title: Grounded theory

text: A study based on grounded theory is likely to begin with a question, or even just with the collection of qualitative data. As researchers review the data collected, ideas or concepts become apparent to the researchers. These ideas/concepts are said to "emerge" from the data. The researchers tag those ideas/concepts with "codes" that succinctly summarize the ideas/concepts. As more data are collected and re-reviewed, codes can be grouped into higher-level concepts and then into categories. These categories become the basis of a hypothesis or a new theory. Thus, grounded theory is quite different from the traditional scientific model of research, where the researcher chooses an existing theoretical framework, develops one or more hypotheses derived from that framework, and only then collects data for the purpose of assessing the validity of the hypotheses.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory is a general research methodology, a way of thinking about and conceptualizing data. It is used in studies of diverse populations from areas like remarriage after divorce and professional socialization. Grounded theory methods were developed by two sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss.


title: Grounded theory

text: While collaborating on research on dying hospital patients, Glaser and Strauss developed the constant comparative method which later became known as the grounded theory method. They summarized their research in the book "Awareness of Dying", which was published in 1965. Glaser and Strauss went on to describe their method in more detail in their 1967 book, "The Discovery of Grounded Theory". The three aims of the book were to:


title: Grounded theory

text: A turning point in the acceptance of the theory came after the publication of "Awareness of Dying". Their work on dying helped establish the influence of grounded theory in medical sociology, psychology, and psychiatry. From its beginnings, grounded theory methods have become more prominent in fields as diverse as drama, management, manufacturing, and education.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory combines traditions in positivist philosophy, general sociology, and, particularly, the symbolic interactionist branch of sociology. According to Ralph, Birks and Chapman, grounded theory is "methodologically dynamic" in the sense that, rather than being a complete methodology, grounded theory provides a means of constructing methods to better understand situations humans find themselves in.


title: Grounded theory

text: Glaser had a background in positivism, which helped him develop a system of labeling for the purpose of coding study participants' qualitative responses. He recognized the importance of systematic analysis for qualitative research. He thus helped ensure that grounded theory require the generation of codes, categories, and properties.


title: Grounded theory

text: Strauss had a background in symbolic interactionism, a theory that aims to understand how people interact with each other in creating symbolic worlds and how an individual's symbolic world helps to shape a person's behavior. He viewed individuals as "active" participants in forming their own understanding of the world. Stauss underlined the richness of qualitative research in shedding light on social processes and the complexity of social life.


title: Grounded theory

text: According to Glaser, the strategy of grounded theory is to interpret personal meaning in the context of social interaction. The grounded theory system studies "the interrelationship between meaning in the perception of the subjects and their action".


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory constructs symbolic codes based on categories emerging from recorded qualitative data. The idea is to allow grounded theory methods to help us better understand the phenomenal world of individuals. According to Milliken and Schreiber, another of the grounded theorist's tasks is to understand the socially-shared meanings that underlie individuals' behaviors and the reality of the participants being studied.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory provides methods for generating hypotheses from qualitative data. After hypotheses are generated, it is up to other researchers to attempt to sustain or reject those hypotheses. Questions asked by the qualitative researcher employing grounded theory include "What is going on?" and "What is the main problem of the participants, and how are they trying to solve it?"


title: Grounded theory

text: Researchers using grounded theory methods do not aim for the "truth." Rather, those researchers try to conceptualize what has been taking place in the lives of study participants. When applying grounded theory methods, the researcher does "not" formulate hypotheses in advance of data collection as is often the case in traditional research, otherwise the hypotheses would be ungrounded in the data. Hypotheses are supposed to emerge from the data.


title: Grounded theory

text: A goal of the researcher employing grounded theory methods is that of generating concepts that explain the way people resolve their central concerns regardless of time and place. These concepts organize the ground-level data. The concepts become the building blocks of hypotheses. The hypotheses become the constituents of a theory.


title: Grounded theory

text: In most behavioral research endeavors, persons or patients are units of analysis, whereas in grounded theory the unit of analysis is the incident. Typically several hundred incidents are analyzed in a grounded theory study because every participant usually reports many incidents. When comparing many incidents in a certain area of study, the emerging concepts and their inter-relationships are paramount. Consequently, grounded theory is a general method that can use any kind of data although grounded theory is most commonly applied to qualitative data.


title: Grounded theory

text: Most researchers oriented toward grounded theory do not apply statistical methods to the qualitative data they collect. The results of grounded theory research are not reported in terms of statistically significant findings although there may be probability statements about the relationship between concepts. Internal validity in its traditional research sense is not an issue in grounded theory. Rather, questions of fit, relevance, workability, and modifiability are more important in grounded theory. In addition, adherents of grounded theory emphasize a theoretical validity rather than traditional ideas of internal validity or measurement-related validity. Grounded theory adherents are "less charitable when discussing [psychometric] reliability, calling a single method of observation continually yielding an unvarying measurement a quixotic reliability."


title: Grounded theory

text: A theory that is fitting has concepts that are closely connected to the incidents the theory purports to represent; fit depends on how thoroughly the constant comparison of incidents to concepts has been conducted. A qualitative study driven by grounded theory examines the genuine concerns of study participants; those concerns are not only of academic interest. Grounded theory works when it explains how study participants address the problem at hand and related problems. A theory is modifiable and can be altered when new relevant data are compared to existing data.


title: Grounded theory

text: Theorizing is involved in all these steps. One is required to build and test theory all the way through till the end of a project.


title: Grounded theory

text: The idea that "all is data" is a fundamental property of grounded theory. The idea means that everything that the researcher encounters when studying a certain area is data, including not only interviews or observations but anything that helps the researcher generate concepts for the emerging theory. According to Ralph, Birks, and Chapman field notes can come from informal interviews, lectures, seminars, expert group meetings, newspaper articles, Internet mail lists, even television shows, conversations with friends etc.


title: Grounded theory

text: "Coding" places incidents into categories and then creates one or more hierarchies out of these categories in terms of categories and subcategories or "properties" of a categories. A property might be on a continuum such as from low to high, this may be referred to as a "dimension". "Constant comparison" where categories are continually compared to one another is used to create both subcategories and properties. There is some variation in the meanings of the terms code, concept and category with some authors viewing a code as identical to category while others consider a concept to be more abstract than a code, which a code being more like a "substantive code". Different researchers have identified different types of codes and encourage different methods of coding, with Strauss and Glaser both going on to extend their work with different forms of coding.


title: Grounded theory

text: The core variable explains most of the participants' main concern with as much variation as possible. It has the most powerful properties to picture what's going on, but with as few properties as possible needed to do so. A popular type of core variable can be theoretically modeled as a "basic social process" that accounts for most of the variation in change over time, context, and behavior in the studied area.


title: Grounded theory

text: "grounded theory is multivariate. It happens sequentially, subsequently, simultaneously, serendipitously, and scheduled" (Glaser, 1998).


title: Grounded theory

text: "Open coding" or "substantive coding" is conceptualizing on the first level of abstraction. Written data from field notes or transcripts are conceptualized line by line. In the beginning of a study everything is coded in order to find out about the problem and how it is being resolved. The coding is often done in the margin of the field notes.


title: Grounded theory

text: This phase is often tedious since it involves conceptualizing all the incidents in the data, which yields many concepts. These are compared as more data is coded, merged into new concepts, and eventually renamed and modified.


title: Grounded theory

text: The grounded theory researcher goes back and forth while comparing data, constantly modifying, and sharpening the growing theory at the same time they follow the build-up schedule of grounded theory's different steps.


title: Grounded theory

text: Strauss and Corbin proposed "axial coding" and defined it in 1990 as "a set of procedures whereby data are put back together in new ways after open coding, by making connections between categories." Glaser proposed a similar concept called "theoretical coding." Theoretical codes help to develop an integrated theory by weaving fractured concepts into hypotheses that work together. The theory, of which the just-mentioned hypotheses are constituents, explains the main concern of the participants. It is, however, important that the theory is not forced on the data beforehand but is allowed to emerge during the comparative process of grounded theory. Theoretical codes, like substantive codes, should emerge from the process of constantly comparing the data in field notes and memos.


title: Grounded theory

text: "Selective coding" is conducted after the researcher has found the core variable or what is thought to be the tentative core. The core explains the behavior of the participants in addressing their main concern. The tentative core is never wrong. It just more or less fits with the data.


title: Grounded theory

text: After the core variable is chosen, researchers selectively code data with the core guiding their coding, not bothering about concepts of little relevance to the core and its sub-cores. In addition, the researcher now selectively samples new data with the core in mind, a process that is called "theoretical sampling" – a deductive component of grounded theory.


title: Grounded theory

text: Selective coding delimits the scope of the study (Glaser, 1998). Grounded theory is less concerned with data accuracy than with generating concepts that are abstract and general.


title: Grounded theory

text: Selective coding could be conducted by reviewing old field notes and/or memos that have already been coded once at an earlier stage or by coding newly gathered data.


title: Grounded theory

text: Strauss and Corbin proposed a "coding paradigm" that involved "conditions, context, action/interactional strategies and consequences."


title: Grounded theory

text: "Memos are the theorizing write-up of ideas about substantive codes and their theoretically coded relationships as they emerge during coding, collecting and analyzing data, and during memoing" (Glaser 1998).


title: Grounded theory

text: Memoing is also important in the early phase of a grounded theory study (e.g., during open coding). In memoing, the researcher conceptualizes incidents, helping the process along. Theoretical memos can be anything written or drawn in the context of the constant comparative method, an important component of grounded theory.


