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90-466: The poem begins with a long lamentation by the narrator about the events of the Nibelungenlied , followed by a summary of the events of the earlier poems. This includes a genealogy of the main characters and their relationships to each other. Then Siegfried 's marriage to Kriemhild , his murder, and the revenge of his widow are recounted. The narrator asserts that Kriemhild is innocent because she

180-475: A difference. The main character of the Klage is the hero Dietrich von Bern , who had been introduced in the Nibelungenlied as an exile living at Etzel's court. Dietrich organizes the manner in which the characters of the Klage overcome the catastrophe of the last poem, seeing to it that the dead are buried and that survivors are informed. In contrast to the previous poem, Dietrich appears in complete control of

270-672: A dragon and possession of the hoard of the Nibelungen is also common to both traditions. In other respects, however, the two traditions appear to diverge. The most important works to feature Sigurd are the Nibelungenlied , the Völsunga saga , and the Poetic Edda . He also appears in numerous other works from both Germany and Scandinavia, including a series of medieval and early modern Scandinavian ballads . Sigurd's story

360-663: A dragon, bathed in its blood, and thereby received skin as hard as horn that makes him invulnerable. Of the features of young Siegfried's adventures, only those that are directly relevant to the rest of the story are mentioned. In order to win the hand of Kriemhild, Siegfried becomes a friend of the Burgundian kings Gunther , Gernot, and Giselher. When Gunther decides to woo the warlike queen of Iceland , Brünhild , he offers to let Siegfried marry Kriemhild in exchange for Siegfried's help in his wooing of Brünhild. As part of Siegfried's help, they lie to Brünhild and claim that Siegfried

450-409: A dragon. Regin wants Sigurd to kill the dragon. He makes the sword Gram for Sigurd, but Sigurd chooses to kill Lyngvi and the other sons of Hunding before he kills the dragon. On his way he is accompanied by Odin. After killing the brothers in battle and carving a blood eagle on Lyngvi, Regin praises Sigurd's ferocity in battle. In Fáfnismál , Sigurd accompanies Regin to Gnita-Heath, where he digs

540-482: A fight between Siegfried and the hero Heime , in which Siegfried knocks Heime's famous sword Nagelring out of his hand, after which both armies fight for control over the sword. The text also relates that Dietrich once brought Siegfried to Etzel's court as a hostage, something which is also alluded to in the Nibelungenlied . The so-called "Heldenbuch-Prosa" , first found in the 1480 Heldenbuch of Diebolt von Hanowe and afterwards contained in printings until 1590,

630-619: A good deal seems to have been transformed by the context of the Christianization of Iceland and Scandinavia: the frequent appearance of the heathen gods gives the heroic stories the character of an epoch that is irrevocably over. Although the earliest attestations for the Scandinavian tradition are pictorial depictions, because these images can only be understood with a knowledge of the stories they depict, they are listed last here. The so-called Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson

720-464: A higher rank. Brynhild claims that Sigurd is not of noble birth, after which Grimhild announces that Sigurd and not Gunnar deflowered Brynhild. Brynhild convinces Gunnar and Högni (Hagen) to murder Sigurd, which Högni does while Sigurd is drinking from a spring on a hunt. The brothers then place his corpse in Grimhild's bed, and she mourns. The author of the saga has made a number of changes to create

810-604: A historical figure. The most popular theory is that Sigurd has his origins in one or several figures of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks : the Merovingians had several kings whose name began with the element *sigi- . In particular, the murder of Sigebert I (d. 575), who was married to Brunhilda of Austrasia , is often cited as a likely inspiration for the figure, a theory that was first proposed in 1613. Sigibert

900-423: A hook. The next night, Siegfried uses his cloak of invisibility to overpower Brünhild, allowing Gunther to sleep with her. Although he does not sleep with Brünhild, Siegfried takes her belt and ring, later giving them to Kriemhild. Siegfried and Kriemhild have a son, whom they name Gunther. Later, Brünhild and Kriemhild begin to fight over which of them should have precedence, with Brünhild believing that Kriemhild

990-707: A more or less coherent story out of the many oral and possibly written sources that he used to create the saga. The author mentions alternative Scandinavian versions of many of these same tales, and appears to have changed some details to match the stories known by his Scandinavian audience. This is true in particular for the story of Sigurd's youth, which combines elements from the Norse and continental traditions attested later in Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid , but also contains an otherwise unattested story of Siegfried's parents. The Thidrekssaga makes no mention of how Sigurd won

