The term Nibelung ( German ) or Niflungr ( Old Norse ) is a personal or clan name with several competing and contradictory uses in Germanic heroic legend . It has an unclear etymology, but is often connected to the root Nebel , meaning mist. The term in its various meanings gives its name to the Middle High German heroic epic the Nibelungenlied .
178-733: The most widespread use of Nibelung is used to denote the Burgundian royal house, also known as the Gibichungs (German) or Gjúkingar (Old Norse). A group of royal brothers led by king Gunther or Gunnar , the Gibichungs are responsible for the death of the hero Siegfried or Sigurd and are later destroyed at the court of Attila the Hun (called Etzel in German and Atli in Old Norse). This
356-751: A Suebic people. These two peoples had moved into the Agri Decumates on the eastern side of the Rhine, an area still referred to today as Swabia , at times attacking Roman Gaul together and sometimes fighting each other. He also mentions that the Goths had previously defeated the Burgundians. Ammianus Marcellinus , on the other hand, claimed that the Burgundians descended from the Romans. The Roman sources do not speak of any specific migration from Poland by
534-607: A "Nibelungen workshop" (" Nibelungenwerkstatt ") together with the author of the Nibelungenklage . The latter work identifies a "meister Konrad" as the author of an original Latin version of the Nibelungenlied , but this is generally taken for a fiction. Although a single Nibelungenlied- poet is often posited, the degree of variance in the text and its background in an amorphous oral tradition mean that ideas of authorial intention must be applied with caution. It
712-474: A "great tragedy" (" große Tragödie ") in a series of lectures from 1802/3. Many early supporters sought to distance German literature from French Classicism and belonged to artistic movements such as Sturm und Drang . As a consequence of the comparison of the Nibelungenlied to the Iliad , the Nibelungenlied came to be seen as the German national epic in the earlier nineteenth century, particularly in
890-522: A courtly education in Xanten . More elaborate stories about Siegfried's youth are found in the Thidrekssaga and in the later heroic ballad Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid , both of which appear to preserve German oral traditions about the hero that the Nibelungenlied -poet decided to suppress for their poem. The portrayal of Kriemhild, particularly in the first half of the romance, as a courtly lady
1068-466: A crowd of giants. The Burgundians and their language were described as Germanic by the poet Sidonius Apollinaris . Herwig Wolfram has interpreted this as being because they had entered Gaul from Germania . More specifically their language is thought to have belonged to the East Germanic language group , based upon their presumed equivalence to the Burgundians named much earlier by Pliny in
1246-438: A detrimental effect on its early reception: when presented with a full edition of the medieval poem by Christoph Heinrich Myller, King Frederick II famously called the Nibelungenlied "not worth a shot of powder" (" nicht einen Schuß Pulver werth "). Goethe was similarly unimpressed, and Hegel compared the epic unfavorably to Homer. The epic nevertheless had its supporters, such as August Wilhelm Schlegel , who called it
1424-499: A falcon that is killed by two eagles. Her mother explains that this means she will love a man who will be killed; Kriemhild thus swears to remain unmarried. At the same time, the young Siegfried is receiving his courtly education in the Netherlands; he is dubbed a knight and decides that he will go to Worms to ask for Kriemhild as his wife. The story of how Siegfried slew a dragon, winning a large hoard of gold, and then bathed in
1602-432: A façade, under which the older heroic ethos of the poem remains. Additionally, the poet seems to have known Latin literature. The role given to Kriemhild in the second (originally first) stanza is suggestive of Helen of Troy , and the poem appears to have taken a number of elements from Vergil 's Aeneid . There is some debate as to whether the poet was acquainted with Old French chanson de geste . The language of
1780-406: A fourth foot to their final line, as these supposedly older stanzas are characterized by a more archaic vocabulary as well. German medievalist Jan-Dirk Müller notes that while it would be typical of a medieval poet to incorporate lines from other works in their own, no stanza of the Nibelungenlied can be proven to have come from an older poem. The nature of the stanza creates a structure whereby
1958-511: A hook. The next night, Gunther asks Siegfried to wrestle Brünhild into submission using his Tarnkappe ; Siegfried takes Brünhilds belt and ring as a trophy and then lets Gunther take her virginity, causing her to lose her strength. After the wedding, Siegfried and Kriemhild return to the Netherlands. Before they do, Kriemhild wants to ask for her part of the inheritance from her brothers, but Siegfried advises her not to. Kriemhild wishes to take Hagen with her, but he refuses. Many years pass. In
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#17327733068472136-594: A kind and confused with them. The name Nibelunc became a Frankish personal name in the 8th and 9th centuries, at least among the descendants of Childebrand I (who died in 752). Yet, in this poem, the center of Gunther's supposedly Frankish kingdom is the city of Worms on the Rhine . In the eddic poem (see Poetic Edda ) Atlakviða , the word Niflungar is applied three times to the treasure ( arfr ) or hoard ( hodd ) of Gunnar (the Norse counterpart of German Gunther). It
2314-589: A large group of peoples from central Europe north of the Danube came west and crossed the Rhine, entering the Empire near the lands of the Burgundians who had moved much earlier. The dominant groups were Alans , Vandals ( Hasdingi and Silingi ), and Danubian Suevi . The majority of these Danubian peoples moved through Gaul and eventually established themselves in kingdoms in Roman Hispania. One group of Alans
2492-485: A long-haired people of immense physical size: Why... do you [an obscure senator by the name of Catullinus] bid me compose a song dedicated to Venus... placed as I am among long-haired hordes, having to endure Germanic speech, praising often with a wry face the song of the gluttonous Burgundian who spreads rancid butter on his hair? ... You don't have a reek of garlic and foul onions discharged upon you at early morn from ten breakfasts, and you are not invaded before dawn... by
2670-577: A man (or group) named Veseti settled on a holm (island) called borgundarhólmr in Old Norse, i.e. Bornholm. Alfred the Great 's translation of Orosius uses the name Burgenda land to refer to a territory next to the land of Sweons ("Swedes"). The 19th century poet and mythologist Viktor Rydberg asserted from an early medieval source, Vita Sigismundi , that they themselves retained oral traditions about their Scandinavian origin. A people with
2848-591: A meaning "rock- or cave-man" or "frost-man", meaning that Nibelung's name may similarly have been interpreted as "mist-man". George Gillespie presents the theory that the name Nibelung originally applied to the Nibelungid cadet branch of the Pippinid dynasty of Frankish mayors of the palace , the later Carolingian emperors. The name is first recorded in 752 in Latin as Nibelungus or Nivelongus , referring to
3026-484: A more mythological origin. The story of the destruction of the Burgundians and Siegfried appear to have been originally unconnected. The Old Norse Atlakviða , a poem likely originally from the ninth century that has been reworked as part of the Poetic Edda , tells the story of the death of the Burgundians without any mention of Sigurd (Siegfried) and can be taken as an attestation for an older tradition. In fact,
3204-532: A more original version of the Nibelungen saga, newer scholarship has called this into question and notes that the connections made to Norse mythology and Germanic paganism , such as the semi-divine origin of the Nibelungen hoard, are likely more recent developments that are therefore unique to the Scandinavian tradition. Some elements of the Norse tradition, however, are assuredly older. The death of
3382-526: A nephew of Charles Martel . The name is also recorded as belonging to several other members of a cadet branch of the dynasty descending from Charles's brother Childebrand I ; this cadet branch is known as the Nibelungids or Nibelungs. A reference to nebulones Franci (translated as "Nibelungian Franks") in the Waltharius is used as further evidence, though this translation of the epithet nebulones
3560-536: A new life as the German national epic . The poem was appropriated for nationalist purposes and was heavily used in anti-democratic, reactionary, and Nazi propaganda before and during the Second World War . Its legacy today is most visible in Richard Wagner 's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , which, however, is mostly based on Old Norse sources. In 2009, the three main manuscripts of
3738-515: A newborn child of "Gudrún" and "Artala". As a result, Gudrún slew the supposed child of Hǫgni, thinking to have put an end to Hǫgni's lineage, but in fact killed her own child and then brought up Hǫgni's child as her own. This second Hǫgni learned of his true parentage and took vengeance on Artala as in the Þiðrekssaga . In the Nibelungenlied and its dependent poems the Klage and Biterolf ,
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#17327733068473916-597: A reasonable name for these beings, an old name forgotten in the north and only preserved in the garblings of some German accounts of the origin of the Niblung hoard. In "Silver Fir Cones", one of the tales found in Otmar's Volkssagen (Traditions of the Harz) ( Bremen , 1800), the king of the dwarfs is named Gübich. It cannot be proved which meaning was primary, that of dwarf or Burgundian prince. Scholars today mostly believe that
