The most famous ring legend of the Norsemen is told in the Völsunga Saga. The epic tale is one of the greatest literary works to survive the Viking civilization. Within the Völsunga Saga is the history of many of the heroes of the Völsung and Nibelung1 dynasties. In the nineteenth century William Morris—British textile designer, writer, and translator—wrote of the epic: “This is the great story of the North, which should be to all our race what the tale of Troy was to the Greeks.”
The fates of the Völsung and Nibelung dynasties were bound up with that of a magical ring called Andvarinaut. This was the magical ring that once belonged to Andvari the Dwarf. Its name means “Andvari’s loom” because it “wove” its master a fortune in gold; and with that wealth went power and fame. The tale of Andvarinaut has become the archetypal ring legend. It is primarily concerned with the life and death of the greatest of all Norse heroes, Sigurd the Dragon-slayer.
It is this legend of Sigurd and the Ring as told in the Völsunga Saga that in various forms survives in the modern imagination as the Ring Legend. William Morris brought the first satisfactory direct translation of the Völsunga Saga into the English language. His later long epic poem Sigurd the Völsung, Henrik Ibsen’s play The Vikings of Helgeland, and—above all—Richard Wagner’s great opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung brought the epic tale into the popular European imagination in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
In this retelling of the Völsunga Saga, it should be noted that the full-length epic is a collection of over forty linked but individual saga tales. These were the final outcome of an oral tradition of diverse authorship composed over many centuries. The resulting texts therefore often result in a somewhat irregular plot structure, although the overall outline is clear. In this retelling, those parts of the saga concerning the ring are emphasized in detail, while peripheral adventures (particularly those that precede the appearance of Sigurd) are told in synopsis form. Readers will find many parallels between the Völsunga Saga and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, along with the legends of King Arthur, Charlemagne, Dietrich von Berne, and numerous other heroes and traditions including the medieval German Nibelungenlied and a score of Brother’s Grimm fairy tales.
The Völsunga Saga begins with the tale of the hero Sigi, who is the mortal son of Odin. He is a great warrior who by his strength and skill becomes king of the Huns. King Sigi’s son is Reric, who is also a mighty warrior, but cannot give his queen a child and heir. So the gods send to Reric a crow with an apple in its beak. Reric gives this apple to his wife, who eats it and becomes heavy with child. But the child remains in his mother’s womb for six years before he is released by the midwife’s knife. This child is Völsung, who becomes the third in this line of kings.
Völsung is the strongest and most powerful of all the kings of Hunland. He is a man of huge physical size and he sires ten sons and one daughter. The eldest of his children are the twin brother and sister, Sigmund and Signy.
One day a gray-bearded stranger with one eye appears in the great hall of the Völsungs in the middle of a great gathering of Huns, Goths, and Vikings. Without a word, the old man strides over to Branstock, the great living oak tree that stands in the center of the Völsung hall. He draws a brilliant sword from a sheath and drives it up to its hilt in the tree trunk. The ancient stranger then walks out of the hall and disappears.
No mortal man could have achieved such a feat, and all know that this old man can be none other than Odin. All the heroes in the great hall desire this sword, but only Sigmund has the strength to draw it from Branstock. All acknowledge that, armed with Odin’s sword, Sigmund is the god’s chosen warrior.
With this sword, which can cut stone and steel, Sigmund wins great fame, yet terrible tragedy soon befalls the Völsung family. Sigmund’s sister Signy is married to the king of Gothland, who treacherously murders their father King Völsung at the wedding feast. He then imprisons Völsung’s ten sons by placing them in stocks in a clearing in the wild wood. There, each night for nine nights a werewolf, revealed as the witch-mother of the king of Gothland, devours one of the sons. However, on the tenth night, Sigmund—with the help of his sister Signy—manages to trick the werewolf and slays her by tearing out her tongue with his teeth. Sigmund escapes and lives for many years as an outlaw in an underground house in the wild wood. His sister Signy’s desire for vengeance is so great that, while remaining the wife of the king of Gothland, she casts a spell on Sigmund. When she comes to his underground house, he does not know she is his own sister and makes love to her. Months later, Signy has a child from this incestuous union. The child is called Sifjolti, and when he is grown, Signy sends him to Sigmund in the wild wood, so that together they may avenge the deaths of King Völsung and his nine sons.