title: Grounded theory

text: "Memos" are important tools to both refine and keep track of ideas that develop when researchers compare incidents to incidents and then concepts to concepts in the evolving theory. In memos, investigators develop ideas about naming concepts and relating them to each other. They examine relationships between concepts with the help of fourfold tables, diagrams, figures, or other means generating comparative power.


title: Grounded theory

text: Without memoing, the theory is superficial and the concepts generated are not very original. Memoing works as an accumulation of written ideas into a bank of ideas about concepts and how they relate to each other. This bank contains rich parts of what will later be the written theory.


title: Grounded theory

text: Memoing is total creative freedom without rules of writing, grammar or style (Glaser 1998). The writing must be an instrument for outflow of ideas, and nothing else. When people write memos, the ideas become more realistic, being converted from thoughts into words, and thus ideas communicable to the afterworld.


title: Grounded theory

text: In grounded theory the "preconscious processing" that occurs when coding and comparing is recognized. The researcher is encouraged to register ideas about the ongoing study that eventually pop up in everyday situations, and awareness of the serendipity of the method is also necessary to achieve good results.


title: Grounded theory

text: Building on the work of sociologist Robert K. Merton, his idea of "serendipity patterns" has come to be applied in grounded theory research. Serendipity patterns refer to fairly common experiences when observing the world. Serendipity patterns include unanticipated and anomalous events. These patterns can become the impetus for the development of a new theory or the extension of an existing theory. Merton also coauthored (with Elinor Barber) "The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity", which traces the origins and uses of the word "serendipity" since it was coined. The book is "a study in sociological semantics and the sociology of science," as the subtitle declares. Merton and Barber further develop the idea of serendipity as scientific "method," as contrasted with purposeful discovery by experiment or retrospective prophecy.


title: Grounded theory

text: In the next step memos are sorted, which is the key to formulating a theory that could be clearly presented to others. "Sorting" puts fractured data back together. During sorting new ideas can emerge. The new ideas can, in turn, be recorded in new memos, giving rise to the memo-on-memos phenomenon. Sorting memos can help generate theory that explains the main action in the studied area. A theory written from unsorted memos may be rich in ideas but the connections among concepts are likely to be weak.


title: Grounded theory

text: "Writing up" the sorted memos follows the sorting process. At this stage, a written theory takes shape. The different categories are now related to each other and the core variable. The theory should encompass the important emergent concepts and their careful description. The researcher may also construct tables and/or figures to optimize readability.


title: Grounded theory

text: In a later "rewriting" stage, the relevant scholarly literature is woven into the theory. Finally, the theory is edited for style and language. Eventually, the researcher submits the resulting scholarly paper for publication. Most books on grounded theory do not explain what methodological details should be included in a scholarly article; however, some guidelines have been suggested.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory gives the researcher freedom to generate new concepts in explaining human behavior. Research based on grounded theory, however, follows a number of rules. These rules make grounded theory different from most other methods employed in qualitative research.


title: Grounded theory

text: "No pre-research literature review." Reviewing the literature of the area under study is thought to generate preconceptions about what to find. The researcher is said to become sensitized to concepts in the extant literature. According to grounded theory, theoretical concepts should emerge from the data unsullied by what has come before. The literature should only be read at the sorting stage and be treated as more data to code and compared with what has already been coded and generated.


title: Grounded theory

text: "No talk." Talking about the theory before it is written up drains the researcher of motivational energy. Talking can either render praise or criticism. Both can diminish the motivational drive to write memos that develop and refine the concepts and the theory. Positive feedback, according to Glaser, can make researchers content with what they have and negative feedback hampers their self-confidence. Talking about the grounded theory should be restricted to persons capable of helping the researcher without influencing their final judgments.


title: Grounded theory

text: Different approaches to grounded theory reflect different views on how preexisting theory should be used in research. In "The Discovery of Grounded Theory", Glaser and Strauss advanced the view that, prior to conducting research, investigators should come to an area of study without any preconceived ideas regarding relevant concepts and hypotheses. In this way, the investigator, according to Glaser and Strauss, avoids imposing preconceived categories upon the research endeavor.


title: Grounded theory

text: Glaser later attempted to address the tension between not reading and reading the literature before a qualitative study begins. Glaser raised the issue of the use of a literature review to enhance the researchers' "theoretical sensitivity," i.e., their ability to identify a grounded theory that is a good fit to the data. He suggested that novice researchers might delay reading the literature to avoid undue influence on their handling of the qualitative data they collect. Glaser believed that reading the relevant research literature ("substantive literature") could lead investigators to apply preexisting concepts to the data, rather than interpret concepts emerging from the data. He, however, encouraged a broad reading of the literature to develop theoretical sensitivity. Strauss felt that reading relevant material could enhance the researcher's theoretical sensitivity.


title: Grounded theory

text: There has been some divergence in the methodology of grounded theory. Over time, Glaser and Strauss came to disagree about methodology and other qualitative researchers have also modified ideas linked to grounded theory. This divergence occurred most obviously after Strauss published "Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists" (1987). In 1990, Strauss, together with Juliet Corbin, published "Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques". The publication of the book was followed by a rebuke by Glaser (1992), who set out, chapter by chapter, to highlight the differences in what he argued was the original grounded theory and why what Strauss and Corbin had written was not grounded theory in its "intended form." This divergence in methodology is a subject of much academic debate, which Glaser (1998) calls a "rhetorical wrestle". Glaser continues to write about and teach the original grounded theory method.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory methods, according to Glaser, emphasize induction or emergence, and the individual researcher's creativity within a clear stagelike framework. By contrast, Strauss has been more interested in validation criteria and a systematic approach. According to Kelle (2005), "the controversy between Glaser and Strauss boils down to the question of whether the researcher uses a well-defined "coding paradigm" and always looks systematically for "causal conditions," "phenomena/context, intervening conditions, action strategies," and "consequences" in the data (Straussian), or whether theoretical codes are employed as they emerge in the same way as substantive codes emerge, but drawing on a huge fund of "coding families" (Glaserian).


title: Grounded theory

text: A later version of grounded theory called constructivist grounded theory, which is rooted in pragmatism and constructivist epistemology, assumes that neither data nor theories are discovered, but are constructed by researchers as a result of their interactions with the field and study participants. Proponents of this approach include Charmaz and Bryant.


title: Grounded theory

text: Data are co-constructed by the researcher and study participants, and colored by the researcher's perspectives, values, privileges, positions, interactions, and geographical locations. This position takes a middle ground between the realist and postmodernist positions by assuming an "obdurate reality" at the same time as it assumes multiple perspectives on that reality. Within the framework of this approach, a literature review prior to data collection is used in a productive and data-sensitive way without forcing the conclusions contained in the review on the collected data.


title: Grounded theory

text: More recently, a critical realist version of grounded theory has been developed and applied in research devoted to developing mechanism-based explanations for social phenomena. Critical realism (CR) is a philosophical approach associated with Roy Bhaskar, who argued for a structured and differentiated account of reality in which difference, stratification, and change are central. A critical realist grounded theory produces an explanation through an examination of the three domains of social reality: the "real," as the domain of structures and mechanisms; the "actual," as the domain of events; and the "empirical," as the domain of experiences and perceptions.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory has been "shaped by the desire to discover social and psychological processes." Grounded theory, however, is not restricted to these two areas study. As Gibbs points out, the process of grounded theory can be and has been applied to a number of different disciplines, including medicine, law, and economics. The reach of grounded theory has extended to nursing, business, and education.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory focuses more on procedures than on the discipline to which grounded theory is applied. Rather than being limited to a particular discipline or form of data collection, grounded theory has been found useful across multiple research areas. Here are some examples:


title: Grounded theory

text: The benefits of using grounded theory include ecological validity, the discovery of novel phenomena, and parsimony..


title: Grounded theory

text: Ecological validity refers to the extent to which research findings accurately represent real-world settings. Research based on grounded theories are often thought to be ecologically valid because the research is especially close to the real-world participants. Although the constructs in a grounded theory are appropriately abstract (since their goal is to explain other similar phenomenon), they are context-specific, detailed, and tightly connected to the data.


title: Grounded theory

text: Because grounded theories are not tied to any preexisting theory, grounded theories are often fresh and new and have the potential for novel discoveries in science and other areas.


title: Grounded theory

text: Parsimony refers to a heuristic often used in science that suggests that when there are competing hypotheses that make the same prediction, the hypothesis that relies on the fewest assumptions is preferable. Grounded theories aim to provide practical and simple explanations of complex phenomena by attempting to link those phenomena to abstract constructs and hypothesizing relationships among those constructs.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory methods have earned their place as a standard social research methodology and have influenced researchers from varied disciplines and professions.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory has been criticized based on the scientific idea of what a theory is. Thomas and James, for example, distinguish the ideas of generalization, over-generalization, and theory, noting that some scientific theories explain a broad range of phenomena succinctly, which grounded theory does not. Thomas and James observed that "The problems come when too much is claimed for [for a theory], simply because it is empirical; problems come in distinguishing generalization from over-generalization, narrative from induction." They also write that grounded theory advocates sometimes claim to find causal implications when in truth they only find an association.