4094-563: A single version *AB, while a version *C is attested by manuscript C and most of the earliest fragments, including the oldest attestation of the Nibelungenlied . Using the final words of the epic, *AB is also called the Not -version, and *C the Lied- version; the *C version is clearly a reworking of an earlier version, but it is not clear if this version was *AB; *AB may also be an expanded version of an earlier text. Most scholars assume that manuscript B
4272-457: A son named Sigmund according to the Völsunga saga , presumably the same as the unnamed son mentioned in stanza 5 of Sigurdarkvida hin skamma . But nothing more is said of him. More often mentioned is Gudrún's daughter named Svanhild ( Svanhildr ) who became the wife of Jörmunrek ( Jǫrmunrekr ). By her third husband Jónakr, Gudrún is mother of Hamdir ( Hamðir ) and Sörli ( Sǫrli ). In
4450-407: A son, Ortlieb, and after thirteen years, she convinces Etzel to invite her brothers and Hagen to a feast. In Worms, Hagen advises against traveling to Etzel's castle, but Gunther and his brothers believe that Kriemhild has reconciled with them and decide to go. Nevertheless, they take Hagen's advice to travel with an army. The departure of the Burgundians, who are now increasingly called Nibelungs ,
4628-490: A specific theory of the original nature of the name: referring originally to mythical beings, to the Franks, or to the Burgundians. Andreas Heusler and many other scholars have derived the name Nibelung from the root *nebula- , meaning cloud, mist, or fog, or *nibila- , meaning low, deep, or dark (cf. Niflheim ). This derivation frequently assumes that the name originally referred to mythological beings and means something to
4806-426: A story of Siegfried's youth that more closely resembles that found in the Old Norse Þiðreks saga and early modern German Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid , while k shortens the text and modernizes the language. The famous opening of the Nibelungenlied is actually thought to be an addition by the adaptor of the "*C" version of the Nibelungenlied , as it does not appear in the manuscript of B, which probably represents
4984-510: A sword and Hagen a shield. When the Burgundians arrive at Etzelnburg, they are warned by Dietrich von Bern that Kriemhild hates them. Kriemhild greets only Gisleher with a kiss and asks Hagen if he has brought with him what he took from her; later, she approaches him wearing her crown and in the company of many armed men. Hagen refuses to stand up for Kriemhild and places Siegfried's sword across her legs; recognizing it, Kriemhild's accompanying Huns still refuse to attack Hagen. Etzel, meanwhile,
5162-721: A term for the children born by Gunnar's sister Gudrún ( Guðrún ) to Atli ( Attila the Hun ). It appears to be a general term for "warrior" in Helgakviða Hundingsbana I . Hniflungar might be of separate origin, meaning descendants of Hnef, referring to the Hnæf son of Hoc who is prominent in the Old English Finnesburg Fragment . However h was early dropped initially before other consonants in Norwegian dialects which might have led to
5340-405: A traditional motif known from the Norse versions, she could mean the stolen hoard, but she could also mean her murdered husband. Hagen, similarly, in demanding that Gunther first be killed before he reveals the hoard's location, even though the hoard is at the bottom of the Rhine and cannot be retrieved, reveals Kriemhild's mercilessness while also showing his own duplicity. It is unclear which figure
5518-577: A way that the original historical context has been lost. The epic, and presumably the oral traditions that provided its material, have transformed historical events into relatively simple narrative schemas that can be compared with other, similar (originally) oral narratives from other cultures. What had originally been political motivations have been "personalized", so that political events are explained through personal preferences, likes, dislikes, and feuds rather than purely by realpolitik . Various historical personages, moreover, appear to be contemporaries in
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5696-481: Is a new war brewing against the Saxons; he would like to know where Siegfried is vulnerable so that he can protect him. Kriemhild agrees to mark the spot between Siegfried's shoulder blades where a leaf had prevented his skin from becoming invulnerable. Rather than a war, however, Gunther invites Siegfried to go hunting. When Siegfried is bent over a spring to drink water, Hagen spears him in the back, killing him. The body
5874-675: Is a relatively recent one, only being attested from the seventh century onward, meaning that the original name may have been equivalent to the Old Norse Sigurd . Scholars such as Otto Höfler have speculated that Siegfried and his slaying of the dragon may be a mythologized reflection of Arminius and his defeat of the Roman legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. Jan-Dirk Müller suggests that Siegfried likely has
6052-458: Is accompanied by various ill omens, but these are all dismissed by Hagen. When the Burgundians are about to cross the Danube in Bavaria, Hagen encounters three nixies , who prophecy to him that only the king's chaplain will return from Etzel's hall. To try to prove the prophecy false, Hagen throws the chaplain overboard from the ferry, but he swims to shore and returns to Worms. Hagen then destroys
6230-420: Is also applied once to Gunnar's warriors and once to Gunnar himself. It elsewhere appears unambiguously as the name of the lineage to which the brothers Gunnar and Högni ( Hǫgni ) belong and seems mostly interchangeable with Gjúkingar or Gjúkungar, meaning descendants of Gjúki , Gjúki being Gunnar's father. The variant form Hniflungr also occurs as the name of Högni's son in the eddic poem Atlamál , and as
6408-489: Is also possible that there were several poets involved, perhaps under the direction of a single "leader" who could be considered the " Nibelungenlied- poet". The Nibelungenlied is conventionally dated to around the year 1200. Wolfram von Eschenbach references the cook Rumolt, usually taken to be an invention of the Nibelungenlied- poet, in his romance Parzival (c. 1204/5), thereby providing an upper bound on
6586-469: Is clueless about these events and welcomes his guests warmly. Hagen advises the Burgundians to remain armed. Fighting almost breaks out at a tournament when the Burgundian Volker von Alzey kills a Hun in a joust, but Etzel is able to prevent it. Kriemhild then seeks to convince Dietrich von Bern and Hildebrand to attack the Burgundians; they refuse, but Etzel's brother Bloedelin agrees. At
6764-399: Is common practice to judge or praise the poems of others, no other poet refers to the author of the Nibelungenlied . Attempts to identify the Nibelungenlied- poet with known authors, such as Bligger von Steinach , to whom a lost epic is attributed by Gottfried von Strassburg , have not found wide acceptance. The poem is nevertheless believed to have had a single author, possibly working in
6942-725: Is commonly used in English to refer to the Burgundi ( Burgundionei , Burgundiones or Burgunds ) who settled in eastern Gaul and the western Alps during the 5th century AD. The much larger original Kingdom of the Burgundians barely intersected the modern Bourgogne and more closely matched the boundaries of Franche-Comté in northeastern France, the Rhône-Alpes in southeastern France, Romandy in west Switzerland, and Aosta Valley , in north west Italy. In modern usage, however, "Burgundians" can sometimes refer to later inhabitants of
7120-640: Is disputed. Gillespie and C. W. von Sydow argue the name may derive from Nivelles in Walloon Brabant , where the Pippinids founded a monastery and maintained strong connections. The name Nivelles either derives from the Germanic *Niuwa-alha , meaning new sanctuary, or from a Celtic toponym. According to this theory, the name Nibelung came to be attached to the Burgundian royal house after
7298-466: Is if she first kills Gunther, but afterwards tells her that now she will never learn. Kriemhild kills Hagen with Siegfried's sword. That this great hero has been killed by a woman sickens Etzel, Dietrich, and Hildebrand. Hagen's death so enrages Hildebrand that he kills Kriemhild. The Nibelungenlied , like other Middle High German heroic epics, is anonymous. This anonymity extends to discussions of literature in other Middle High German works: although it
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7476-493: Is in the right and which in the wrong. With 36 extant manuscripts, the Nibelungenlied appears to have been one of the most popular works of the German Middle Ages and seems to have found a very broad audience. The poem is quoted by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his Parzival and Willehalm and likely inspired his use of stanzas in his unfinished Titurel . The manuscript witnesses and medieval references to
7654-484: Is instead a kingdom on the borders of Norway of which Siegfried becomes the ruler. In Adventure 3 Hagen tells how Siegfried came by chance upon the two sons of the king of the Nibelungs who had just died. Their names were Schilbung and Nibelung and they were attempting to divide their father's hoard, the hoard of the Nibelungs. They asked Siegfried to make the division for them. For a reason not explained, Siegfried
7832-515: Is likely an invention of the Nibelungenlied -poet. Earlier (and many later) attestations of Kriemhild outside of the Nibelungenlied portray her as obsessed with power and highlight her treachery to her brothers rather than her love for her husband as her motivation for betraying them. The poet still uses images from this traditional picture, but given the new motivation of the poem's Kriemhild, their meaning has changed. For instance, when Kriemhild demands that Hagen give back what he has taken from her,