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1080-468: A new husband once he has returned to Italy. In an epilogue, it is explained that Bishop Pilgrim ordered the events of the Nibelungenlied and the Klage to be written down in Latin by a "meister Konrad", from which it has since been translated to German. The Klage is transmitted together with the Nibelungenlied in all but two manuscripts and is appended to the end as if it were a final episode. The poem

1170-406: A pit. He stabs Fafnir through the heart from underneath when the dragon passes over the pit. Fafnir, before he dies, tells Sigurd some wisdom and warns him of the curse that lays on the hoard. Once the dragon is dead, Regin tears out Fafnir's heart and tells Sigurd to cook it. Sigurd checks whether the heart is done with his finger and burns it. When he puts his finger into his mouth, he can understand

1260-407: A place called "Thjod." Sigurd is raised at the court of king Hjálprek, receives the sword Gram from the smith Regin, and slays the dragon Fafnir on Gnita-Heath by lying in a pit and stabbing it in the heart from underneath. Sigurd tastes the dragon's blood and understands the birds when they say that Regin will kill him in order to acquire the dragon's gold. He then kills Regin and takes the hoard of

1350-487: A potion that will make him forget his promise and marry Gudrun. He will then acquire Brynhild as a wife for Gunnar and sleep with Brynhild without having sex with her. Brynhild will recognize the deception, however, and claim that Sigurd did sleep with her, and this will cause Gunnar to have him killed. The poem is likely fairly young and seems to have been written to connect the previous poems about Helgi Hundingsbane with those about Sigurd. The following three poems form

1440-440: A prophecy about his life. Grípir tells Sigurd that he will kill Hunding's sons, the dragon Fafnir , and the smith Regin , acquiring the hoard of the Nibelungen. Then he will wake a valkyrie and learn runes from her. Grípir does not want to tell Sigurd any more, but Sigurd forces him to continue. He says that Sigurd will go to the home of Heimer and betroth himself to Brynhild, but then at the court of King Gjuki he will receive

1530-511: A purely mythological figure without a historical origin. Nineteenth-century scholars frequently derived the Sigurd story from myths about Germanic deities including Odin , Baldr , and Freyr ; such derivations are no longer generally accepted. Catalin Taranu argues that Sigurd's slaying of the dragon ultimately has Indo-European origins, and that this story later became attached to the story of

1620-707: A purely mythological origin. Richard Wagner used the legends about Sigurd/Siegfried in his operas Siegfried and Götterdämmerung . Wagner relied heavily on the Norse tradition in creating his version of Siegfried. His depiction of the hero has influenced many subsequent depictions. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Siegfried became heavily associated with German nationalism. The Thidrekssaga finishes its tale of Sigurd by saying: [E]veryone said that no man now living or ever after would be born who would be equal to him in strength, courage, and in all sorts of courtesy, as well as in boldness and generosity that he had above all men, and that his name would never perish in

1710-487: A single unit in the manuscript of the Poetic Edda , but are split into three by modern scholars. They likely contain old material, but the poems themselves appear to be relatively recent versions. The poems also mix two conceptions of Sigurd: on the one hand, he is presented as an intelligent royal prince, on the other, he is raised by the smith Regin and is presented as stupid. It is most likely that Sigurd's youth with

1800-565: A wall of flames to wed her; Sigurd rides through the flames and weds Brynhild, but does not sleep with her, placing his sword between them in the marriage bed. Sigurd and Gunnar then return to their own shapes. Sigurd and Gudrun have two children, Svanhild and young Sigmund. Later, Brynhild and Gudrun quarrel and Gudrun reveals that Sigurd was the one who rode through the fire, and shows a ring that Sigurd took from Brynhild as proof. Brynhild then arranges to have Sigurd killed by Gunnar's brother Guthorm . Guthorm stabs Sigurd in his sleep, but Sigurd

1890-549: Is ] , the name of the place where Sigurd kills the dragon in the Scandinavian tradition, represents the battlefield for the Teutoburg Forest, modern scholarship generally dismisses a connection between Sigurd and Arminius as tenuous speculation. The idea that Sigurd derives from Arminius nevertheless continues to be promoted outside of the academic sphere, including in popular magazines such as Der Spiegel . It has also been suggested by others that Sigurd may be

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1980-421: Is Gunther's vassal. Any wooer of Brünhild's must accomplish various physical tasks, and she will kill any man who fails. Siegfried, using his cloak of invisibility, aids Gunther in each task. Upon their return to Worms, Siegfried marries Kriemhild following Gunther's marriage to Brünhild. On Gunther's wedding night, however, Brünhild prevents him from sleeping with her, tying him up with her belt and hanging him from

