Read this if you…
- want THE German epic poem
- like knights and bravery and intrigue
Skip this if you…
- have read and hated other epic poems
The 
Take
Pretty great medieval epic but not as good as Beowulf. All the scheming and the ladies hating each other and the honor and stuff was pretty cool though. Also killing off who seemed like the main character is pretty wild
The lineage through The Nibelungenlied
- The Aeneid by Virgil. The Nibelungenlied built on it. - The *Nibelungenlied*'s true sources are Germanic — the *Nibelungensaga*, with Norse cousins in the *Poetic Edda* and *Völsunga Saga* — not Virgil - But the poet knew his Latin, and elements of the *Aeneid* slip in: Kriemhild as the catastrophic beauty recalls Helen, reaching the German poem partly through Veldeke's *Eneasroman* - A borrowed accent, not a foundation — worth knowing where the classical color came from
Depicted in Art
Hagen drives a spear into Siegfried's back as the hero stoops at a forest spring to drink.
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1847
The Burgundians fight desperately against Etzel's Hunnic warriors in the burning hall.
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1845
Hildebrand cuts down Kriemhild beside the bound Hagen she has just killed in vengeance.
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1867
Hagen sits defiantly with Volker as Kriemhild approaches them at Etzel's court; he refuses to rise.
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1859
Kriemhild, in mourning, accuses Hagen of Siegfried's murder before the assembled Burgundian court.
Emil Lauffer, 1879
Recommended Editions
A.T. Hatto
Penguin Classics · 2004
Hatto's prose has been the Penguin since 1965. Dignified and formal, which fits the courtly half and slightly tames the bloodbath half. The introduction is genuinely useful on Burgundian history.
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Notable Quotes
We have been told in ancient tales many marvels of famous heroes, of mighty toil, joys, and high festivities, of weeping and wailing, and the fighting of bold warriors – of such things you can now hear wonders unending!
Screen & Stage
looseDer Ring des Nibelungen
Opera · 1876
Richard Wagner
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried
Film · 1924
Fritz Lang
Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge
Film · 1924
Fritz Lang
Posters via The Movie Database (TMDB)
- Richard Wagner, composer, 1813–1883: Drew his four-opera Ring des Nibelungen from the Nibelung myth, and in 1869 wrote asking for a copy of the Nibelungenlied for his library.
- Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and essayist, 1795–1881: "The unknown Singer of the Nibelungen, though no Shakespeare, must have had a deep poetic soul, wherein things discontinuous and inanimate shaped themselves together into life."
- Fritz Lang, filmmaker, 1890–1976: "By making 'Die Nibelungen' I wanted to show that Germany was searching for an ideal in her past, even during the horrible time after World War I in which the film was made."
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