8010-542: Is likely that his presence there inspired these new poems. Many of the following heroic epics appear to respond to aspects of the Nibelungenlied : the Kudrun (c. 1250), for instance, has been described as a reply to the Nibelungenlied that reverses the heroic tragedy of the previous poem. Kudrun herself is sometimes seen as a direct reversal of Kriemhild, as she makes peace among warring factions rather than driving them to their deaths. No Middle High German heroic epic after
8188-534: Is named Gutthorm ( Gutþormr ) which looks like a slight garbling of Gundomar. German tradition provides instead a third brother named Gernot, which may be a substitution of a more familiar name for an unfamiliar one. In the Nibelungenlied , all three brothers are called kings. If these legends preserve authentic tradition, then historically Gibica of the Burgundian Laws might have been the father of
8366-403: Is never mentioned again and is possibly an addition from Norse tradition by the translator or by an early copyist. Hǫgni (German Hagen) appears as their maternal half-brother, fathered on Ode by an elf when Ode once fell asleep in the garden while her husband was drunk. Yet one passage names Hǫgni's father as Aldrian. There are confusions and doublings in the Þiðrekssaga and it may be that Aldrian
8544-404: Is not given. The Old Norse Þiðrekssaga is a medieval translation of German legendary material into Norwegian. Here Gunther (given the Old Norse form Gunnar ) and his brothers are sons and heirs of Irung (in one place) or Aldrian (elsewhere) by Aldrian's wife Ode. The sons are named Gunnar, Gernoz, and Gisler. Ode also bears a daughter named Grímhild. One later passage adds Guthorm. But Guthorm
8722-527: Is placed in front of Kriemhild's door. Kriemhild immediately suspects Gunther and Hagen and her suspicions are confirmed when Siegfried's corpse bleeds in Hagen's presence. Siegfried is buried and Kriemhild chooses to stay in Worms, eventually officially reconciling with Hagen and her brothers though she stays in mourning. Hagen has Siegfried's hoard taken from her. Kriemhild remains unmarried for 13 years. After
8900-533: Is rarely suitable to infer much about the form in the old language. The language appears to have become extinct during the late 6th century, likely due to the early conversion of the Burgundians to Latin Christianity . Somewhere in the east the Burgundians had converted to the Arian Christianity from earlier Germanic paganism . Their Arianism proved a source of suspicion and distrust between
9078-457: Is the closest to the original *AB version. By 1300, the Nibelungenlied was circulating in at least five versions: Most fragments from after 1300 belong to the two mixed versions ( Mischenfassungen ), which appear to be based on copies of both the Not and Lied versions. Three later manuscripts provide variant versions: one, m (after 1450), is lost while two are still extant: n (c. 1470/80) and k (c.1480/90). Manuscripts m and n contain
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#17327733068479256-509: Is the only use of the term attested in the Old Norse legends. In medieval German, several other uses of the term Nibelung are documented besides the reference to the Gibichungs: it refers to the king and inhabitants of a mythical land inhabited by dwarfs and giants in the first half of the Nibelungenlied , as well as to the father and one of two brothers fighting over a divided inheritance. This land and its inhabitants give their name to
9434-848: The Nibelungenlied were inscribed in UNESCO 's Memory of the World Register in recognition of their historical significance. It has been called "one of the most impressive, and certainly the most powerful, of the German epics of the Middle Ages". There are 37 known manuscripts and manuscript fragments of the Nibelungenlied and its variant versions. Eleven of these manuscripts are essentially complete. Twenty-four manuscripts are in various fragmentary states of completion, including one version in Dutch (manuscript "T"). The text of
9612-520: The Völsunga saga (as well as being mentioned in the eddic poems Grípisspá and Guðrúnarkviða II ). According to the eddic poem Hyndluljóð , stanza 27: Gunnarr ok Högni, Gjúka arfar, ok it sama Guðrún, systir þeira; eigi var Gutþormr Gjúka ættar, þó var hann bróðir beggja þeira; allt er þat ætt þín, Óttarr heimski. Gunnar and Högni, the heirs of Gjúki, And Gudrún as well, who their sister was; But Gotthorm
9790-787: The Alans . With the authority of the Gallic emperor that he controlled, Gundahar settled on the left (Roman) bank of the Rhine, between the river Lauter and the Nahe , seizing Worms , Speyer , and Strassburg . Apparently as part of a truce, the Emperor Honorius later officially "granted" them the land, with its capital at the old Celtic Roman settlement of Borbetomagus (present Worms ). Despite their new status as foederati , Burgundian raids into Roman Upper Gallia Belgica became intolerable and were ruthlessly brought to an end in 436, when
9968-487: The Faroese Hǫgnatáttur a similar tale is told. Here Gunnar and Hǫgni have two younger brothers named Gislar and Hjarnar, both slain along with their elder brothers. Hǫgni lies with a Jarl's daughter named Helvik on his deathbed and prophecies to Helvik that a son born to her will avenge him. The son in this account is named Högni. On the birth of the child, Helvik, following Hǫgni's advice, secretly exchanged it with
10146-662: The Kingdom of Burgundy in southern France was absorbed into the Frankish kingdom in 613 and came under the rule of the Frankish Nibelungids. Rejecting a Burgundian origin for the name, Gillespie further notes that Gunther is recorded in Old English as Gūðhere , but is referred to as a Burgundian rather than a Nibelung , a name which is unattested in Old English. Ursula Dronke and Helmmut Rosenfeld argue that
10324-584: The Nibelungenlied by Karl Simrock into modern German in 1827 was especially influential in popularizing the epic and remains influential today. Also notable from this period is the three-part dramatic tragedy Die Nibelungen by Friedrich Hebbel . Following the founding of the German Empire , recipients began to focus more on the heroic aspects of the poem, with the figure of Siegfried in particular becoming an identifying figure for German nationalism. Especially important for this new understanding of
10502-426: The Nibelungenlied conform more closely to these principles in his own reworkings of the poem, leaving off the first part in his edition, titled Chriemhilden Rache , in order to imitate the in medias res technique of Homer . He later rewrote the second part in dactylic hexameter under the title Die Rache der Schwester (1767). Bodmer's placement of the Nibelungenlied in the tradition of classical epic had
10680-492: The Nibelungenlied is characterized by its formulaic nature, a feature of oral poetry , meaning that similar or identical words, epithets, phrases, and even lines can be found in various positions throughout the poem. These elements can be used flexibly for different purposes in the poem. As the Nibelungenlied is generally thought to have been conceived as a written work, these elements are typically taken as signs of "fictive orality" (" fingierte Mündlichkeit ") that underscore
10858-602: The Nibelungenlied maintains the tragic heroic atmosphere that characterized earlier Germanic heroic poetry, and the later poems are often further hybridized with elements of chivalric romance . Reception of the Nibelungenlied ceases after the fifteenth century: the work is last copied in manuscript as part of the Ambraser Heldenbuch around 1508, and its last mention is by the Viennese historian Wolfgang Lazius in two works from 1554 and 1557 respectively. It
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#173277330684711036-418: The Nibelungenlied manuscript C was rediscovered by Jacob Hermann Obereit in 1755. That same year, Johann Jacob Bodmer publicized the discovery, publishing excerpts and his own reworkings of the poem. Bodmer dubbed the Nibelungenlied the "German Iliad " (" deutsche Ilias "), a comparison that skewed the reception of the poem by comparing it to the poetics of a classical epic. Bodmer attempted to make
11214-481: The Nibelungenlied show that medieval recipients were most interested in the Nibelungenlied as the story of the destruction of the Burgundians; the first half of the poem was often shortened or otherwise summarized. The Ambraser Heldenbuch titles its copy of the Nibelungenlied with "Ditz Puech heysset Chrimhilt" (this book is named "Kriemhild"), showing that she was seen as the most important character. The areas of medieval interest seem in particular to have been
11392-464: The Nibelungenlied was heavily employed in anti-democratic propaganda following the defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The epic supposedly showed that the German people were more well suited to a heroic, aristocratic form of life than democracy. The betrayal and murder of Siegfried was explicitly compared to the "stab in the back" that the German army had supposedly received. At the same time, Hagen and his willingness to sacrifice himself and fight to
11570-471: The Nibelungenlied , Gunther and Brunhild had a son named Siegfried and Siegfried and Kriemhild had a son named Gunther. Kriemhild's later son born to Etzel (= Attila) who is slain by Hagen is here named Ortlieb . The Klage relates that Gunther's son Siegfried inherited the kingdom. The Skáldskaparmál names the founder of the Niflung lineage as Nefi , one of the second set of nine sons of Halfdan
11748-533: The Nibelungs , is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German . Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau . The Nibelungenlied is based on an oral tradition of Germanic heroic legend that has some of its origin in historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries and that spread throughout almost all of Germanic-speaking Europe. Scandinavian parallels to
