Nibelung legend

Hagen's murder of Siegfried, fresco in the Nibelungen halls of the Munich residence

Fight between the Nibelungs and the Huns, detail of a fresco in the Nibelungen halls

The Nibelungen saga is a heroic saga that is widespread in the Germanic and Scandinavian regions and has been handed down over centuries in numerous different versions. Your best-known written fixation is the Middle High German Nibelungenlied (around 1200, probably from the Passau area ).

The legend is reflected in medieval sources except in the Nibelungenlied in the saga of Dietrich von Bern ( Thidrekssaga , Old Norse with Low German sources, approx. 1250) and numerous songs from the Liederedda . Among these are several Sigurdlieder and the older Atlilied (Old Norse, recorded in the 13th century according to sometimes much older sources or preliminary stages). Prose retellings of the Edda songs can be found in the Edda of Snorri Sturluson (Old Icelandic, approx. 1220) and in the Völsunga Saga (Old Norse, approx. 1250). The nornagests þáttr dates from the end of the 13th century .

Origins of the legend

The origins of the legend go back to the so-called heroic age of the Great Migration : A central historical core of the story is the smashing of the Burgundian sphere of influence on the Rhine in late antiquity by the western Roman magister militum Aetius with the help of Hunnic auxiliary troops. The Burgundians had served Westrom as mercenaries ( foederati ) since around 411 and guarded the Rhine border on imperial orders. When the western Roman government showed weakness, the Burgundian leader ( rex ) Gunthahar wanted to take the opportunity to expand his sphere of influence on his own to the rich province of Belgica . In 435 he was repulsed by Roman troops, and in 436 Aetius, who was then for the young emperor Valentinian III. led the government to punish the Burgundians for breach of contract. He hired thousands of Hunnish foederati who attacked the unsuspecting Gunthahar and killed him and most of his men. The survivors were resettled on the Rhone in Savoy a few years later .

A contemporary Gallic chronicle reports briefly on the year 436: “A memorable war took place with the Burgundians, in which almost the entire people and their leader were killed.” And the contemporary witness Prosper Tiro of Aquitaine noted for the year 435: “About this one Aetius defeated Gundichar, who had invaded Gaul as the rex of the Burgundians. At his plea, Aetius granted him peace, but the rex could not enjoy it for long. Because a little later they let the Huns exterminate him and his people with stump and stalk. "

Other historical events that flowed into the legend and expanded it with individual names and elements are the battle on the Catalaunian fields in 451, the death of Attila and the events in the second Burgundy empire on the Rhone and among the Merovingians up to Brunichildi's death in 613. Dietrich von Bern , who, according to the legend, lived temporarily at the court of Attila and Etzel, has been equated with the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great since the Middle Ages .

The legend, however, deviates strongly from the known historical facts of these events and creates new, counterfactual connections. The historical Burgundians and Burgundians did not move to Attila's court, but were destroyed in their home on the Rhine. At that time, Attila was not yet the Hunnic king either. Furthermore, Theodoric the Great was never at Attila's court, as the legend tells, especially since the Hun was already dead before Theodoric was born. It is therefore generally assumed that these heroic sagas represent a partly invented, partly constantly reassembled network of legends that is based on various historical events of the 5th and 6th centuries.

In contrast to the historical and German studies, the private scholar Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg suspected historical events in Lower Germany around the year 500 as the true core of the Nibelungen saga (see below). He sees the saga as a historical source, relying primarily on the old Swedish version of the Thidrek saga . Heroes such as Dietrich von Bern, Siegfried and the Nibelungen were historical figures and only in the course of the Middle Ages were confused and identified with historically known models such as Theodoric the Great or the Burgundians . However, the thesis is rejected by specialist circles as being methodologically untenable.

Content of the Nibelungenlied

In the Nibelungenlied the main character is Kriemhild and the main problem is that of court culture; It almost turns what is presumably much older mythology into a novel which, in the guise of a saga, seems to deal with the problems of the contemporary author and audience. Only those elements are picked out here that are relevant to the saga.

