History Literature / Nibelungenlied

* RapeIsLove: By modern standards the aforementioned courtship of Gunther and Brunhild would equate to this. Nevertheless, in the context of the text it is implicitly justified as a means of preserving the more noble goal of social propriety, Siegfried is said to have thought, "If I lose my life to a girl, the whole sex will grow uppish with their husbands for ever after, though they would otherwise never behave so."

* DragonHoard: The dragon killed by Siegfried guarded a dwarfs' hoard on behalf of the dwarf kings — it's essentially a watchdog.

* DoubleStandard: Hildebrand kills Kriemhild because she killed Hagen, and neither Dietrich nor Etzel (Kriemhild's husband!) object or rebuke Hildebrand. No one cares about all the people Hagen killed, even though most of ''them'' were innocent. And while it's not okay for a woman to kill a man even if he deserved it, it is obviously okay for a man to kill a woman. In fact, Kriemhild's sudden death by Hildebrand is so ill-motivated that it can be regarded as a last-minute [[AssPull contrivance]] just to [[DroppedABridgeOnHim kill her off.]] The need to kill her off probably arose from the expectations of the audiences, who by the end of the poem would have seen her as a pure villainess who could not go unpunished.

* BestHerToBedHer: Queen Brunhild will only marry a man you can defeat her in javelin-throwing, boulder-tossing and long jump.

* HatOfPower: The Tarnkappe, which grants the wearer invisibility.

* UndyingLoyalty: Hagen to Günther.

Judging by the number of manuscripts, the poem was hugely popular in [[HolyRomanEmpire mediæval Germany]]. After TheRenaissance, however, it lost favour and sank from view -- to the point that, when the poem was rediscovered and published in a critical edition by Christoph Heinrich Müller, FrederickTheGreat, to whom Müller had dedicated it, famously remarked that the poem was "not worth a shot of powder" and that he wouldn't have such trash in his library. Nevertheless, the poem regained its stature in the Romantic era, and it is still regarded by many as Germany's national epic. Mention of its publication takes place as an aside in the Mediæval section of the ''Total War'' series.

* MoralEventHorizon: Hagen crosses this by killing Ortlieb, Kriemhilde's and Etzel's son.

The '''''Nibelungenlied''''', translated literally as "The Song of the Nibelungs", is an epic poem in two parts, telling the story of Siegfried, his murder by the Burgundians, and the revenge taken by his widow Kriemhild. Dating back to the early 13th century, its authorship is unknown, but it is thought to have been written by an Austrian author from between Passau and Vienna for recitation in the Austrian court. The ''Nibelungenlied'' is the earliest complete telling of the legend, though versions of the story exist, including the [[NorseMythology Norse]] ''Literature/VolsungaSaga'' and passages in the ''Eddas'', which, though written down later, are thought to preserve earlier elements of the story that had become obscured in the [[TheHighMiddleAges mediævalized]] German poem. Brief allusions to the Siegfried story also exist in much earlier works, such as ''Waltharius'' and ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}''.

Technically, the poem is written in four line roughly hexameter stanzas, with strong pauses in the middle of each line, rhyming AABB, and with the final line of each stanza usually lengthened by an extra foot. The language of the poem is Middle High German, ''i.e''., the language spoken in what is now southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, from about the 11th to the 14th centuries. Thus:

The ''Nibelungenlied'' is one of the sources for RichardWagner's ''[[Theatre/DerRingDesNibelungen Der Ring des Nibelungen]]'', though Wagner's work draws much more from Scandinavian sources; for instance, Wagner practically abandons the entire second half of the poem, and substantially ignores Kriemhild.

The last named takes considerable liberties with the plot in order to emphasise a more consciously pagan agenda, which some may consider a reversal of what the ''Nibelungenlied'' represented to its own original material. On the other hand, the ''Lied's'' (possibly clerical) author himself had imposed Christianity rather awkwardly on a decidedly paganish story -- as none other than [[DichterUndDenker Goethe]] once remarked, the Nibelung heroes seem to go to church largely in order to get into another fight.

