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Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Vol. XV, 1946, No. 1.
The author uses in this paper a new psychoanalytical approach to the study of history. Taking as a basis Freud's statement that myths are the dreams of young nations, the author studies myths which have been preserved for centuries without change in their manifest content. He maintains that as with the dream, secondary elaboration is finished when a compromise is reached with which 'the people feel at home'. Like the manifest dream these myths have not only the aim of concealing a deeper meaning but also express the people's idea about its environment. The author therefore studies a myth in its final form in which it has become acceptable to the national Ego. He draws attention to the fact that central themes of mythology can be found in all nations, such as Homer's stories for the national psychology and ancient Greeks or the tales of King Arthur and his Knights for the English.
The Song of the Nibelungs is the representative myth of the Germans although the theme of Siegfried exists elsewhere as well. This myth which is the most cherished mythological possession of the German people, was given its definite form at the