The Nibelungs in the Thidrek saga

Several sections of the Thidrek saga (ThS) deal with parts of the Nibelung saga. It is usually assumed that it is based on German sources, as she herself states. In doing so, she seems to use different templates for her individual sections, which she strings together without balancing out any contradictions between them. The fact that there were very different versions of the Nibelung saga in Germany could thus explain that the individual sections of the ThS are partly contradicting each other (this is not only true of the Nibelung saga; other stories in the ThS are also full of contradictions). The prevailing doctrine is that some Nibelungen sections use the sources of the ThS, which offer completely different versions of the sagas than the Nibelungenlied; while other sections use sources that apparently also form the basis of the Nibelungenlied, and still others are supposed to go back directly to the version 'C' of the Nibelungenlied. The old Swedish version of the ThS, on the other hand, is free of such contradictions and was considered by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg to be the most original version of the myth. Instead, he assumed that the Nibelungenlied was based on an early form of the Thidrek saga. Mostly one assumes, however, that the Swedish translator of the ThS had the largely preserved, often contradicting Norwegian manuscript as a template and intended to shorten the work and to level out contradictions in terms of content; how generally the adjustment of contradictions seems to be characteristic for later processing stages.

Siegfried / Sigurd and Brünhild / Brynhild

The first piece dealing with the Nibelungen saga is roughly in the middle of the ThS; only one figure from the Nibelungen saga is mentioned before, namely Brynhild (Brünhild), who rules Seegard Castle in Swabia and from whose stud the most famous stallions of the heroes of German sagas come from. The actual Nibelung parts of the ThS begin with Sigurd's (Siegfried's) youth. The ThS mostly uses the Nordic form of the name, Sigurd; Only in a few places does the German form of the original, Siegfried, make an impact. Sigurd's mother, wife of a King Sigmund, is wrongly suspected of infidelity; the newborn child is abandoned, floats down a river (similar to Moses ) and is found by a doe and initially cared for (similar to Romulus and Remus by a she-wolf). Finally a blacksmith, Mimir , who is burning in the woods, finds him and teases him. The boy becomes so strong that he beats the blacksmiths and smashes the anvil with the hammer. Mimir has a brother named Regin, who knows magic and turns into a dragon. In other versions, Reginn is named as the foster father of Siegfried, whose brother Fafnir is the named dragon, Mimir and Regin / Reginn are named in different writings as the same person.

Fearing the boy's strength, Mimir asks his brother, the dragon, to kill him. To do this, he sends Sigurd into the forest, where the dragon lives, he should burn coals. However, the boy kills the dragon with a tree trunk and his wooden ax. Since he is hungry, he cooks the dragon meat for dinner. He burns his finger and puts it in his mouth to cool it, and by enjoying the dragon's blood he understands the language of birds. Two birds talk to each other that Mimir wants to kill him. Where his hands come into contact with the dragon's blood, the skin becomes hard as horn. When he notices this, he smears the dragon's blood all over his body. Only he does not reach between the shoulders, which will later lead to his death (similar to Achilles ). Then he goes home and kills Mimir, although the latter, fearful, promises him a wonderful horse from Brynhild's stud, and gives him very good armor and the excellent sword Gram. Then he moves to Brynhild's castle. She apparently has a 'mythical foreknowledge' about Sigurd, because she knows immediately when someone arrives that it must be him. She also tells him the names of his parents and gives him the best stallion. From her Sigurd rides on to King Isung of Bertanga Land (Britain), whose standard bearer he becomes.

The origin of the Nibelungs

A new section now follows: The origin of the Niflungs ('Niflungs' is the name corresponding to the German 'Nibelungen' in all of Nordic literature). The old Norwegian version (membrane) of the ThS brings this section twice in a row, almost identically, but with different names: once the father of the Niflungs is called Aldrian, once Irung; the number of siblings is not the same either. The scribe obviously had two written versions of the same story in front of him and did not want to suppress any, but strung them together. The old Swedish version again shows no contradictions. All Thidrekssaga versions of the 'Origin of the Niflungs' have in common that Hogni (corresponds to German Hagen; in German translations of Nordic texts it is often written as Högni) is only half-brother of the Niflungen: Queen Oda (corresponds to the German name Ute) was born during the Absence of her husband asleep by an evil spirit. The child from this connection is Hogni.

