speakers have a vague knowledge, probably derived directly or

indirectly from Wagner, about the Nibelung legend, while the legend of Dietrich
of Bern, certainly the most popular heroic material in medieval Germany, is
largely unknown west of the English Channel. This book sets out to provide
information for the general reader curious about these legendary matters and for
the student setting out to find an entry into an often impenetrable secondary
literature. The authors have sought to provide reliable information about the
texts themselves and bibliographical guidance that will point the way into the
published research on them.
This book sets out to trace its two major legendary topics from their
historical roots during the last centuries of the Roman Empire to the medieval
texts that make them known to us. There is no attempt to reconstruct lost
literary versions or, except as an aid to orientation, to retell the stories in modem
form. We have also decided to end the book with the last medieval versions of
the material. A treatment of the Nibelung material from the eighteenth century
to the present would be fascinating, but it would have unbalanced this book.
Many of the medieval texts have never been translated into English or even
modern German. For this reason we have included a synopsis of each work so
that the reader can form an idea of the content of the literary works in question.
There are many directions a study of Germanic heroic legend could have
taken, but we have chosen a text-oriented approach that does very little in the
way of situating the works in their social and political historical background. We
have avoided theoretical issues that would have carried us beyond the scope of a
handy orientation for readers and students. We have, however, included much in
our bibliographical listings that will take the reader into the theoretical questions
surrounding the study of these works.
One area of theory we could not avoid is the theory of oral poetic
composition. This was necessary because few of our texts would have come into
being without oral transmission and because the legends themselves are the
product of an oral culture. Insofar as the theory of oral composition is still
controversial, we have tried to cite scholarship offering views different from
those presented here.
The nature of the material and its attendant scholarship makes it inevitable
that a large amount of the bibliographical material cited here is in German.
Although every effort has been made to find texts and secondary literature in
English, we have chosen to include much of die recent and classic treatment of
this area among German-speaking scholars.
Both authors have worked on the entire book, so that a clear division of
responsibility is impossible, but the initial work on various parts of the book was
parceled out in a way to make the best use of the authors' different backgrounds.
The introductory matter and the sections on Old English, Old Norse, Old High
German, and Latin texts were drafted by Edward Haymes, while the studies of
Middle High German literature were prepared by Susann Samples. The authors
are grateful to their colleagues and friends who have read the manuscript in
various stages of development and offered useful suggestions and corrections.
Acknowledgments are due Laura Blanchard and Mary Gustavson Small for many
useful suggestions based on an early draft and to Bernard Bachrach, Bruce
Beatie, and Stephanie Van D'Elden for reading through a penultimate draft. The
authors remain responsible for any errors, of course, but these colleagues and
friends have saved us from many a gaffe. Edward Haymes has been enabled to
carry out some of the work on this book through a sabbatical leave from
Cleveland State University and a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt
Foundation in Bonn.

A NOTE ON LANGUAGES AND ALPHABETS

The literary works and historical sources discussed in this book are written in
many different languages: Latin, Old and Middle High German, Old English, and
Old Norse. Old English and Old Norse use several letters in addition to the
usual Latin alphabet used for modern English. The most common of these are P
and S, both of which represent "th" sounds. Modern Icelandic uses the P to
represent the voiceless sound in "thin" and <? to represent the voiced sound in
"this." Old Norse texts generally follow this usage. Old English texts seem to
use the two letters without differentiation. Most vowel sounds in all die
languages used follow the pattern of Latin or modem German. An acute accent
0 is used in Old Norse to mark vowel length. Dieresis ("Umlaut** as in #ber) is
used in Norse and German to mark the rounding of vowels.
When discussing Germanic legend (Le, legend known beyond a single
national literature) we have used the modern German spelling of the names,
since they are best known in that form. In the discussion of specific literary
sources, we have used the spellings found in die best editions. When discussing
historical figures, die most usual spelling found in historical literature in English
is generally used. We have indicated the few departures from this practice in
footnotes.

CHRONOLOGICAL CHART
This book covers more than a thousand years of poorly mapped history. In order
to give, our readers some help in finding their way through this wilderness, we
have provided a chronological table that puts most of the events and most of the
literary works discussed here in a European and world context. We have not
tried to include die very late works that are found only hi printed materials of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, since the dating of these works is problematic
at best.
The selection of external events and literary works in the table is not
intended to be complete, but only to provide orientation points for the general
reader.
All dates are A.D. unless otherwise indicated.
 WORLD HISTORY GERMANIC HISTORY
Germanic setdement in northern
Han Dynasty in China
Europe (c. 1000 B.C-c. 100 B.C.)
(200 B.C.-220 A.D.)
Axumite cities in Ethiopia
(c. 300 B.C-400 A.D.)

Roman Empire (27 B.C. - 476 A.D.)

Olmec and Chavin culture
(1-1000) Batde at Teutoburg Forest
(c.9)

Gupta Dynasty in India Death of Ermanaric (375)

(320-540)

"Barbarian" invasion of Roman

Burgundians become, allied troops to
Empire
Rome (413)
(300-600)

Mayan culture Destruction of Burgundians by

(300-900) Roman and Hunnish Army (436)

Huns stopped at Batde of Chalon

Fall of Western Empire
(451) Death of Attila (453)
(476)
Eastern Empire continues until 1453.

Theoderic the Great (r.493-526)

Muhammed
(570-432) Clovis (r. 481-511)

Tang Dynasty Merovingian Franks

(618-907) (486-751)
Langobards in Italy (568-774)
 GERMANIC LITERATURE WORLD LITERATURE
Homer (8th cent. B.C.)

Virgil (70-19 B.C.)

Gothic translation of Bible Plays and poetry of Kalidasa (320-540)

(c. 369)

Jordartes History of the Goths (551) Boethius Consolation of Philosophy (524)

Gregory of Tours History of the

Franks (-594)

Wickip (late 7th century?)

 WORLD HISTORY GERMANIC HISTORY

Arab Caliphates Carolingian Dynasty

(661-1258) (751-911)

Moslem defeat at Tours Charlemagne

(732) (768-814)

Kingdom of Ghana (c.700-1000)

Treaty of Verdun (843)

Harald Fairhair (Norway, c. 870-930)

Settlement of Iceland (c. 870)

Sung Dynasty Alfred the Great (871-899)

(960-1279) Saxon Dynasty in Germany (919-1024)

Otto the Great (936-973)

Cliristianization of Iceland (1000)

Franconian Dynasty in Germany

(1024-1125)

First Crusade (1095-1099) Norrman Conquest (1066)

Henry IV at Canossa (1077)

Hohenstaufen Dynasty in Germany

(1138-1254)

Kingdom of Mali (c.1100-1300) Frederick Barharossa (1152-1190)

Genghis Khan (1167-1227)
 GERMANIC LITERATURE WORLD LITERATURE

Bede Ecclesiastical History of the English

People (731)

Hildebrandslied (c. 810-830) Chinese poet Tu Fu (d. 770)

Heliand(c. 830)

Uidwgslied^V)

Waltharius (late 9th century?)

Beowutf(c. 1000?) Genji Monogatari (c. 1000)

Chanson de Roland (c. 1100)

Cantardelmo Cid (c. 1150).

Chretien de Troyes (c. 1160-1195)

Kaiserchronik (c. 1150) Marie de France (late 12th cent.)