2070-598: Is a late medieval/early modern heroic ballad that gives an account of Siegfried's adventures in his youth. It agrees in many details with the Thidrekssaga and other Old Norse accounts over the Nibelungenlied , suggesting that these details existed in an oral tradition about Siegfried in Germany. According to the Hürnen Seyfrid , Siegfried had to leave his father Siegmund's court for his uncouth behavior and

2160-466: Is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend , who killed a dragon—known in some Old Norse sources as Fáfnir —and who was later murdered. In both the Norse and continental Germanic tradition, Sigurd is portrayed as dying as the result of a quarrel between his wife ( Gudrun /Kriemhild) and another woman, Brunhild , whom he has tricked into marrying the Burgundian king Gunnar/Gunther . His slaying of

2250-474: Is able to slice Guthorm in half by throwing his sword before dying. Guthorm has also killed Sigurd's three-year-old son Sigmund. Brynhild then kills herself and is burned on the same pyre as Sigurd. The Poetic Edda appears to have been compiled around 1270 in Iceland, and assembles mythological and heroic songs of various ages. The story of Sigurd forms the core of the heroic poems collected here. However,

2340-524: Is also mentioned that he was buried in a marble sarcophagus—this may be connected to actual marble sarcophagi that were displayed in the abbey, having been dug up following a fire in 1090. In the Rosengarten zu Worms (c. 1250), Siegfried is betrothed to Kriemhild and is one of the twelve heroes who defends her rose garden in Worms. Kriemhild decides that she would like to test Siegfried's mettle against

2430-599: Is buried in Worms. The redaction of the text known as the Nibelungenlied C makes several small changes to localizations in the text: Siegfried is not killed in the Vosges, but in the Odenwald , with the narrator claiming that one can still visit the spring where he was killed near the village of Odenheim (today part of Östringen ). The redactor states the Siegfried was buried at the abbey of Lorsch rather than Worms. It

2520-404: Is considered one of the most important attestations of a continued oral tradition outside of the Nibelungenlied , with many details agreeing with the Thidrekssaga . The Heldenbuch-Prosa has very little to say about Siegfried: it notes that he was the son of King Siegmund, came from "Niederland", and was married to Kriemhild. Unattested in any other source, however, is that Kriemhild orchestrated

2610-633: Is convincing. As the Merovingian parallels are not exact, other scholars also fail to accept the proposed model. But the Sigurd/Siegfried figure, rather than being based on the Merovingian alone, may be a composite of additional historical personages, e.g., the "Caroliginian Sigifridus" alias Godfrid, Duke of Frisia (d. 855) according to Edward Fichtner (2015). Franz-Joseph Mone  [ de ] (1830) had also believed Siegfried to be an amalgamation of several historical figures, and

2700-616: Is first attested on a series of carvings, including runestones from Sweden and stone crosses from the British Isles , dating from the 11th century. It is possible that he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovingian dynasty , with Sigebert I being the most popular contender. Older scholarship sometimes connected him with Arminius , victor of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest . He may also have

2790-515: Is impossible. The Poetic Edda identifies Sigurd as a king of the Franks . Frá dauða Sinfjötla is a short prose text between the songs. Sigurd is born at the end of the poem; he is the posthumous son of Sigmund, who dies fighting the sons of Hunding, and Hjordis. Hjordis is married to the son of Hjálprek and allowed to raise Sigurd in Hjálprek's home. In Grípisspá , Sigurd goes to Grípir, his uncle on his mother's side, in order to hear

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2880-471: Is only the wife of a vassal. Finally, in front of the door of the cathedral in Worms, the two queens argue who should enter first. Brünhild openly accuses Kriemhild of being married to a vassal, and Kriemhild claims that Siegfried took Brünhild's virginity, producing the belt and ring as proof. Although Siegfried denies this publicly, Hagen and Brünhild decide to murder Siegfried, and Gunther acquiesces. Hagen tricks Kriemhild into telling him where Siegfried's skin

2970-657: Is partially innocent. The Hunnish prince Ortlieb is lamented as well as Kriemhild by the Huns. The survivors begin to recover the dead, with every corpse causing great lamenting by relatives and friends. Dietrich von Bern and Etzel remain horrified and insist that everything would have been different if only they had known or avoided one thing or another. There are so many corpses that there are not enough men at Etzel's court to disarm them, women have to help. Hildebrand faints from sorrow when he finds Rüdiger's corpse, and Etzel has to revive him. Etzel then collapses himself. Once all of