The duels

Now the Nibelungen saga is merged with the Dietrich saga: King Thidrek (corresponds to Dietrich von Bern in German) invites the Niflungs to a feast and feast; Gunnar (Gunther), Hogni (Hagen) and Gernoz (Gernot) participate from the Niflungs. At the festival, everyone present decided to challenge King Isung of Britain and his sons to one-on-one combat. This is how Sigurd comes into the area of the Niflungs: He fights the last, decisive battle against Thidrek himself. Thidrek can only win through an illegal ruse that Sigurd discovers, but he voluntarily recognizes Thidrek as the winner and follows him as his follower.

The weddings

In the following section, Thidrek, and with him Sigurd, moves to the land of the Niflungs, and there Sigurd marries Grimhild (corresponds to Kriemhild in German ), the sister of Gunnar and Hognis. In this section of the ThS, Hogni is not called half-brother, but brother of Gunnar. At his wedding, Sigurd raved to his brother-in-law Gunnar that he knew the most beautiful woman in the world, Brynhild, and that he wanted Gunnar to marry her. The fact that a hero praises another woman (not his own bride) as the most beautiful woman in the world on the occasion of his wedding suggests entanglements. Thidrek, Gunnar, Hogni and Sigurd ride to Brynhild in Seegard. There Sigurd advertises Gunnar to Brynhild. She is angry with Sigurd because he broke her engagement (the ThS does not say anything about an engagement at the earlier point) and married Grimhild. Brynhild accepts what has happened and is ready to marry Gunnar. There is no advertising fraud like in the Nibelungenlied in the ThS. Brynhild, however, acts on their wedding night as in the Nibelungenlied by tying Gunnar and hanging on a nail on the wall. In the ThS she even does this for three consecutive nights until Gunnar Sigurd complains of his suffering and asks the strong Sigurd to sneak into his bedroom under cover of darkness and deflower Brynhild. The ThS does not know a cloak of invisibility or other magical props. However, Brynhild has magical powers that are tied to her virginity. After the defloration by Sigurd, she is as weak as any woman and has to submit to Gunnar.

Now several other long sagas follow in the ThS that have nothing to do with Nibelung sagas. Much later, the Nibelungen saga continues, with Sigurd's death.

The queens quarrel

A long time had passed since the two weddings, and the kingdom of the Nibelungs, with the capital Werniza (in the opinion of most researchers this corresponds to the German Worms ), is flourishing mainly because Sigurd, Grimhild's husband, has strength and wisdom Comes to the aid of brothers-in-law. One day Brynhild, when she enters the hall, wants Grimhild to get up in front of her and leave the high seat to her alone. Grimhild insists on equality. Brynhild then insults her that Sigurd was raised by a doe. Grimhild then reveals that she knows the secret of the bridal night and shows a ring as proof, which Sigurd Brynhild pulled off when he overcame her. Brynhild is not even particularly surprised: she suspects what happened and demands Sigurd's murder after the argument with Grimhild, not because Sigurd helped Gunnar on this point, but because he betrayed it to Grimhild and thus made her shame public. She complains to Gunnar, Hogni and Gernoz of their suffering, demands Sigurd's death and incites the Niflung against him by pointing out that Sigurd is becoming more and more powerful and could wrest their rule from them. The murder does not need any props (like a little cross sewn onto Siegfried's robe in the Song of the Nibelungs): It is enough for Hogni Sigurd to thrust a spear between his shoulder blades when he lies down on the ground while hunting to drink from a stream.

The downfall

After Sigurd's death some very brief other sagas are told; soon the ThS will be back at the Nibelungen saga. From here to the end, the Nibelungenlied and Thidrekssaga are very similar. In some places both works seem to use the same source. The table of contents for the end of the Nibelungs in the ThS can therefore roughly be taken to be the 'Fall of the Nibelungs' in the Nibelungenlied . However, there are also significant differences between the two versions of the legend:

Attila's court is located in Susat (= Soest ) in today's Westphalia, not in Hungary as in the Nibelungenlied. Gunnar (equivalent to Gunther) is not defeated at the end of the Battle of Thidrek, but is captured in the course of the Battle of Osid, a nephew of Attila, and is then thrown into a snake tower by Attila, as in other Nordic versions of the legend. Thidrek kills Grimhild on Attila's orders, not Hildebrand alone, as in the Nibelungenlied. Grimhild acts in the ThS objectively diabolical, also in the eyes of the narrator, so that even her husband demands her death, while the Nibelungenlied partially excuses her and Hildebrand does not get the character of an "objective" avenger. In the ThS she does not kill Hagen, but her seriously injured brother Giselher by sticking a burning log in his mouth. Attila (corresponds to German Etzel ) is greedy for gold, as in other Scandinavian poems. Hogni was badly wounded by Thidrek, but lives another day until he dies. That night he fathered another son and gave the woman the key to the Siegfriedskeller , which she was supposed to give to the child when it had grown up. This son, Aldrian, later avenges Hogni's death on Attila by leading the gold-hungry Attila into the Siegfriedskeller and slamming the door from the outside, so that Attila starves to death with the treasures. The ThS also does not know a cook and therefore does not know Rumold's advice on the Nibelungenlied.

The Hürnen Seyfrit

Der Hürnen Seyfrit treats Seyfrit / Siegfried's story in two consecutive versions, the first of which briefly reproduces the hero's childhood according to the Nibelungenlied, while the second forms the main part and tells Siegfried's youth similar to the Thidrek saga and then several dragon fights to free those kidnapped by a dragon Kriemhild describes. The Hürnen Seyfrit is only available in versions from the 16th century onwards, some of which go back to preliminary stages as early as the 13th century, which are reflected in the Thidrek saga and in late medieval adaptations of the Nibelungenlied.

Important figures in the Nibelungenlied and in other works of the Nibelungen saga

The following people can also be found in other works such as the Edda and Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (in alphabetical order).

The root list of the Nibelungs:

Eilimis

Chilperich

Sigmund

Hjordís

unknown

Gibica (thank you)

Goswintha

Gotelind

Attila (Etzel)

Dietlind

Gunther

Swanhild

Ortlieb

Erp

Ortwin

Siegfried

Alberich , dwarf, in the Nibelungenlied: appointed by the original owners, the Nibelungs, and then also by the next owner, Siegfried, to be the guardian of the Nibelungen hoard. With Richard Wagner : Alberich is one of the Nibelungs and the original owner of the hoard, which he was able to create with a magical ring that he forged from the gold stolen from the “Rhine daughters” (mermaids in the Rhine).

Brünhild , Gunther's wife. In the Nibelungenlied is Brünhild Queen of Iceland and is under the protection of stealth advertised by Siegfried for Gunther. A twofold deception is required: Brünhild must be overcome by Siegfried; first in the fighting games, then in the marriage bed. The quarrel between her and Kriemhild breaks out while watching a tournament and reaches its climax during the following church visit in front of the cathedral door. Brünhild experiences a lot of suffering, but survives all disasters. In the Liederedda , Brynhild is a valkyrie who was put to sleep by Odin; as a punishment for cutting down other heroes than he wanted. She is awakened by Sigurd ; Sigurd and Brynhild are probably engaged (there is a gap in the handwriting of the Liederedda; in the Edda by Snorri Sturluson at the end of the Nibelung saga there is an apparently later addition that Sigurd has a daughter named Aslaug. As the Volsunga saga shows, she must be conceived on the occasion of this engagement). But Sigurd then marries Gudrun, Gunnar's sister. This creates entanglements that lead to the murder of Sigurd and the suicide of Brynhild. The Volsunga saga tells a lot like the Snorra Edda , but in it Brynhild is a sister of Atlis who has supernatural abilities and who can turn into a valkyrie. Sigurd later recruits the abandoned bride for his brother-in-law Gunnar. The advertising fraud occurs through an exchange of forms, not through making them invisible. The obstacle is not fighting games, but a wall of flames, vafrlogi (Richard Wagner: Waberlohe ). The "bed scene" is also different: Sigurd still has to keep the side with Brynhild under Gunnar's form, but in order to remain loyal to his friend, he puts his sword between himself and Brynhild. As a result, Sigurd did not break any oaths against Gunnar, but he did against Brynhild, with whom he already has a daughter, Aslaug. The argument between Brynhild and Gudrun breaks out in the bathroom, which of the two is allowed to wade further out into the cleaner water in the river. In the Volsunga saga, as in the Edda versions, Brynhild commits suicide after Sigurd's death. In the Thidreks saga, Brynhild is the mistress of a castle in Swabia; she has supernatural knowledge of Siegfried / Sigurd; he receives a special stallion from her. On this occasion, the saga later reports, the two got engaged. But he breaks the engagement and marries Grimhild, Gunnar's sister. For this he mediates the marriage between Gunnar and Brynhild, but without cheating: Brynhild is angry with Siegfried / Sigurd for breaking the engagement, but cheating is only necessary when she hangs Gunnar on a nail on the wall on the wedding night. Siegfried / Sigurd has to deflower them for Gunnar - without magical means; the darkness in the bedroom is enough for the deception. This results in the entanglements that lead to Siegfried / Sigurd's death and Grimhild's revenge; Brynhild survived the downfall, like in the Nibelungenlied. Richard Wagner calls her Brünnhilde and follows partly the Liederedda, partly the Volsunga saga; he takes almost nothing from the Nibelungenlied. It was sometimes assumed that the legendary figure Brünhild could have a historical core, namely the Visigoth king's daughter Brunichild , who u. a. is mentioned in the ten books of Frankish history by Gregory of Tours .