11926-875: The Roman Empire , in Gaul . In the first and second centuries AD they, or a people with the same name, were mentioned by Roman writers living west of the Vistula river in the region of Germania which is now part of Poland. The Burgundians were first mentioned near the Rhine regions together with the Alamanni as early as the 11th panegyric to emperor Maximian given in Trier in 291 AD, referring to events that must have happened between 248 and 291, and these two peoples apparently remained neighbours for centuries. By 411 AD Burgundians had established control over Roman cities on
12104-543: The Visigoths in the early 6th century, the Burgundians were eventually conquered at Autun by the Franks in 532 after a first attempt in the Battle of Vézeronce . The Burgundian kingdom was made part of the Merovingian kingdoms, and the Burgundians themselves were by and large absorbed as well. The 5th century Gallo-Roman poet and landowner Sidonius , who at one point lived with the Burgundians, described them as
12282-479: The Ættartolur , Gjúki was father of two sons named Gunnar ( Gunnarr ) and Högni ( Hǫgni ) and of two daughters named Gudrún ( Guðrún ) and Gullrönd. Their mother was named Grímhild ( Grímhildr ). Gudný is mentioned in no other extant texts. A younger brother named Gutthorm ( Gutþormr ) take on the role of Sigurd's slayer, after being egged on by Gunnar and Högni in the eddic poems Brot af Sigurðarkviðu (stanza 4), in Sigurðarkviða hin skamma (stanzas 20–23), and in
12460-417: The "hoard of the Nibelungs" ( Middle High German der Nibelunge hort ). In the late medieval Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid , the name, in the form Nybling or Nibling, is given to a dwarf who again gives his name to the treasure. In Richard Wagner 's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (1848–1874), Nibelung denotes a dwarf , or perhaps a specific race of dwarfs. The earliest probable surviving mention of
12638-430: The Blessed in Branwen ferch Llŷr , Hagen's counterpart Efnisien had a brother named Nisien who was similarly his opposite and Efnisien and Nisien are maternal half-brothers to Brân and Manawyddan just as in the Þiðrekssaga , Hǫgni was maternal brother to Gunnar and Gernoz. In the second half of the Nibelungenlied both Hagen and Dankwart are called sons of Aldrian. Nothing further is told of Aldrian here. Also in
12816-419: The Burgundian connection is the more original one. In the 19th century, the dwarf theory was popular and was adopted by Richard Wagner for his operatic Ring cycle which was very freely adapted from the tales surrounding Siegfried and the Burgundians. In Wagner's operas Nibelungs refers to the race of dwarfs. Several different etymologies of the term Nibelung have been proposed; they are usually connected to
12994-472: The Burgundian vassal Hagen with Gunther's involvement. In the second part, the widow Kriemhild is married to Etzel , king of the Huns . She later invites her brother and his court to visit Etzel's kingdom intending to kill Hagen. Her revenge results in the death of all the Burgundians who came to Etzel's court as well as the destruction of Etzel's kingdom and the death of Kriemhild herself. The Nibelungenlied
13172-539: The Burgundians and the Catholic Western Roman Empire . Divisions were evidently healed or healing circa 500, however, as Gundobad , one of the last Burgundian kings, maintained a close personal friendship with Avitus , the bishop of Vienne . Moreover, Gundobad's son and successor, Sigismund , was himself a Catholic, and there is evidence that many of the Burgundian people had converted by this time as well, including several female members of
13350-519: The Burgundians are believed to have then emigrated to the Baltic island of Bornholm ("the island of the Burgundians" in Old Norse ). By about 250 AD, the population of Bornholm had largely disappeared from the island. Most cemeteries ceased to be used, and those that were still used had few burials (Stjerna, in German 1925:176). In Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar ( The Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son ),
13528-486: The Burgundians before they reached the area near the Roman-controlled Rhine is a subject of various old proposals, but these are doubted by some modern historians. As remarked by Susan Reynolds , citing Ian N. Wood : Wood suggests that those who were called Burgundians in their early sixth-century laws were not a single ethnic group, but covered any non-Roman follower of Gundobad and Sigismund. Some of
13706-430: The Burgundians finds its origins in the destruction of the historical Burgundian kingdom on the Rhine. This kingdom, under the rule of king Gundaharius , was destroyed by the Roman general Flavius Aetius in 436/437, with survivors resettled in eastern Gaul in a region centered around modern-day Geneva and Lyon (at the time known as Lugdunum ). The Lex Burgundionum , codified by the Burgundian king Gundobad at
13884-445: The Burgundians, Siegfried cannot be firmly identified with a historical figure. He may have his origins in the Merovingian dynasty, where names beginning with the element Sigi- were common and where there was also a famous and violent queen Brunhilda (543–613). The feud between this historical Brunhilda and the rival queen Fredegund may have provided the origin of the feud between Brünhild and Kriemhild. The name Siegfried itself
14062-582: The Burgundians, and so there have historically been some doubts about the link between the eastern and western Burgundians. In 369/370 AD, the Emperor Valentinian I enlisted the aid of the Burgundians in his war against the Alamanni. Approximately four decades later, the Burgundians appear again. Following Stilicho 's withdrawal of troops to fight Alaric I the Visigoth in 406–408 AD,
14240-514: The Burgundians. He fights Gernot and the two kill each other. Rüdiger's death causes Dietrich von Bern's heroes to intervene, although Dietrich has told them not to. The conflict leads to the death of all the Burgundians except Hagen and Gunther, and all of Dietrich's heroes except for his mentor Hildebrand. Dietrich himself now fights and takes Hagen and Gunther prisoner. Kriemhild demands that Hagen give her back what he has taken from her. He convinces her that he will tell her where Siegfried's hoard
14418-528: The Catalaunian Fields") in 451. The alliance between Burgundians and Visigoths seems to have been strong, as Gundioc and his brother Chilperic I accompanied Theodoric II to Spain to fight the Sueves in 455. Also in 455, an ambiguous reference infidoque tibi Burdundio ductu implicates an unnamed treacherous Burgundian leader in the murder of the emperor Petronius Maximus in the chaos preceding
14596-405: The Franks is father of Guntharius, that is Gunther, and both father and son are called kings of the Franks, not kings of the Burgundians, though their city is Worms on the Rhine. Another king called Heriricus rules the Burgundians and is father of Hiltgunt, the heroine of the tale. The only other kinsman of Gunther who appears here is Hagano (Hagen). But Hagano's exact familial relation to Guntharius
14774-572: The Gepids, whose kingdom was also originally near the mouth of the Vistula. In the late 3rd century AD, the Burgundians appeared on the east bank of the Rhine, apparently confronting Roman Gaul. Zosimus (1.68) reports them being defeated by the emperor Probus in 278 near a river, together with the Silingi and Vandals. A few years later, Claudius Mamertinus mentions them along with the Alamanni ,
14952-558: The German poem are found especially in the heroic lays of the Poetic Edda and in the Völsunga saga . The poem is split into two parts. In the first part, the prince Siegfried comes to Worms to acquire the hand of the Burgundian princess Kriemhild from her brother King Gunther . Gunther agrees to let Siegfried marry Kriemhild if Siegfried helps Gunther acquire the warrior-queen Brünhild as his wife. Siegfried does this and marries Kriemhild; however, Brünhild and Kriemhild become rivals, leading eventually to Siegfried's murder by
15130-664: The Icelandic queen Brünhild as his wife. However, Brünhild is supernaturally strong and challenges those seeking her hand in marriage in various martial and physical contests, killing the losers. Therefore, Gunther wants Siegfried's help; Siegfried tells Gunther he shouldn't marry Brünhild, but is convinced to help by Gunther's promise that he will let him marry Kriemhild in exchange. Arriving in Iceland, Siegfried claims to be Gunther's vassal and uses his magical cloak of invisibility ( Tarnkappe ) to secretly help Gunther win in all of
15308-598: The Middle Ages the term Burgundian (or similar spellings) can refer even to the powerful political entity the Dukes controlled which included not only Burgundy itself but had actually expanded to have a strong association with areas now in modern Belgium and Southern Netherlands. The parts of the old Kingdom not within the French controlled Duchy tended to come under different names, except for the County of Burgundy . The origins of
15486-432: The Netherlands, Siegfried and Kriemhild are crowned; both couples have a son. Brünhild is unhappy that Siegfried, whom she still believes to be Gunther's vassal, never comes to pay tribute. She convinces Gunther to invite Siegfried and Kriemhild to Worms for a feast. However, she and Kriemhild soon begin arguing about which of their husband's has the higher rank. The conflict peaks when both Kriemhild and Brünhild arrive at
15664-485: The Norse tales the hoard originates from a dwarf named Andvari , thence passes to Odin , and then to Hreidmar ( Hreiðmarr ), and then to Hreidmar's son Fáfnir who changes into dragon form, and from him to Sigurd (Siegfried). Niflheim ("Mist-home") is a mythical region of cold and mist and darkness in the north. Niflhel is a term for part or all of Hel , the land of the dead. As dwarfs are subterranean creatures in these tales, who live in darkness, Niflung would seem