R0Akr(c.ll50)
 WORLD HISTORY GERMANIC HISTORY

Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) Philip of Swabia (1198-1208)

Otto IV (1208-1212)

Magna Carta (1215)

Frederick II (1212-1250)

Hakon the Old (Norway, 1216-1263)

Yuan Dynasty (1260-1360)

Interregnum in Germany
(1254-1263)

Iceland joined to Norway (1264)

 GERMANIC LITERATURE WORLD LITERATURE

Hartmann von Aue (1170-1215)

Nibelungenlied (c.1200)

Gottfried von StraBburg

Tristan (c. 1210)

Wolfram von Eschenbach Pangval

(c. 1200-1210)

Walther von der Voselweide

& ~ .„ , T . 0 » / T>
..._...__.. Guillaunie de Loms, Roman de la Rose,
(1170-1230)
D*#K%(c.l220)
Snorri Sturluson Prar<? Ed&/ (c.1220)

Kjy^w (1230-1240)
£^»//W(c.l250)

Lflwmr (c.1250)
Walberan (c.1250)

D/^nV^ «»</ Wensglan (c.1250)

Rasettgarten %u Worms (c.1250)

Thidrekssaga (c.1250)
AlphartsTod (c.1250)

Jgww/(c.1250)
Goldtmar (c.1250)

jB«fA w« Btf-w (after 1250) c t-^r/ TT ^ ^ ^ / IOC-A

„ . , , , \r ^r-^ Saadi The Fruit Garden v(c. 1257)
y
Rabenschlacht (after 1250)

K/^W (after 1250)

BitervlfundDietleip (c. 1260)

Poetic Edda(c, 1250)

Volsungasaga (c. 1270)
Abbreviations

AS>dG Amsterdamer Beitrdge %ur dlteren Germanistik

AGSN W#%. side*" d# geschach:' American-German Studies on the Nibebtngenhed. Eds.

Werner Wunderlich and Ulrtch Miiller. Goppingen: Kiimmerle, 1992.

BGDSL Beitrdge %ur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Uteratur

DV^LG Deutsche Vierfeljabresschriftjhr L2ferafar»>issewcbaft nnd Geistesgeschichte

HH Heldensage und Heldendichtung im Germanischen. ed. Heinrich Beck.

Erganzungsbande zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 2.
Berlin: de Gmyter, 1988.

HS Hohenemser Studien %um Nibe/ungentied, a special number of M&ntfort:

Vierteljahressckrifl Jur Geschichte und Gegemvart Vararlbergs, 32 (1980).
Pagination follows that of the single volume.

INibebmghi GoUoquio Italo-Germanico suUa tema I Nibelunghi. Atti dei convegni Lincei.
Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1974.

JEGP journal oj English and Germanic Philology

JFI Journal of the Folklore Institute

MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica

AfLJV Modern language Notes

MLR Modern Language R«««i'

PN Nibetungentied und KJage: Sage und Geschichte, Struktur und Gattung: Passauer
Nibefangengesprache 1985. Ed Fnt2 Peter Knapp. Heidelberg: Winter, 1987.

PSMA. Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle Ages: The Seventh International Saga Conference.
Ed. Teresa Paroli. Spoleto: Presso la sede del Centro Studia, 1990.

WW Wirkendes Wort

ZDA Zeitschrift fur deutsches Attertum und deutsche LJteratur

ZDP Zeitschrift Jur deutsche Philologie

xix
Part One:

BACKGROUND
CHAPTER 1
The Germanic Legends

The legend of Dietrich of Bern was medieval Germany's closest parallel to the
legends of King Arthur in Britain and Charlemagne in France. Dietrich became
the central figure in a wide variety of stories, most of which have absolutely no
connection to the historical figure on whom Dietrich is based, the Ostrogothic
king Theoderic the Great (c.453—526) The Dietrich of legend is associated with
the Italian city Verona, the name of which appears in medieval texts as "Bern/' a
name which has no connection to the present Swiss capital. The historical
Theodoric made his capital in Ravenna, where his mausoleum can still be seen.
The story medieval audiences considered to be historical told of Dietrich's
exile from his rightful lands, his thirty years with Attila the Hun, and his eventual
return. Far more popular, however, were the fantastic adventures that featured
Dietrich and his chief vassal, Hildebrand, in conflict with giants, dwarfs, and
dragons.
The "Nibelung" legend actually combines several stories. The first of these
involves the youth, marriage, and murder of Siegfried. There is no known
historical source for Siegfried and his story, although there have been numerous
attempts to associate him with various historical figures. The thirteenth-century
poets and their audiences knew that Siegfried was raised in the wilds by a smith,
that he killed a dragon and gained a great treasure, that he had some relationship
to the supernatural princess Brunhild, that he violated that relationship and
married the courtly princess Kriemhild, sister of Gunther, Gernot, and Giselher.
As a condition for being allowed to marry Kriemhild, he helped Gunther win
Brunhild. The tension between the two queens, Kriemhild and Brunhild, led to
Siegfried's murder.
The second story has to do with Kriemhild's later marriage to Attila the Hun.
Attila invited his brothers-in-law to a great feast and killed them along with all

In the following the name Dietrich will be used to refer to the legendary figure and
Theoderic to refer to the historical king. All of the legendary figures referred to in this
introduction are identified in the Glossary of Names at the end of this book.
their entourage when they would not give up Siegfried's treasure. There are two
mutually exclusive versions of this story, but the result is the same. In the one
version Kriemhild invited her brothers in order to gain vengeance for Siegfried.
In the other she killed Attila and all of his men in order to avenge her brothers,
whom Attila had invited out of avarice.
These sketchy outlines are already problematic, since the different versions
available in medieval texts vary so much. Many readers will have Wagner's
version of the stories in the back of their minds as well. Instead of trying to
harmonize the versions into a single unified legend, we will present the medieval
stories in all their diversity. Some of the differences result from the different
historical situations out of which the versions come. A simple example involves
the number of players in each version. The German Nibelungenlied was written
around 1200 against die background of German imperial politics, and the final
battle brings more than twenty thousand men to their death. In one of the Norse
versions of the Attila story, the Atlamdl^ which may have been composed
somewhat earlier on the lonely shores of Greenland, only two members of
Kriemhild's family come to Attila's family to meet their death.
It is also difficult to say why these particular legends became the backbone of
medieval Germanic traditional storytelling. We have evidence that the medieval
storytellers knew other stories, but these are the ones that formed the nexus of
legendary history. As the Middle Ages progressed, most legendary material was
somehow integrated into the Nibelung and Dietrich framework. The story of
Wieland the smith, for example, becomes a part of the Dietrich legend when
Wieland's son Witige becomes a member of Dietrich's court. Finally the two
legends are combined in the Nibelungenlied and the Pidrekssaga so that the
Nibelung legend becomes a part of Dietrich's career.
The one element most of the stories have in common is conflict within
families. If it is not present in the sources, it is added within the poetic tradition.
The oldest surviving legendary poem in any Germanic language (the
Hildebrandslied) tells of a battle, presumably to the death, between father and son.
Dietrich's enemy is usually portrayed as his paternal uncle, although there is no
historical basis for this idea. Siegfried is killed by his in-laws.
The literary presentations make it clear that there were two very strong
bonds within Germanic society, those of blood relationship and those to the lord
of the war-band. The most powerful tragic situation in the society must have
been conflict between these two kinds of loyalty. We can imagine the tellers of
these stories in oral tradition playing heavily on this kind of conflict in order to
sharpen the effect of the stories, much as Shakespeare personalized the conflicts
within the Wars of the Roses to make his history plays powerful on the human as
well as on the historical level. The conflicts that drive the Nibelung and Dietrich
legends are as universal as those that drive the Greek tragedies or modem soap
operas. It is the individual poetic representation in the medieval works of

4 HEROIC LEGENDS OF THE NORTH

literature that makes these legends special and it is those medieval works of
literary art that will occupy much of our attention in what follows. At the same
time we cannot lose track of die tradition and the way die various works relate to
it.