In the Nibelungenlied, Dankwart is the brother of Hagens and Gunter's marshal . It does not appear in any other medieval poetry of the Nibelungs.

Dietrich von Bern is equated with the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great ; Old Norse: Thidrekr . Phonically , German corresponds to Dietrich Gothic Thiudarik , and German Bern is the old name of the Italian city of Verona , which belonged to Theodoric's domain. However, the legend does not stick to historical facts. In particular, Theodoric was only born when Attila died while in the legend he was in exile at Attila's court. In the Thidrek saga it is he who kills Grimhild, not Hildebrand, as in the Nibelungenlied. That is certainly the older version that is being modified from the Nibelungenlied.

Etzel is the German name for Attila , the king of the Huns . If you take into account the phonetic development of German, “Attila” and “Etzel” correspond exactly to one another ( i-umlaut from a to e and second sound shift from tt to tz ). Attila's capital was neither where the Nibelungenlied locates it, nor did he participate in the destruction of the Burgundian Empire. Researchers who want to connect the figures of the saga with the events of the 5th century therefore equate the Etzel of the Nibelung saga with the Roman Magister militum Aetius, who in his youth lived as a hostage in exchange for Attila with the Huns and with Hunnic auxiliary troops the smashing of the Burgundy Empire began. Today, however, this is rejected by the majority of researchers because it is assumed that the legends primarily revolved around important historical names, such as Attila, but dealt with them so freely that even a gross change in the facts would not pose a problem. In the Nibelungenlied, Etzel is a tolerant pagan who also tolerates Christians at his court and respects hospitality. The reason for the inclusion of this positive Attila image in the Nibelungenlied is probably that the Huns were equated with the later Hungarians (historically incorrect) and that the Diocese of Passau, in which the poet's homeland is to be found, was involved in the Christianization of the Hungarians in the 10th Century played an important role (especially Bishop Pilgrim von Passau; d. 991). In several Edda songs he is greedy for gold and invites his wife's brothers to murder them and usurp their treasure; he is murdered by his own wife in revenge for the death of their brothers. The Thidrek saga mixes German reports in which Attila acts well, even exemplary, and those in which he is greedy for treasure and is finally locked up in Siegfried's treasure cellar for revenge by a son of Hagen, where he starves to death with the treasures.

Fafnir is in the Edden and in the Volsunga saga the name of the dragon killed by Sigurd.

In the Nibelungenlied, Gernot is one of the brothers (with Gunther and Giselher) who jointly rule over the Burgundian empire. He also appears in the Thidreks saga (there: Gernoz ). In the other Nordic versions of the Nibelungen saga the brothers are called differently; Högni (Hagen) is mostly brother of Gunnar, or at least half-brother, and Gottorm appears as another brother or half-brother there (the name is modeled on the Burgundian Godomarus ), who in one version of the Edda songs is the murderer of Sigurd. King Gundobad († 516) had the laws of the Burgundians recorded and mentions himself in the prologue as descendants of the Burgundian kings Gibica , Godomar (some manuscripts offer Gundomar instead ), Gislaharius and Gundaharius .

