History Literature / Nibelungenlied

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.

The epic has had a number of film adaptations, perhaps most notably Fritz Lang's two part, six hour epic, ''Die Nibelungen: Siegfried'' and ''Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache'' (1924), starring Paul Richter as Siegfried; its suprisingly popular if slightly cheesy 1966 remake directed by Harald Reinl and starring Olympic hammer-thrower Uwe Beyer as Siegfried; and the 2004 TV film ''Curse of the Ring'' ([-AKA-] ''[[NamesTheSame Ring of the Nibelungs]]''; ''Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King''; ''The Nibelungs -- The Curse of the Dragon''; and ''The Sword of Xanten''), directed by Uli Edel and starring Benno Fürmann as Siegfried.

The ''Nibelungenlied'' is one of the sources for Creator/RichardWagner's ''[[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung 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 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 (UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun), 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.

* CanonWelding: As the original versions of the stories have been lost and had to be speculatively reconstructed by scholars from the evidence of the various German and Scandinavian versions it is hard to tell, but it is quite clear that the Nibelungenlied is an amalgam of some quite different stories, and it is a matter of conjecture to decide when the welding of the elements occurred and which ones are to be attributed to the author of the Nibelungenlied. The story of the dragonslayer called Siegfried or Sigurd accounts for the first half of the main plot and the originally unrelated story of the death of the Burgundian kings at the hands of the Huns and their king Atli (Attila) for the second. The welding necessitated some changes, thus in the Scandinavian epics that contain just the Atli saga, the sister of Gunther, who is married to Atli, kills her husband to avenge her brothers. In the Nibelungenlied Kriemhild kills her brother using the army of her second husband Etzel (Attila) to avenge the murder of her first husband Siegfried.

* TheConsigliere: Hagen is the chief advisor to the Burgundian kings (as well as their single most competent and powerful vasall).

* RevengeByProxy: The Hun knights who attack the Burgundian squires tell Dankwart that they're going to kill him and dump his corpse at his brother Hagen's feet to let Hagen know the grief of seeing family members slain (in resemblance of the earlier scene where Siegfried's corpse was left for Kriemhild and her maids to find). Dankwart proves a bit too hard to kill, however.

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

* NamedWeapons: Balmung, Siegfried's sword (later appropriated by Hagen)

* UndyingLoyalty: Hagen to Gunther. (In German, even the trope namer: "Nibelungentreue". Fell out of fashion due to abuse by ThoseWackyNazis and is used exclusively as a negative since.)

* UndyingLoyalty: Hagen to Gunther. (In German, even the trope namer: "Nibelungentreue". Fell out of fashion due to ThoseWackyNazis and is used exclusively as a negative.)

* UndyingLoyalty: Hagen to Gunther.

* MutualKill: Wolfhart and Giselher.

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 {{Norse|Mythology}} ''Literature/VolsungaSaga'' and passages in the ''Literature/{{Edda}}s'', 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}}''.

* [[CrusadingWidower Crusading Widow]]: Kriemhild after Siegfried's murder.

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.

** A canon-welding that does seem to be the idea of the writer of the Nibelungenlied is the inclusion of Dietrich and his knights in the finale, which fuses the Nibelungen story to the cycle of epics about Dietrich of Bern (Theoderic the Great). In that cycle Attila was presented essentially as a sympathetic character and generous host, not the kind of treacherous and cold-blooded killer as in the Atli sagas.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Though barely recognisable under the accretions of legend, Gunther (originally Gunthahari, king of Burgundians, killed by the Huns in 437 ''[-A.D.-]''), his subordinate Hagen (real life Hogina) Etzel (the famous UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun, 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 theory that Siegfried and Brünhilde are based on the Merovingian Frankish king Sigebert I and his queen Brünhilde (French: Brunehau, a Visigoth princess) is rather a minority position, though. Another theory is that Siegfried is based on Arminius of the Cheruscii (also known as Herman the German), that the fight against the dragon started out as a metaphor for the defeat of the Roman army in the battle of the Teutoburg Forest, and that "Siegfried" was actually the Germanic name of the man the Romans called Arminius.

** A canon-welding that does seem to be the idea of the writer of the Nibelungenlied is the inclusion of Dietrich and his knights in the finale, which fuses the Nibelungen story to the cycle of epics about Dietrich of Bern (Theoderic the Great).

** As are Siegfried (the Merovingian Frankish king Sigebert I) and Brünhilde (his wife, queen Brünhilda, originally Visigoth princess)

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 (AttilaTheHun), 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, king of Burgundians, killed by the Huns in 437 ''[-A.D.-]''), his subordinate Hagen (real life Hogina) 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]] ''Literature/VolsungaSaga'' and passages in the ''Literature/{{Edda}}s'', 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'' is one of the sources for Creator/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.

* AnachronismStew: In a manner common to many works of mediæval art and literature, characters are depicted in garb of the date of the manuscript, like the late Burgundian (''ca''. 1480-1490) costumes of the page illustration, rather than the 5th century costume appropriated to the historical King Gunthahari. People in [[TheLowMiddleAges The]] [[TheHighMiddleAges Middle]] [[TheLateMiddleAges Ages]] had an entirely different sense of historical accuracy.

* BloodBath: Siegfried becomes nearly invulnerable after bathing in the blood of the dragon -- except for [[AchillesHeel a spot on his shoulder]] that was covered by a leaf. Siegfried's blood bath predates the legends of Elizabeth Bathory (the TropeMaker) by over 500 years.

* {{Bowdlerisation}}: Siegfried inexplicably taking Brunhild's girdle and ring "out of high spirits" after he subdues her so that Gunther can rape her, which causes Gunther, Kriemhild and Hagen to assume that he actually had sex with her, is a bowdlerisation of earlier Norse versions of the legend, in which they actually did have a previous relationship. Still counts as bowdlerisation by 13th-century standards, however abhorrent to contemporary views rape being considered morally preferable to adultery is.

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

* GreyAndGreyMorality: No single character is either truly good nor motivated by evil; the drama of the epic concerns the moral conflicts of each character attempting to fulfill their duties. Of course, plenty of their acts are unnecessarily malicious, motivated by vengeance, plain dishonest, or otherwise inviting violence.

* UntranslatedTitle: The poem has no title in the manuscripts. The modern title is drawn from the last line of the poem, which in the earliest surviving manuscripts reads, ''Daz ist der Nibelunge liet'' -- "That is the song of the Nibelungs." However, other manuscripts, though not so old themselves, are believed to preserve an older, more correct reading, ''Diz ist der Nibelunge not'' -- so the correct title should perhaps be, ''The [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Doom]] of the Nibelungs''.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Brunhild completely disappears from the second part of the epic without getting so much of a mention. Of course, in the Norse version, she commits suicide, but the German poet knew that would have been too shocking for his audience.

* TheDragon: Hagen.

* HeelFaceTurn: An unusual example - literally everyone (except perhaps Siegfried) does either this or a FaceHeelTurn, as the first half of the epic is strongly sympathetic to Siegfried and Kriemhild, while the finale lionizes the Burgundians to such an extent that they appear heroic. Similarly Kriemhild goes from sympathetic victim of her family to blood crazed villainess.