After many trials, including stealing and wearing werewolf skins and being buried alive in a barrow-grave, Sigmund and Sifjolti set fire to the great hall of the Goth king. Signy secretly returns Odin’s sword to Sigmund, and all who attempt to escape the fire are slain. Seeing the Goth king and his kin slain, Signy confesses the price she has paid to exact her revenge, including incest with her brother, and leaps into the flames.
Sigmund returns with Sifjolti to his homeland and claims his father’s throne as king of Hunland. He rules successfully for many years, although his son Sifjolti dies by poisoning. Shortly after King Sigmund marries Princess Hjordis, two armies of Vikings ambush Sigmund. However, they fail to slay him because of his supernatural sword. Into the fray of battle comes an ancient one-eyed warrior. When Sigmund strikes this old man’s spear shaft with his sword, the blade shatters. Sigmund knows his doom has come. The ancient warrior can be none other than Odin, and Sigmund’s enemies strike him down. Mortally wounded, Sigmund does not despair for he has lived long and he knows that his queen is heavy with child. The dying Sigmund tells his wife she must take the shards of Odin’s sword, for Sigmund knows the prophecy that he will sire a son who, with the sword reforged, will win a prize greater than that of any mortal man. Sigmund’s queen flees the battleground and after a long journey finds refuge in the court of the king of the Sea Danes. There, the exiled queen gives birth to her son, Sigurd, and raises him in secret under the protection of the Danes.
Now in the realm of the Sea Danes is a master smith. He is called Regin, and from his long, toiling hours at the forge, his powerful body is hunched and stunted like a dwarf’s. Yet from his fire and forge comes much beauty in jewels and bright weapons. Swords, spears, and axes shine with a bright sheen. None know their equal and no one knows Regin’s age or his past. He entered the land of the Danes before the memory of the oldest king. He is no lord of fighting men, but a smith and a master of other crafts as well. He is filled with the wisdom of runes, chess play, and the languages of many lands.
But Regin casts a cold eye on life, and none knows him as a friend. So the Sea-Dane king is much surprised when Regin offers to foster Sigurd and then becomes his tutor. There never was a pupil like Sigurd, so quick and eager to learn. He is well taught by the smith in many arts and disciplines, though in the warrior’s skills he excels the most. Teacher and pupil make a strange pair. Some say Regin is too cold-tempered, while others say Sigurd was born too hot. Whatever the reason, over the years of learning, master and apprentice thrive but never form a bond of love or a close friendship.
Wise though Sigurd becomes with Regin’s teaching, there is something in his blood that beckons him to learn matters that are even beyond the smith’s teachings. So Sigurd often goes to the forest for many days of wandering. On one such solitary journey, Sigurd meets an ancient man in a cape and a wide-brimmed slouch hat. The old man’s bearded face has but one eye, and he uses a spear as a walking stick. Sigurd has encountered the god Odin, who grants Sigurd a gift: he may choose any horse he wishes for himself from his herd in the meadow.
When Sigurd chooses a young gray stallion, the old man smiles. “Well chosen. He is called Grani, meaning ‘gray-coat’ and he is as sleek as quicksilver, and will grow to become the strongest and swiftest stallion ever ridden by a mortal man. For Grani’s sire was the immortal Sleipnir, the eight-legged stallion of Asgard, who rides storm clouds over the world.”
Not long after his visitation from Odin, Regin sends for the youth. “You have grown large and strong, Sigurd. Now is the time for an adventure,” says Regin. “I have a tale to tell.” The two then go out onto the green grass before Regin’s hall. By an oak tree there is a stone bench on which the smith settles, while the huge youth sits on the grass at his feet.
“Know me now, young Sigurd, for what I am. Not a man, but one born in a time before the first man entered the spheres of the world. This was a time almost before there was Time. Giants and dwarfs were filled with terrible strength, and there were magicians of such power that even the gods feared to walk alone across the lands of Midgard.
