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Nibelungenlied
by Robert Drake
The Nibelungenlied is an eight hundred year old epic and it is a true masterpiece of literature. The Nibelungenlied was born from the bards that lived through the cruelty and heroics of the dark ages. Many different tales circulated and grew. Just as history moved on to the Renaissance, with its courtly love and chivalry, so too did the Nibelungenlied change to fit the times. The result is one of the most complex and intriguing works ever written.
The generations stuck between the Dark Age and Renaissance belonged to a society split between the bloody chaos of the previous age and the “enlightened” age that was slowly moving across Europe. The storyteller with his tales was at the vanguard of this movement. The anonymous writer(s) of The Nibelungenlied fused the chivalric age with the older myths and legends to create an interesting dichotomy that permeates The Nibelungenlied.
The Nibelungenlied is an epic in two parts. The first part concerns Siegfried and his adventures in Burgundy. Siegfried was a character from innumerable epics of Germany, Norway, and the north. His exploits were legendary in his time and he was as great as any Achilles. It is interesting that in The Nibelungenlied Siegfried attempts to change from being the Hercules of the north to the paragon of chivalric virtue. The result is the great conflict in The Nibelungenlied: the fusing of the heroic age with the chivalric age and the revealing of both.
The first part of The Nibelungenlied has five major characters: Siegfried, Brunhild, Kriemhild, Gunther, and Hagen. Siegfried is a hero who has slain dragons and has an invisible cloak. Gunther is the High King of Burgundy and a courteous knight. Kriemhild is Gunther’s virtuous sister. Brunhild is the monstrously strong maiden of Norway. Hagen is Gunther’s advisor.
Siegfried and Brunhild belong to a world of giant serpents, dragons, and men such as Beowulf and Roland. Gunther and Kriemhild are, with their courtesy and ceremony, figurines of the chivalric age. Between these groups lies Hagen. Hagen is neither a chivalrous knight nor a hero of antiquity. Hagen is not the reader either. Indeed Hagen’s role is more complex than any title, but for now he can be called the spectator to the fusing of Siegfried and Gunther’s world.
In the first half of The Nibelungenlied Siegfried leaves his land to woo Kriemhild. His parents warn him of the danger and Kriemhild sees a vision of the doom that will strike her if she marries. Gunther receives Siegfried and offers Kriemhild’s hand if Siegfried will help win him Brunhild’s hand. These marriages are both doomed from the start. Helen was never meant to marry King Arthur. The collision of these two worlds begins its fateful spiral with the dual marriages between the two couples.
Amongst the mighty knights and glorious ceremonies there is trouble in the world. The Heroic Age does not mesh with the Chivalric Age without deception. Only through guile does Siegfried win Brunhild for Gunther and only through guile does Siegfried tame Brunhild to allow Gunther to consummate the marriage. This crux in the story is a remnant from the previous age; an age that allowed the giant Brunhild to be overcome in such a way. The poet glosses over the details with perfect tact, but it is obvious that things are not as they should be. Brunhild recognizes Siegfried before she is pledged to Gunther and seems surprised to find him serving Gunther. The old tale has quickly fallen apart and so begins the poet’s new story.
The marriages remain intact for a surprising length of time. An entire decade passes and Kriemhild bears Siegfried a child back in the Netherlands, Siegfried’s home. Only at the end of the first part does the façade of harmony between the ages collapse. Brunhild, suspicious of Siegfried’s status as Gunther’s vassal, sends for Siegfried and Kriemhild to return to Burgundy. They agree and Siegfried and Gunther are reunited with the finest of chivalric. Siegfried joins Gunther and they stand tall as the finest kings of their ages. Unfortunately they are not the players in this tragedy.
It is not the Kings, but the Queens who create the storm. Brunhild demands subservience of Kriemhild as the wife of a vassal. Kriemhild responds with Brunhild’s maiden ring taken by Siegfried when he overcame her for Gunther. This slight is unbearable and the two ages are at war from then on.
It is at that point that Hagen comes to the front. Hagen is the true power in Burgundy and without him the chivalry of Gunther would collapse. Hagen protects Burgundy from all threats and stands as a pillar of reality impervious to either age. Knights as valiant as Gunther do not live in the world and neither do the heroics of Siegfried. It is men such as Hagen who keep the kingdom from collapsing and never is this shown as brilliantly as with his callous disposal of Siegfried.