** Since Hagen could easily have picked up a shield belonging to the many corpses lying around the hall, this has been interpreted as Hagen providing a way out of his ConflictingLoyalty dilemma. As Etzel's vassal, Rüdiger had to fight against the Burgundians, yet he had also sworn friendship to them when his daughter was betrothed to Gunther's brother Giselher, which entailed an obligation to aid them in a fight - which he now could fulfil by giving Hagen his shield.

* KickTheDog: Hagen kills a grumpy old ferryman merely to get his boat. Though Hagen personally may interpret it as ShootTheDog.

* NighInvulnerability: Siegfried's skin became impenetrable when he bathed in the blood of the dragon -- except for the spot on his shoulder.

* ProphecyTwist: Some Nixes tell Hagen that only the chaplain accompanying the Nibelungs will return home, so when he ferries them over, he throws the chaplain into the Danube in an attempt to drown him. However, the chaplain safely makes it back to the northern shore and returns to Worms.

* VirginPower: Queen Brunhild has superhuman strength, but only so long as she stays a virgin.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Though barely recognisable under the accretions of legend, Gunther (originally Gunthahari, killed by the Huns in 437 ''[-A.D.-]''), Etzel (the famous {{Attila}}, 406–453 ''[-A.D.-]''), Dietrich von Bern (Theodoric the Great, 454–526 ''[-A.D.-]''), and perhaps other characters as well, are all based on real historical figures -- though [[AnachronismStew not necessarily contemporaneous ones]].

* AchillesHeel: Siegfried's shoulder.

* DeathByAdaptation: Kriemhild's Norse counterpart Gudrun from the ''Literature/VolsungaSaga'' survived the ordeal to get [[BreakTheCutie broken]] [[BeyondTheImpossible even more]], thus resulting in two more [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge rampages]] before she finally [[DeathByDespair dies]].

* VirginPowers: Queen Brunhild has superhuman strength, but only so long as she stays a virgin.

!!This poem provides examples of:

* BestHerToBedHer: Queen Brunhild.

* SuperStrength: Most leading characters.

* TheRedSonja: Queen Brunhild.

* BloodBath: Siegfried becomes nearly invulnerable after bathing in the blood of a dragon.

The '''''Nibelungenlied''''', translated literally as "The Song of the Nibelungs", is an epic poem in two parts, telling the story of Siegfried, his murder by the Burgundians, and the revenge taken by his widow Kriemhild. Dating back to the early 13th century, its authorship is unknown, but it is thought to have been written by an Austrian author from between Passau and Vienna for recitation in the Austrian court. The ''Nibelungenlied'' is the earliest complete telling of the legend, though versions of the story exist, including the [[NorseMythology Norse]] ''Literature/VölsungaSaga'' and passages in the ''Eddas'', which, though written down later, are thought to preserve earlier elements of the story that had become obscured in the [[TheHighMiddleAges mediævalized]] German poem. Brief allusions to the Siegfried story also exist in much earlier works, such as ''Waltharius'' and ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}''.

The '''''Nibelungenlied''''', translated literally as "The Song of the Nibelungs," is an epic poem in two parts, telling the story of Siegfried, his murder by the Burgundians, and the revenge taken by his widow Kriemhild. Dating back to the early 13th century, its authorship is unknown, but it is thought to have been written by an Austrian author from between Passau and Vienna for recitation in the Austrian court. The ''Nibelungenlied'' is the earliest complete telling of the legend, though versions of the story exist, including the [[NorseMythology Norse]] ''Völsungasaga'' and passages in the ''Eddas'', which, though written down later, are thought to preserve earlier elements of the story that had become obscured in the [[TheHighMiddleAges mediævalized]] German poem. Brief allusions to the Siegfried story also exist in much earlier works, such as ''Waltharius'' and ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}''.