15842-655: The Old who founded many famous legendary lineages. The Ættartolur (genealogies attached to the Hversu Noregr byggdist ) call this son of Halfdan by the name Næfil ( Næfill ) and relate that King Næfil was father of Heimar, father of Eynef ( Eynefr ), father of Rakni, father of Gjúki. The form Gjúki is etymologically equatable to Gebicca of the Lex Burgundionum . According to the Skáldskaparmál and
16020-551: The Rhine is thus historically attested, the saga locates its destruction at the court of Attila (Etzel), king of the Huns . The destruction of Attila's kingdom itself is likely inspired by Attila's sudden death following his wedding in 453, which was popularly blamed on his wife, a Germanic woman named Hildico . Her name, containing the element hild , may have inspired that of Kriemhild. Kriemhild most likely originally killed Etzel and avenged her relatives rather than her husband, but this change had already taken place some time before
16198-490: The Rhine, between Franks and Alamanni, including Worms , Speyer , and Strasbourg . In 436 AD, Aëtius defeated the Burgundians on the Rhine with the help of Hunnish forces, and then in 443, he re-settled the Burgundians within the empire, in eastern Gaul . This Gaulish domain became the Kingdom of the Burgundians , which much later became a component of the Frankish Empire . The name of this kingdom survives in
16376-699: The Roman general Aëtius called in Hun mercenaries, who overwhelmed the Rhineland kingdom in 437. Gundahar was killed in the fighting, reportedly along with the majority of the Burgundian tribe. The destruction of Worms and the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns became the subject of heroic legends that were afterwards incorporated in the Nibelungenlied —on which Wagner based his Ring Cycle —where King Gunther (Gundahar) and Queen Brünhild hold their court at Worms, and Siegfried comes to woo Kriemhild. (In Old Norse sources
16554-480: The actual derivation of the name Nibelung , it is clear that it was interpreted as being connected to the word nebel (mist, fog), and that the form of the word was likely altered via this association. A clear example can be seen in the name of the dwarf Nybling from Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid , which was translated into Czech as Mhaček , from Czech mha (mist). In the Nibelungenlied , the name of Nibelung's brother, Schilbung , has similarly been suggested to have
16732-593: The adding of h to names in other dialects where it did not originally belong. In the Lex Burgundionum , issued by the Burgundian king Gundobad (c. 480–516), it is decreed that those who were free under the kings Gibica, Gundomar, Gislaharius, and Gundaharius will remain free. But as will be seen below, legendary tradition often makes Gibiche or Gjúki (that is Gibica) the father of Gunther/Gunnar and names Giselher (the same name as Gislaharius) as one of Gunther/Gunnar's brothers. In Norse tradition another brother
16910-792: The application of separate laws for separate ethnicities. Thus, in addition to the Lex Gundobada , Gundobad also issued (or codified) a set of laws for Roman subjects of the Burgundian kingdom, the Lex Romana Burgundionum ( The Roman Law of the Burgundians ). In addition to the above codes, Gundobad's son Sigismund later published the Prima Constitutio . Nibelungenlied The Nibelungenlied ( German pronunciation: [ˌniːbəˈlʊŋənˌliːt] ; Middle High German : Der Nibelunge liet or Der Nibelunge nôt ), translated as The Song of
17088-433: The areas of Saône, Dauphiny, Savoie and a part of Provence. He set up Vienne as the capital of the kingdom of Burgundy. In all, eight Burgundian kings of the house of Gundahar ruled until the kingdom was overrun by the Franks in 534. As allies of Rome in its last decades, the Burgundians fought alongside Aëtius and a confederation of Visigoths and others against Attila at the Battle of Châlons (also called "The Battle of
17266-409: The caesura. The fourth line adds an additional foot following the caesura, making it longer than the other three and marking the end of the stanza. The final word before the caesura is typically female (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable), whereas the final word of a line is typical male (a stressed syllable). The lines rhyme in pairs, and occasionally there are internal rhymes between
17444-434: The cathedral at the same time; the higher ranking one should enter first. Brünhild repeats her assertion that Siegfried is a vassal, after which Kriemhild claims that Siegfried, not Gunther, took Brünhild's virginity, producing the ring and belt as proof. Siegfried and Gunther afterwards deny this, but Brünhild remains offended. Hagen advises Gunther to have Siegfried murdered. Hagen goes to Kriemhild and tells her that there
17622-404: The commentary of the narrator, who frequently reminds the poem's audience of the coming catastrophe, while the manner in which the epic is told serves to delay the inevitable disaster. The action becomes more and more intense as the epic nears its end. Behind Nibelungenlied stands a large oral tradition, the so-called Nibelungen saga . This oral tradition, moreover, continued to exist following
17800-464: The composition of the Nibelungenlied , as proven by the Rosengarten zu Worms and Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid , both of which were written later than the Nibelungenlied but contain elements of the saga that are absent in it. These oral traditions have, at least in some cases, a historical core. However, various historical events and figures have been melded together into a single plot in such
17978-442: The connection of the poem to its traditionally oral subject matter. The Nibelungenlied is written in four-line stanzas. Although no melody has survived for the text, melodies for similar stanzas in other German heroic poems have, so that it is certain that the text was meant to be sung. The stanza consists of three Langzeilen ("long lines"), which consist of three metrical feet , a caesura , and three metrical feet following
18156-433: The connection with the treasure was indeed primary, and that nibel- , nifl- , meaning 'mist, cloud', referred originally to a dwarfish origin for the hoard, though this was later forgotten and the application of the name to the Burgundian royal family arose from misunderstanding. In the first half of the Nibelungenlied , Siegfried's last fight to win the treasure is against the dwarf Alberich. In Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfried
18334-401: The content of their speeches are all relatively stable between versions extant before the 1400s. Generally, scholars have proposed that all versions of the Nibelungenlied derive from an original version (the "archetype") via alterations and reworking; Jan-Dirk Müller instead proposes that the Nibelungenlied has always existed in variant forms, connecting this variance to the transmission of
18512-419: The contests and Brünhilt agrees to return to Worms and marry Gunther. Once they have returned, Siegfried ask Kriemhild to marry him; this displeases Brünhild, as she believes Siegfried to be a vassal while Kriemhild is the daughter of a king. When Gunther does not explain why he is letting a vassal marry his sister, Brünhild refuses to sleep with him on their wedding night, instead tying him up and hanging him from
18690-531: The context of the Napoleonic Wars . The Nibelungenlied was supposed to embody German bourgeois virtues that the French were seen as lacking. This interpretation of the epic continued during the Biedermeier period, during which the heroic elements of the poem were mostly ignored in favor of those that could more easily be integrated into a bourgeois understanding of German virtue. The translation of
18868-468: The creation of the Nibelungenlied . Jan-Dirk Müller doubts that we can be certain which version is more original given that in both cases Kriemhild brings about the destruction of the Hunnish kingdom. The differences may be because the continental saga is more favorable to Attila than the Norse, and so Attila could not be held directly responsible for the treacherous invitation of the Burgundians. Unlike
19046-461: The date the epic must have been composed. Additionally, the poem's rhyming technique most closely resembles that used between 1190 and 1205. Attempts to show that the poem alludes to various historical events have generally not been convincing. The current theory of the creation of the poem emphasizes the poet's concentration on the region of Passau : for example, the poem highlights the relatively unimportant figure of Bishop Pilgrim of Passau , and
19224-517: The death made him into a central figure in the reception of the poem. During the Second World War , Hermann Göring would explicitly use this aspect of the Nibelungenlied to celebrate the sacrifice of the German army at Stalingrad and compare the Soviets to Etzel's Asiatic Huns. Postwar reception and adaptation of the poem, reacting to its misuse by the Nazis, is often parodic. At the same time,
19402-420: The death of his father Gundioc. At this time or shortly afterwards, the Burgundian kingdom was divided among Gundobad and his brothers, Godigisel, Chilperic II, and Gundomar I. According to Gregory of Tours , the years following Gundobad's return to Burgundy saw a bloody consolidation of power. Gregory states that Gundobad murdered his brother Chilperic, drowning his wife and exiling their daughters (one of whom
19580-501: The death of his first wife, Helche, Etzel, the king of the Huns, chooses to ask Kriemhild to marry him. All of the Burgundians except for Hagen are in favor of the match. Kriemhild only agrees after Etzel's messenger, Margrave Rüdiger von Bechelaren , swears loyalty to her personally and she realizes she can use the Huns to gain revenge on Siegfried's murderers. Before her departure, she demands Siegfried's treasure but Hagen refuses her. After seven years as Etzel's wife, Kriemhild bears him