title: Grounded theory

text: There has been criticism of grounded theory on the grounds that it opens the door to letting too much researcher subjectivity enter. The authors just cited suggest that it is impossible to free oneself of preconceptions in the collection and analysis of data in the way that Glaser and Strauss assert is necessary. Popper also undermines grounded theory's idea that hypotheses arise from data unaffected by prior expectations. Popper wrote that "objects can be classified and can become similar or dissimilar, only in this way--by being related to needs and interests." Observation is always selective, based on past research and the investigators' goals and motives, and that preconceptionless research is impossible. Critics also note that grounded theory fails to mitigate participant reactivity and has the potential for an investigator steeped in grounded theory to over-identify with one or more study participants.


title: Grounded theory

text: Although they suggest that one element of grounded theory worth keeping is the constant comparative method, Thomas and James point to the formulaic nature of grounded theory methods and the lack of congruence of those methods with open and creative interpretation, which ought to be the hallmark of qualitative inquiry.


title: Grounded theory

text: The grounded theory approach can be criticized as being too empiricist, i.e., that it relies too heavily on the empirical data. Grounded theory considers fieldwork data as the source of theory. Thus the theories that emerge from a new fieldwork are set against the theories that preceded the fieldwork.


title: Grounded theory

text: Grounded theory was developed during an era when qualitative methods were often considered unscientific. But as the academic rigor of qualitative research became known, this type of research approach achieved wide acceptance. In American academia, qualitative research is often equated with grounded theory methods. Such equating of most qualitative methods with grounded theory has sometimes been criticized by qualitative researchers who take different approaches to methodology (for example, in traditional ethnography, narratology, and storytelling).


title: Grounded theory

text: One alternative to grounded theory is engaged theory. Engaged theory equally emphasizes the conducting of on-the-ground empirical research but linking that research to analytical processes of empirical generalization. Unlike grounded theory, engaged theory derives from the tradition of critical theory. Engaged theory locates analytical processes within a larger theoretical framework that specifies different levels of abstraction, allowing investigators to make claims about the wider world.


title: Grounded theory

text: Braun and Clarke regard thematic analysis as having fewer theoretical assumptions than grounded theory, and can be used within several theoretical frameworks. They write that in comparison to grounded theory, thematic analysis is freer because it is not linked to any preexisting framework for making sense of qualitative data. Braun and Clarke, however, concede that there is a degree of similarity between grounded theory and thematic analysis but prefer thematic analysis.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The ' ( or '), translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germanic heroic legend that has some of its origin in historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries and that spread throughout almost all of Germanic-speaking Europe. Scandinavian parallels to the German poem are found especially in the heroic lays of the "Poetic Edda" and in the "Völsunga saga".


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The poem is split into two parts. In the first part, the prince Siegfried comes to Worms to acquire the hand of the Burgundian princess Kriemhild from her brother King Gunther. Gunther agrees to let Siegfried marry Kriemhild if Siegfried helps Gunther acquire the warrior-queen Brünhild as his wife. Siegfried does this and marries Kriemhild; however, Brünhild and Kriemhild become rivals, leading eventually to Siegfried's murder by the Burgundian vassal Hagen with Gunther's involvement. In the second part, the widow Kriemhild is married to Etzel, king of the Huns. She later invites her brother and his court to visit Etzel's kingdom intending to kill Hagen. Her revenge results in the death of all the Burgundians who came to Etzel's court as well as the destruction of Etzel's kingdom and the death of Kriemhild herself.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The was the first heroic epic put into writing in Germany, helping to found a larger genre of written heroic poetry there. The poem's tragedy appears to have bothered its medieval audience, and very early on a sequel was written, the , which made the tragedy less final. The poem was forgotten after around 1500 but was rediscovered in 1755. Dubbed the "German "Iliad"", the began a new life as the German national epic. The poem was appropriated for nationalist purposes and was heavily used in anti-democratic, reactionary, and Nazi propaganda before and during the Second World War. Its legacy today is most visible in Richard Wagner's operatic cycle , which, however, is mostly based on Old Norse sources. In 2009, the three main manuscripts of the were inscribed in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in recognition of their historical significance. It has been called "one of the most impressive, and certainly the most powerful, of the German epics of the Middle Ages".


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The poem in its various written forms was lost by the end of the 16th century, but manuscripts from as early as the 13th century were re-discovered during the 18th century. There are 37 known manuscripts of the "Nibelungenlied" and its variant versions. Eleven of these manuscripts are essentially complete. The oldest version seems to be the one preserved in manuscript "B". Twenty-four manuscripts are in various fragmentary states of completion, including one version in Dutch (manuscript "T").


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The text contains approximately 2,400 stanzas in 39 (). The title under which the poem has been known since its discovery is derived from the final line of one of the three main versions, ("here the story takes an end: this is the lay of the Nibelungs"). here means "lay", "tale" or "epic" rather than its Modern German translation of "song".


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The manuscripts' sources deviate considerably from one another. Philologists and literary scholars usually designate three main genealogical groups for the entire range of available manuscripts, with two primary versions comprising the oldest known copies: *AB and *C. This categorization derives from the signatures on the *A, *B and *C manuscripts as well as the wording of the last verse in each source: or . Nineteenth-century philologist Karl Lachmann developed this categorisation of the manuscript sources in (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1826).


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The famous opening of the "Nibelungenlied" is actually thought to be an addition by the editor of manuscript "C" of the "Nibelungenlied" (MS C, for short), as it does not appear in the oldest manuscripts. It may have been inspired by the prologue of the "Nibelungenklage".


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The oldest manuscripts instead began with the introduction of Kriemhild, the protagonist of the work.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The epic is divided into two parts, the first dealing with the story of Siegfried and Kriemhild, the wooing of Brünhild and the death of Siegfried at the hands of Hagen, and Hagen's hiding of the Nibelung treasure in the river Rhine (Chapters 1–19). The second part deals with Kriemhild's marriage to Etzel (Attila, king of the Huns), her plans for revenge, the journey of the Burgundians to the court of Etzel, and their last stand in Etzel's hall (Chapters 20–39).