Judging by the number of manuscripts, the poem was hugely popular in [[HolyRomanEmpire mediæval Germany]]. After TheRenaissance, however, it lost favour and sank from view -- to the point that, when the poem was rediscovered and published in a critical edition by Christoph Heinrich Müller, FrederickTheGreat, to whom Müller had dedicated it, famously remarked that the poem was "not worth a shot of powder" and that he wouldn't have such trash in his library. Nevertheless, the poem regained its stature in the Romantic era, and it is still regarded by many as Germany's national epic. Mention of its publication takes place as an aside in the Mediæval section of the Total War series.

The ''Nibelungenlied'' is one of the sources for RichardWagner's ''[[DerRingDesNibelungen Der Ring des Nibelungen]]'', though Wagner's work draws much more from Scandinavian sources; for instance, Wagner practically abandons the entire second half of the poem, and substantially ignores Kriemhild.

* DeathByAdaptation: Kriemhild, who, in the Volsung saga, survived the ordeal in Etzel's hall to get [[BreakTheCutie broken]] [[BeyondTheImpossible even more]], thus resulting in two more [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge rampages]] before she finally [[DeathByDespair dies]].

* PerspectiveFlip: Basically the Volsung Saga told from Krimhild's point of view.

The second part of the poem tells of how Kriemhild, now bereft not only of her husband but also her status and fortune (Hagen steals the hoard Siegfried had won from Schilbung and Nibelung, the sons of King Nibelung) and deposits it in the Rhine to prevent her from raising an avenging army), she sets about to avenge her husband's death. Her first action to this end is the political marriage to King Etzel (Attila the Hun), a move which helps to rebuild her status but is regarded as an ideological dishonour, her new husband being a pagan. Later, her brother and his followers are invited to Etzel's kingdom in order to compete in the various courtly traditions of feasting and jousting, yet it is revealed to be a guise for an assassination for Gunther and Hagen. Nevertheless, they manage to abuse Etzel's hospitality with impunity until they go too far by slaying his child, and there ensues an enormous battle inside the hall, which is set alight by Kriemhild in the process. Gunther, Hagen, and their followers manage to defend themselves against insurmountable odds, until they are at last overcome by the Ostrogothic King Dietrich (Theodoric the Goth), who happens to be present at the festivities. He brings Hagen bound to Kriemhild, who personally strikes him dead -- to the disgust of Dietrich's old companion-in-arms, Hildebrand, who slays her for striking down an unarmed man. Thus her bloody revenge is achieved at the cost of her own destruction.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Though barely recognisable under the accretions of legend, Gunther (originally Gunthahari, killed by the Huns in 437 ''[-A.D.-]''), Etzel (the famous Attila, 406–453 ''[-A.D.-]''), Dietrich von Bern (Theodoric the Great, 454–526 ''[-A.D.-]''), and perhaps other characters as well, are all based on real historical figures -- though [[AnachronismStew not necessarily contemporaneous ones]].

The '''''Nibelungenlied''''', translated literally as "The Song of the Nibelungs," is an epic poem in two parts, telling the story of Siegfried, his murder by the Burgundians, and the revenge taken by his widow Kriemhild. Dating back to the early 13th century, its authorship is unknown, but it is thought to have been written by an Austrian author from between Passau and Vienna for recitation in the Austrian court. The ''Nibelungenlied'' is the earliest complete telling of the legend, though versions of the story exist, including the [[NorseMythology Norse]] ''Völsungasaga'' and passages in the ''Eddas'', which, though written down later, are thought to preserve earlier elements of the story that had become obscured in the [[TheHighMiddleAges mediævalized]] German poem. Brief allusions to the Siegfried story also exist in much earlier works, such as ''Waltharius'' and ''{{Beowulf}}''.

* GiveMeASword: An interesting variant occurs in the ''{{Nibelungenlied}}''. Hagen faces the heroic Rüdiger von Bechlarn, to whom he had previously sworn friendship . Hagen requests a shield, as his is broken, and Rüdiger offers his.