THE MEDIEVAL LITERARY VERSIONS

The first connected written version of the Nibelung legend is the Nibelungenlied^
composed in southern Germany around 1200, and the first connected written
version of the story of Dietrich is the Pidrekssaga af Bern, compiled in Norway
approximately a half-century later. Bodi assume something like the form of the
legend presented below.
From thirteenth-century Iceland we have a collection of heroic poems about
the Nibelung legends known as the Poetic Edda. The story of Siegfried's family
is also told in a later (fourteenth-century) prose narrative, also from Iceland,
called the Vohungasaga. There are written traces of Germanic heroic legend prior
to these high medieval literary works, but they do not actually tell the stories, the
sources merely refer to them. An example of this is the reference to the legend
of Sigmund in die Old English epic Beouw/f discussed below on p. 60. In the
following chapters we shall look at the evidence pointing to earlier versions of
the legends that emerges from historical documents from the fifth to the twelfth
century.
When we speak of die Nibelung legend and particularly of the Dietrich
legend we are actually describing a wide range of stories, most of which originally
had nothing to do with each other. The Pidrekssaga in particular brings together
many different stories, including the Nibelung legend itself, by relating them to
the single figure of Dietrich of Bern. The ease with which poets could refer to
these stories makes it clear that not only the singers of tales but also their
audiences knew the outline of what we might call a "heroic history" of the
Germanic past. We shall explore this heroic history as it presents itself to us in
many very different written versions.
Perhaps it will make the task of sorting out the many different versions of
our legends somewhat easier if we lay out in some detail the course of the
legendary '^history" that gives structure to the medieval literary versions. Each
individual medieval poem or saga takes its place within this framework. Any
medieval author attempting a Dietrich or Nibelung poem would know where the
events of that poem would fit into die "history." This outline resembles the
Pidrekssaga because that is virtually die only attempt in medieval literature to
cover the whole story from beginning to end. (The names follow the modem
German forms.)

r\

The Poetic Edda also contains mythological poems about the Norse gods and their
history. The section dealing with human events, however, is almost entirely devoted to
stories of the Volsungs, the family of Siegfried /Sigurd.

THE GERMANIC LEGENDS

 Dietrich of Bern rules over his kingdom in northern Italy. The young
king's fame spreads far and wide and he attracts die greatest heroes of his
time to his court. He is eventually involved in a power struggle with his
uncle Ermanrich, king of Rome. Ermanrich drives Dietrich and his men
from his kingdom. Dietrich and most of his heroes find refuge at the
court of die king of Hunland, Etzel (Attila). (Hunland is located variously
in northern and eastern Europe.) After many years of exile Dietrich
makes an attempt to retake his kingdom. He is victorious but the loss of
EtzePs young sons and his own brother in the battle so demoralizes him
that he returns to Hunland in apparent defeat.
While Dietrich is establishing himself as the foremost king of his
time, Young Siegfried is being raised by a smith in the woods. He kills a
dragon and wins a vast treasure. He then finds a warrior princess named
Brunhild who predicts his future. The two heroic figures agree to marry.
Meanwhile the brothers Gunther, Giselher, and Gemot have
established themselves at Worms on the Rhine as kings of the
Burgundians (also called Nibelungs). Young Siegfried arrives at their
court and seeks the hand of their sister Kriemhild. Gunther agrees to the
match if Siegfried will help him win the warrior maiden Brunhild.
Siegfried does so, violating his earlier oath to marry Brunhild. Brunhild
eventually manages to incite some members of Gun tiler's court to kill
Siegfried. The brothers plot against Siegfried and kill him by stabbing him
in the back with a spear. The murder takes place by a spring in the forest
(or in the hero's bed). In some versions it is Hagen who kills Siegfried, in
others it is Gemot (who is killed by the dying hero).
The widowed Kriemhild marries Etzel (Attila) and invites her
brothers to a festival that turns into a slaughter as Etzel seeks to find out
where Siegfried's treasure has been hidden. Dietrich and his men are
eventually brought into the battle and they take part on Etzel's side. After
all the Burgundian kings are killed, Kriemhild exacts vengeance on Etzel
for killing her brothers. (In the Nibelungenlied she exacts vengeance on her
brothers for the murder of her husband, and Etzel is virtually blameless
in the matter.)
Several years after the slaughter of the Burgundians, Dietrich decides
to return to his kingdom and retake it from Ermanrich. As the two
armies face each other, Dietrich's weapons-master Hildebrand
encounters his son in single combat and is forced to kill him (or is
reconciled with him). Dietrich recovers his kingdom and reigns for many
years before being spirited off to Hell on the back of a magnificent black
horse that appears next to the pool where Dietrich had been bathing. The
age of heroes is at an end.

6 HEROIC LEGENDS OF THE NORTH

 This is more or less the backbone of the story as it existed in oral tradition
from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. We have ignored the stories that violate
the basic structure here, but we will certainly discuss them as we move from a
general consideration of the legendary world to a discussion of the individual
works that transmit that world to us.
As we shall see below in our treatment of the Volsungasaga and the Poetic
ILdda^ there was a northern branch of this tradition, mainly in Iceland, that
emphasized Siegfried's family much more than the Burgundians and expanded a
number of episodes far beyond what we see above. The summary of the
Volsungasaga on pp. 114ff. shows the outlines of the Northern versions.

THE HERO, HEROIC POETRY, AND THE HEROIC AGE

Virtually all the poetry and prose discussed in this book belongs to the category
generally called "heroic" poetry. The center of heroic poetry is the extraordinary
individual, the hero, who stands above his contemporaries in physical and moral
strength. There may be slight differences in the code of behavior expected of
heroes in different cultures, but physical courage and strength seem to be
common to all of them. Some cultures place more emphasis on the mental ability
of the hero, his ability to outwit his enemies (Odysseus, Leminkainen), but this is
probably a secondary phenomenon and it is by no means universal.
Heroes are the products of narrative. This means that the study of literature
that is identified as heroic literature must be to some extent a study of the
transformation of a historical human being into a hero. The process is, of course,
lost to us in most cases described in this book, but we can observe the
widespread existence of hero patterns in literatures around die world.
A number of scholars have observed the similarities in biography among
heroes in many different literatures. Archer Taylor has given a convenient
summary of these patterns in his essay "The Biographical Pattern in Heroic
Literature." We can observe that many heroes have a questionable or marvelous
birth and youth. Siegfried's birth is told in several different ways in different
sources, but most versions include his youth as an apprentice smith in the forest
where he eventually kills a dragon. Hagen is said to be born as the result of a
visitation of his royal mother by an incubus.
Heroic behavior can lead to disaster as well as success, and much heroic
narrative is tragic in its tone and outcome. Achilles, Leonidas, Hagen (in the
Nibelungenlied), Roland, Custer, and Davy Crockett all share the tragic qualities

-j
There are, for example, many stones of Dietrich's youth, such as the Eckenlied and the
Virginal, that do not clearly fit into the generally accepted biography of Dietrich the king.

THE GERMANIC LEGENDS

that mark the doomed hero. They are men of great courage—in fact they seem to
mock death—and they know that they are doomed to die. They can only be
overcome by overwhelming forces, and their deaths often inspire their respective
peoples to vengeance and victory. Siegfried is, as we shall see, something of an
exception to most of these generalizations, but the general notion of hero applies
to him as well as to the others.
In his study of the development of the Custer legend, Bruce Rosenberg has
shown that the hero is developed not in his actual deeds, but in the narratives of
those deeds. Ouster's story quickly took the form of what Rosenberg calls the
"epic of defeat" as it made its way into newspaper accounts and popular books
on the battie. The facts of the battle fitted themselves quickly into the narrative
pattern expected of a heroic defeat, and soon Ouster's Last Stand was a part of
the heroic tradition of the United States.
There are numerous explanations for the similarities among heroic stories
around the world. They have been seen as continuous narrative traditions, as
expressions of archetypal story patterns, as expressions of the human condition,
and so on. What is important for our study here is to recognize that these
patterns exist and that they shape heroic stories as they make their way from
history into narrative art.
One of the most extensive studies of the hero archetype is by the
comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With a Thousand
Faces. Campbell's book is easily available, so we will not repeat his conclusions
here. The important point for our study is that heroes are a product of narrative,
not of deeds and events. Many persons have performed heroic deeds, but they
become heroes only if their stories are told in heroic form. This heroic form may
be epic poetry or television reportage, but it must present the actions of the hero
in a form the audience will recognize as heroic.

THE GERMANIC PEOPLES AND THEIR HEROIC TRADITION

The Nibelung and Dietrich legends are the product of a long process of
transmission that reaches from the events of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries
to the literary works of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Some
parts of the stories are based on recognizable historical events, while others
cannot be identified with any recorded events or personalities. In order to
understand the place of Germanic legend in European literary history, we must
first locate the Germanic peoples in early European history.