“In this time, the gods Odin, Honir, and Loki went on an adventure into Midgard and dared to enter the land of my father, Hreidmar, the greatest magician in the Nine Worlds. On the first day, the three gods came to a stream and a deep pool. Resting, they soon saw a lithe brown otter swimming in the pool. Diving deep, the otter caught a silver salmon in its jaws and, reaching the far shore, struggled to drag his prize out of the water. It seemed an opportunity not to be missed. Without a word, Loki hurled a stone and broke the otter’s skull.
“Loki rejoiced at having won both otter and salmon with a single stone. He went to the otter and skinned it. Taking up their double prize of salmon and otter skin, the three gods walked on until evening, when they came to a great hall upon a fair heath. This was Hreidmar the Magician’s hall, which stood on the Glittering Heath just above the dark forest called the Mirkwood.
“When the three gods entered the hall, they made a gift of the salmon and the otter skin to their host. The magician immediately flew into a rage, and bound the gods at once with a deadly spell. Then he called to me to bring my fire-forged chains of unbreakable iron. And he called to my brother, the mighty Fafnir, to bind these gods tightly with my chains and his pitiless strength. Once this was done, no one but the Magician-King might ever free those three gods.
“Although my father much admired my craft and Fafnir’s strength, it was his third son that he loved best. This son was the magician’s eyes and ears. He was a shape-shifter who traveled often in many forms of bird and beast, and told my father what went on in the wide world. He was called Otter after his favorite guise.
This was the reason for the Magician-King’s terrible wrath. The otter that the gods slew at the pool, then unknowingly offered as a gift, was the flayed skin of their host’s favorite son.
“For this outrage, the magician was intent on the destruction of all three who slew his son. But Odin spoke persuasively, saying truthfully that Otter was slain in ignorance; and that in such cases, payment of wereguild instead of blood was just and honorable compensation. Though much grieved, the Magician-King laid the terms. “Fill my son’s skin with gold and cover him with it too. Do that and I will spare you,” he demanded, grimly.
“Since Loki had cast the fatal stone, he was chosen to find the wereguild, while the others remained bound. Odin advised him to quickly find Andvari the Dwarf, who was renowned for his wealth. Andvari possessed a hoard of gold that he kept hidden in a mountain cavern beneath a waterfall. Yet Odin warned that Andvari was also a shape-shifter who hid his identity. Most often, he took the form of a great pike that lived in the pool beneath the falls, so he might better guard his watery treasury door.
“Loki was not long in finding the waterfall. He stared hard into the clear pool and saw the great pike hiding in eddies under the rocks. He dragged the pike to the land where, gasping, it took on Andvari’s true shape and begged for mercy. Loki was not gentle. He twisted the dwarf until his screams drowned out the sound of the water. Finally Andvari gave up his golden treasure to Loki, but the dwarf begged that he might be allowed to keep just one red-gold ring for himself. Guessing at the ring’s importance, Loki snatched the ring from Andvari as well, and hurried on his way.
“Now this was the ring called Andvarinaut, which means ‘Andvari’s loom,’ for by its power gold comes, and treasure increases ever more. This golden ring breeds gold, though this was but one of its powers; many of its other powers are unknown. This one, small red-gold ring that Loki stole was worth all the rest of treasure together.
“The dwarf screamed after him: ‘I curse you for this! The ring and the treasure it spawned will carry my curse forever. All who possess the ring and its treasure for long will be destroyed!’”
“Loki returned to the magician’s hall with the gold hoard and stuffed Otter’s skin tight with it, and piled gold over all. The price in wereguild seemed to be made, but the Magician-King looked keenly at the treasure and pointed to one whisker that still protruded. Loki smiled grimly then, and let fall the ring Andvarinaut, which he had held back. The ring covered the last hair and the payment was made.
“The Magician-King packed up the treasure in great oak chests, but took the ring Andvarinaut and placed it on his hand. Then he released the bonds of his spell, commanded Fafnir and me to unlock the chains, and the gods were given safe passage out of his land.
“For a short time, all seemed well, but the mere sight of the ring was a torment to Fafnir. And so, one night Fafnir crept to our father’s bed and cut his throat while he slept. He placed Andvari’s ring on his own hand, then appeared at my bedside with his bloody dagger.