Kriemhild’s slight to Brunhild is a threat to the honor and peace of Burgundy. Recognizing the situation instantly, it is Hagen who convinces the weak and cowardly, but friendly Kings of Burgundy that Siegfried must be killed. And Hagen is neither a coward nor a hypocrite. He does the act himself and leaves the body at the front of Kriemhild’s door. Hagen is brutal realpolitik and Machiavellian efficiency embodied, but he acts not out of revenge, but for the good of his kingdom. His response removes the danger of the heroic age from his realm. No more will Achilles disturb the peace. It is with the sinking of Siegfried’s treasure that the first part ends.
The heroic age no longer vies with the chivalric age in the second part. With Siegfried gone the danger comes only from the chivalric age in the form of Kriemhild. Kriemhild’s love for Siegfried was unmatched and his death reveals a frightful revenge under her courteous veneer. The maiden of Burgundy has become a butcher who sacrifices her son of Siegfried and who will soon sacrifice another.
Many years pass and if there is a fault with Nibelungenlied it lies with the flippancy given to time. That is a small fault though and hardly tarnishes the power of the second half.
Kriemhild is an empathetic figure. She has had her love taken from her, her inheritance sunk into a river, and Hagen makes no pretense about being the murderer. For him it was necessary and is a thing of pride not guilt. It is Hagen who does what must be done.
After many years King Etzel of Hungry sends minstrels to request Kriemhild’s hand in marriage. King Etzel is the historic Attila the Hun, but this king is not the Scourge of God, but another Gunther. Kriemhild accepts when she is assured that she will have great wealth and power in Etzel’s land. She is married off and so begins her revenge on the world.
After many years with Etzel she invites her three brothers including Gunther to visit her at the court of King Etzel. Hagen warns the three kings of the ruin that is to come, but fails to convince them with their chivalric niceties and vague sense of honor. The man sent to lead Gunther and his host is Kriemhild’s man Rudiger. Rudiger is the honor of the chivalric age and his eventual fall demonstrates, as viscerally as Kriemhild’s own fall, the chivalric age.
When Gunther arrives at King Etzel’s court Kriemhild begins her plot against the Burgundians. Another of King Etzel’s vassals, Dietrich, comes in at this time. Dietrich is, like Hagen, a man of reality. He sees the danger that is about but, bound by the oaths of the chivalric age, can do nothing.
Kriemhild uses her warriors and even her very son to provoke the warriors from Burgundy. She launches them at her brothers’ host and unleashes the might of Etzel in revenge for the death of Siegfried. The Burgundians account themselves well and fight with both distinction and honor, but it is more to accentuate Kriemhild’s fury as she sends more and more soldiers to die, than to raise the three Kings and Hagen.
Eventually Kriemhild sends Rudiger, her most valiant warrior. Having been the Burgundian’s host he is reluctant to fight, but eventually honor forces him to and he is slain. The flower of chivalry dies to the ravings of his fearsome Queen. It is with his death the final confrontation arrives.
Rudiger’s death brings Dietrich to the field. The climax has come and it ends with Dietrich capturing Gunther and Hagen. Kriemhild rejoices and it seems as if her moment of victory is at hand. She kills her brother for allowing Hagen to murder Siegfried and then she moves on to Hagen. She stands before him and gloats before killing him as well. It seems as if the frightful revenge of a maiden-become-demon has ultimately triumphed, but Dietrich and his men enter again. He sees the sheer amount of death that has ruined two kingdoms. He sees Kriemhild having sworn her own brother. Then he sees Kriemhild slaying Hagen, the knight who above all defended his King. Dietrich kills Kriemhild ending the chivalric age with a single blade.
The Nibelungenlied is a passionate tale of revenge and a rousing tale of heroics. It stands as a marvelous work on that alone, but it is the deeper threads that make it so much more engaging. It is not just the heroic age of the past that harms mankind nor is it the much praised modern age that has ruined the world. The heroic age was not the better age nor is the modern age the solution to the world’s ills. It is men such as Hagen and Dietrich, men who see things as they really are, that kept their lands in tact. The courtesy of Gunther and Etzel doomed their lands just as thoroughly as the superhuman exploits of Brunhild and Siegfried threatened there’s. It is the power of skepticism and practicality which comes so powerfully through this eight hundred year old epic. Perhaps the poet saw the danger in glorifying either age. Perhaps he saw an opportunity in combing the two for dramatic effect. Either way the result is The Nibelungenlied.
I cannot end without adding my own praise. I have loved this tale for many years and could write a hundred pages more on a dozen separate topics of note. Pages alone could be written on why Siegfried took Brunhild’s maiden ring and why he then gave it to his young wife. Many more could be written on the different kingdoms that act as setting or lands of rumor. Each topic is of interest, but it is the clash of ages and the resulting doom that I find the most fantastic and the most striking example of The Nibelungenlied’s worth as a work of true artistry: A title I believe it most fervently deserves.
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