3060-438: Is possible that Pilgrim is made to be the original source of the poem as an oblique reference to Wolfger von Erla. The overall purpose of this claim for a Latin version based on eye-witness accounts seems to be to vouch for the authenticity of the tradition and of the poem, while also providing it with the dignity of the learned language Latin. It may also seek to make the story seem plausible and believable in some way. The Klage

3150-472: Is so unruly that Mimir sends him to his brother Regin, who has transformed into a dragon, in the hopes that he will kill the boy. Sigurd, however, slays the dragon and tastes its flesh, whereby he learns the language of the birds and of Mimir's treachery. He smears himself with dragon's blood, making his skin invulnerable, and returns to Mimir. Mimir gives him weapons to placate him, but Sigurd kills him anyway. He then encounters Brynhild (Brünhild), who gives him

3240-525: Is the earliest non-pictorial attestation of the Scandinavian version of Sigurd's life, dating to around 1220. Snorri retells the story of Sigurd in several chapters of the section of the poem called Skáldskaparmál . His presentation of the story is very similar to that found in the Völsunga saga (see below), but is considerably shorter. This version does not mention Sigurd's vengeance for the death of his father. The text identifies Sigurd as being raised in

3330-405: Is thus able to penetrate Siegfried's skin with his sword, and Siegfried becomes so afraid that he flees to Kriemhild's lap. Only the reappearance of Hildebrand prevents Dietrich from killing Siegfried. Siegfried's role as Kriemhild's fiancé does not accord with the Nibelungenlied , where the two are never formally betrothed. The detail that Kriemhild's father is named Gibich rather than Dancrat,

3420-617: Is vulnerable, and Gunther invites Siegfried to take part in a hunt in the Waskenwald (the Vosges ). When Siegfried is slaking his thirst at a spring, Hagen stabs him on the vulnerable part of his back with a spear. Siegfried is mortally wounded but still attacks Hagen, before cursing the Burgundians and dying. Hagen arranges to have Siegfried's corpse thrown outside the door to Kriemhild's bedroom. Kriemhild mourns Siegfried greatly and he

3510-451: Is written in rhyming couplets, rather than the stanzas of the Nibelungenlied . The rhyming technique is nevertheless very similar to that of the Nibelungenlied , however the language is much simpler and can even be described as monotonous. The poem nevertheless makes use of shocking metaphors and images to describe the nature of death and the piles of the dead from the previous poem. It is generally viewed as an inferior work when compared with

3600-679: The Christianization of Hungary . He was educated at the Benedictine Niederaltaich Abbey , and was made bishop in 971. To him are attributed some, if not all, of the Forgeries of Lorch . These are a series of documents, especially papal bulls of Pope Symmachus , Pope Eugene II , Pope Leo VII , and Pope Agapetus II , fabricated to prove that Passau was a continuation of a former archdiocese of Lorch . By these he attempted to obtain from Benedict VI

3690-413: The Klage was the earlier of the two. Müller prefers to see the Klage as reacting to the oral tradition behind the Nibelungenlied in many respects rather than to the specific version offered by the poem. According to the Klage itself, a Latin version of the events of the Klage and Nibelungenlied was written down by a certain "meister Konrad" on behalf of Bishop Pilgrim of Passau immediately after

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3780-602: The Middle Dutch Zegevrijt . In Early Modern German , the name develops to Seyfrid or Seufrid (spelled Sewfrid ). The modern form Siegfried is not attested frequently until the 17th century, after which it becomes more common. In modern scholarship, the form Sigfrid is sometimes used. The Old Norse name Sigurðr is contracted from an original *Sigvǫrðr , which in turn derives from an older *Sigi-warðuR . The Danish form Sivard also derives from this form originally. Hermann Reichert notes that

3870-434: The Nibelungenlied . The Klage is widely viewed as an attempt to come to terms with the finality of the tragedy that closes the Nibelungenlied . The poem is unique as regards its genre, as it consists more of a commentary on another poem than as a narrative. The title Klage could be a translation of the Latin planctus , coming from the notion that after a tragedy follows a cathartic lament. The use of rhyming couplets and

3960-466: The Nibelungenlied . The poem also embeds the catastrophe within a larger genealogical context with the Netherlandish and Burgundian royal genealogies, which relativizes it as part of a longer history and is able to show continuity of rule for the kings except Etzel. The Klage even seems to make the events of the Nibelungenlied appear as though they had not just occurred in the narrative time of

