THE BRUNHILDE LINE

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 416, 8 October 1918, Page 3

THE BRUNHILDE LINE

(Written specially for " Tbe tikH") Towards the end of last week the cabled news from the western front told u* that the Beigfried line had gone as a defence, and that would probably fall back on the Brnnhilde line. Since the failttre of the enemies' great ptiah towards Paris Ludendorf claims to haVe adopted An '' elastic "system bf defence enabling him to fall back worn one" impregnable " position to another until he chooses to make a stand and hold up Foch's triumphant advance. However, this is not meant to be an article on the operations of the war) but simply to tell the readers of " The Times " something about the lady who gave her name to the position which the Germans hope to find, like the Divinity student found a lie, to be " a very piesent help in time of trouble." Brynhild is the principal female character in the Volsonga Saga, a great Scandinavian epic first written down about eight hundred years ago, but in all probability sung by the skalds (minstrels) for centuries before. The daughter of King Dudli, she has from her youth disposed feminine occupations and followed the profession of arms. Ultimately, incurring Wotan's displeasure by helping Agnar in a battle against Helen Qnnnar, to whom he had promised the victory, hecasts her into a deep sleep upon the summit of Hindfell, to become the wife of the first man who shall wake her. The only concession*he will make to her is to surround her with a hedge of flames, which only " the higheet hero of worlds" shall venture through. When Sigurd, (Germanised into Beigfried) the descendant of Wotan when he dwelt on earth as Voloung, has performed his first feat by killing a terrible dragon, he rides through the flames and wakes Brynhild from her charmed sleep. The love-tie kindled between thtm is instant and overwhelming. But Sigurd will not stay then to make her his wife. He is young, and almost untried, and wishes to bring her a great name before he weds her Nor does Brynhild desire his present stay, for she has sworn that only the greatest on earth shall possess her. So he wends away leaving her in her flsme protected bower. Ever southward fares Sigurd doing daily mighty deed?, and his fame still going before him as the mightiest hero of the North-land. When he reaches Germany Kriemhilda the queen, beholding how goodly a men he i«, desires him for a son-in-law. So she mixes him a potent drink in which all the powers of sea and air and earth are mingled. Sach was the magic of the draught that on the instant all memory ef the superb Brynhild is swept from his mind, and he marries the amiable but somewhat colourless Gudrun, and settles down quietly. Gunther the king, Gudrun's brother, has heard of Brynhild's beauty and wisdom, and wishes to make her his wife. Bo he persuadea Sigurd to journey north with him to to win her for his bride, Gunther's horse will not face the fire, nor any horse on earth save only Sigurd's Grani, the gift of Wotan to bis grandson and Grani will not suffer any man save his master to mount him. So it is arranged that Bigurd shall change likenesses with Gunther, and with his foim and n»me claim the bride. Brynhild still loves Bigurd with an overwhelming passion, but, constrained by Wotan's doom, promises to follow Gunther south and marry him.

Arrived at Gunther's court Bryn hild meets Sigurd and her distress of mind is terrible. Gunther she believes has ridden through the fire for her, and she will be true to him, but her love for Bigurd is greater than ever, and he, content with the gentle Gudrun, seems oblivious of her ex istence. Cer pride also is greatly wounded, for she bti desired to wed only the greatest hero on earth, and Gunther's fame, great though it i?, is as nothing compared with Sigurd's.

A situation so strained could not long endure withcut tragedy of some sort coming to end it. Sigurd is treacherously stabbed in the back by Gunther's brother. In his dying moments his memory of Brynhild comes back to him and with it all his love, and her name is the last he utters The knowledge of this is inexpressibly comforting to Brynhild Living she might not have him, but dead no power shall part them So she causes a mighty pyre to be built for Sigurd's body, and when it is a mass of flumes throws herself into it and is consutaed with him.

This is the brief epitome of the life days of the coble and generous minded, if, withal, passionate woman whom the Germans have adopted from the Vikings of the North a* one of their national heroines. Certainly more complete contrast could not be found than between her and the heavy-footed stodgy-minded female of the Hun, but it may be suppoeed that the principle that opposite# attract has been operating here. They also have the excuse that no one who has known the Ger man women could ever construct a heroine out of one of them, bo if one was wanted she had to be stolen or done without. And that Wagner, a name tn be conjured with throughout the musical world, made her the central figure of three of his great music-dramas also helped to make her name a household word in Germany. But it is time that one of the most finely conceived and beautiful ly painted figures in romance should be rescued from the degradation of the company which now claims her as its own