19758-470: The different manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied varies considerably from one another, though there is less variance than found in many other Middle High German heroic epics, such as the Dietrich epics . Although the different versions vary in their exact wording and include or exclude stanzas found in other versions, the general order of events, the order of the appearance of characters, their actions, and
19936-407: The dragon's blood to receive an impenetrable skin is then recounted by Hagen , one of Gunther's vassals, when the Burgundians see Siegfried approaching. Siegfried lives in Worms for a year without seeing Kriemhild before Siegfried helps Gunther fight against attack by the Saxons and Danes. Because of his valor in combat, he is finally allowed to see Kriemhild. Gunther decides that he wishes to take
20114-524: The earlier version. It may have been inspired by the prologue of the Nibelungenklage . Manuscript B instead begins with the introduction of Kriemhild , the protagonist of the work. Kriemhild grows up as a beautiful woman in Worms , the capital of the Burgundian kingdom , under the protection of her brothers Gunther , Gernot, and Giselher. There she has a dream portending doom, in which she raises
20292-440: The earliest attested work to connect Siegfried explicitly with the destruction of the Burgundians is the Nibelungenlied itself, though Old Norse parallels make it clear that this tradition must have existed orally for some time. When composing the Nibelungenlied , its poet was faced with setting an oral tradition down into a definitive version although that tradition was by its very nature amorphous. In choosing which elements of
20470-405: The east, and some names and placenames. However this is now considered uncertain. Little is known of the language. Some proper names of Burgundians are recorded, and some words used in the area in modern times are thought to be derived from the ancient Burgundian language, but it is often difficult to distinguish these from Germanic words of other origin, and in any case the modern form of the words
20648-655: The eddic poems Guðrúnarhvöt and Hamðismál , Erp ( Erpr ), a third son of Jónakr , was born by a different mother. But in the Skáldskaparmál and the Völsunga saga Erp is also a son of Gudrún. In the Atlakviða (stanza 12), a son of Högni says farewell to his father as Gunnar and Högni depart to visit Atli. The Atlamál (stanza 28) brings in two sons of Högni by his wife Kostbera, named Snævar ( Snævarr ) and Sólar ( Sólarr ). They accompany their father and uncle on their fateful journey to Atli's court where they also meet their deaths. These sons are also mentioned in
20826-491: The effect of "beings of mist". Heusler reasoned that the name became attached to the various possessors of the Nibelungs' treasure and thereby passed from the mythical beings, to Siegfried, and then to the Burgundians in the Nibelungenlied. Stefan Schaffner proposes another theory: again assuming that Nibelung originally referred to mythical beings, instead derives the name from a root *nibla- or *nibula- meaning "being below", which Schaffner connects to Niflheim. Whatever
21004-419: The emperor (apparently personally). Ricimer then appointed Olybrius ; both died, surprisingly of natural causes, within a few months. Gundobad seems then to have succeeded his uncle as Patrician and king-maker, and raised Glycerius to the throne. In 474, Burgundian influence over the empire seems to have ended. Glycerius was deposed in favor of Julius Nepos , and Gundobad returned to Burgundy, presumably at
21182-523: The end of the sixth century, contains many names that can be connected with the Nibelungen saga, including, besides Gundaharius, Gislaharius (Giselher), Gundomaris (possibly the historical figure behind the Old Norse Gothorm, who is replaced by Gernot in the German tradition), and Gibica (attested in Germany as Gibich but not found in the Nibelungenlied ). Although the Burgundian kingdom on
21360-529: The entire Roman frontier. Southwards migrations are believed to have triggered the Marcomannic Wars , which resulted in widespread destruction and the first invasion of Italy in the Roman Empire period. Writing in the 6th century, Jordanes reported that during the 3rd century AD, the Burgundians had been living near the Vistula basin, where they were almost annihilated by Fastida , king of
21538-622: The epic's material from orality to literacy. Using the versions provided by the three oldest complete manuscripts, the Hohenems-Munich manuscript A (c. 1275-1300), the Sankt Gall manuscript B (c. 1233-1266), and the Hohenems-Donaueschingen manuscript C (c. 1225-1250), scholars have traditionally differentiated two versions that existed near the time of the poem's composition; A and B are counted as belonging to
21716-411: The father of Gunther, Gernot, Giselher, and Kriemhild is named Dankrat and their mother is named Uote. Hagen is their kinsman (exact relationship not given), and has a brother named Dancwart whose personality is bright and cheerful in contrast to Hagen's. Hagen also has a sister's son named Ortwin of Metz. These family relationships might seem to prohibit any elvish siring, but in the cognate story of Brân
21894-596: The ferry once they have landed to show that there can be no return. When the Bavarians attack the Burgundians in order to avenge their ferryman, whom Hagen had killed, Hagen takes control of the defense and defeats them. The Burgundians then arrive in Etzel's kingdom and are welcomed to the city of Bechelaren by the Margrave Rüdiger; on Hagen's suggestion, Rüdiger betroths his daughter to Gisleher and gives Gernot
22072-402: The first Middle High German heroic poem to be written, the Nibelungenlied can be said to have founded an entire genre of Middle High German literature. As a result, other Middle High German heroic poems are sometimes described as "post-Nibelungian" ("nachnibelungisch"). The majority of these epics revolve around the hero Dietrich von Bern , who plays a secondary role in the Nibelungenlied : it
22250-491: The following feast, Kriemhild has her and Etzel's son Ortlieb brought into the hall. Bloedelin then attacks and kills the Burgundian squires outside the feast hall, but is killed by Hagen's brother, Dankwart. When Dankwart, the sole survivor, enters the hall and reports the attack, Hagen beheads Ortlieb, and fighting breaks out within the feast hall itself. The Huns are unarmed and slaughtered, but Dietrich and Hildebrand arrange for Etzel, Kriemhild, Rüdiger, and their own men to exit
22428-598: The former Burgundian kingdom as counts. The royal name Gibichung was then replaced in the heroic tradition with Nibelung in order to connect this Frankish cadet branch to the Burgundian royal dynasty. Dronke subscribes to the traditional scholarly derivation of the name Nibelung from nibel or nebel , meaning cloud or darkness. She notes that other Burgundian clan names are recorded with similar associations: Wulkingos , from wolkan , cloud; Dagilingos , deriving from day; Leuhtingos , deriving from light; and Sauilingos , deriving from sol , meaning sun. Rosenfeld derives
22606-512: The geographical Bourgogne or Borgogne (Burgundy), named after the old kingdom, but not corresponding to the original boundaries of it. Between the 6th and 20th centuries, the boundaries and political connections of "Burgundy" have changed frequently. In modern times the only area still referred to as Burgundy is in France, which derives its name from the Duchy of Burgundy . But in the context of
22784-433: The hall. The Burgundians barricade themselves in the hall, which is besieged by Etzel's warriors. Various Hunnish attempts to attack are repulsed, but a truce cannot be agreed because Kriemhild demands that Hagen be handed over to her. Kriemhild orders the hall set on fire, but the Burgundians survive. The next day, Etzel and Kriemhild force Rüdiger to enter the battle, although he is bound by guest-friendship and kinship to
22962-439: The hoard is a dwarf named Nibeling (or Nyblung). Siegfried happened to find it one day and bore it away. At Worms Siegfried met King Gybich, his three sons Gunther, Hagen, and Gyrnot, and his daughter Kriemhild. When Kriemhild was abducted by a dragon, Siegfried rescued her and was given her hand in marriage. This variant usage of Niblung may arise from the identification of the hoard of the Burgundians, or at least most of it, with
23140-399: The hoard of treasure won by Siegfried. The German versions of the tale make much of Kriemhild's right to the "Nibelungen" treasure through her previous marriage to Siegfried. Some seemingly took Nibelung to apply primarily to Siegfried's treasure, in which case it must mean something else than the Burgundian royal family, and so another explanation was contrived. The alternate theory is that
23318-401: The inescapability of the slaughter at the end of the poem and Kriemhild and Hagen's culpability or innocence. The earliest attested reception of the Nibelungenlied , the Nibelungenklage , which was likely written only shortly afterwards, shows an attempt both to make sense of the horror of the destruction and to absolve Kriemhild of blame. The C version of the Nibelungenlied , redacted around
23496-711: The leaders of Goths and Burgundians may have descended from long-distant ancestors somewhere around the Baltic. Maybe, but everyone has a lot of ancestors, and some of theirs may well have come from elsewhere. There is, as Walter Goffart has repeatedly argued, little reason to believe that sixth-century or later references to what looks like names for Scandinavia, or for places in it, mean that traditions from those particular ancestors had been handed through thick and thin. They have long been associated with Scandinavian origin based on place-name evidence and archaeological evidence (Stjerna) and many consider their tradition to be correct (e.g. Musset, p. 62). According to such proposals,