Germanic Among the European Language Families

The Germanic peoples entered recorded history during the last millennium B.C.
and established themselves throughout much of what is now Central and Eastern
Europe. They were speakers of a family of Indo-European languages that was

8 HEROIC LEGENDS OF THE NORTH

clearly separated from the Italic (Latin) spoken in Italy, the Greek spoken
throughout the Hellenic Empire, and the Celtic languages spoken throughout
most of Western Europe and the British Isles at the time.
All of these European language families are related as members of the Indo-
European language family, and so, we presume, are most of the peoples who
spoke them. Scholars disagree on the existence of a single common Indo-
European parent language, but there is no disagreement on the relatively close
relationship of the languages spoken traditionally from.Iceland to India. Some
scholars have suggested a common fund of myths and legends among all the
Indo-European peoples going back to the time when a single language was
spoken, while others have argued for contamination spreading the legends from
one people to another at a later date.
When we narrow our focus to a language group within the Indo-European
family, such as the Germanic, the task becomes easier, because there are clearly
common legends that have spread throughout the group. The Nibelung and
Dietrich legends form the most important complex that was known down
through the Middle Ages throughout the parts of Europe in which Germanic
languages were and are spoken.

The Germanic Peoples

Before proceeding we need to clarify the two common terms for this family of
peoples. In modern usage Germanic and Teutonic refer to the same grouping of
peoples. "Germanic" is derived from a Latin term of the Classical period of
undetermined origin. "Teutonic" is derived from the Latin name for a population
group first mentioned in historical sources as originating in what is now
Denmark. This name is presumed to be derived from the Germanic root *theo(T
meaning "the people," die same root from which the German word Deutsch and
the Italian Tedesco (both meaning "German" in the modern sense) are derived.
These synonyms are used by scholars and others to designate the same groups of
peoples, the linguistic ancestors of today's Germans, Dutch, English,
Scandinavians, and so on.
Roman historians provide us with tantalizing glimpses of the Germani as they
became known during the early Empire. The little book Germania by Tacitus is

We will follow the established practice of historical linguists of marking unattested (i.e.
reconstructed) forms with an asterisk.
In the following we will refer to the members of these population groups that spoke
Germanic languages either as Germani (using the Latin word) or as Germanic peoples. We
will not adopt the practice common among historians of referring to Goths, Franks,
Burgundians, and so on of the late Roman imperial period as "Germans." This term will be
reserved for the ancestors of modern Germans in the Middle Ages, i.e. from the Carolmgian
period on. We will, of course, retain the usage of passages quoted from other sources.
Throughout this book we will follow Tacitus's example and refer to the totality of the
Germanic peoples (and their descendants) together as "Germania." This unity is suggested by
THE GERMANIC LEGENDS 9
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 If you are living in the town and your baby suffers much from
teething, take him into the country. It is wonderful what change of
air to the country will often do, in relieving a child, who is painfully
cutting his teeth. The number of deaths in London from teething is
frightful; it is in the country comparatively trifling.
71. Should an infant be purged during teething, or indeed, during
any other time, do you approve of either absorbent or astringent
medicines to restrain it?
Certainly not. I should look upon the relaxation as an effort of
nature to relieve itself. A child is never purged without a cause; that
cause, in the generality of instances, is the presence of either some
undigested food, or acidity, or depraved motions that want a vent.
The better plan is, in such a case, to give a dose of aperient
medicine, such as either castor oil or magnesia and rhubarb, and
thus work it off. If we lock up the bowels, we confine the enemy,
and thus produce mischief.[165] If he be purged more than usual,
attention should be paid to the diet—if it be absolutely necessary to
give him artificial food while suckling—and care must be taken not to
overload the stomach.
72. A child is subject to a slight cough during dentition—called by
nurses “tooth-cough”—which a parent would not consider of
sufficient importance to consult a doctor about; pray tell me if there
is any objection to a mother giving her child a small quantity either
of syrup of white poppies or of paregoric to ease it?
A cough is an effort of nature to bring up any secretion from the
lining membrane of the lungs, or from the bronchial tubes, hence it
ought not to be interfered with. I have known the administration of
syrup of white poppies, or of paregoric, to stop the cough, and
thereby to prevent the expulsion of the phlegm, and thus to produce
either inflammation of the lungs or bronchitis. Moreover, both
paregoric and syrup of white poppies are, for a young child,
dangerous medicines (unless administered by a judicious medical
man), and ought never to be given by a mother.
In the month of April, 1844, I was sent for in great haste to an
infant, aged seventeen months, who was laboring under convulsions
and extreme drowsiness, from the injudicious administration of
paregoric, which had been given to him to ease a cough. By the
prompt administration of an emetic he was saved.
73. A child who is teething is subject to a “breaking-out,” more
especially behind the ears—which is most disfiguring, and
frequently very annoying; what would you recommend?
I would apply no external application to cure it, as I should look
upon it as an effort of the constitution to relieve itself; and should
expect, if the “breaking-out” were repelled, that either convulsions,
or bronchitis, or inflammation of the lungs, or water on the brain
would be the consequence.
The only plan I should adopt would be, to be more careful in his
diet: to give him less meat (if he be old enough to eat animal food),
and to give him, once or twice a week, a few doses of mild aperient
medicine; and, if the irritation from the “breaking-out” be great, to
bathe it occasionally either with a little warm milk and water, or with
rose water.

EXERCISE.

74. Do you recommend exercise in the open air for a baby? and if
so, how soon after birth?
I am a great advocate for having exercise in the open air. “The
infant in arms makes known its desire for fresh air by restlessness—it
cries, for it cannot speak its wants; is taken abroad, and is quiet.”
The age at which he ought to commence taking exercise will, of
course, depend upon the season and upon the weather. If it be
summer, and the weather be fine, he should be carried in the open
air a week or a fortnight after birth; but if it be winter, he ought not,
on any account, to be taken out under the month, and not even then,
unless the weather be mild for the season, and it be the middle of the
day. At the end of two months he should breathe the open air more
frequently. And after the expiration of three months he ought to be
carried out every day, even if it be wet under foot, provided it be fine
above, and the wind be neither in an easterly nor in a northeasterly
direction; by doing so we shall make him strong and hearty, and give
the skin that mottled appearance which is so characteristic of health.
He must, of course, be well clothed.
 I cannot help expressing my disapprobation of the practice of
smothering up an infant’s face with a handkerchief, with a veil, or
with any other covering, when he is taken out into the air. If his face
be so muffled up, he may as well remain at home; as, under such
circumstances, it is impossible for him to receive any benefit from
the invigorating effects of the fresh air.
75. Can you devise any method to induce a baby himself to take
exercise?
He must be encouraged to use muscular exertion; and, for this
purpose, he ought to be frequently laid either upon a rug, or carpet,
or the floor: he will then stretch his limbs and kick about with perfect
glee. It is a pretty sight, to see a little fellow kicking and sprawling on
the floor. He crows with delight, and thoroughly enjoys himself: it
strengthens his back; it enables him to stretch his limbs, and to use
his muscles; and is one of the best kinds of exercise a very young
child can take. While going through his performances, his diaper, if
he wear one, should be unfastened, in order that he might go through
his exercises untrammeled. By adopting the above plan, the babe
quietly enjoys himself—his brain is not over-excited by it; this is an
important consideration, for both mothers and nurses are apt to
rouse and excite very young children, to their manifest detriment. A
babe requires rest, and not excitement. How wrong it is, then, for
either a mother or a nurse to be exciting and rousing a new-born
babe. It is most injurious and weakening to his brain. In the early
period of his existence his time ought to be almost entirely spent in
sleeping and in sucking!
76. Do you approve of tossing an infant much about?
I have seen a child tossed up nearly to the ceiling! Can anything be
more cruel or absurd? Violent tossing of a young babe ought never to
be allowed: it only frightens him, and has been known to bring on
convulsions. He should be gently moved up and down (not tossed):
such exercise causes a proper circulation of the blood, promotes
digestion, and soothes to sleep. He must always be kept quiet
immediately after taking the breast: if he be tossed directly
afterward, it interferes with his digestion, and is likely to produce
sickness.
 SLEEP.