4050-579: The Rule of St. Benedict in Niederaltaich, transferred the relics of Maximilian of Tebessa from Altötting to Passau , and held synods (983–991) at Ennsburg  [ de ] (Lorch), Mautern an der Donau , and Mistelbach . In the Nibelungenlied he is lauded as a contemporary of the heroes of that epic. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in

4140-508: The r in *Sigi-ward could have taken place in Anglo-Saxon England, where variation between -frith and -ferth is well documented. Reichert, on the other hand, notes that Scandinavian figures who are attested in pre-12th-century German, English, and Irish sources as having names equivalent to Siegfried are systematically changed to forms equivalent to Sigurd in later Scandinavian sources. Forms equivalent to Sigurd , on

4230-411: The 7th century and become frequent in Anglo-Saxon England in the 9th century. Jan-Dirk Müller argues that this late date of attestation means that it is possible that Sigurd more accurately represents the original name. Wolfgang Haubrichs suggests that the form Siegfried arose in the bilingual Frankish kingdom as a result of romance-language influence on an original name *Sigi-ward . According to

4320-659: The Burgundians, Ute, dies of grief. After a time of mourning Brünhild's son Siegfried is crowned the new king of the Burgundians. Meanwhile, Dietrich and Hildebrand decide to return to Dietrich's kingdom in northern Italy. Etzel remains alone in his despair, and the narrator asserts that he does not know what happened to the Hunnish king. The narrator asserts that there are several rumors about Etzel's fate. Dietrich arrives in Bechelaren to discover that Rüdiger's widow Gotelind has died of grief, but Dietrich promises to find Dietlind

4410-639: The German tongue, and the same was true with the Norsemen. The names Sigurd and Siegfried do not share the same etymology. Both have the same first element, Proto-Germanic *sigi- , meaning victory. The second elements of the two names are different, however: in Siegfried , it is Proto-Germanic *-frið , meaning peace; in Sigurd , it is Proto-Germanic *-ward , meaning protection. Although they do not share

4500-405: The Nibelungen for himself. He rides away with the hoard and then awakens the valkyrie Brynhild by cutting the armor from her, before coming to king Gjuki 's kingdom. There he marries Gjuki's daughter, Gudrun, and helps her brother, Gunnar, to acquire Brynhild's hand from her brother Atli. Sigurd deceives Brynhild by taking Gunnar's shape when Gunnar cannot fulfill the condition that he ride through

4590-464: The Siegfried only has eight years to live. Realizing he will not be able to use the treasure, Siegfried dumps the treasure into the Rhine on his way to Worms. He marries Kriemhild and rules there together with her brothers Gunther, Hagen, and Giselher, but they resent him and have him killed after eight years. The Icelandic Abbot Nicholaus of Thvera records that while travelling through Westphalia , he

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4680-466: The area around Worms but describes it as a separate kingdom from King Gibich's land (i.e. the Burgundian kingdom). The Nibelungenlied gives two contradictory descriptions of Siegfried's youth. On the level of the main story, Siegfried is given a courtly upbringing in Xanten by his father king Siegmund and mother Sieglind. When he is seen coming to Worms , capital of the Burgundian kingdom to woo

4770-419: The beginning of that epic's composition. According to Jan-Dirk Müller, the only thing that can be said for certain about the Klage's composition relative to the Nibelungenlied is that it took place before very early in the manuscript transmission of the latter work. Although the poem seems to have been written in close proximity to the Nibelungenlied , stylistic and linguistic differences make it clear that it

4860-449: The city of Worms record that when Emperor Frederick III visited the city in 1488, he learned that the townspeople said that the "giant Siegfried" ( gigas [...] Sifridus des Hörnen ) was buried in the cemetery of St. Meinhard and St. Cecilia. Frederick ordered the graveyard dug up—according to one Latin source, he found nothing, but a German chronicle reports that he found a skull and some bones that were larger than normal. In contrast to

4950-452: The dead have been removed, Etzel comes to and laments at length, expressing his despair and his desire to leave the world. Etzel then sends the minstrel Swemmel as a messenger to Worms via Bechelaren , Rüdiger's home. Even though Swemmel is not to say anything before he reaches Worms, his grief is easily spotted. Rüdiger's wife Gotelind and his daughter Dietlind quickly realize that something has happened to Rüdiger, and so Swemmel tells them

