The Story of Siegfried
Baldwin, James, 1841-1925
English
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Below is a summary of The Story of Siegfried
The Story of Siegfried
By
James Baldwin
New York Charles Scribner's Sons
1899
To My Children,
Winfred, Louis, and Nellie,
This Book Is Affectionately Inscribed.
The Fore Word.
When the world was in its childhood, men looked upon the
works of Nature with a strange kind of awe. They fancied
that every thing upon the earth, in the air, or in the
water, had a life like their own, and that every sight which
they saw, and every sound which they heard, was caused by
some intelligent being. All men were poets, so far as their
ideas and their modes of expression were concerned, although
it is not likely that any of them wrote poetry. This was
true in regard to the Saxon in his chilly northern home, as
well as to the Greek in the sunny southland. But, while the
balmy air and clear sky of the south tended to refine men's
thoughts and language, the rugged scenery and bleak storms
of the north made them uncouth, bold, and energetic. Yet
both the cultured Greek and the rude Saxon looked upon
Nature with much the same eyes, and there was a strange
resemblance in their manner of thinking and speaking. They
saw, that, in all the phenomena which took place around
them, there was a certain system or regularity, as if these
were controlled by some law or by some superior being; and
they sought, in their simple poetical way, to account for
these appearances. They had not yet learned to measure the
distances of the stars, nor to calculate the motions of the
earth. The changing of the seasons was a mystery which they
scarcely sought to penetrate. But they spoke of these
occurrences in a variety of ways, and invented many
charming, stories with reference to them, not so much with a
view towards accounting for the mystery, as towards giving
expression to their childlike but picturesque ideas.
Thus, in the south, when reference was made to the coming of
winter and to the dreariness and discomforts of that season
of the year, men did not know nor care to explain it all, as
our teachers now do at school; but they sometimes told how
Hades had stolen Persephone (the summer) from her mother
Demetre (the earth), and had carried her, in a chariot drawn
by four coal black steeds, to the gloomy land of shadows;
and how, in sorrow for her absence, the Earth clothed
herself in mourning, and no leaves grew upon the trees, nor
flowers in the gardens, and the very birds ceased singing,
because Persephone was no more. But they added, that in a
few months the fair maiden would return for a time to her
sorrowing mother, and that then the flowers would bloom, and
the trees would bear fruit, and the harvest-fields would
again be full of golden grain.
In the north a different story was told, but the meaning was
the same. Sometimes men told how Odin (the All-Father) had
become angry with Brunhild (the maid of spring), and had
wounded her with the thorn of sleep, and how all the castle
in which she slept was wrapped in deathlike slumber until
Sigurd or Siegfried (the sunbeam) rode through flaming fire,
and awakened her with a kiss. Sometimes men told how Loki
(heat) had betrayed Balder (the sunlight), and had induced
blind old Hoder (the winter months) to slay him, and how all
things, living and inanimate, joined in weeping for the
bright god, until Hela (death) should permit him to revisit
the earth for a time.
So, too, when the sun arose, and drove away the darkness and
the hidden terrors of the night, our ancestors thought of
the story of a noble young hero slaying a hideous dragon, or
taking possession of the golden treasures of Mist Land. And
when the springtime came, and the earth renewed its youth,
and the fields and woods were decked in beauty, and there
was music everywhere, they loved to tell of Idun (the
spring) and her youth-giving apples, and of her wise husband
Bragi (Nature's musician). When storm-clouds loomed up from
the horizon and darkened the sky, and thunder rolled
overhead, and lightning flashed on every hand, they talked
about the mighty Thor riding over the clouds in his goat-
drawn chariot, and battling with the giants of the air. When
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