WORLD SOUNDSCAPE PROJECT
SOUND REFERENCES IN LITERATURE


 


643.

He searched for the ferrymen up and down the river bank. Hearing the splashing of water in a fair spring he listened intently. The sound was made by waterfairies endowed with second sight who were bathing there to cool themselves.

The Nibelungenlied, trans. by A.T. Hatto, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1965, p. 193.

PLACE: The Danube.

TIME: Middle Ages (11th century?)

CIRCUMSTANCE: Hagen is trying to find a ferryman to help them (the Burgundians) to cross the river on their way to Hungary.

 

644.

He sat down on the threshold below the great door of the hall - never was there a bolder fiddler - and he brought such sweet notes from the strings that those proud knights so far from home all thanked him for it. And now the strings were sounding so that the whole palace re-echoed with it, for Volker was very accomplished as well as very brave and strong. Then he played ever more softly and sweetly till he lulled many a careworn man to sleep who lay there in bed.

The Nibelungenlied, trans. by A.T. Hatto, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1965, p. 227.

PLACE: At the court of Etzel, King of the Huns, in Hungary.

TIME: Middle Ages (11th century?)

CIRCUMSTANCE: Volker, the fiddler, entertains the Burgundians.

 

645.

And the illustrious warrior began to shout with might and main so that his voice resounded like a wisenthorn and the whole castle - such was Dietrich's vast strength! - rang with it far and wide.

The Nibelungenlied, trans. by A.T. Hatto, Penguin Classics, Great Britain, 1965, p. 245-246.

PLACE: At the court of Etzel, King of the Huns.

TIME: Middle Ages (11th century?)

CIRCUMSTANCE: Dietrich's (Lord of the Amelungs) reaction to the fighting between the Huns and the Burgundians.


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