Giselher bears the name of the above-mentioned Burgundian king Gislaharius . In medieval poems of the Nibelungs it occurs only in the Nibelungenlied and in the Thidrekssaga (there: Gislher ).

Gunther bears the name of a Burgundy king (King Gundahar ). In Old Norse the name is Gunnar . In the Nibelungenlied he mostly relies on Hagen's advice and only shows his bravery in the final battle; Gunther is only overcome by Dietrich von Bern. In most Nordic sources, the stories of his death are only loosely connected with the first part, in which he is Sigurd's brother-in-law: Atli (equivalent to: Attila), the king of the Huns, is greedy for the treasures of his brother-in-law Gunnar and invites him and his brother Hogni into the Huns. Despite heroic resistance, the two are overcome by a superior force; Atli has Gunnar thrown into a snake pit. Atli's wife Gudrun, Gunnar's and Hogni's sister, stands by the brothers and kills Atli in revenge for their murder. The fact that this Gudrun is Sigurd's widow and is only married to Atli for the second time is not mentioned or does not play an essential role: Since she does not fight against, but with her brothers, the motivation from Sigurd's death is not necessary.

Hagen von Tronje (Old Norse: Hogni) is a distant relative and loyal follower in the Nibelungenlied, and Gunther's most important advisor. In the Nordic versions of the Nibelungen saga, he is Gunnar's brother or half-brother. In the Nibelungenlied and in the Thidreks saga he is Siegfried's murderer.

Hildebrand is Dietrich von Bern's armorer. In the Nibelungen saga he only appears in the Nibelungenlied and in the Thidrek saga.

Kriemhild is probably based on Ildico (the name corresponds to the word formation after Hildchen , but the function of the iko suffix was probably not that of a pet form as in German -chen ), Attila's last concubine. She is called Kriemhild in the Nibelungenlied and in the Thidreks saga (there: Grimilda ). In the other Nordic sources, the sister of Gunnar and Hognis is called Gudrun . Richard Wagner calls them Gutrune .

Nibelunge is the name of the sons of the deceased King Nibelung in the Nibelungenlied, whose treasure only Siegfried wins, after his death Kriemhild, from whom he is stolen by Hagen with Gunther's consent; from then on the Burgundians also referred to themselves as the Nibelunge. In all other poems, Nibelunge (Old Norse: Niflungar ) is the name of the Gunnar and Hognis family from the start, and it has nothing to do with Siegfried / Sigurd's treasure. They are already called Niflunge before they take Sigurd's treasure. in an Edda song they get Sigurd's treasure on the occasion of Sigurd's courtship for Gudrun (Sigurd "buys" his bride with the treasure).

Ortwin von Metz , Truchsess Gunthers in the Nibelungenlied, relative of Hagens von Tronje. It does not appear in any other medieval poetry of the Nibelungs.

In the Nibelungenlied, Rüdiger (also Rüdeger) von Bechelaren is a margrave who, as an exile, sought refuge with the Hun king Etzel and received the margraviate of Bechelaren ( Pöchlarn in Lower Austria; at the confluence of the Erlauf into the Danube) as a fief. 13 years after Siegfried's death he solicits Gunther for Kriemhild's hand for Etzel. He takes an oath of allegiance to Kriemhild, which later forces him to fight against the Burgundians (including Giselher, who is engaged to his daughter). Rüdiger and Gernot kill each other in this fight.

Rumold is Gunthers kitchen master in the Nibelungenlied. He is jokingly portrayed on the one hand as a cook, on the other hand as a high honorary officer who represents the king in his absence. No cook appears in other Nibelung poems. Helmut Rosenfeld brought the introduction of this figure into the Nibelungenlied in connection with the introduction of the honorary position of an imperial kitchen master by King Philip of Swabia (around 1202). The creation of such a literary figure could be an ironic statement about the establishment of this volunteer office.

