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.See Handschriftencensus Eleven of these manuscripts are essentially complete.The Donaueschingen manuscript C (today conserved in Karlsruhe, Baden State Library) can be considered as the longest version, although some pages are missing. 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").