77. Ought the infant’s sleeping apartment to be kept warm?

The lying-in room is generally kept too warm, its heat being, in
many instances, more that of an oven than of a room. Such a place is
must unhealthy, and is fraught with danger both to the mother and
the baby. We are not, of course, to run into an opposite extreme, but
are to keep the chamber at a moderate and comfortable temperature.
The door ought occasionally to be left ajar, in order the more
effectually to change the air and thus to make it more pure and
sweet.
A new-born babe, then, ought to be kept comfortably warm, but
not very warm. It is folly in the extreme to attempt to harden a very
young child either by allowing him, in the winter time, to be in a
bedroom without a fire, or by dipping him in cold water, or by
keeping him with scant clothing on his bed. The temperature of a
bedroom, in the winter time, should be, as nearly as possible, at 60°
Fahr. Although the room should be comfortably warm, it ought, from
time to time, to be properly ventilated. An unventilated room soon
becomes foul, and, therefore, unhealthy. How many in this world,
both children and adults, are “poisoned with their own breaths!”
An infant should not be allowed to look at the glare either of a fire
or of a lighted candle, as the glare tends to weaken the sight, and
sometimes brings on an inflammation of the eyes. In speaking to and
in noticing a baby, you ought always to stand before and not behind
him, or it might make him squint.
78. Ought a babe to lie alone from the first?
Certainly not. At first—say for the first few months—he requires
the warmth of another person’s body, especially in the winter; but
care must be taken not to overlay him, as many infants, from
carelessness in this particular, have lost their lives. After the first few
months, he had better lie alone, on a horse-hair mattress.
79. Do you approve of rocking an infant to sleep?
I do not. If the rules of health be observed, he will sleep both
soundly and sweetly without rocking; if they be not, the rocking
might cause him to fall into a feverish, disturbed slumber, but not
into a refreshing, calm sleep. Besides, if you once take to that habit,
he will not go to sleep without it.
80. Then don’t you approve of a rocking-chair, and of rockers to
the cradle?
Certainly not: a rocking-chair, or rockers to the cradle, may be
useful to a lazy nurse or mother, and may induce a child to sleep, but
that restlessly, when he does not need sleep, or when he is wet and
uncomfortable, and requires “changing;” but will not cause him to
have that sweet and gentle and exquisite slumber so characteristic of
a baby who has no artificial appliances to make him sleep. No!
rockers are perfectly unnecessary, and the sooner they are banished
the nursery the better will it be for the infant community. I do not
know a more wearisome and monotonous sound than the everlasting
rockings to and fro in some nurseries; they are often accompanied by
a dolorous lullaby from the nurse, which adds much to the misery
and depressing influence of the performance.
81. While the infant is asleep, do you advise the head of the crib to
be covered with a handkerchief, to shade his eyes from the light,
and, if it be summer time, to keep off the flies?
If the head of the crib be covered, the baby cannot breathe freely;
the air within the crib becomes contaminated, and thus the lungs
cannot properly perform their functions. If his sleep is to be
refreshing, he must breathe pure air. I do not even approve of a head
to a crib. A child is frequently allowed to sleep on a bed with the
curtains drawn completely close, as though it were dangerous for a
breath of air to blow upon him![166] This practice is most injurious.
An infant must have the full benefit of the air of the room; indeed,
the bedroom door ought to be frequently left ajar, so that the air of
the apartment may be changed—taking care, of course, not to expose
him to a draught. If the flies, while he is asleep, annoy him, let a net
veil be thrown over his face, as he can readily breathe through net,
but not through a handkerchief.
82. Have you any suggestions to offer as to the way a babe should
be dressed when he is put down to sleep?
Whenever he be put down to sleep, be more than usually particular
that his dress be loose in every part; be careful that there be neither
strings nor bands to cramp him. Let him, then, during repose, be
more than ordinarily free and unrestrained—
“If, while in cradled rest your infant sleeps,
Your watchful eye unceasing vigils keeps,
Lest cramping bonds his pliant limbs constrain,
And cause defects that manhood may retain.”[167]

83. Is it a good sign for a young child to sleep much?

A babe who sleeps a great deal thrives much more than one who
does not. I have known many children who were born[168] small and
delicate, but who slept the greatest part of their time, become strong
and healthy. On the other hand, I have known those who were born
large and strong, yet who slept but little, become weak and
unhealthy.
The common practice of a nurse allowing a baby to sleep upon her
lap is a bad one, and ought never to be countenanced. He sleeps
cooler, more comfortably, and soundly in his crib.
The younger an infant is the more he generally sleeps, so that
during the early months he is seldom awake, and then only to take
the breast.
84. How is it that much sleep causes a young child to thrive so
well?
If there be pain in any part of the body, or if any of the functions be
not properly performed, he sleeps but little. On the contrary, if there
be exemption from pain, and if there be a due performance of all the
functions, he sleeps a great deal; and thus the body becomes
refreshed and invigorated.
85. As much sleep is of such advantage, if an infant sleep but
little, would you advise composing medicine to be given to him?
Certainly not. The practice of giving composing medicine to a
young child cannot be too strongly reprobated. If he does not sleep
enough, the mother ought to ascertain if the bowels be in a proper
state, whether they be sufficiently opened that the motions be of a
good color—namely, a bright yellow, inclining to orange color—and
free from slime or from bad smell. An occasional dose of rhubarb and
magnesia is frequently the best composing medicine he can take.
 86. We often hear of Coroner’s inquests upon infants who have
been found dead in bed—accidentally overlaid: what is usually the
cause?
Suffocation, produced either by ignorance or by carelessness.
From ignorance in mothers, in their not knowing the common laws
of life, and the vital importance of free and unrestricted respiration,
not only when babies are up and about, but when they are in bed and
asleep. From carelessness, in their allowing young and thoughtless
servants to have the charge of infants at night; more especially as
young girls are usually heavy sleepers, and are thus too much
overpowered with sleep to attend to their necessary duties.
A foolish mother sometimes goes to sleep while allowing her child
to continue sucking. The unconscious babe, after a time, looses the
nipple, and buries his head in the bedclothes. She awakes in the
morning, finding, to her horror, a corpse by her side! A mother
ought, therefore, never to go to sleep until her child has finished
sucking.
The following are a few rules to prevent an infant from being
accidentally overlaid: (1.) Let your baby, while asleep, have plenty of
room in the bed. (2.) Do not allow him to be too near to you; or if he
be unavoidably near you (from the small size of the bed), let his face
be turned to the opposite side. (3.) Let him lie fairly either on his side
or on his back. (4.) Be careful to ascertain that his mouth be not
covered with the bedclothes; and (5.) Do not smother his face with
clothes, as a plentiful supply of pure air is as necessary when he is
awake, or even more so, than when he is asleep. (6.) Never let him lie
low in the bed. (7.) Let there be no pillow near the one his head is
resting on, lest he roll to it, and thus bury his head in it. Remember,
a young child has neither the strength nor the sense to get out of
danger; and, if he unfortunately either turn on his face, or bury his
head in a pillow that is near, the chances are that he will be
suffocated, more especially as these accidents usually occur at night,
when the mother or the nurse is fast asleep. (8.) Never intrust him at
night to a young, giddy, and thoughtless servant.

THE BLADDER AND THE BOWELS OF AN INFANT.