5040-686: The death of Helche's sons while under Dietrich's care as reported in the later poem Rabenschlacht . Dietrich's return from exile only with Hildebrand, Herrat, and a mule closely resembles the account found in the Old Norse Thidreksaga , either because the compiler of the Thidrekssaga was aware of the Nibelungenklage or because both incorporate a similar orally transmitted story about Dietrich's return. Sigurd Sigurd ( Old Norse : Sigurðr [ˈsiɣˌurðr] ) or Siegfried ( Middle High German : Sîvrit )

5130-526: The details of Sigurd's life and death in the various poems contradict each other, so that "the story of Sigurd does not emerge clearly from the Eddic verse". Generally, none of the poems are thought to have been composed before 900 and some appear to have been written in the 13th century. It is also possible that apparently old poems have been written in an archaicizing style and that apparently recent poems are reworkings of older material, so that reliable dating

5220-466: The disaster at Etzel's court in order to avenge Siegfried being killed by Dietrich von Bern. According to the Heldenbuch-Prosa, Dietrich killed Siegfried fighting in the rose garden at Worms (see the Rosengarten zu Worms section above). This may have been another version of Siegfried's death that was in oral circulation. Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid (the song of horn-skinned Siegfried)

5310-569: The elevation of Passau to an archdiocese, the re-erection of those dioceses in Pannonia and Mœsia which had been suffragans of Lorch, and the pallium for himself. There is extant an alleged Bull of Benedict VI granting Piligrim's demands; but this is also the work of Piligrim, possibly a document drawn up for the papal signature, which it never received. Piligrim converted numerous pagans in Hungary. He built many schools and churches, restored

5400-455: The events of the poem. There is no evidence for the existence of a Latin version and so this is usually taken as a narrative fiction. Pilgrim appears to be inspired by the historical figure of Pilgrim of Passau (flourished 971-991), who was an important ecclesiastical prince and whose family shows possible connections to the Nibelung material in its use of names from the Nibelung tradition. It

5490-476: The form of the root -vǫrðr instead of -varðr is only found in the name Sigurd , with other personal names instead using the form -varðr ; he suggests that the form -vǫrðr may have had religious significance, whereas -varðr was purely non-religious in meaning. There are competing theories as to which name is original. Names equivalent to Siegfried are first attested in Anglo-Saxon Kent in

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5580-408: The general tendency of the work is most similar to a poem relaying historical events, as various elements similar to courtly romance found in the Nibelungenlied are not included in the Klage . The Klage offers a specific interpretation of the events of the Nibelungenlied , which it accomplishes by commenting on the plot of the other poem in laments, reports, and recapitulations of events, both in

5670-465: The great king in the end. This could have been influenced by the negative traditions about Etzel (i.e. Attila the Hun) that circulated in chronicles . This corresponds to a general tendency of the poem to accentuate the differences between Christians and pagans more than its predecessor, as well as the placement of the poem into a clerical literary context in which the lack of "sources" about Etzel's fate makes

5760-489: The hero Dietrich von Bern , and so she invites him and twelve of his warriors to fight her twelve champions. When the fight is finally meant to begin, Dietrich initially refuses to fight Siegfried on the grounds that the dragon's blood has made Siegfried's skin invulnerable. Dietrich is convinced to fight Siegfried by the false news that his mentor Hildebrand is dead and becomes so enraged that he begins to breathe fire, melting Siegfried's protective layer of horn on his skin. He

5850-524: The hoard of the Nibelungen. The second half of the heroic poem Biterolf und Dietleib (between 1250 and 1300) features a war between the Burgundian heroes of the Nibelungenlied and the heroes of the cycle around Dietrich von Bern, something likely inspired by the Rosengarten zu Worms . In this context, it also features a fight between Siegfried and Dietrich in which Dietrich defeats Siegfried after initially appearing cowardly. The text also features

5940-512: The horse Grane, and goes to King Isung of Bertangenland. One day Thidrek ( Dietrich von Bern ) comes to Bertangenland; he fights against Sigurd for three days. Thidrek is unable to wound Sigurd because of his invulnerable skin, but on the third day, Thidrek receives the sword Mimung, which can cut through Sigurd's skin, and defeats him. Thidrek and Sigurd then ride to King Gunnar (Gunther), where Sigurd marries Gunnar's sister Grimhild (Kriemhild). Sigurd recommends to Gunnar that he marry Brynhild, and

6030-536: The land of the Carolingians ) and queen Sisibe of Spain. When Sigmund returns from a campaign one day, he discovers his wife is pregnant, and believing her to be unfaithful to him, he exiles her to the "Swabian Forest" (the Black Forest ?), where she gives birth to Sigurd. She dies after some time, and Sigurd is suckled by a hind before being found by the smith Mimir. Mimir tries to raise the boy, but Sigurd