“‘Come,’ he said, ‘I have need of you.’ Fearfully I did as I was told and dragged the treasure out across the Glittering Heath and beyond to a cavern under a mountain deep in the Mirkwood.
“‘You make a good porter, my brother. You’ve earned your life, but little else. If you turn now and run, I will not slay you. Put this gold from your mind, for it shall never he left unguarded.’
“So it was that Fafnir won the ring and the treasure of the Dwarf Andvari with the blood of our father. Over that treasure, he ever after brooded. Hateful lust has poisoned his heart and mind, and all who have come his way by chance or intent, he has murdered. For now his outward form has matched his inner evil, and he has become a serpent—a huge dragon—the mightiest of this or any age.”
Sigurd now sees his destiny and takes up Regin’s challenge: “Slay me this dragon to avenge my father, and win for yourself great glory. Help me to my share of the wereguild, and besides glory you shall have Andvari’s ring and the greater part of the treasure, as well.”
For such a mission, the valiant Sigurd desires a weapon to match his strength, and so goes to his mother and claims the shards of his father’s sword that had been the gift of Odin. These shards he gives to Regin in his smithy. Regin sets furiously to work, heating them in the hottest fire, reforging the blade, and tempering it in the blood of a bull. The sacred runes above the hilt recover their brightness, the rings engraved on the steel gleam like silver, and as the smith carries the sword out into the daylight, it seems that flames play along its edge.
Sigurd takes the weapon in his strong hands and swings it fiercely at the smith’s anvil. The sword slices clean through the iron and the wooden stock below it, as well. Yet the blade is unblemished by the stroke.
“This truly can be no other but the sword called Gram, the gift of Odin, which my father swore would one day be reforged and be given to his only son,” says Sigurd, smiling. So armed and mounted on his steed Grani, Sigurd rides on his quest with Regin. They come at last to the fire-scorched and desolate outlands of what was once the Glittering Heath. Now this place is wild and blasted heath on the edge of the evil forest of the Mirkwood. It is a scorched wasteland where many a hero was slain by the dragon. Upon this heath is cut a deep path of stone that is the slime-covered track of the dragon road that leads to Fafnir’s serpent cavern deep in the Mirkwood. There the dragon made his bed upon the golden treasure that was the ring-hoard of Andvari the Dwarf.
Fafnir left his golden bed only once each day, when he traveled his road to the foul pool on the heath where he drank at dusk.
“Dig a trench in the dragon’s path and hide in it,” advises Regin. “When he comes over you thrust your sword up into his soft belly. You cannot fail.”
While Sigurd is digging, Regin makes off across the heath and hides himself in the Mirkwood. A shadow falls over the pit and Sigurd whirls around. It is the same one-eyed, bearded old man who had given Sigurd his gray horse.
“Small wisdom, short life,” murmurs the old man, leaning on his spear. “The dragon’s blood will sear your bones. Dig several pits, and hide in the one to the left. Then you may thrust your blade into the worm’s heart, while the boiling, poison blood falls into another pit.”
By evening the work is done, and just in time. The stinking dragon comes down to drink, roaring horribly and slavering poison over the ground. Biding his time, Sigurd thrusts Gram’s blade into the dragon’s breast up to the hilt. The scalding, corrosive blood floods into the ditch, and Fafnir collapses. His writhing coils shake the earth. His roaring fills the air with flame and venom. His jaws snap at an enemy he cannot reach, as he curses the hero who has slain him and the brother who betrayed him.
When Sigurd emerges from his pit, Regin too comes from his hiding-place and feigns both sorrow and joy. Claiming that he wishes to remove any bloodguilt from Sigurd for the slaying of Fafnir, Regin asks Sigurd to cut the dragon’s heart from its body and roast it. Regin claims that by eating the dragon’s heart, he alone might be brought to account for its death. Sigurd does as Regin tells him and builds a fire and spits the heart over the flames. But as the dragon’s heart cooks, its juice spits out and scalds the young man’s fingers. He puts his fingers in his mouth and, upon tasting the monster’s heart’s blood, at once finds he can understand the language of the birds in the trees about him.