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The first chapter introduces the court of Burgundy. Kriemhild (the virgin sister of King Gunther and his brothers Gernot and Giselher) has a dream of a falcon that is killed by two eagles. Her mother interprets this to mean that Kriemhild's future husband will die a violent death, and Kriemhild consequently resolves to remain unmarried.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The second chapter tells of the background of Siegfried, crown prince of Xanten. His youth is narrated with little room for the adventures later attributed to him. In the third chapter, Siegfried arrives in Worms with the hopes of wooing Kriemhild. Upon his arrival, Hagen von Tronje, one of King Gunther's vassals, tells Gunther about Siegfried's youthful exploits that involved winning a treasure and lands from a pair of brothers, Nibelung and Schilbung, whom Siegfried had killed when he was unable to divide the treasure between them, and, almost incidentally, the killing of a dragon. Siegfried leaves his treasure in the charge of a dwarf named Alberich.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: After killing the dragon, Siegfried then bathed in its blood which rendered him invulnerable except for a single spot on his back where a leaf from a linden tree had fallen on him. In spite of Hagen's threatening stories about his youth, the Burgundians welcome him, but do not allow him to meet the princess. Disappointed, he nonetheless remains in Worms and helps Gunther defeat the invading Saxons.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: In Chapter 5, Siegfried finally meets Kriemhild. Gunther requests Siegfried to sail with him to the fictional city of Isenstein in Iceland to win the hand of Iceland's Queen, Brünhild. Siegfried agrees, though only if Gunther allows him to marry Gunther's sister, Kriemhild, whom Siegfried pines for. Gunther, Siegfried and a group of Burgundians set sail for Iceland with Siegfried pretending to be Gunther's vassal. Upon their arrival, Brünhild challenges Gunther to a trial of strength with her hand in marriage as a reward. If they lose, however, they will be sentenced to death. She challenges Gunther to three athletic contests, throwing a javelin, tossing a boulder, and a leap. After seeing the boulder and javelin, it becomes apparent to the group that Brünhild is immensely strong, and they fear for their lives.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Siegfried quietly returns to the boat on which his group had sailed and retrieves his special cloak, which renders him invisible and gives him the strength of 12 men (Chapters 6–8). Siegfried, with his immense strength, invisibly leads Gunther through the trials. Unknowingly deceived, the impressed Brünhild thinks King Gunther, not Siegfried, defeated her and agrees to marry Gunther. Gunther becomes afraid that Brünhild may yet be planning to kill them, so Siegfried goes to Nibelungenland and single-handedly conquers the kingdom. Siegfried makes them his vassals and returns with a thousand of them, himself going ahead as messenger. The group of Burgundians, Gunther and Gunther's new wife-to-be Brünhild return to Worms, where a grand reception awaits them, and they marry to much fanfare. Siegfried and Kriemhild are also then married with Gunther's blessings.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: However, on their wedding night, Brünhild suspects something is amiss with her situation, particularly suspecting Siegfried as a potential cause. Gunther attempts to sleep with her, and, with her great strength, she easily ties him up and leaves him that way all night. After he tells Siegfried of this, Siegfried again offers his help, proposing that he slip into their chamber at night with his invisibility cloak and silently beat Brünhild into submission. Gunther agrees but says that Siegfried must not sleep with Brünhild. Siegfried slips into the room according to plan and after a difficult and violent struggle, an invisible Siegfried defeats Brünhild. Siegfried then takes her ring and belt, which are symbols of defloration. Here it is implied that Siegfried sleeps with Brünhild, despite Gunther's request. Afterwards, Brünhild no longer possesses her once-great strength and says she will no longer refuse Gunther. Siegfried gives the ring and belt to his own newlywed, Kriemhild, in Chapter 10.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Years later, Brünhild, still feeling as if she had been deceived, goads Gunther into inviting Siegfried and Kriemhild to their kingdom. Brünhild does this because she is still under the impression that Gunther married off his sister to a low-ranking vassal (Gunther and Siegfried are in reality of equal rank) and the proper relations between the two ranks have not been followed. Both Siegfried and Kriemhild come to Worms and all is friendly between the two until, before entering Worms Cathedral, Kriemhild and Brünhild argue over who should have precedence, in accordance their husbands' ranks.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Having been earlier deceived about the relationship between Siegfried and Gunther, Brünhild thinks it is obvious that she should go first, in right of her (self-perceived) superior rank. Kriemhild, unaware of the deception involved in Brünhild's wooing, insists that they are of equal rank, and the dispute escalates. Severely angered, Kriemhild shows Brünhild first the ring and then the belt that Siegfried took from Brünhild on her wedding night, and then calls her Siegfried's "kebse" (mistress or concubine). Brünhild feels greatly distressed and humiliated, and bursts into tears.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The argument between the queens is both a risk for the marriage of Gunther and Brünhild and a potential cause for a lethal rivalry between Gunther and Siegfried, which both Gunther and Siegfried attempt to avoid. Gunther acquits Siegfried of the charges. Despite this, Hagen von Tronje decides to kill Siegfried to protect the honor and reign of his king. Although it is Hagen who does the deed, Gunther, who at first objects to the plot, finally quietly assents. Hagen contrives a false military threat to Gunther, and Siegfried, considering Gunther a great friend, volunteers to help Gunther once again.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Under the pretext of this threat of war, Hagen persuades Kriemhild, who still trusts Hagen, to mark Siegfried's single vulnerable point on his clothing with a cross under the premise of protecting him. Now knowing Siegfried's weakness, the fake campaign is called off and Hagen then uses the cross as a target on a hunting trip, killing Siegfried with a javelin as he drinks from a brook (Chapter 16). Kriemhild becomes aware of Hagen's deed when, in Hagen's presence, the corpse of Siegfried bleeds from the wound (cruentation). Some years later, after Kriemhild begins to use the hoard of treasure to attract warriors to her personal retinue, Hagen steals the treasure from her.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Kriemhild swears to take revenge for the murder of her husband and the theft of her treasure. Many years later, King Etzel of the Huns proposes to Kriemhild, she journeys to the land of the Huns, and they are married. For the baptism of their son, she invites her brothers, the Burgundians, to a feast at Etzel's castle in Hungary. Hagen does not want to go, suspecting that it is a trick by Kriemhild in order to take revenge and kill them all, but he is taunted until he does. As the Burgundians cross the river Danube, this fate is confirmed by Nixes (Germanic water spirits), who predict that all but one monk will die. Hagen tries to drown the monk in order to render the prophecy futile, but he survives.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The Burgundians arrive at Etzel's castle and are welcomed by Kriemhild "with lying smiles and graces", but the lord Dietrich of Bern, an ally of Etzel's, advises the Burgundians to keep their weapons with them at all times, which is normally not allowed. The tragedy unfolds as Kriemhild comes before Hagen, reproaching him for her husband Siegfried's death, and demands that he return her "Nibelungenschatz", the Nibelungen treasure. Not only does Hagen humiliate her by openly carrying Balmung, Siegfried's sword stolen from his corpse, but also admits to killing Siegfried and stealing the Nibelungen treasure. Hagen blames all these acts on Kriemhild's own behavior.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: King Etzel then welcomes his wife's brothers warmly. But outside the tense feast in the great hall, a fight breaks out between Huns and Burgundians. When word of the fight arrives at the feast, Hagen decapitates the young son of Kriemhild and Etzel before their eyes. The Burgundians take control of the hall, which is besieged by Etzel's warriors. Kriemhild offers her brothers their lives if they hand over Hagen, but they refuse. The battle lasts all day, until the queen orders the hall to be burned with the Burgundians inside.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: All of the Burgundians are killed except for Hagen and Gunther, who are bound and held prisoner by Dietrich of Bern. Kriemhild has the men brought before her and orders her brother Gunther to be killed. Even after seeing Gunther's head, Hagen refuses to tell the queen what he has done with the Nibelungen treasure. Furious, Kriemhild herself cuts off Hagen's head. Old Hildebrand, the mentor of Dietrich of Bern, is infuriated by the shameful deaths of the Burgundian guests. He hews Kriemhild to pieces with his sword. In a fifteenth-century manuscript, he is said to strike Kriemhild a single clean blow to the waist; she feels no pain, however, and declares that his sword is useless. Hildebrand then drops a ring and commands Kriemhild to pick it up. As she bends down, her body falls into pieces. Dietrich and Etzel and all the people of the court lament the deaths of so many heroes.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The "Nibelungenlied", like other Middle High German heroic epics, is anonymous. This anonymity extends to discussions of literature in other Middle High German works: although it is common practice to judge or praise the poems of others, no other poet refers to the author of the "Nibelungenlied". Attempts to identify the "Nibelungenlied-"poet with known authors, such as Bligger von Steinach, to whom a lost epic is attributed by Gottfried von Strassburg, have not found wide acceptance. The poem is nevertheless believed to have had a single author, possibly working in a "Nibelungen workshop" ("") together with the author of the "Nibelungenklage". The latter work identifies a "meister Konrad" as the author of an original Latin version of the "Nibelungenlied", but this is generally taken for a fiction. Although a single "Nibelungenlied-"poet is often posited, the degree of variance in the text and its background in an amorphous oral tradition mean that ideas of authorial intention must be applied with caution. It is also possible that there were several poets involved, perhaps under the direction of a single "leader" who could be considered the ""Nibelungenlied-"poet".


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The "Nibelungenlied" is conventionally dated to around the year 1200. Wolfram von Eschenbach references the cook Rumolt, usually taken to be an invention of the "Nibelungenlied-"poet, in his romance "Parzival" (c. 1204/5), thereby providing an upper bound on the date the epic must have been composed. Additionally, the poem's rhyming technique most closely resembles that used between 1190 and 1205. Attempts to show that the poem alludes to various historical events have generally not been convincing.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The current theory of the creation of the poem emphasizes the poet's concentration on the region of Passau: for example, the poem highlights the relatively unimportant figure of Bishop Pilgrim of Passau, and the poet's geographical knowledge appears much more firm in this region than elsewhere. These facts, combined with the dating, have led scholars to believe that Wolfger von Erla, Bishop of Passau (reigned 1191–1204) was the patron of the poem. Wolfger is known to have patronized other literary figures, such as Walther von der Vogelweide and Thomasin von Zirclaere. The attention paid to Bishop Pilgrim, who represents the real historical figure Bishop Pilgrim of Passau, would thus be an indirect homage to Wolfger. Wolfger was, moreover, attempting to establish the sainthood of Pilgrim at the time of the poem's composition, giving an additional reason for his prominence.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Some debate exists as to whether the poem is an entirely new creation or whether there was a previous version. German medievalist Jan-Dirk Müller claims that the poem in its written form is entirely new, although he admits the possibility that an orally transmitted epic with relatively consistent contents could have preceded it. German philologist Elisabeth Lienert, on the other hand, posits an earlier version of the text from around 1150 due to the "Nibelungenlied's" use of a stanzaic form current around that time (see Form and style).


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Whoever the poet may have been, they appear to have had a knowledge of German Minnesang and chivalric romance. The poem's concentration on love ("minne") and its depiction of Siegfried as engaging in love service for Kriemhild is in line with courtly romances of the time, with Heinrich von Veldeke's "Eneasroman" perhaps providing concrete models. Other possible influences are Hartmann von Aue's "Iwein" and "Erec". These courtly elements are described by Jan-Dirk Müller as something of a façade, under which the older heroic ethos of the poem remains. Additionally, the poet seems to have known Latin literature. The role given to Kriemhild in the second (originally first) stanza is suggestive of Helen of Troy, and the poem appears to have taken a number of elements from Vergil's "Aeneid". There is some debate as to whether the poet was acquainted with Old French "chanson de geste".


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The language of the "Nibelungenlied" is characterized by its formulaic nature, a feature of oral poetry, meaning that similar or identical words, epithets, phrases, and even lines can be found in various positions throughout the poem. These elements can be used flexibly for different purposes in the poem. As the "Nibelungenlied" is generally thought to have been conceived as a written work, these elements are typically taken as signs of "fictive orality" ("") that underscore the connection of the poem to its traditionally oral subject matter.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The "Nibelungenlied" is written in four-line stanzas. Although no melody has survived for the text, melodies for similar stanzas in other German heroic poems have, so that it is certain that the text was meant to be sung. The stanza consists of three ("long lines"), which consist of three metrical feet, a caesura, and three metrical feet following the caesura. The fourth line adds an additional foot following the caesura, making it longer than the other three and marking the end of the stanza. The final word before the caesura is typically female (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable), whereas the final word of a line is typical male (a stressed syllable). The lines rhyme in pairs, and occasionally there are internal rhymes between the words at the end of the caesura, as in the first stanza (see Synopsis). Medieval German literature scholar Victor Millet uses the poem's sixth stanza as an example of this metrical form. An acute accent indicates the stressed beat of a metrical foot, and || indicates the caesura:


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Many stanzas of the poem are constructed in a much less regular manner. It is likely that the "Nibelungenlied" cites an oral story-telling tradition in using singable stanzas; however, the longer final line is generally thought to belong to a more refined artistic milieu, as later heroic epics typically use a stanza without this longer final line (the so-called "Hildebrandston"). The stanzaic form of the "Nibelungenlied", on the other hand, is shared with the Danubian minnesinger known as Der von Kürenberg who flourished in the 1150s and 1160s. The "Nibelungenlied-"poet may have been inspired by this lyrical stanza. Their use of the stanza would thus cite an oral story-telling tradition while at the same time creating some distance to it. Philologist Andreas Heusler supposed that the poet had taken some earlier orally transmitted stanzas and added a fourth foot to their final line, as these supposedly older stanzas are characterized by a more archaic vocabulary as well. German medievalist Jan-Dirk Müller notes that while it would be typical of a medieval poet to incorporate lines from other works in their own, no stanza of the "Nibelungenlied" can be proven to have come from an older poem.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The nature of the stanza creates a structure whereby the narrative progresses in blocks: the first three lines carry the story forward, while the fourth introduces foreshadowing of the disaster at the end or comments on events. The fourth line is thus often the most formulaic of the stanza. Stanzas often seem to have been placed after each other without necessarily being causally or narratively connected; for instance, two consecutive stanzas might portray two different reactions to an event by the same figure. Often, the same reaction is given to multiple figures in different stanzas, so that the impression of collective rather than individual reactions is created. Enjambment between stanzas is very rare. The epic frequently creates multiple motivations for events, some of which may contradict each other. This style of narration also causes the events within the poem to come to a frequent halt, which can last for years within the time portrayed in the poem. The division of the epic into () underlines the disconnect between the various episodes. The connection between the first half of the epic (Siegfried's murder) and the second half (Kriemhild's marriage to Etzel) is especially loose. The epic nevertheless maintains the causal and narrative connection between episodes through the commentary of the narrator, who frequently reminds the poem's audience of the coming catastrophe, while the manner in which the epic is told serves to delay the inevitable disaster. The action becomes more and more intense as the epic nears its end.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Behind "Nibelungenlied" stands a large oral tradition, the so-called Nibelungen saga. This oral tradition, moreover, continued to exist following the composition of the "Nibelungenlied", as proven by the "Rosengarten zu Worms" and "Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid", both of which were written later than the "Nibelungenlied" but contain elements of the saga that are absent in it. These oral traditions have, at least in some cases, a historical core. However, various historical events and figures have been melded together into a single plot in such a way that the original historical context has been lost. The epic, and presumably the oral traditions that provided its material, have transformed historical events into relatively simple narrative schemas that can be compared with other, similar (originally) oral narratives from other cultures. What had originally been political motivations have been "personalized", so that political events are explained through personal preferences, likes, dislikes, and feuds rather than purely by realpolitik. Various historical personages, moreover, appear to be contemporaries in the poem despite not having lived at the same time historically.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The Nibelungen saga also seems to have had an early reception in Scandinavia, so that parallel stories are found among the heroic lays of the "Poetic Edda" (written down in 1270 but containing at least some much older material) and in the "Völsunga saga" (written down in the second half of the thirteenth century). While the Norse texts were once usually considered to contain a more original version of the Nibelungen saga, newer scholarship has called this into question and notes that the connections made to Norse mythology and Germanic paganism, such as the semi-divine origin of the Nibelungen hoard, are likely more recent developments that are therefore unique to the Scandinavian tradition. Some elements of the Norse tradition, however, are assuredly older.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The death of the Burgundians finds its origins in the destruction of the historical Burgundian kingdom on the Rhine. This kingdom, under the rule of king Gundaharius, was destroyed by the Roman general Flavius Aetius in 436/437, with survivors resettled in eastern Gaul in a region centered around modern-day Geneva and Lyon (at the time known as Lugdunum). The "Lex Burgundionum", codified by the Burgundian king Gundobad at the end of the sixth century, contains many names that can be connected with the Nibelungen saga, including, besides Gundaharius, Gislaharius (Giselher), Gundomaris (possibly the historical figure behind the Old Norse Gothorm, who is replaced by Gernot in the German tradition), and Gibica (attested in Germany as Gibich but not found in the "Nibelungenlied"). Although the Burgundian kingdom on the Rhine is thus historically attested, the saga locates its destruction at the court of Attila (Etzel), king of the Huns. The destruction of Attila's kingdom itself is likely inspired by Attila's sudden death following his wedding in 453, which was popularly blamed on his wife, a Germanic woman named Hildico. Her name, containing the element "hild", may have inspired that of Kriemhild. Kriemhild most likely originally killed Etzel and avenged her relatives rather than her husband, but this change had already taken place some time before the creation of the "Nibelungenlied". Jan-Dirk Müller doubts that we can be certain which version is more original given that in both cases Kriemhild brings about the destruction of the Hunnish kingdom. The differences may be because the continental saga is more favorable to Attila than the Norse, and so Attila could not be held directly responsible for the treacherous invitation of the Burgundians.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Unlike the Burgundians, Siegfried cannot be firmly identified with a historical figure. He may have his origins in the Merovingian dynasty, where names beginning with the element "Sigi-" were common and where there was also a famous and violent queen Brunhilda (543–613). The feud between this historical Brunhilda and the rival queen Fredegund may have provided the origin of the feud between Brünhild and Kriemhild. The name "Siegfried" itself is a relatively recent one, only being attested from the seventh century onward, meaning that the original name may have been equivalent to the Old Norse "Sigurd". Scholars such as Otto Höfler have speculated that Siegfried and his slaying of the dragon may be a mythologized reflection of Arminius and his defeat of the Roman legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. Jan-Dirk Müller suggests that Siegfried likely has a more mythological origin. The story of the destruction of the Burgundians and Siegfried appear to have been originally unconnected. The Old Norse "Atlakviða", a poem likely originally from the ninth century that has been reworked as part of the "Poetic Edda", tells the story of the death of the Burgundians without any mention of Sigurd (Siegfried) and can be taken as an attestation for an older tradition. In fact, the earliest attested work to connect Siegfried explicitly with the destruction of the Burgundians is the "Nibelungenlied" itself, though Old Norse parallels make it clear that this tradition must have existed orally for some time.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: When composing the "Nibelungenlied", its poet was faced with setting an oral tradition down into a definitive version although that tradition was by its very nature amorphous. In choosing which elements of the saga to include in his version, the poet therefore often incorporated two versions of an event that were likely not combined in the oral tradition. An example is the beginning of the fighting in Etzel's hall, which is motivated both by an attack on the Burgundians' supplies and Hagen's killing of prince Ortlieb. The Old Norse "Thidrekssaga", which is based on German sources, contains only the second element, meaning that the two motivations were likely variants that were hardly ever combined in practice. Victor Millet concludes that the poet deliberately doubles the motivations or occurrences of various events, including Siegfried's wooing of Kriemhild, the deception of Brünhild, Hagen's humiliation of Kriemhild, and Kriemhild's demand for the return of Nibelungen treasure.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The poet also appears to have significantly altered various aspects of the saga. Most significantly, the poet has suppressed the mythological or fantastical elements of Siegfried's story. When these elements are introduced, it is in a retrospective tale narrated by Hagen that reduces the slaying of the dragon to a single stanza. Hagen's story, moreover, does not accord with Siegfried's youth as the narrator of the "Nibelungenlied" has portrayed it, in which he receives a courtly education in Xanten. More elaborate stories about Siegfried's youth are found in the "Thidrekssaga" and in the later heroic ballad "Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid", both of which appear to preserve German oral traditions about the hero that the "Nibelungenlied"-poet decided to suppress for their poem.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The portrayal of Kriemhild, particularly in the first half of the romance, as a courtly lady is likely an invention of the "Nibelungenlied"-poet. Earlier (and many later) attestations of Kriemhild outside of the "Nibelungenlied" portray her as obsessed with power and highlight her treachery to her brothers rather than her love for her husband as her motivation for betraying them. The poet still uses images from this traditional picture, but given the new motivation of the poem's Kriemhild, their meaning has changed. For instance, when Kriemhild demands that Hagen give back what he has taken from her, a traditional motif known from the Norse versions, she could mean the stolen hoard, but she could also mean her murdered husband. Hagen, similarly, in demanding that Gunther first be killed before he reveals the hoard's location, even though the hoard is at the bottom of the Rhine and cannot be retrieved, reveals Kriemhild's mercilessness while also showing his own duplicity. It is unclear which figure is in the right and which in the wrong.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: With 36 manuscripts, the "Nibelungenlied" appears to have been one of the most popular works of the German Middle Ages and seems to have found a very broad audience. The poem is quoted by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his "Parzival" and "Willehalm" and likely inspired his use of stanzas in his unfinished "Titurel". The manuscript witnesses and medieval references to the "Nibelungenlied" show that medieval recipients were most interested in the "Nibelungenlied" as the story of the destruction of the Burgundians; the first half of the poem was often shortened or otherwise summarized. The Ambraser Heldenbuch titles its copy of the "Nibelungenlied" with "Ditz Puech heysset Chrimhilt" (this book is named "Kriemhild"), showing that she was seen as the most important character.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The areas of medieval interest seem in particular to have been the inescapability of the slaughter at the end of the poem and Kriemhild and Hagen's culpability or innocence. The earliest attested reception of the "Nibelungenlied", the "Nibelungenklage", which was likely written only shortly afterwards, shows an attempt both to make sense of the horror of the destruction and to absolve Kriemhild of blame. The C version of the "Nibelungenlied", redacted around the same time as the "Klage", shows a similar strategy. The presence of the "Nibelungenklage" in all manuscripts of the "Nibelungenlied" shows that the ending of the "Nibelungenlied" itself was evidently unsatisfying to its primary audience without some attempt to explain these two "scandalous" elements. The "Rosengarten zu Worms", on the other hand, demonizes Kriemhild thoroughly, while the late-medieval "Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid" takes her side even more strongly.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: As the first Middle High German heroic poem to be written, the "Nibelungenlied" can be said to have founded an entire genre of Middle High German literature. As a result, other Middle High German heroic poems are sometimes described as "post-Nibelungian" ("nachnibelungisch"). The majority of these epics revolve around the hero Dietrich von Bern, who plays a secondary role in the "Nibelungenlied": it is likely that his presence there inspired these new poems. Many of the following heroic epics appear to respond to aspects of the "Nibelungenlied": the "Kudrun" (c. 1250), for instance, has been described as a reply to the "Nibelungenlied" that reverses the heroic tragedy of the previous poem. Kudrun herself is sometimes seen as a direct reversal of Kriemhild, as she makes peace among warring factions rather than driving them to their deaths. No Middle High German heroic epic after the "Nibelungenlied" maintains the tragic heroic atmosphere that characterized earlier Germanic heroic poetry, and the later poems are often further hybridized with elements of chivalric romance.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Reception of the "Nibelungenlied" ceases after the fifteenth century: the work is last copied in manuscript as part of the Ambraser Heldenbuch around 1508, and its last mention is by the Viennese historian Wolfgang Lazius in two works from 1554 and 1557 respectively. It was not printed and appears to have been forgotten. The Nibelungen saga, however, was not forgotten completely; the "Rosengarten zu Worms" was printed as part of the printed Heldenbuch until 1590 and inspired several plays in the early seventeenth century, while "Hürnen Seyfrid" continued to be printed into the nineteenth century in a prose version.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: After having been forgotten for two hundred years, the "Nibelungenlied" manuscript C was rediscovered by in 1755. That same year, Johann Jacob Bodmer publicized the discovery, publishing excerpts and his own reworkings of the poem. Bodmer dubbed the "Nibelungenlied" the "German "Iliad"" (""), a comparison that skewed the reception of the poem by comparing it to the poetics of a classical epic. Bodmer attempted to make the "Nibelungenlied" conform more closely to these principles in his own reworkings of the poem, leaving off the first part in his edition, titled "Chriemhilden Rache", in order to imitate the "in medias res" technique of Homer. He later rewrote the second part in dactylic hexameter under the title "Die Rache der Schwester" (1767). Bodmer's placement of the "Nibelungenlied" in the tradition of classical epic had a detrimental effect on its early reception: when presented with a full edition of the medieval poem by Christoph Heinrich Myller, King Frederick II famously called the "Nibelungenlied" "not worth a shot of powder" (""). Goethe was similarly unimpressed, and Hegel compared the epic unfavorably to Homer. The epic nevertheless had its supporters, such as August Wilhelm Schlegel, who called it a "great tragedy" ("") in a series of lectures from 1802/3. Many early supporters sought to distance German literature from French Classicism and belonged to artistic movements such as "Sturm und Drang".


