Editing Nibelungenlied (section)

==Versions and manuscripts==
[[File:Berlin fragm 44.jpg|thumb|''Nibelungenlied'' Fragment, Berlin, SB, Fragm. 44]]

There are 37 known manuscripts and manuscript fragments of the ''Nibelungenlied'' and its variant versions.<ref>See [http://www.handschriftencensus.de/werke/271 Handschriftencensus]</ref> Eleven of these manuscripts are essentially complete.{{sfn|Lienert|2015|p=34}} Twenty-four manuscripts are in various fragmentary states of completion, including one version in [[Dutch language|Dutch]] (manuscript "T").{{sfn|Müller|2009|pp=48-49}}

The text of the different manuscripts of the ''Nibelungenlied'' varies considerably from one another,{{sfn|Müller|2009|p=49}} though there is less variance than found in many other Middle High German heroic epics, such as the [[Dietrich von Bern|Dietrich epics]].{{sfn|Lienert|2015|p=34}}{{sfn|Müller|2023|p=16}} Although the different versions vary in their exact wording and include or exclude stanzas found in other versions, the general order of events, the order of the appearance of characters, their actions, and the content of their speeches are all relatively stable between versions extant before the 1400s.{{sfn|Müller|2023|pp=27-29}} Generally, scholars have proposed that all versions of the ''Nibelungenlied'' derive from an original version (the "archetype") via alterations and reworking; {{ill|Jan-Dirk Müller|de}} instead proposes that the ''Nibelungenlied'' has always existed in variant forms, connecting this variance to the transmission of the epic's material from [[orality]] to literacy.{{sfn|Müller|2023|pp=2-3}}

Using the versions provided by the three oldest complete manuscripts, the Hohenems-Munich manuscript A (c. 1275-1300), the Sankt Gall manuscript B (c. 1233-1266), and the Hohenems-Donaueschingen manuscript C (c. 1225-1250),{{sfn|Heinzle|2013|p=1002}}{{efn|The letters A, B, and C for the manuscripts come from [[Karl Lachmann]]'s appraisal of their relative nearness to the archetype - his views are now considered obsolete.{{sfn|Heinzle|2013|p=1002}}}} scholars have traditionally differentiated two versions that existed near the time of the poem's composition; A and B are counted as belonging to a single version *AB, while a version *C is attested by manuscript C and most of the earliest fragments, including the oldest attestation of the ''Nibelungenlied''.{{sfn|Müller|2009|p=50, 53}} Using the final words of the epic, *AB is also called the ''Not''-version, and *C the ''Lied-''version; the *C version is clearly a reworking of an earlier version, but it is not clear if this version was *AB; *AB may also be an expanded version of an earlier text.{{sfn|Heinzle|2013|p=1002}} Most scholars assume that manuscript B is the closest to the original *AB version.{{sfn|Lienert|2015|p=34}}

By 1300, the ''Nibelungenlied'' was circulating in at least five versions:{{sfn|Heinzle|2013|pp=1005-1006}}
#the ''Not''-version *A;
#the ''Not''-version *B;
#the ''Lied''-version *C;
#in a mixed version *Db;
#in a mixed version *Jdh (or *J/*d).
Most fragments from after 1300 belong to the two mixed versions ({{lang|de|Mischenfassungen}}),{{sfn|Müller|2009|pp=52-53}} which appear to be based on copies of both the ''Not'' and ''Lied'' versions.{{sfn|Lienert|2015|p=34}} Three later manuscripts provide variant versions: one, m (after 1450), is lost while two are still extant: n (c. 1470/80) and k (c.1480/90).{{sfn|Heinzle|2013|pp=1006-1007}} Manuscripts m and n contain a story of Siegfried's youth that more closely resembles that found in the Old Norse ''[[Þiðreks saga]]'' and early modern German ''[[Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid]]'', while k shortens the text and modernizes the language.{{sfn|Lienert|2015|pp=34-35}}