The birds speak with sorrow, for they know of Regin’s treachery and how the smith will gain great wisdom and bravery by eating the dragon’s heart, and that he then plans to slay Sigurd in his sleep. The birds know that Regin will never share the golden treasure, or the ring with the brave youth, despite his sworn oath. They know as well that Regin wishes to steal Sigurd’s sword and steed.
Hearing this talk among the birds, Sigurd moves swiftly. With his sword Gram, he strikes the false smith’s head from his shoulders. Then Sigurd eats the dragon’s heart himself and sets to work clearing out Fafnir’s lair.
It is a whole day’s work, for the cave floor is carpeted with drifts of gold. No three horses however strong could have stood beneath such a load, but Grani carries this with ease. The extra burden of Sigurd, now wearing golden armor, seems to cause him no effort at all.
So laden, with the Ring of Andvari on his hand, Sigurd the Dragon-slayer goes out of that burnt wasteland in search of more adventures. He seeks and achieves further honor, for he makes war on the kings and princes who murdered his father and his kinsmen, and slays them every one.
Many other adventures the youth has as well, but then he goes south into the lands of the Franks. Traveling long one night he sees, like a beacon, a great ring of flames on a mountain ridge. The next morning he rides over the ridge of the Hindfell, where he sees a stone tower in the middle of the ring of flames.
Sigurd does not hesitate. He urges Grani into the ring of fire. Nor does Grani flinch. His leap is as high as it is long, and though his tail and mane are scorched, he stands quietly once they are through. There is an inner circle next: an overlapping ring of massive war shields, their bases fixed in the mountain rock. Sigurd draws Gram and shears a path through the iron shield wall.
Beyond this is the stone tower, and within it is the body of a warrior on a bier. Or so it seems. When Sigurd takes the helmet from the warrior’s head, he sees that this is a beautiful woman and that she is not dead, but sleeping. As he gazes on her sleeping form, Sigurd sees she is of a warrior’s stature but blessed with a woman’s grace. He also sees a buckthorn protruding from her neck. When Sigurd draws it out, this sleeping beauty sighs and wakes, and the shield maiden’s steady gray eyes look up at him with love.
This sleeping beauty is Brynhild, who was once a Valkyrie, one of Odin’s own battle maidens—his beautiful angels of death—who gathered the souls of heroes as they fell in war and carried them to Valhalla. But once, she set her will against Odin in the matter of a man’s life. For this, Odin pierced her with a sleep-thorn and set her in a tower surrounded by a ring of fire.
Only a hero who did not know fear would be able to pass through the ring of fire. When Brynhild opens her eyes, she knows Sigurd for the hero he is, and Sigurd knows that in this Valkyrie he has met his match for courage and his master in wisdom. And when Sigurd becomes the Valkyrie’s lover, within the ring of fire, he learns what twenty lifetimes might never teach a mortal man. For in that embrace of love, many things in Sigurd are awakened and filled with the wisdom of the gods; while in Brynhild many things are put to sleep, and filled with the unknowing of mortals.
Sigurd, as the lover of the Valkyrie, knows that he must embrace strife and war, which give a warrior immortal fame. Painful as it is, Sigurd knows he must leave Brynhild and go out of the ring of fire into the world of men again, where he might earn glory enough to be worthy of his bride. This Sigurd resolves to do, but as a token of his eternal love and as a promise of his return, he places the Ring of Andvari upon Brynhild’s hand. And then, as Brynhild sleeps, Sigurd rises at dawn, mounts Grani, and passes out of the ring of fire.
When Brynhild wakes, under a spell, she remembers nothing of Sigurd, or Odin, or any of her past before that day. Upon her hand is a gold ring, though she does not know its significance. All she knows is that she must await the coming of a warrior who knows no fear and can pass through the ring of fire. To this man, and this man alone, she will be sworn in marriage.
As for Sigurd, great though his love is for Brynhild, he knows that his fate is that of a warrior. Like his father, he was chosen by Odin, and in the god’s service Sigurd travels to many lands, and slays no less than five mighty kings in battle.