23674-468: The loyalty to death between Hagen and the Burgundians. While militaristic, the use of imagery from the Nibelungenlied remained optimistic in this period rather than focusing on the doom at the end of the epic. The interwar period saw the Nibelungenlied enter the world of cinema in Fritz Lang 's two part film Die Nibelungen (1924/1925), which tells the entire story of the poem. At the same time,
23852-464: The name Nibelung originally referred to a Burgundian clan. They note the existence of several place names in Savoy , the location of the French kingdom of Burgundy, which can be derived from a reconstructed Nibilungos , including Neblens , Noblens , and Neublans . Dronke argues that after the resettlement of the Burgundians from the Rhine to the Kingdom of Burgundy in 411 , the clan name Nibelung
24030-417: The name instead from a name *Niwilo , which is a nickname for the name *Niuw-man (literally "new-man"). Nibelung would be the patronymic of this name, with the change from w to b showing Romance influence. Burgundians The Burgundians were an early Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared east in the middle Rhine region in the third century AD, and were later moved west into
24208-497: The name is in the Latin poem Waltharius , believed to have been composed around the year 920. In lines 555–6 of that poem Walter, seeing Guntharius ( Gunther ) and his men approaching says (in the Chronicon Novaliciense text, usually taken to be the oldest): Nōn assunt Avarēs hīc, sed Francī Nivilōnēs, cultōrēs regiōnis. The translation is: "These are not Avars , but Frankish Nivilons, inhabitants of
24386-785: The names are Gunnar , Brynhild , and Gudrún as normally rendered in English.) In fact, the Etzel of the Nibelungenlied is based on Attila the Hun . For reasons not cited in the sources, the Burgundians were granted foederati status a second time, and in 443 were resettled by Aëtius in Sapaudia , part of the Gallo-Roman province of Maxima Sequanorum . Burgundians probably even lived near Lugdunum , known today as Lyon . A new king, Gundioc or Gunderic , presumed to be Gundahar's son, appears to have reigned following his father's death. The historian Pline tells us that Gunderic ruled
24564-447: The narrative progresses in blocks: the first three lines carry the story forward, while the fourth introduces foreshadowing of the disaster at the end or comments on events. The fourth line is thus often the most formulaic of the stanza. Stanzas often seem to have been placed after each other without necessarily being causally or narratively connected; for instance, two consecutive stanzas might portray two different reactions to an event by
24742-493: The other hand, is shared with the Danubian minnesinger known as Der von Kürenberg who flourished in the 1150s and 1160s. The Nibelungenlied- poet may have been inspired by this lyrical stanza. Their use of the stanza would thus cite an oral story-telling tradition while at the same time creating some distance to it. Philologist Andreas Heusler supposed that the poet had taken some earlier orally transmitted stanzas and added
24920-415: The poem are constructed in a much less regular manner. It is likely that the Nibelungenlied cites an oral story-telling tradition in using singable stanzas; however, the longer final line is generally thought to belong to a more refined artistic milieu, as later heroic epics typically use a stanza without this longer final line (the so-called "Hildebrandston" ). The stanzaic form of the Nibelungenlied , on
25098-472: The poem continues to play a role in regional culture and history, particularly in Worms and other places mentioned in the Nibelungenlied . Much discussion has centered on whether and how the epic ought to be taught in schools. The material of the Nibelungen saga has continued to inspire new adaptations. These include Die Nibelungen , a German remake of Fritz Lang's film from 1966/67, and the television film Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King from 2004. However,
25276-512: The poem despite not having lived at the same time historically. The Nibelungen saga also seems to have had an early reception in Scandinavia, so that parallel stories are found among the heroic lays of the Poetic Edda (written down in 1270 but containing at least some much older material) and in the Völsunga saga (written down in the second half of the thirteenth century). While the Norse texts were once usually considered to contain
25454-400: The poem in its written form is entirely new, although he admits the possibility that an orally transmitted epic with relatively consistent contents could have preceded it. German philologist Elisabeth Lienert, on the other hand, posits an earlier version of the text from around 1150 due to the Nibelungenlied's use of a stanzaic form current around that time (see Form and style ). Whoever
25632-712: The poem was Richard Wagner 's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , which, however, was based almost entirely on the Old Norse versions of the Nibelung saga. Wagner's preference for the Old Norse versions followed a popular judgment of the time period: the Nordic versions were seen as being more "original" than the courtly story portrayed in the German poem. In the First World War , the alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary came to be described as possessing Nibelungen-Treue (Nibelungen loyalty), referring to
25810-498: The poet may have been, they appear to have had a knowledge of German Minnesang and chivalric romance . The poem's concentration on love ( minne ) and its depiction of Siegfried as engaging in love service for Kriemhild is in line with courtly romances of the time, with Heinrich von Veldeke 's Eneasroman perhaps providing concrete models. Other possible influences are Hartmann von Aue 's Iwein and Erec . These courtly elements are described by Jan-Dirk Müller as something of
25988-430: The poet's geographical knowledge appears much more firm in this region than elsewhere. These facts, combined with the dating, have led scholars to believe that Wolfger von Erla , Bishop of Passau (reigned 1191–1204) was the patron of the poem. Wolfger is known to have patronized other literary figures, such as Walther von der Vogelweide and Thomasin von Zirclaere . The attention paid to Bishop Pilgrim, who represents
26166-479: The prose introduction to the eddic poem Dráp Niflunga along with a third son Gjúki. The Atlamál later introduces another son of Högni (or possibly Gjúki son of Högni under another name) who, along with Gudrún, kills Atli. In the Völsunga saga this son is named Niflung ( Niflungr ). He may be a reflex of the posthumous son of Högni who is called Aldrian in the Thidreks saga . The Danish Hven Chronicle also tells
26344-420: The real historical figure Bishop Pilgrim of Passau, would thus be an indirect homage to Wolfger. Wolfger was, moreover, attempting to establish the sainthood of Pilgrim at the time of the poem's composition, giving an additional reason for his prominence. Some debate exists as to whether the poem is an entirely new creation or whether there was a previous version. German medievalist Jan-Dirk Müller claims that
26522-431: The region." The other texts have nebulones 'worthless fellows' instead of nivilones , a reasonable replacement for an obscure proper name. In medieval Latin names, b and v often interchange, so Nivilones is a reasonable Latinization of Germanic Nibilungos . This is the only text to connect the Nibelungs with Franks. Since Burgundy was conquered by the Franks in 534, Burgundians could loosely be considered Franks of
26700-469: The regional appellation, Burgundy , which is a region in modern France, although the modern Burgundy represents only a part of that kingdom. Another part of the Burgundians formed a contingent in Attila 's Hunnic army by 451 AD. Before clear documentary evidence begins, the Burgundians may have originally emigrated from the Baltic island of Bornholm to the Vistula region. The ethnonym Burgundians
26878-465: The ruling family. The Burgundians left three legal codes , among the earliest from any of the Germanic tribes. The Liber Constitutionum sive Lex Gundobada ("The Book of Constitutions or Law of Gundobad"), also known as the Lex Burgundionum , or more simply the Lex Gundobada or the Liber , was issued in several parts between 483 and 516, principally by Gundobad, but also by his son, Sigismund. It
27056-528: The sack of Rome by the Vandals . The Patrician Ricimer is also blamed; this event marks the first indication of the link between the Burgundians and Ricimer, who was probably Gundioc's brother-in-law and Gundobad 's uncle. In 456, the Burgundians, apparently confident in their growing power, negotiated a territorial expansion and power sharing arrangement with the local Roman senators. In 457, Ricimer overthrew another emperor, Avitus , raising Majorian to
27234-399: The saga to include in his version, the poet therefore often incorporated two versions of an event that were likely not combined in the oral tradition. An example is the beginning of the fighting in Etzel's hall, which is motivated both by an attack on the Burgundians' supplies and Hagen's killing of prince Ortlieb . The Old Norse Thidrekssaga , which is based on German sources, contains only
27412-402: The saga. Most significantly, the poet has suppressed the mythological or fantastical elements of Siegfried's story. When these elements are introduced, it is in a retrospective tale narrated by Hagen that reduces the slaying of the dragon to a single stanza. Hagen's story, moreover, does not accord with Siegfried's youth as the narrator of the Nibelungenlied has portrayed it, in which he receives
27590-445: The same figure. Often, the same reaction is given to multiple figures in different stanzas, so that the impression of collective rather than individual reactions is created. Enjambment between stanzas is very rare. The epic frequently creates multiple motivations for events, some of which may contradict each other. This style of narration also causes the events within the poem to come to a frequent halt, which can last for years within