Siegfried the Dragon Slayer or Siegfried von Xanten ; in the Nibelungenlied; Sigurd in the Nordic texts, except in the Thidrek saga , in which he is mostly called Sigurd, but sometimes Siegfried; this reflects the German sources of the Thidreks saga. A historical person whose deeds would have provided the starting point or crystallization core for the legendary figure Siegfried could not be proven. The identity of Siegfried and Arminius , which has been assumed since around 1820, was formulated more precisely by A. Giesebrecht in 1837, and has been discussed again and again since then. The most important counter-argument is that among the many names that are from the 6th and the budding 7th century, not a single Siegfried is recorded; the earliest records of the name Siegfried date from the end of the 7th century and refer to people who were born around or after 650. After that, this name becomes common very quickly. If there had been a famous legendary hero with this name before, it would be inexplicable why his name was not used in personal naming. Even a distant resemblance to the historical person of the Frankish King Sigibert I (including via Austrasia , first based in Reims, later in Metz ) is not so great that it is likely that Siegfried goes back to him.

Ute is the name of Kriemhild's mother in the Nibelungenlied, also in the Thidreks saga (there: Oda ). In the Volsunga saga, on the other hand, she is called Grimhild (because one wanted to somehow accommodate this name from the German saga, but the name of Gunnar's sister in the north was permanently occupied with Gudrun).

Volker von Alzey is a minstrel and knight of King Gunther in the Nibelungenlied. In the first part he is chosen by Siegfried as standard bearer in the war against the Saxons; In the second part he stands out, both through his great musical and artistic talent (playing fiddle ) and through his bravery and unconditional warrior friendship with Hagen and the ironic-biting sayings against the enemy in which the two outbid each other. In the Thidreks saga (there: Folker ) he is a brave aristocratic fighter, with no connection to art or to playfulness.

Wolfhart is Hildebrand's nephew and one of the young hotspurs in Dietrich's followers. Dietrich's attempts to save at least the last survivors are thwarted by his exaggerated concept of honor, which does not allow him to leave Volker's insults unavenged. Wolfhart falls in a duel against Giselher; proud to find death through a king and to be able to take revenge for it by killing Giselher while he dies, and also to have witnesses for it who can spread his fame. Wolfhart is thus the representative of "heroic sentiments" in the Nibelungenlied par excellence; his wish for a heroic death comes true, while Hagen is not granted this by the story; he is ingloriously slain by a woman.

Research Discussion

Since the written tradition of the Nibelungen saga does not begin until the High Middle Ages, the origin and development of the saga are dependent on source criticism and hypothetical reconstructions. The history of the reconstructions of the written Germanic heroic poetry is full of theory-based suppositions, speculations and special opinions which the majority of experts did not consider to be worth considering, or only for a short time.

The private scholar Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg took the view that the “Christian” Nibelungenlied, which is based on altiu maere (old “mares”, stories), was based on an early form of the “pagan”, from historical events in northern Germany on the 5th / 6th Century AD reporting Thidrekssaga , which served as a template. This thesis of a historicity of the Thidrek saga is rejected by most specialist Germanists. Rather, both the Nibelungenlied and the German models required for the Thidrek saga are written epic adaptations of written and oral versions of legends that circulated in Upper and Lower German-speaking areas in the 12th century. The content, poetic form and relationship of these versions can never be precisely determined. However, today it is mostly assumed that the Thidrek saga uses Low German, mostly written sources, which in turn are to a large extent adaptations of written Upper German (Bavarian) models. Above all, the relocation of the sinking of the Nibelungs to Westphalia seems to be secondary.

In 2011, the German translation of a Chuvash manuscript of an epic there that was found in Tscheboksary , the capital of Chuvashia , was published under the title “Attil und Krimkilte” : a “ Hunnic variant of the Nibelungen saga”, which was recorded in 1956 according to oral tradition.

Manuscripts

The Nibelungenlied is one of the outstanding examples of European heroic epic. The three manuscripts A, B and C are considered to be the most important and most complete. Manuscript A is in the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek , Manuscript B is kept in St. Gallen , Switzerland, and Manuscript C is in the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe . In July 2009, UNESCO included the three most important and most complete manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied in the World Document Heritage .