title: Nibelungenlied

text: As a consequence of the comparison of the "Nibelungenlied" to the "Iliad", the "Nibelungenlied" came to be seen as the German national epic in the earlier nineteenth century, particularly in the context of the Napoleonic Wars. The "Nibelungenlied" was supposed to embody German bourgeois virtues that the French were seen as lacking. This interpretation of the epic continued during the Biedermeier period, during which the heroic elements of the poem were mostly ignored in favor of those that could more easily be integrated into a bourgeois understanding of German virtue. The translation of the "Nibelungenlied" by Karl Simrock into modern German in 1827 was especially influential in popularizing the epic and remains influential today. Also notable from this period is the three-part dramatic tragedy "Die Nibelungen" by Friedrich Hebbel.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Following the founding of the German Empire, recipients began to focus more on the heroic aspects of the poem, with the figure of Siegfried in particular becoming an identifying figure for German nationalism. Especially important for this new understanding of the poem was Richard Wagner's operatic cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen", which, however, was based almost entirely on the Old Norse versions of the Nibelung saga. Wagner's preference for the Old Norse versions followed a popular judgment of the time period: the Nordic versions were seen as being more "original" than the courtly story portrayed in the German poem. In the First World War, the alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary came to be described as possessing "Nibelungen-Treue" (Nibelungen loyalty), referring to the loyalty to death between Hagen and the Burgundians. While militaristic, the use of imagery from the "Nibelungenlied" remained optimistic in this period rather than focusing on the doom at the end of the epic.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: The interwar period saw the "Nibelungenlied" enter the world of cinema in Fritz Lang's two part film "Die Nibelungen" (1924/1925), which tells the entire story of the poem. At the same time, the "Nibelungenlied" was heavily employed in anti-democratic propaganda following the defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The epic supposedly showed that the German people were more well suited to a heroic, aristocratic form of life than democracy. The betrayal and murder of Siegfried was explicitly compared to the "stab in the back" that the German army had supposedly received. At the same time, Hagen and his willingness to sacrifice himself and fight to the death made him into a central figure in the reception of the poem. During the Second World War, Hermann Göring would explicitly use this aspect of the "Nibelungenlied" to celebrate the sacrifice of the German army at Stalingrad and compare the Soviets to Etzel's Asiatic Huns.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Postwar reception and adaptation of the poem, reacting to its misuse by the Nazis, is often parodic. At the same time, the poem continues to play a role in regional culture and history, particularly in Worms and other places mentioned in the "Nibelungenlied". Much discussion has centered on whether and how the epic ought to be taught in schools. The material of the Nibelungen saga has continued to inspire new adaptations. These include "Die Nibelungen", a German remake of Fritz Lang's film from 1966/67, and the television film "" from 2004. However, the majority of popular adaptations of the material today in film, computer games, comic books, etc., are not based on the medieval epic directly.


title: Nibelungenlied

text: Outside of Germany, most reception of the Nibelungen material has taken place via Wagner, although the epic has been translated into English numerous times.


title: Sammi Giancola

text: Samantha Giancola (born March 1987), also known as Sammi Sweetheart, is an American television personality. She is best known as one of the eight main cast members in the MTV reality series "Jersey Shore".


title: Sammi Giancola

text: Raised in Hazlet, New Jersey, Giancola is of Italian and Greek descent. She attended Raritan High School, where she played softball, ran track, and was a four-year varsity soccer letter winner. Giancola won art contests when she was younger.


title: Sammi Giancola

text: She went on to major in sociology at William Paterson University, where she also played as a midfielder on their Division III women's soccer team.


title: Sammi Giancola

text: Giancola debuted on the MTV reality show "Jersey Shore" in August 2009. She has since appeared with her cast mates on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", "The Wendy Williams Show", and "Live with Regis and Kelly". Giancola and her "Jersey Shore" co-stars appeared in the 2012 film "The Three Stooges". She later appeared on some episodes of "Snooki & Jwoww" and participated in the 2017 E! special "Reunion Road Trip: Return to the Jersey Shore".


title: Sammi Giancola

text: In 2018, Giancola announced she would not return for the "Jersey Shore" reboot, "", to avoid "potentially toxic situations" and to focus on her "businesses and relationship".


title: Sammi Giancola

text: In 2011, Giancola endorsed a fragrance called Dangerous, which is available for both men and women. She later endorsed another fragrance, Dangerous Desires.


title: Sammi Giancola

text: In 2015, Giancola became a co-host on the podcast called "Just Sayin", where she joins relationship expert Siggy Flicker and TV host Clare Galterio to discuss their respective personal lives and celebrity rumors. The podcast is made in New York City through the Loud Speakers Network. The podcast ran for 104 episodes from August 2015 to November 2017.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Kim Sung-hoon (born March 11, 1978), better known as Ha Jung-woo (), is a South Korean actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. One of the highest grossing actors in South Korea, Ha's starring films have accumulated more than 100 million tickets. Only 3 other actors have reached this milestone, with Ha being nearly a decade younger than the rest when achieving this.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: His breakthrough to stardom came with the role in Na Hong-jin's serial killer film "The Chaser" (2008). One of the leading actors of his generation in Korean cinema, Ha showcased his versatility across films of various genres: road movie "My Dear Enemy" (2008), sports film "Take Off" (2009), action thriller "The Yellow Sea" (2010), gangster saga "" (2012), romantic comedy "Love Fiction" (2012), spy actioner "The Berlin File" (2013), and action thriller "The Terror Live" (2013). Ha is also known for his role as grim reaper Gang-rim in the fantasy action film "" (2017) and .


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: He made his directorial debut through the comedy film "Fasten Your Seatbelt" (2013), followed by "Chronicle of a Blood Merchant" (2015).