6120-420: The language of the birds, who warn him of Regin's plan to kill him. He kills the smith and is told by the birds to go to a palace surrounded by flames where the valkyrie Sigdrifa is asleep. Sigurd heads there, loading the hoard on his horse. Pilgrim of Passau Piligrim (Pilgrim of Passau, Pilegrinus, Peregrinus) (died 20 May 991) was Bishop of Passau . Piligrim was ambitious, but also concerned with

6210-526: The latter being his name in the Nibelungenlied , shows that the Rosengarten does include some old traditions absent in that poem, although it is still highly dependent on the Nibelungenlied . Some of the details agree with the Thidrekssaga . Rosengarten A mentions that Siegfried was raised by a smith named Eckerich. Although the Þiðrekssaga (c. 1250) is written in Old Norse, the majority of

6300-423: The material is translated from German (particularly Low German ) oral tales, as well as possibly some from German written sources such as the Nibelungenlied . Therefore, it is included here. The Thidrekssaga refers to Siegfried both as Sigurd ( Sigurðr ) and an Old Norse approximation of the name Siegfried , Sigfrœð . He is the son of king Sigmund of Tarlungaland (probably a corruption of Karlungaland , i.e.

6390-475: The melted dragon skin everywhere except for one spot. Later, he stumbles upon the trail of another dragon that has kidnapped princess Kriemhild of Worms. With the help of the dwarf Eugel, Siegfried fights the giant Kuperan, who has the key to the mountain Kriemhild has been taken to. He rescues the princess and slays the dragon, finding the treasure of the Nibelungen inside the mountain. Eugel prophesies, however,

6480-537: The murder of the Merovingian Sigebert I. Continental Germanic traditions about Siegfried enter writing with the Nibelungenlied around 1200. The German tradition strongly associates Siegfried with a kingdom called "Niederland" (Middle High German Niderlant ), which, despite its name, is not the same as the modern Netherlands , but describes Siegfried's kingdom around the city of Xanten . The late medieval Heldenbuch-Prosa identifies "Niederland" with

6570-473: The normal phonetic principles, the Germanic name would have become Romance-language *Sigevert , a form which could also represent a Romance-language form of Germanic Sigefred . He further notes that *Sigevert would be a plausible Romance-language form of the name Sigebert (see Origins ) from which both names could have arisen. As a second possibility, Haubrichs considers the option that metathesis of

6660-477: The other hand, do not appear in pre-11th-century non-Scandinavian sources, and older Scandinavian sources sometimes call persons Sigfroðr Sigfreðr or Sigfrǫðr who are later called Sigurðr . He argues from this evidence that a form equivalent to Siegfried is the older form of Sigurd's name in Scandinavia as well. Unlike many figures of Germanic heroic tradition, Sigurd cannot be easily identified with

6750-405: The poem, but rather in a distant historical past. The dead heroes appear almost to be giants, a common trait of German heroic poetry when the heroes are imagined to have lived in a distant past. In contrast to the mostly positive portrayal of Etzel in the Nibelungenlied , the Klage reports that Etzel abandoned his Christianity, criticizes his exaggerated grief, and denies knowing what happened to

6840-428: The princess Kriemhild, however, the Burgundian vassal Hagen von Tronje narrates a different story of Siegfried's youth: according to Hagen, Siegfried was a wandering warrior (Middle High German recke ) who won the hoard of the Nibelungen as well as the sword Balmung and a cloak of invisibility ( Tarnkappe ) that increases the wearer's strength twelve times. He also tells an unrelated tale about how Siegfried killed

6930-496: The same second element, it is clear that surviving Scandinavian written sources held Siegfried to be the continental version of the name they called Sigurd . The normal form of Siegfried in Middle High German is Sîvrit or Sîfrit , with the *sigi- element contracted. This form of the name had been common even outside of heroic poetry since the 9th century, though the form Sigevrit is also attested, along with

7020-466: The situation, with unfavorable elements like his hesitancy to enter combat and his tendency to lament in an exaggerated fashion reinterpreted as positive traits. The Klage contains several allusions to stories about Dietrich that can only have existed as an oral tradition at the time, such as his involuntary exile from Italy, Dietrich's close relationship with Etzel's first wife Helche, and Rüdiger's role in reconciling Dietrich with Helche, most likely after