 87. Have you any hints to offer respecting the bowels and the
bladder of an infant during the first three months of his existence?
A mother ought daily to satisfy herself as to the state of the bladder
and the bowels of her child. She herself should inspect the motions,
and see that they are of a proper color (bright yellow, inclining to
orange) and consistence (that of thick gruel), that they are neither
slimy, nor curdled, nor green; if they should be either the one or the
other, it is a proof that she herself has, in all probability, been
imprudent in her diet, and that it will be necessary for the future that
she be more careful both in what she eats and in what she drinks.
She ought, moreover, to satisfy herself that the urine does not
smell strongly, that it does not stain the napkins, and that he makes a
sufficient quantity.
A frequent cause of a child crying is, he is wet and uncomfortable,
and wants drying and changing, and the only way he has of
informing his mother of the fact is by crying lustily, and thus telling
her in most expressive language of her thoughtlessness and
carelessness.
88. How soon may an infant dispense with napkins?
A baby of three months and upward, ought to be held out at least a
dozen times during the twenty-four hours; if such a plan were
adopted, napkins might at the end of three months be dispensed with
—a great desideratum—and he would be inducted into clean habits—
a blessing to himself, and a comfort to all around, and a great saving
of dresses and of furniture. “Teach your children to be clean. A dirty
child is the mother’s disgrace.”[169] Truer words were never written: A
dirty child is the mother’s disgrace!

AILMENTS, DISEASE, Etc.

89. A new-born babe frequently has a collection of mucus in the

air-passages, causing him to wheeze: is it a dangerous symptom?
No, not if it occur immediately after birth; as soon as the bowels
have been opened, it generally leaves him, or even before, if he give a
good cry, which as soon as he is born he usually does. If there be any
mucus either within or about the mouth, impeding breathing, it must
with a soft handkerchief be removed.
90. Is it advisable, as soon as an infant is born, to give him
medicine?
It is now proved that the giving of medicine to a babe immediately
after birth is unnecessary, nay, that it is hurtful—that is, provided he
be early put to the breast, as the mother’s first milk is generally
sufficient to open the bowels. Sir Charles Locock[170] makes the
following sensible remarks on the subject: “I used to limit any
aperient to a new-born infant to those which had not the first milk,
and who had wet-nurses whose milk was, of course, some weeks old;
but for many years, I have never allowed any aperient at all to any
new-born infant, and I am satisfied it is the safest and the wisest
plan.”
This advice of Sir Charles Locock—to give no aperient to a new-
born infant—is most valuable, and ought to be strictly followed. By
adopting his recommendation much after-misery might be averted.
If a new-born babe’s bowels be costive, rather than give him an
aperient, try the effect of a little moist sugar dissolved in a little
water; that is to say, dissolve half a teaspoonful of pure
unadulterated raw sugar in a teaspoonful of warm water, and
administer it to him; if in four hours it should not operate, repeat the
dose. Butter and raw sugar is a popular remedy, and is sometimes
used by a nurse to open the bowels of a new-born babe, and where
there is costiveness answers the purpose exceedingly well, and is far
superior to castor oil. Try by all means to do, if possible, without a
particle of opening medicine. If you once begin to give aperients, you
will have frequently to repeat them. Opening physic leads to opening
physic, until at length his stomach and bowels will become a physic
shop! Let me, then, emphatically say, avoid, if possible, giving a new-
born babe a drop or a grain of opening medicine. If from the first you
refrain from giving an aperient, he seldom requires one afterward. It
is the first step that is so important to take in this as in all other
things.
If a new-born babe has not for twelve hours made water, the
medical man ought to be informed of it, in order that he may inquire
into the matter and apply the proper remedies. Be particular in
attending to these directions, or evil consequences will inevitably
ensue.
91. Some persons say that new-born female infants have milk in
their bosoms, and that it is necessary to squeeze them, and apply
plasters to disperse the milk.
The idea of there being real milk in a baby’s breast is doubtful, the
squeezing of the bosom is barbarous, and the application of plasters
is useless. “Without actually saying,” says Sir Charles Locock, “there
is milk secreted in the breasts of infants, there is undoubtedly not
rarely considerable swelling of the breasts both in female and male
infants, and on squeezing them a serous fluid oozes out. I agree with
you that the nurses should never be allowed to squeeze them, but be
ordered to leave them alone.”[171]
92. Have the goodness to mention the SLIGHT ailments which are
not of sufficient importance to demand the assistance of a medical
man?
I deem it well to make the distinction between serious and slight
ailments; I am addressing a mother. With regard to serious ailments,
I do not think myself justified, except in certain urgent cases, in
instructing a parent to deal with them. It might be well to make a
mother acquainted with the symptoms, but not with the treatment,
in order that she might lose no time in calling in medical aid. This I
hope to have the pleasure of doing in future conversations.
Serious diseases, with a few exceptions, and which I will indicate
in subsequent conversations, ought never to be treated by a parent,
not even in the early stages, for it is in the early stages that the most
good can generally be done. It is utterly impossible for any one who
is not trained to the medical profession to understand a serious
disease in all its bearings, and thereby to treat it satisfactorily.
There are some exceptions to these remarks. It will be seen, in
future conversations, that Sir Charles Locock considers that a mother
ought to be made acquainted with the treatment of some of the more
serious diseases, where delay in obtaining immediate medical
assistance might be death. I bow to his superior judgment, and have
supplied the deficiency in subsequent conversations.
The ailments and the diseases of infants, such as may, in the
absence of the doctor, be treated by a parent, are the following:
Chafings, Convulsions, Costiveness, Flatulence, Gripings, Hiccup,
Looseness of the Bowels (Diarrhœa), Dysentery, Nettle-rash, Red-
gum, Stuffing of the Nose, Sickness, Thrush. In all these complaints I
will tell you—What to do, and—What NOT to do.
93. What are the causes and the treatment of chafing?
The want of water: inattention and want of cleanliness are the
usual causes of chafing.
What to do.—The chafed parts ought to be well and thoroughly
sponged with tepid rain water—allowing the water from a well-filled
sponge to stream over them—and, afterward, they should be
thoroughly but tenderly dried with a soft towel, and then be dusted,
either with finely-powdered starch made of wheaten flour, or with
violet powder, or with finely-powdered native carbonate of zinc, or
they should be bathed with finely-powdered fuller’s-earth and tepid
water.
If, in a few days, the parts be not healed, discontinue the above
treatment, and use the following application: Beat up well together
the whites of two eggs, then add, drop by drop, two tablespoonfuls of
brandy. When well mixed put it into a bottle and cork it up. Before
using it let the excoriated parts be gently bathed with lukewarm rain
water, and, with a soft napkin, be tenderly dried; then, by means of a
camel’s-hair brush, apply the above liniment, having first shaken the
bottle.
But bear in mind, after all that can be said and done, that there is
nothing in these cases like water—there is nothing like keeping the
parts clean, and the only way of thoroughly effecting this object is by
putting him every morning INTO his tub.
What NOT to do.—Do not apply white lead, as it is a poison. Do not
be afraid of using plenty of water, as cleanliness is one of the most
important items of the treatment.
94. What are the causes of convulsions in an infant?
Stuffing him, in the early months of his existence, with food, the
mother having plenty of breast-milk the while; the constant
physicking of a child by his own mother; teething; hooping-cough,
when attacking a very young baby.
I never knew a case of convulsions occur—say for the first four
months (except in very young infants laboring under hooping-cough)
—where children lived on the breast-milk alone, and where they were
not frequently quacked by their mothers!
For the treatment of the convulsions from teething, see page 66.
What to do in a case of convulsions which has been caused by
feeding an infant either with too much or with artificial food. Give
him, every ten minutes, a teaspoonful of ipecacuanha wine, until free
vomiting be excited, then put him into a warm bath (see Warm
Baths); and when he comes out of it administer to him a teaspoonful
of castor oil, and repeat it every four hours until the bowels be well
opened.
What NOT to do.—Do not, for at least a month after the fit, give him
artificial food, but keep him entirely to the breast. Do not apply
leeches to the head.
What to do in a case of convulsions from hooping-cough.—There
is nothing better than dashing cold water on the face, and immersing
him in a warm bath of 98 degrees Fahr. If he be about his teeth, and
they be plaguing him, let the gums be both freely and frequently
lanced. In convulsions from hooping-cough I have found cod-liver oil
a valuable medicine. Convulsions seldom occur in hooping-cough,
unless the child be either very young or exceedingly delicate. In
either case cod-liver oil is likely to be serviceable, as it helps to
sustain and support him in his extremity.
Convulsions attending an attack of hooping-cough make it a
serious complication, and requires the assiduous and skillful
attention of a judicious medical man.
What NOT to do in such a case.—Do not apply leeches; the babe
requires additional strength, and not to be robbed of it; and do not
attempt to treat the case yourself.
95. What are the best remedies for the costiveness of an infant?
I strongly object to the frequent administration of opening
medicine, as the repetition of it increases the mischief to a tenfold
degree.
What to do.—If a babe, after the first few months, were held out,
and if, at regular intervals, he were put upon his chair, costiveness
would not so much prevail. It is wonderful how soon the bowels, in
the generality of cases, by this simple plan may be brought into a
regular state.
 Besides, it inducts an infant into clean habits. I know many careful
mothers who have accustomed their children, after the first three
months, to do without diapers altogether. It causes at first a little
trouble, but that trouble is amply repaid by the good consequences
that ensue; among which must be named the dispensing with such
incumbrances as diapers. Diapers frequently chafe, irritate, and gall
the tender skin of a baby. But they cannot, of course, at an early age
be dispensed with, unless a mother has great judgment, sense, tact,
and perseverance, to bring her little charge into the habit of having
the bowels relieved and the bladder emptied every time he is either
held out or put upon his chair.
Before giving an infant a particle of aperient medicine, try, if the
bowels are costive, the effect of a little raw sugar and water, either
half a teaspoonful of raw sugar dissolved in a teaspoonful or two of
water, or give him, out of your fingers, half a teaspoonful of raw
sugar to eat. I mean by raw sugar, not the white, but the pure and
unadulterated sugar, and which you can only procure from a
respectable grocer. If you are wise, you will defer as long as you can
giving an aperient. If you once begin, and continue it for awhile,
opening medicine becomes a dire necessity, and then woe-betide the
poor unfortunate child!
It might sometimes be necessary to give opening medicine, but the
less frequently the better. The following, when it becomes absolutely
necessary to give an aperient, are some of the best, simple, and safe
that can be administered by a mother to her baby. I give you several,
as it might be well, from time to time, to vary them: (1.) One or two
teaspoonfuls of fluid magnesia, made palatable by the addition of a
little sugar, may be chosen; or (2.) The popular remedy of syrup of
rhubarb and castor oil:
Take of—Syrup of Rhubarb,
Castor Oil, of each half an ounce:

