The ‘Nibelungenlied’ or ‘Song of the Nibelungs’
Written around 1200AD by an unknown poet, the Nibelungenlied reveals a world full of courtly splendour, love, hatred and jealousy in 39 chapters, also known as adventures.
The first page of the so-called Manuscript C of the Nibelungenlied
‘Full many a wonder is told us in stories old …’
This is the first line of a long and fascinating story; the story of Gernot, Gunther and Giselher, who together rule the kingdom following the death of their father; and the story if their sister Kriemhild, who only tolerates a man at her side who is of equal birth.
Hagen, the advisor to the family, is secretly in love with Kriemhild and continues to hope that his love will be returned (although this is unthinkable due to his lack of rank) until the invulnerable dragon slayer Siegfried captures the heart of beautiful Kriemhild.
Siegfried then helps Gunther to win over Brunhild, the fierce queen of Isenland, who will only accept a man who can conquer her. This is also achieved with cunning and a cloak of invisibility.
‘How the Queens Quarrelled’
Years later, Siegfried and Kriemhild visit the other couple and a quarrel breaks out between Brunhild and Kriemhild with fatal consequences.
During her quarrel with Brunhild, Kriemhild refers to her handsome, brave Siegfried as a hero and the only man who is entitled to reign over all kingdoms. Brunhild, however, claims that Gunther is better than Siegfried.
The quarrel escalates as to which of the women holds a higher rank (and therefore may enter the Cathedral first). In her anger, Kriemhild calls her opponent a concubine and boasts that it was Siegfried and not Gunther who deflowered her on her wedding night.
Cut to the quick and humiliated, a dispute ensues which stirs up the whole family and results in two entire peoples warring against each other.
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