The celebrated old German poem

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The celebrated old German poem we are going to make a running sketch of, is traceable back to the Twelfth Century, when, ^^{or soon after when,} it was probably put in the shape transmitted to us modern times, by some writer or ^rhapsodist whose name is ^^now unknown.— Yet it is quite certain that this remarkable epic, long antedates even that far off period.—How much further back, though, it is impossible to tell, with any certainty.

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Of the many critical theories, ^{about the construction of the Nibelungen,} the most plausible is that these were ^the many ballads or versions floating about, were collected by the rhapsodist just ^before alluded to, ^^{during the Twelfth or Thirteenth Century,} and fused into one connected Epic.— The critics say they can tell the connecting passages; and they point to marked differences of style, and contradictions.—

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The Nibelungen is thus, by high authorities, stated to be ^{have been} a series of ^^{formed from} ^^this ballads belonging to several ages, but having a general principle of union and character, and ^^{thus comes to be} united upon the thread of one main plot.—