The Hoard and the Fall (part 4)
Using the Hoard, which Siegfried has given to her, Kriemhild plans to hire foreign warriors to strengthen her position at the court—a danger Hagen soon recognizes. He steals Kriemhild’ Hoard and sinks it in the river Rhine. The next opportunity to take revenge offered only thirteen years on.
The Hagen statue on the riverside in Worms shows Hagen sinking the Hoard in the river Rhine.
The Fall
After the murder of Siegfried, Kriemhild gets married with Etzel, the powerful king of the Huns, who resides in Hungary. She talks her new husband to invite her brothers Gunther, Gernot and Giselher to Hungary. Hagen and others warn them against Kriemhilds thirst for revenge, but the brothers accept the invitation and fare to the land of the Huns, attended by a large retinue. Kriemhild succeeds in unleashing a battle between the Nibelungen and the Huns. One after another is killed until in the end only Gunther and Hagen are alive. Kriemhild demands the treasure from Hagen. He vows not to reveal the hiding place as long as one of his masters is still alive. At that, Kriemhild has Gunther decapitated. But Hagen triumphs. Now he is the only person who knows the hiding place, and he would never reveal his secret. Kriemhild cuts his head off with Siegfried’s sword. Hagen had snatched and, on arriving in Hungary, shown it to Kriemhild to provoke her. Thereupon, Kriemhild ist slain by Hildebrand, the armourer, since she as a woman dared to kill a hero. Left are King Etzel, Theodoric, Hildebrand and a few nameless bystanders, all bemoaning the death of their relatives.
(source of pictures and text, if not stated otherwise: German Wikipedia)