27768-456: The same name, Burgundiones, were described by early Roman writers as living in present-day Poland. It has also been proposed that there several important Germanic tribes later found settled near Roman frontiers originally had their origins around the Baltic sea, including the Rugii , Goths , Gepidae , Vandals , and others. According to such proposals, their movement south created turmoil along
27946-545: The same time as the Klage , shows a similar strategy. The presence of the Nibelungenklage in all manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied shows that the ending of the Nibelungenlied itself was evidently unsatisfying to its primary audience without some attempt to explain these two "scandalous" elements. The Rosengarten zu Worms , on the other hand, demonizes Kriemhild thoroughly, while the late-medieval Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid takes her side even more strongly. As
28124-467: The second element, meaning that the two motivations were likely variants that were hardly ever combined in practice. Victor Millet concludes that the poet deliberately doubles the motivations or occurrences of various events, including Siegfried's wooing of Kriemhild, the deception of Brünhild, Hagen's humiliation of Kriemhild, and Kriemhild's demand for the return of Nibelungen treasure. The poet also appears to have significantly altered various aspects of
28302-458: The second half of his law, which was more originally Burgundian. The Burgundians were extending their power over eastern Gaul —that is western Switzerland and eastern France, as well as northern Italy. In 493, Clovis , king of the Franks, married the Burgundian princess Clotilda (daughter of Chilperic), who converted him to the Catholic faith. At first allied with Clovis' Franks against
28480-475: The story of Högni's posthumous son begotten as Högni is dying, of the switching of children so that Högni is brought up as son of Atli and "Gremhild", and of how this son lures Gremhild to the cave of treasure and seals her in. Although Nibelungs refers to the royal family of the Burgundians in the second half of the Nibelunglenlied (as well as in many other texts), in the first half Nibelungenlant it
28658-482: The three kings Gundomar, Gislaharius, and Gundaharius who shared the kingdom among them, presumably with Gundaharius as the high king (the sharing of the throne between brothers was a common tradition among the Germanic tribes, see Germanic king ). But if so, the order of the names here is puzzling. One would expect Gundaharius to be named immediately after Gibica. In the Waltharius King Gibicho of
28836-522: The throne. This new emperor proved unhelpful to Ricimer and the Burgundians. The year after his ascension, Majorian stripped the Burgundians of the lands they had acquired two years earlier. After showing further signs of independence, he was murdered by Ricimer in 461. Ten years later, in 472, Ricimer–who was by now the son-in-law of the Western Emperor Anthemius –was plotting with Gundobad to kill his father-in-law; Gundobad beheaded
29014-409: The time portrayed in the poem. The division of the epic into Âventiuren ( lit. ' adventures ' ) underlines the disconnect between the various episodes. The connection between the first half of the epic (Siegfried's murder) and the second half (Kriemhild's marriage to Etzel) is especially loose. The epic nevertheless maintains the causal and narrative connection between episodes through
29192-401: The treasure belonged to the dwarf Nybling. Though the kings of the Nibelungs named Schilbung and Nibelung in the first half of the Nibelungenlied are humans as far as is told, it would not be impossible that in earlier tradition they were explicitly dwarfs like Alberich. The people of the Nibelungs also have giants in their service, perhaps an indication of their earlier supernatural stature. In
29370-404: The treasure passed to the Burgundian kings after Siegfried's death, the name Nibelung went with it. It is a common folklore motif that the protagonist comes upon two or three persons or creatures quarreling about a division of treasure or magical objects among themselves, that they ask the protagonist to make the division for them, and that in the end it is the protagonist who ends up as owner of
29548-519: The treasure. Schilbung and Niblung are otherwise unknown. It may be coincidence that in the Ættartolur , Skelfir ancestor of the Skilfings and Næfil ancestor of the Niflungs (Nibelungs) are brothers, though there they are two of nine brothers. In a later poem Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid ('The Song of Horny-skinned Siegfried'), known only from 16th century printed versions, the original owner of
29726-534: The words at the end of the caesura, as in the first stanza (see Synopsis ). Medieval German literature scholar Victor Millet uses the poem's sixth stanza as an example of this metrical form. An acute accent indicates the stressed beat of a metrical foot, and || indicates the caesura: Ze Wórmez bí dem Ríne || si wónten mít ir kráft. in díente vón ir lánden || vil stólziu ríterscáft mit lóbelíchen éren || unz án ir éndes zít. si stúrben sit jǽmerlíche || von zwéier édelen fróuwen nít. Many stanzas of
29904-471: Was a record of Burgundian customary law and is typical of the many Germanic law codes from this period. In particular, the Liber borrowed from the Lex Visigothorum and influenced the later Lex Ripuaria . The Liber is one of the primary sources for contemporary Burgundian life, as well as the history of its kings. Like many of the Germanic tribes, the Burgundians' legal traditions allowed
30082-577: Was forced into some sort of vassalage by Clovis' earlier victory, as the Burgundian king appears to have assisted the Franks in 507 in their victory over Alaric II the Visigoth. During the upheaval, sometime between 483 and 501, Gundobad began to set forth the Lex Gundobada (see below), issuing roughly the first half, which drew upon the Lex Visigothorum . Following his consolidation of power, between 501 and his death in 516, Gundobad issued
30260-428: Was not of Gjúki's race, Although the brother of both he was: And all are thy kinsmen, Óttar, thou fool! If Gotthorm or Gutthorm, the slayer of Sigurd in northern tradition, is brother of Gunnar and Högni, but is not a son of Gjúki, he must be a maternal half-brother, just as Hagen, the slayer of Siegfried in the German tradition, is a maternal half-brother in the Thidreks saga . Gudrún bore to Sigurd
30438-466: Was not printed and appears to have been forgotten. The Nibelungen saga, however, was not forgotten completely; the Rosengarten zu Worms was printed as part of the printed Heldenbuch until 1590 and inspired several plays in the early seventeenth century, while Hürnen Seyfrid continued to be printed into the nineteenth century in a prose version. After having been forgotten for two hundred years,
30616-472: Was properly the name of Hǫgni's elf father. Gunnar and his legitimate brothers are often called Niflungar and their country is named Niflungaland. Their sister Grímhild bore to Atli (Attila) a son named Aldrian who is slain by Hǫgni. At the end of the resultant battle, Hǫgni, though mortally wounded, fathered a son on Herad, one of Þiðrek's relations. This son, named Aldrian, accomplished Atli's death and became Jarl of Niflungaland under Brynhild ( Brynhildr ). In
30794-481: Was settled in northern Gaul by the Romans. Some Burgundians were settled as foederati in the Roman province of Germania Prima along the Middle Rhine . Other Burgundians, however, remained outside the empire and apparently formed a contingent in Attila 's Hunnic army by 451 AD. In 411, the Burgundian king Gundahar (or Gundicar ) set up a puppet emperor, Jovinus , in cooperation with Goar , king of
30972-480: Was temporarily holed up in Avignon, but was able to re-muster his army and sacked Vienne, where Godegisel and many of his followers were put to death. From this point, Gundobad appears to have been the sole king of Burgundy. This would imply that his brother Gundomar was already dead, though there are no specific mentions of the event in the sources. Either Gundobad and Clovis reconciled their differences, or Gundobad
31150-481: Was the first heroic epic put into writing in Germany, helping to found a larger genre of written heroic poetry there. The poem's tragedy appears to have bothered its medieval audience, and very early on a sequel was written, the Nibelungenklage , which made the tragedy less final. The poem was forgotten after around 1500 but was rediscovered in 1755. Dubbed the "German Iliad ", the Nibelungenlied began
31328-477: Was to become the wife of Clovis the Frank , and was reputedly responsible for his conversion). This is contested by, e.g., Bury, who points out problems in much of Gregory's chronology for the events. In c. 500, when Gundobad and Clovis were at war, Gundobad appears to have been betrayed by his brother Godegisel, who joined the Franks; together Godegisel's and Clovis' forces "crushed the army of Gundobad". Gundobad
31506-633: Was transferred to the Burgundian royal dynasty of the Gibichings (Old Norse Gjúkingar ). It was then afterwards adopted by the Franks, who came to identify the Gibichungs as Franks as well, as in the Waltharius . Rosenfeld, on the other hand, argues that the Burgundian clan name Nibelung was adopted by the Nibelungid cadet branch of the Frankish Pippinid dynasty once Charles Martell's brother Childebrand I and his descendants came to rule
31684-434: Was unable to make the division, despite much effort. Fighting broke out and Siegfried slew Schilbung, Nibelung, twelve giants, and seven hundred warriors, at which point those still alive, not unreasonably, surrendered and took Siegfried as their king. In this way, Siegfried gained the Nibelung treasure, though he still had to fight the dwarf Alberich , whom he defeated and made guardian of the hoard. We are to presume that when
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