SOURCE: “Conclusion: Structural Devices and Their Consequences” in The “Nibelungenlied”: A Literary Analysis, University of Toronto Press, 1971, pp. 149-65.

In the following excerpt, Bekker examines the function of the Nibelungenlied's imagery and symbolism and discusses the epic's abundant symmetry and varied pace.

The previous chapters have attempted to draw attention to some of the building materials used in the Nibelungenlied, and to the nature of their distribution. What the total structure amounts to is a different matter. In order to attempt an evaluation of the epic as a whole, it is necessary to deal with some devices that are akin to that of parallelism, which so far has provided the base from which to view isolated motifs, events, or the functions of individual characters. The task involved demands a survey of the imagery in the epic, of the nature of the symmetry in it, and of pace...