To make a Mixture. A teaspoonful to be taken early in the morning, first well

shaking the bottle.
It might be well again to state, that the bottle must be violently
shaken just before administering the mixture, or the oil will not mix
with the syrup; or (3.) A teaspoonful of syrup of rhubarb, without the
admixture of the castor oil may be given early in the morning
occasionally; or (4.) A teaspoonful of equal parts, say half an ounce of
each, of fluid magnesia and of syrup of rhubarb, may be taken for a
change. Another safe and palatable aperient for an infant is (5.)
Syrup of senna, from a half to a whole teaspoonful being the dose.
Castor oil is another medicine prescribed for a baby’s costiveness,
and, being a safe one, may occasionally be used. Care should be
taken to have the castor oil freshly drawn, and of the best quality. (6.)
Syrup of red roses and castor oil (of each equal parts), being a good,
elegant, and pleasant way of giving it:
Take of—Syrup of Red Roses,
Castor Oil, of each six drachms:

To make a Mixture. A teaspoonful to be taken occasionally, first well shaking the

bottle, and to be repeated every four hours, until the bowels be relieved.
(7.) An excellent remedy for the costiveness of a baby is a soap
suppository, the application of which will be found a safe, speedy,
and certain method of opening the bowels. It is made by paring a
piece of white curd-soap round; it should be of the size, in
circumference, of a cedar pencil, and it must be in length about two
inches. This should be administered by dipping it in a little warm
sweet oil, and should then be gently introduced up the bowel in the
same manner as you would an enema pipe, allowing about a quarter
of an inch to remain in view. It must then be left alone, and in a
minute or two the soap suppository will be expelled, and instantly
the bowels will be comfortably and effectually relieved. When a child
is two or three years old and upwards a dip-candle suppository is
superior to a soap suppository.
If it be absolutely necessary to give opening medicine, it will be
well to alternate the use of them—that is to say, to give at one time
the syrup of senna, at another the fluid magnesia sweetened, and a
third to administer the soap suppository dipped in oil, but waiting at
least two days between, the bowels being costive all the time, before
resorting to an aperient. Bear in mind, and let it make a strong
impression upon you, that the less the bowels of an infant are
irritated by opening medicine, the aperient being ever so simple and
well-selected, the better will it be for him both now and for the
future.
 When the infant is five or six months old, either oatmeal milk
gruel, or Robinson’s Patent Groat Gruel made with new milk,
occasionally given in lieu of the usual food, will often open the
bowels, and will thus supersede the necessity of administering an
aperient.
Castor oil, or Dr. Merriman’s Purgative Liniment,[172] well rubbed
every morning, for ten minutes at a time, over the region of the
bowels, will frequently prevent costiveness, and thus will do away
with the need—which is a great consideration—of giving an aperient.
What NOT to do.—There are two preparations of mercury I wish to
warn you against administering of your own accord, viz.—(1.)
Calomel, and a milder preparation called (2.) gray powder (mercury
with chalk). It is a common practice in this country to give calomel,
on account of the readiness with which it may be administered, it
being small in quantity and nearly tasteless. Gray powder, also, is,
with many mothers, a favorite in the nursery. It is a medicine of
immense power—either for good or for evil; in certain cases it is very
valuable; but in others, and in the great majority, it is very
detrimental.
This practice, then, of a mother giving mercury, whether in the
form either of calomel or of gray powder, cannot be too strongly
reprobated, as the frequent administration either of one or of the
other weakens the body, predisposes it to cold, and frequently excites
king’s evil—a disease too common in this country. Calomel and gray
powder, then, ought never to be administered unless ordered by a
medical man.
Syrup of buckthorn and jalap are also frequently given, but they
are griping medicines for a baby, and ought to be banished from the
nursery.
The frequent repetition of opening medicines, then, in any shape
or form, very much interferes with digestion; they must, therefore, be
given as seldom as possible.
Let me, at the risk of wearying you, again urge the importance of
your avoiding, as much as possible, giving a babe purgative
medicines. They irritate beyond measure the tender bowels of an
infant, and only make him more costive afterward; they interfere
with his digestion, and are liable to give him cold. A mother who is
always of her own accord quacking her child with opening physic, is
laying up for her unfortunate offspring a debilitated constitution—a
miserable existence.
96. Are there any means of preventing the Costiveness of an
infant?
If greater care were paid to the rules of health, such as attention to
diet, exercise in the open air, thorough ablution of the whole body—
more especially when he is being washed—causing the water, from a
large and well-filled sponge, to stream over the lower part of his
bowels; the regular habit of causing him, at stated periods, to be held
out, whether he want or not, that he may solicit a stool. If all these
rules were observed, costiveness would not so frequently prevail, and
one of the miseries of the nursery would be done away with.
Some mothers are frequently dosing their poor unfortunate babies
either with magnesia to cool them, or with castor oil to heal the
bowels! Oh, the folly of such practices! The frequent repetition of
magnesia, instead of cooling an infant, makes him feverish and
irritable. The constant administration of castor oil, instead of healing
the bowels, wounds them beyond measure. No! it would be a blessed
thing if a baby could be brought up without giving him a particle of
opening medicine; his bowels would then act naturally and well: but
then, as I have just now remarked, a mother must be particular in
attending to Nature’s medicines—to fresh air, to exercise, to diet, to
thorough ablution, etc. Until that time comes, poor unfortunate
babies must be occasionally dosed with an aperient.
97. What are the causes of, and remedies for, Flatulence?
Flatulence most frequently occurs in those infants who live on
artificial food, especially if they are overfed. I therefore beg to refer
you to the precautions I have given, when speaking of the importance
of keeping a child for the first four or five months entirely to the
breast; and, if that be not practicable, of the times of feeding, and of
the best kinds of artificial food, and of those which are least likely to
cause “wind.”
What to do.—Notwithstanding these precautions, if the babe
should still suffer, “One of the best and safest remedies for flatulence
is sal-volatile,—a teaspoonful of a solution of one drachm to an ounce
and a half of water.”[173] Or, a little dill or aniseed may be added to
the food—half a teaspoonful of dill water. Or, take twelve drops of oil
of dill, and two lumps of sugar; rub them well in a mortar together;
then add, drop by drop, three tablespoonfuls of spring water; let it be
preserved in a bottle for use. A teaspoonful of this, first shaking the
vial, may be added to each quantity of food. Or, three teaspoonfuls of
bruised caraway seeds may be boiled for ten minutes in a teacupful
of water, and then strained. One or two teaspoonfuls of the caraway-
tea may be added to each quantity of his food, or a dose of rhubarb
and magnesia may be occasionally given.
Opodeldoc, or warm olive oil, well rubbed, for a quarter of an hour
at a time, by means of the warm hand, over the bowels, will
frequently give relief. Turning the child over on his bowels, so that
they may press on the nurse’s lap, will often afford great comfort. A
warm bath (where he is suffering severely) generally gives immediate
ease in flatulence; it acts as a fomentation to the bowels. But after all,