Literary adaptations

Albrecht Behmel : The Nibelungenlied . Translation from Middle High German , Stuttgart 2001
Gunnar Kunz : The Call of the Valkyries. A novel from the Nibelungs , Erfurt 2010. ISBN 978-3-86680-677-1
Jürgen Lodemann : Siegfried and Krimhild. Die Nibelungenchronik , Literature Prize of the City of Stuttgart, 2002. Fantastic Prize of the City of Gießen, 2002. Klett-Cotta 2002, ISBN 978-3608935486 ; Paperback, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag dtv 2005, ISBN 978-3423133593
Martin Huber : Saat der Rache - Die Chronik der Niflungen , Vienna 2017. ISBN 978-3745097023

Events and media, museums

literature

Otto Holzapfel : The Danish Nibelung Ballads. Texts and comments. Göppingen 1974 (Göppinger Papers on German Studies 122), ISBN 3-87452-237-7 .

Hermann Reichert: The Nibelungenlied. Based on the St. Gallen manuscript. De Gruyter, Berlin 2005. ISBN 3-11-018423-0 .

Hermann Reichert: The Nibelungen saga in medieval Scandinavia. In: Joachim Heinzle, Klaus Klein, Ute Obhof (eds.): The Nibelungs. Saga, epic, myth. Wiesbaden 2003. ISBN 3-89500-347-6 .

Klaus von See u. a. Edda : Commentary on the songs of the Edda. Heidelberg 1997.

Jan De Vries: Hero song and hero saga Francke, Bern 1961.

Joachim Fernau : Thistles for Hagen. 1966

Jean Firges : The Song of the Nibelungs. An epic from the Hohenstaufen era. Exemplary series of literature and philosophy. Vol. 5. Sonnenberg, Annweiler 2001, ISBN 3933264103 .

Georg Dattenböck: Heinrich von Hag / Ofterdingen. Author of the Nibelungenlied! Bautz, 6th edition Nordhausen 2013, ISBN 978-3-88309-640-7 .

Joachim Heinzle : The Nibelungs. Song and legend. Primus Verlag, 2nd edition, Darmstadt 2012, ISBN 978-3-86312-034-4 and Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft WBG, Darmstadt ISBN 978-3-534-25531-3 .

Web links

Commons : Die Nibelungen - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

The Nibelungs with pictures
The reception of the Nibelung material
Gunter E. Grimm: Political Nibelungen Reception in Literature and Art
Nibelungen manuscript C - Donaueschingen 63 in the digital collections of the Badische Landesbibliothek

Individual evidence

↑ Cf. Joachim Heinzle: From the legend to the epic . In: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (ed.): The Nibelungenlied and his world . Darmstadt 2003, pp. 20-29.
↑ Hermann Reichert: On the name of the dragon slayer. Siegfried - Sigurd - Sigmund - Ragnar. In: Uwe Ludwig and Thomas Schilp (eds.): Nomen et Fraternitas. Festschrift for Dieter Geuenich. - Supplementary volume No. 63 to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Berlin 2008, pp. 131–167.
↑ Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: The Nibelungs moved northwards. 6th unchanged edition, Herbig, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7766-1155-3 .
^ Journal Social Impulse No. 2, June 2012, p. 42; Rhombos Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-941216-50-1 .
↑ The Song of the Nibelungs. In: Website of the German UNESCO Commission. UNESCO, accessed March 3, 2018 .

[1] Cf. Joachim Heinzle: From the legend to the epic . In: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (ed.): The Nibelungenlied and his world . Darmstadt 2003, pp. 20-29.

[2] Hermann Reichert: On the name of the dragon slayer. Siegfried - Sigurd - Sigmund - Ragnar. In: Uwe Ludwig and Thomas Schilp (eds.): Nomen et Fraternitas. Festschrift for Dieter Geuenich. - Supplementary volume No. 63 to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Berlin 2008, pp. 131–167.

[3] Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg: The Nibelungs moved northwards. 6th unchanged edition, Herbig, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7766-1155-3 .

[4] Journal Social Impulse No. 2, June 2012, p. 42; Rhombos Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-941216-50-1 .

[5] The Song of the Nibelungs. In: Website of the German UNESCO Commission. UNESCO, accessed March 3, 2018 .