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Born as Kim Sung-hoon, Ha Jung-woo came from an acting family. His father Kim Yong-gun is a well-known veteran actor who has appeared in many movies and television series, while his younger brother Kim Young-hoon (stage name: Cha Hyun-woo) is an aspiring actor. Ha has said that since he was 4 or 5 years old, he has always dreamed of becoming an actor like his father. Before entering college, Ha studied at a private acting institute and at one point had actor Lee Beom-soo as his instructor. He then enrolled at Chung-Ang University as a theater major, where he acted on the stage.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: In 1998, Ha began his military service, working in the Armed Forces Public Relations Department. He put his acting experience to good use during this time, appearing in 10 promotional films for the military.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Kim Sung-hoon made his acting debut in the 2002 SBS sitcom "Honest Living" and his feature film debut in the 2003 film "Madeleine". For the next few years, Kim's acting career was relatively low-key, appearing in several supporting roles, but not receiving a lot of attention. In 2005, Kim signed with talent agency SidusHQ and on their recommendation adopted the stage name "Ha Jung-woo." He then appeared in his first starring role in the indie film "The Unforgiven", a blistering critique of the physical and psychological violence within military ranks.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Ha's subsequent roles in controversial arthouse director Kim Ki-duk's "Time" and "Breath" brought more notice to his acting talents in Korea and overseas. His portrayal of a cool-headed prosecutor who is romantically involved with a feisty police officer played by Go Hyun-jung in the popular MBC drama series "H.I.T" attracted female fans and gained him popularity among the masses. He also starred in the American indie film "Never Forever" opposite Vera Farmiga, which garnered praise from the film festival circuit.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Ha's breakout came in the 2008 film "The Chaser", in which he played a psychopath character loosely based on serial killer Yoo Young-chul. The movie became a huge hit at the Korean box office, raking in over 5 million ticket sales, while also garnering high praise from critics and numerous awards from local award-giving bodies. American director Martin Scorsese, rumored to be attached to a Hollywood remake of "The Chaser", has complimented Ha as having as much potential as his "The Departed" stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Ha followed this up with a portrayal of a charming scoundrel in "My Dear Enemy" that same year, showcased his versatility and elevated his status as one of the most sought-after actors in the Korean film industry. From 2008-2009, he took on diverse but compelling roles in "The Moonlight of Seoul", "Boat", and "Take Off". "Take Off", based on the Korean national ski jumping team, became one of the biggest box office hits of 2009.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Ha reunited with his "The Chaser" director Na Hong-jin and costar Kim Yoon-seok in Na's sophomore feature "The Yellow Sea", which netted Ha Best Actor trophies from the Asian Film Awards, Baeksang Arts Awards and the Korean Association of Film Critics. Ha then starred in the legal thriller "The Client", which evoked his early days of theater, and the director praised Ha for his "moments of true brilliance and genius" during the production.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: In early 2012, Samsung Electronics produced an ambitious PPL-frequent-film project featuring Galaxy Note, their latest Tablet hybrid mobile. Titled as "Cine Note", the giant project comprises three shorts by directors Kang Hyeong-cheol, Jang Hoon and E J-yong. Ha played the leading role for all the three of the films, while celebrated musician Lee Seung-chul produced music using the device, and noted webtoon artists Son Jae-ho and Lee Gwang-soo created the film’s animated content.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: "" was Ha's third collaboration with longtime friend director Yoon Jong-bin, also starring acclaimed veteran actor Choi Min-sik. This was followed shortly by the unconventional romantic comedy "Love Fiction" opposite Gong Hyo-jin. Both were box office hits. After wrapping "Love Fiction", Ha along with Gong and 14 other actors went on a cross-country walking trip from Seoul to Haenam, South Jeolla Province. Their journey was chronicled in the documentary "577 Project", denoting the total distance covered in kilometers. Ha was in charge of three aspects of the production including planning, acting and casting. He said he did it to thank fans for their support after he won back-to-back Best Actor awards at the 2010 and 2011 Baeksang Arts Awards.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: In Ryoo Seung-wan's "The Berlin File", Ha starred as a North Korean agent in Berlin who is betrayed and cut loose in the midst of a financial espionage intrigue. He then appeared the action thriller "The Terror Live", playing a news anchor with an exclusive, live broadcast on a terrorist attack.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Ha then made his directorial debut with "Rollercoaster" (released internationally as "Fasten Your Seatbelt"), based on his own screenplay about the comic interactions between the cabin crew and passengers (including an arrogant Hallyu star played by Jung Kyung-ho) of a flight from Tokyo to Gimpo International Airport which becomes in danger of crashing when the plane hits a major storm. The film was a box office success.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Working with Yoon Jong-bin again, Ha played a Joseon era butcher-turned-outlaw in the period action film "".


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: In 2015, Ha directed, wrote and starred in "Chronicle of a Blood Merchant", a film adaptation of Chinese author Yu Hua's 1995 novel. He then appeared in one of the biggest domestic hits of the year, Choi Dong-hoon's "Assassination" about resistance fighters given orders to kill a Japanese army commander in the colonial era.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: In 2016, Ha starred again in two box office hits; Park Chan-wook's "The Handmaiden", an adaptation of the Sarah Waters novel "Fingersmith" also set during 1930s Korea;, and survival thriller "The Tunnel".


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: In 2017, Ha starred in Kim Yong-hwa's "", an adaptation of the webtoon "Along With the Gods", about a court in the afterlife where the deceased undergo multiple trials for 49 days, and "", about a political crisis that led to the June Democratic Uprising in 1987 which ended the military regime of President Chun Doo-hwan. He reprised his role as Gang-rim in the 2018 sequel, "".


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: In 2018, Ha starred in the action thriller "Take Point", reuniting with "The Terror Lives" director Kim Byung-woo.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: In 2020, Ha starred in the horror film "The Closet", and "Boston 1947", the story of the 1947 Boston International Marathon.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: Ha Jung-woo is also an artist. Though it began as a hobby in his university days, Ha began painting in earnest in 2007. His paintings, all done in a hybrid of Pop art and Expressionist styles, have been displayed in several solo art exhibitions. Critics have said his paintings, with their strong colors and interesting composition are reminiscent of those by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. "Life as an actor is like living through an invisible war. Paintings soothe me and make me rational. It is too extravagant to say that painting is my hobby; it is rather a way for me to survive as an actor," said Ha.


title: Ha Jung-woo

text: In 2011 he published a compilation of essays titled "Ha Jung-woo, Good Feeling". Besides his musings on life, Ha also wrote his thoughts on famous artists such as Pablo Picasso. The book also included about 60 of his own drawings.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: The Winter of Discontent was the period between November 1978 and February 1979 in the United Kingdom characterised by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits Prime Minister James Callaghan and his Labour Party government had been imposing, against Trades Union Congress (TUC) opposition, to control inflation. Some of these industrial disputes caused great public inconvenience, exacerbated by the coldest winter in 16 years, in which severe storms isolated many remote areas of the country.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: A strike by workers at Ford in late 1978 was settled with a pay increase of 17 per cent, well above the 5 per cent limit the government was holding its own workers to with the intent of setting an example for the private sector to follow, after a resolution at the Labour Party's annual conference urging the government not to intervene passed overwhelmingly. At the end of the year a road hauliers' strike began, coupled with a severe storm as 1979 began. Later in the month many public workers followed suit as well. These actions included an unofficial strike by gravediggers working in Liverpool and Tameside, and strikes by refuse collectors, leaving uncollected rubbish on streets and in public spaces, including London's Leicester Square. Additionally, NHS ancillary workers formed picket lines to blockade hospital entrances with the result that many hospitals were reduced to taking emergency patients only.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: The unrest had deeper causes besides resentment of the caps on pay rises. Labour's internal divisions over its commitment to socialism, manifested in disputes over labour law reform and macroeconomic strategy during the 1960s and early 1970s, pitted constituency members against the party's establishment. Many of the strikes were initiated at the local level, with national union leaders largely unable to stop them. Union membership, particularly in the public sector, had grown more female and less white, and the growth of the public sector unions had not brought them a commensurate share of power within the TUC.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: After Callaghan returned from a summit conference in the tropics at a time when the hauliers' strike and the weather had seriously disrupted the economy, leading thousands to apply for unemployment benefits, his denial that there was "mounting chaos" in the country was paraphrased in a famous "Sun" headline as "Crisis? What Crisis?" Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher's acknowledgement of the severity of the situation in a party political broadcast a week later was seen as instrumental to her victory in the general election held four months later after Callaghan's government fell to a no-confidence vote. Once in power, the Conservatives, who under Thatcher's leadership had begun criticising the unions as too powerful, passed legislation, similar to that proposed in a Labour white paper a decade earlier, that banned many practices, such as secondary picketing, that had magnified the effects of the strikes. Thatcher, and later other Conservatives like Boris Johnson, have continued to invoke the Winter of Discontent in election campaigns; it would be 18 years until another Labour government took power. In the late 2010s, after the more left wing Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader, some British leftists argued that this narrative about the Winter of Discontent was inaccurate, and that policy in subsequent decades was much more harmful to Britain.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: The term "Winter of Discontent" is taken from the opening line of William Shakespeare's play "Richard III".


title: Winter of Discontent

text: The Winter of Discontent was driven by a combination of different social, economic and political factors which had been developing for over a decade.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Under the influence of Anthony Crosland, a member of the more moderate Gaitskellite wing of the Labour Party in the 1950s, the party establishment came to embrace a more moderate course of action than it had in its earlier years before the war. Crosland had argued in his book "The Future of Socialism" that the government exerted enough control over private industry that it was not necessary to nationalise it as the party had long called to do, and that the ultimate goals of socialism could be as readily achieved by assuring long-term economic stability and building out the social welfare state. His "revisionist" views became Labour's perspective on the post-war consensus, in which both they and the Conservative Party agreed in principle on a strong government role in the economy, strong unions and a welfare state as foundational to Britain's prosperity.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: In the 1970s, following the surge in radical left-wing politics of the late 1960s, that view was challenged in another Labour figure's book, Stuart Holland's "The Socialist Challenge". He argued that contrary to Crosland's assertions, the government could exercise little control over Britain's largest companies, which were likely to continue consolidating into an oligopoly that, by the 1980s, could raise prices high enough that governments following Keynesian economics would be unable to ensure their citizens the opportunity for full employment that they had been able to since the war, and exploit transfer pricing to avoid paying British taxes. Holland called for returning to nationalisation, arguing that taking control of the top 25 companies that way would result in a market with more competition and less inflation.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Holland's ideas formed the basis of the Alternative Economic Strategy (AES) promoted by Tony Benn, then Secretary of State for Industry in the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan as they considered responses to the sterling crisis in 1976. The AES called on Britain to adopt a protectionist stance in international trade, including reversing its recent decision to join the European Common Market, and impose no incomes policies to combat inflation. Benn believed that this approach was more in keeping with Labour's traditional policies and would have its strongest supporters in the unions, with them vigorously supporting the government against opposition from the financial sector and "commanding heights" of industry. It was ultimately rejected in favour of the social contract and extensive cuts in public spending as the condition of an International Monetary Fund loan that supported the pound after the 1976 sterling crisis.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: The left wing of the Labour Party, while critical of the revisionist approach and the Social Contract, was not universally supportive of the AES either. Many thought it did not go far enough, or avoided the issue of nationalisation. Feminists in particular criticised it for its focus on traditionally male-dominated manufacturing jobs and ignoring the broader issues that the increasing number of women in the workforce faced, preferring a focus on broader social issues rather than just working conditions and pay, the traditional areas unions had negotiated with employers.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: In 1968 Wilson's government appointed the Donovan Commission to review British labour law with an eye toward reducing the days lost to strikes every year; many Britons had come to believe the unions were too powerful despite the country's economic growth since the war. It found much of the problem to lie in a parallel system of 'official' signed agreements between unions and employers, and 'unofficial', often unwritten ones at the local level, between shop stewards and managers, which often took precedence in practice over the official ones. The government responded with "In Place of Strife", a white paper by Secretary of State for Employment Barbara Castle, which recommended restrictions on unions' ability to strike, such as requiring strikes take place after a member vote and fining unions for unofficial strikes.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: The Trades Union Congress (TUC) vigorously opposed making Castle's recommendations law, and Callaghan, then Home Secretary, led a cabinet revolt which led to its abandonment. Callaghan did not believe it would be effective in curtailing unofficial strikes, that the proposals could not pass, and the effort would create unnecessary tension between the government and the unions that were key to its political strength.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: After the Conservatives won the following year's election, they implemented their own legislation to address the issue. The Industrial Relations Act 1971, modeled in part on the U.S. Taft-Hartley Act, passed over determined union opposition, included many of the same provisions as "In Place of Strife", and explicitly stated that formal collective bargaining agreements would have the force of law unless they had disclaimers to the contrary. It also created a National Industrial Relations Court to handle disputes and put unions under a central registry to enforce their rules.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: New Prime Minister Edward Heath hoped that the new law would not only address the strike issue but the steep inflation plaguing the British economy (along with other industrial capitalist economies) at the time, eliminating the need for a separate incomes policy by having a moderating effect on pay increases demanded by unions. Ongoing union resistance to the Industrial Relations Act led to a House of Lords ruling in their favor over demonstrations and widespread unofficial strikes following the Pentonville Five's imprisonment for continuing to picket a London container depot in violation of a court order, which undermined the legislation. Coal miners officially went on strike for the first time in almost half a century in 1972; after two months the strike was settled with the miners getting a 21 per cent increase, less than half of what they had originally sought.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Heath as a result turned to an incomes policy; inflation continued to worsen. Its implementation was abandoned in 1973 when that year's oil embargo nearly doubled prices within months. To meet demand for heat in the wintertime, the government had to return to coal, giving the National Union of Mineworkers more leverage. The government declared a state of emergency that November, and at the beginning of 1974 limited all nonessential businesses to three days of electricity each week to conserve power. Miners, who had seen their rise from two years before turn into a pay cut in real terms due to the inflation the government had not brought under control, voted overwhelmingly to go on strike in late January.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Two weeks later, the government responded by calling an election, running on the slogan "Who Governs Britain?". At the end of the month the Conservatives no longer did; Labour and Wilson returned, but without a majority. They were able to pass the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which repealed the Heath government's Industrial Relations Act.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: In October they won a majority of three seats; still they needed a coalition with the Liberal Party to have a majority on many issues. Callaghan, now Foreign Secretary, warned his fellow Cabinet members at the time of the possibility of "a breakdown of democracy", telling them that "If I were a young man, I would emigrate."


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Wilson, and Callaghan, who succeeded him as Prime Minister after Wilson resigned for health reasons in 1976, continued to fight inflation, which peaked at 26.9 per cent in the 12 months to August 1975. While demonstrating to markets fiscal responsibility the government wished to avoid large increases in unemployment. As part of the campaign to bring down inflation, the government had agreed a "Social Contract" with the TUC which allowed for a voluntary incomes policy in which the pay rises for workers were held down to limits set by the government. Previous governments had brought in incomes policies backed by Acts of Parliament, but the Social Contract agreed that this would not happen.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Phase I of the pay policy was announced on 11 July 1975 with a white paper entitled "The Attack on Inflation". This proposed a limit on wage rises of £6 per week for all earning below £8,500 annually. The TUC General Council had accepted these proposals by 19 votes to 13. On 5 May 1976 the TUC accepted a new policy for 1976 increases, beginning 1 August, of between £2.50 and £4 per week with further years outlined. At the Annual Congress on 8 September 1976 the TUC rejected a motion which called for a return to free collective bargaining (which meant no incomes policy at all) once Phase I expired on 1 August 1977. This new policy was Phase II of the incomes policy.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: On 15 July 1977, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey announced Phase III of the incomes policy in which there was to be a phased return to free collective bargaining, without "a free-for-all". After prolonged negotiations, the TUC agreed to continue with the modest increases recommended for 1977–78 under Phase II limits and not to try to reopen pay agreements made under the previous policy, while the government agreed not to intervene in pay negotiations. The Conservative Party criticised the power of the unions and lack of any stronger policy to cover the period from the summer of 1978. The inflation rate continued to fall through 1977 and by 1978 the annual rate was below 10 per cent.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: At the end of the year Bernard Donoughue, Callaghan's chief policy advisor, sent him a memo analysing possible election dates. He concluded that the following October or November would be the best option, as the economy was likely to remain in good shape through then. After that, he wrote, the outlook was unclear, with pressure from the government's own incomes policy likely.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: At a May 1978 Downing Street lunch with editors and reporters from the "Daily Mirror", Callaghan asked if they believed it was possible that the planned Phase IV would succeed, as he believed it would if the unions and their members understood it was the best way to keep Labour in power. Most told him that it would be difficult, but not impossible. Geoffrey Goodman disagreed, saying in his view it would be impossible for the union leaders to keep their membership from demanding higher pay increases. "If that is the case, then I will go over the heads of the trade union leadership and appeal directly to their members—and the voters", the prime minister responded. "We have to hold the line on pay or else the government will fall."


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Having prepared for the imminent end of the incomes policy, global inflation supervened and was coming towards record levels during the 1978–82 period. On 21 July 1978 Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey introduced a new white paper which set a guideline for pay rises of 5 per cent in the year from 1 August. Callaghan was determined to keep inflation down to single figures, however trade union leaders warned the government that the 5 per cent limit was unachievable, and urged a more flexible approach with a range of settlements between 5 and 8 per cent. Terry Duffy president of the AUEW, described the limit as 'political suicide'. Healey also privately expressed scepticism about the achievability of the limit. The TUC voted overwhelmingly on 26 July to reject the limit and insist on a return to free collective bargaining as they were promised.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: It had been widely expected that Callaghan would call a general election in the autumn, and that the 5 per cent limit would be revised if Labour won. At a private dinner before that year's TUC conference, Callaghan discussed election strategy with the leaders of major unions. He asked whether he should call an autumn election; with the exception of Scanlon they all urged him to call for one no later than November. Any later, they said, and they could not guarantee their memberships would remain on the job and off the picket line through the winter.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Unexpectedly however on 7 September, Callaghan announced that he would not be calling a general election that autumn but seeking to go through the winter with continued pay restraint so that the economy would be in a better state in preparation for a spring election, therefore the 5 per cent limit stood. The pay limit was officially termed "Phase IV" but most referred to it as "the 5 per cent limit". Although the government did not make the 5 per cent limit a legal requirement, it decided to impose penalties on private and public government contractors who broke the limit.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Between 1966 and 1979, Britain's unions were changing and becoming more diverse. Most of the increase in union membership was driven by women returning to or entering the workforce—73 per cent of them joined a union during that period against 19.3 per cent of men newly in work, as manufacturing jobs, traditionally heavily male, disappeared. Black and Asian workers also filled union ranks; in 1977, 61 per cent of black men in work belonged to a union as opposed to 47 per cent of white men. Asian women became the face of the labour movement during the 1976–1978 Grunwick dispute over pay and conditions at a film processing plant in suburban London.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Within unions, power was also devolving to the rank and file. The political upheavals of the late 1960s in Europe and the United States had brought participatory democracy to the fore, and workers felt they should be taking decisions, including about when and whether to strike, that had hitherto been the province of union leadership. Hugh Scanlon, who took over as head of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW) in 1967, and Jack Jones, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) from shortly afterwards, were known among union leaders as "the dubious duo" for their advocacy for devolution.


title: Winter of Discontent

text: Many new members were also coming from government jobs. In 1974, about half of the total British workforce was unionised, but 83.1 per cent of all public-sector workers were. In the health sector that reached 90 per cent. Many of the government workers joining unions were women.