a dose of mild aperient medicine, when the babe is suffering severely,
is often the best remedy for “wind.”
Remember, at all times, prevention, whenever it be—and how
frequently it is—possible, is better than cure.
What NOT to do.—“Godfrey’s Cordial,” “Infants’ Preservative,” and
“Dalby’s Carminative” are sometimes given in flatulence; but as most
of these quack medicines contain, in one form or another, either
opium or poppy, and as opium and poppy are both dangerous
remedies for children, ALL quack medicines must be banished the
nursery.
Syrup of poppies is another remedy which is often given by a nurse
to afford relief for flatulence; but let me urge upon you the
importance of banishing it from the nursery. It has (when given by
unprofessional persons) caused the untimely end of thousands of
children. The medical journals and the newspapers teem with cases
of deaths from mothers incautiously giving syrup of poppies to ease
pain and to procure sleep.
98. What are the symptoms, the causes, and the treatment of
“Gripings” of an infant?
The symptoms.—The child draws up his legs; screams violently; if
put to the nipple to comfort him, he turns away from it and cries
bitterly; he strains, as though he were having a stool; if he have a
motion, it will be slimy, curdled, and perhaps green. If, in addition to
the above symptoms, he pass a large quantity of watery fluid from
the bowels, the case becomes one of watery gripes, and requires the
immediate attention of a medical man.
The causes of “gripings” or “gripes” may proceed either from the
infant or from the mother. If from the child, it is generally owing
either to improper food or to over-feeding: if from the mother, it may
be traced to her having taken either greens, or pork, or tart beer, or
sour porter, or pickles, or drastic purgatives.
What to do.—The treatment, of course, must depend upon the
cause. If it arise from over-feeding, I would advise a dose of castor oil
to be given, and warm fomentations to be applied to the bowels, and
the mother or the nurse to be more careful for the future. If it
proceed from improper food, a dose or two of magnesia and rhubarb
in a little dill water, made palatable with simple syrup.[174] If it arise
from a mother’s imprudence in eating trash, or from her taking
violent medicine, a warm bath: a warm bath, indeed, let the cause of
“griping” be what it may, usually affords instant relief.
Another excellent remedy is the following: Soak a piece of new
flannel, folded into two or three thicknesses, in warm water; wring it
tolerably dry, and apply as hot as the child can comfortably bear it to
the bowels, then wrap him in a warm, dry blanket, and keep him, for
at least half an hour, enveloped in it. Under the above treatment, he
will generally soon fall into a sweet sleep, and awake quite refreshed.
What NOT to do.—Do not give opiates, astringents, chalk, or any
quack medicine whatever.
If a child suffer from a mother’s folly in her eating improper food,
it will be cruel in the extreme for him a second time to be tormented
from the same cause.
99. What occasions Hiccough, and what is its treatment?
Hiccough is of such a trifling nature as hardly to require
interference. It may generally be traced to over-feeding. Should it be
severe, four or five grains of calcined magnesia, with a little syrup
and aniseed water, and attention to feeding, are all that will be
necessary.
100. Will you describe the symptoms of Diarrhœa—“Looseness of
the bowels?”
 It will be well, before doing so, to tell you how many motions a
young infant ought to have a day, their color, consistence, and smell.
Well, then, he should have from three to six motions in the twenty-
four hours; the color ought to be a bright yellow, inclining to orange;
the consistence should be that of thick gruel; indeed, his motion, if
healthy, ought to be somewhat of the color (but a little more orange-
tinted) and of the consistence of mustard made for the table; it
should be nearly, if not quite, devoid of smell; it ought to have a faint
and peculiar, but not a strong disagreeable odor. If it has a strong
and disagreeable smell, the child is not well, and the case should be
investigated, more especially if there be either curds or lumps in the
motions; these latter symptoms denote that the food has not been
properly digested.
Now, suppose a child should have a slight bowel complaint—that is
to say, that he has six or eight motions during the twenty-four hours,
—and that the stools are of a thinner consistence than what I have
described,—provided, at the same time, that he is not griped, that he
has no pain, and has not lost his desire for the breast: What ought to
be done? Nothing. A slight looseness of the bowels should never be
interfered with,—it is often an effort of nature to relieve itself of some
vitiated motion that wanted a vent—or to act as a diversion, by
relieving the irritation of the gums. Even if he be not cutting his
teeth, he may be “breeding” them, that is to say, the teeth may be
forming in his gums, and may cause almost as much irritation as
though he were actually cutting them. Hence, you see the immense
good a slight “looseness of the bowels” may cause. I think that I have
now proved to you the danger of interfering in such a case, and that I
have shown you the folly and the mischief of at once giving
astringents—such as Godfrey’s Cordial, Dalby’s Carminative, etc.—to
relieve a slight relaxation.
A moderate “looseness of the bowels,” then, is often a safety-valve,
and you may with as much propriety close the safety-valve of a steam
engine as stop a moderate “looseness of the bowels!”
Now, if the infant, instead of having from three to six motions,
should have more than double the latter number; if they be more
watery; if they become slimy and green, or green in part and curdled;
if they should have an unpleasant smell; if he be sick, cross, restless,
fidgety, and poorly; if every time he has a motion he be griped and in
pain, we should then say that he is laboring under diarrhœa; then, it
will be necessary to give a little medicine, which I will indicate in a
subsequent Conversation.
Should there be both blood and slime mixed with the stool, the
case becomes more serious; still, with proper care, relief can
generally be quickly obtained. If the evacuations—instead of being
stool—are merely blood and slime, and the child strain frequently
and violently, endeavoring thus, but in vain, to relieve himself, crying
at each effort, the case assumes the character of dysentery.[175]
If there be a mixture of blood, slime, and stool from the bowels,
the case would be called dysenteric diarrhœa. This latter case
requires great skill and judgment on the part of a medical man, and
great attention and implicit obedience from the mother and the
nurse. I merely mention these diseases in order to warn you of their
importance, and of the necessity of strictly attending to a doctor’s
orders.
101. What are the causes of Diarrhœa—“Looseness of the bowels?”
Improper food; over-feeding; teething; cold; the mother’s milk
from various causes disagreeing, namely, from her being out of
health, from her eating unsuitable food, from her taking improper
and drastic purgatives, or from her suckling her child when she is
pregnant. Of course, if any of these causes are in operation, they
ought, if possible, to be remedied, or medicine to the babe will be of
little avail.
102. What is the treatment of Diarrhœa?
What to do.—If the case be slight, and has lasted two or three days
(do not interfere by giving medicine at first), and if the cause, as it
probably is, be some acidity or vitiated stool that wants a vent, and
thus endeavors to obtain one by purging, the best treatment is to
assist nature by giving either a dose of castor oil or a moderate one of
rhubarb and magnesia,[176] and thus to work off the enemy.
After the enemy has been worked off, either by the castor oil or by
the magnesia and rhubarb, the purging will, in all probability, cease;
but if the relaxation still continue, that is to say, for three or four
days,—then, if medical advice cannot be procured, the following
mixture should be given: