Note 414 — Chapter V · THE DIFFERENCING ELEMENTS OF COMMUNAL POETRY

The opening or close of Germanic epic is often of this “I” character. So the Hildebrand Lay, the Béowulf, the Nibelungenlied at its end. Later epic shows a poet in the case, who has his own wares to announce. See R. M. Meyer, Altgermanische Poesie, pp. 357 ff., and his references.