7110-409: The smith, his stupidity, and his success through supernatural aid rather than his own cunning is the more original of these conceptions. In Reginsmál , the smith Regin, who is staying at the court of Hjálprek, tells Sigurd of a hoard that the gods had had to assemble in order to compensate the family of Ótr , whom they had killed. Fafnir , Ótr's brother, guards the treasure now and has turned into

7200-438: The story. In Passau , the messenger informs Bishop Pilgrim, who is related to the Burgundian kings. Pilgrim orders a requiem mass sung and asks the messengers to return to Passau so that he can have everything that's happened written down. Pilgrim also asks other eyewitnesses at Etzel's court for information. Swemmel finally reaches Worms and reports to Brünhild and the court, where the lamentations are very great. The mother of

7290-430: The surviving continental traditions, Scandinavian stories about Sigurd have a strong connection to Germanic mythology . While older scholarship took this to represent the original form of the Sigurd story, newer scholarship is more inclined to see it as a development of the tradition that is unique to Scandinavia. While some elements of the Scandinavian tradition may indeed be older than the surviving continental witnesses,

7380-464: The two ride to woo for her. Brynhild now claims that Sigurd had earlier said he would marry her (unmentioned before in the text), but eventually she agrees to marry Gunnar. She will not, however, allow Gunnar to consummate the marriage, and so with Gunnar's agreement, Sigurd takes Gunnar's shape and deflowers Brynhild, taking away her strength. The heroes then return with Brynhild to Gunnar's court. Sometime later, Grimhild and Brynhild fight over who has

7470-423: The voice of the narrator and of the characters of the poem. The narrator makes clear distinctions between good and bad and can even say with certainty which dead figures went to Heaven and which to Hell. It defends Kriemhild and accentuates her loyalty and love to Siegfried while denigrating others, especially Hagen. The Klage also repeatedly notes the possibilities that could have prevented the catastrophe that ends

7560-466: Was likely composed in the same context as the Nibelungenlied , according to the prevailing theory by Joachim Bumke this was in a sort of "Nibelungen workshop" ("Nibelungenwerkstatt") in Passau around 1200, under the auspices of Bishop Wolfger von Erla . This theory is complicated by the fact that the end of the Nibelungenlied clearly does not envision the Klage , meaning it cannot have been planned from

7650-456: Was motivated by her love to her dead husband, whereas her relatives the Burgundians needed to be punished. He further asserts that if it had been possible, Kriemhild would have only killed Hagen . If, the narrator continues, Kriemhild had revealed her plan, then the slaughter in Etzel's hall could have been avoided. The narrator then lists the dead, emphasizing that Giselher is innocent and Gunther

7740-436: Was murdered by his brother Chilperic I at the instigation of Chilperic's wife queen Fredegunda . If this theory is correct, then in the legend, Fredegunda and Brunhilda appear to have switched roles, while Chilperic has been replaced with Gunther. Jens Haustein  [ de ] (2005) argues that, while the story of Sigurd appears to have Merovingian resonances, no connection to any concrete historical figure or event

7830-435: Was not written by the same author. Although the beginning of the Klage emphasizes that it is the beginning of a new work, the layout of the manuscripts presents it as a mere continuation of the Nibelungenlied . Due to deviations from the Nibelungenlied in the Klage's recapitulation of the events of that poem, older scholarship sometimes supposed that the two works had been written independently of each other or even that

7920-428: Was raised by a smith in the forest. He was so unruly, however, that the smith arranged for him to be killed by a dragon. Siegfried was able to kill the dragon, however, and eventually kills many more by trapping them under logs and setting them on fire. The dragon's skin, described as hard as horn, melts, and Siegfried sticks his finger into it, discovering that his finger is now hard as horn as well. He smears himself with

8010-475: Was shown the place where Sigurd slew the dragon (called Gnita-Heath in the Norse tradition) between two villages south of Paderborn . In a song of the mid-13th-century wandering lyric poet Der Marner, "the death of Siegfried" ( Sigfrides [...] tôt ) is mentioned as a popular story that the German courtly public enjoys hearing, along with "the hoard of the Nibelungs" ( der Nibelunge hort ). The chronicles of

8100-539: Was the first to suggest possible connection with the Germanic hero Arminius from the Roman period, famed for defeating Publius Quinctilius Varus 's three legions at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. Later Adolf Giesebrecht  [ de ] (1837) asserted outright that Sigurd/Siegfried was a mythologized version of Arminius. Although this position was taken more recently by Otto Höfler (beginning in 1959), who also suggested that Gnita-Heath  [

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