In time, Sigurd comes to the Rhine lands of the Nibelungs. The Nibelung king welcomes the now-famous hero, Sigurd the Dragon-slayer, with great warmth and camaraderie. In time, Sigurd and the king’s three sons—Gunnar, Hogni, and Guttorm—become the closest of friends and allies in both war and peace. Sigurd and Gunnar swear unbreakable oaths of friendship, and become blood brothers.
Seeing how Sigurd’s friendship has increased the power and wealth of their realm, Gunnar’s mother Grimhild, queen of the Nibelungs, wishes to keep him within their realm. To this end, she hopes Sigurd might marry her daughter, the beautiful Gudrun. However, though she knows Gudrun loves Sigurd, she also knows Sigurd loves another.
And yet, Grimhild is not without hope for she is also secretly a great witch capable of casting spells and making powerful potions. So in the feasting-hall one evening, Grimhild gives Sigurd an enchanted drink. This potion robs Sigurd of his memory of the Valkyrie whom he swore to love always, and at the same time fills him with desire for the beautiful Gudrun.
Obedient to the spell, Sigurd soon asks for Gudrun’s hand and with great pomp and ceremony they are wed and blessed by all. Many seasons pass, Sigurd and Gudrun are happy and content, and the power and glory of the Nibelungs grows and grows. Yet tales of a strange and beautiful maiden held captive in a ring of fire on a mountain reach the court. These tales mean nothing to Sigurd, but Gunnar wishes to win this maiden and make her his queen. His mother, Grimhild, is wary of this adventure and asks Sigurd to accompany and protect his blood brother. Sigurd does this gladly, but Grimhild arms Sigurd with another secret potion. By this potion’s power Sigurd may change his appearance to that of Gunnar.
Gunnar and Sigurd ride away and at last come to the ridge of the Hindfell and the mountain with the tower ringed in fire. Gunnar sets his spurs to his horse, but the beast turns away at each attempt, and the flames rear higher and more fiercely at every failure. Even though Sigurd lets him mount Grani, Gunnar gets nowhere.
Gunnar despairs at ever winning his queen, so he begs Sigurd to try in his place. Sigurd uses Grimhild’s potion and changes his appearance to that of Gunnar. He then mounts Grani and charges straight into the ring of fire. Sigurd’s boots catch fire and Grani’s mane and tail are alight. Horse and rider seem to hang in that inferno forever, deafened and blinded by its heat, but finally they pass through the flames.
Next is the barrier of the wall of shields but, as before, Sigurd shears through the iron wall with his sword. Behind this wall in the tower sits the beauty that is Brynhild all in white upon a crested throne, like a proud swan borne up on a foaming wave.
“What man are you?” asks Brynhild of the one standing before her. Memories of her past are gone from her mind, yet something deep within her tells her something is wrong.
“My name is Gunnar the Nibelung,” says the rider, “and I claim you as my queen.” Passing through the ring of fire was the price of Brynhild’s hand, and she cannot refuse such a hero. Nor is there any reason for her to do so, for the man before her is handsome enough; and in traversing the wall of fire and the wall of steel has proved himself to be brave and strong beyond the measure of ordinary mortals.
So Brynhild embraces him and places the gold Ring of Andvari upon his hand with a pledge her eternal love. Then within the tower she takes him to bed and lays with him for three nights, though these nights were strange to her. For each night the hero places his long sword on the bed between them. He must do this, he says, for he will not make love to his new queen until they both return to the great halls of the Nibelungs. In this way the disguised Sigurd conspires, so he might not betray Gunnar and dishonor the bride.
When the marriage of Brynhild and Gunnar takes place in the hall of the Nibelungs, it is the true Gunnar who weds Brynhild and takes her to bed. In the land of the Nibelungs all seems to be content. But one day while bathing in a stream the two young queens set to quarreling. Brynhild boasts that Gunnar is a greater man than Sigurd by virtue of his feat of passing through the ring of fire and the ring of steel.
Gudrun will have none of this, for Sigurd has foolishly told to his wife the true tale of that adventure. So the young queen cruelly reveals the truth to Brynhild; and as proof reveals the gold ring upon her hand. At its sight Brynhild is crushed, for this was the ring Andvarinaut that she thought she had given to Gunnar that day on the mountain, but in fact Sigurd had taken and given to his own wife.
Now all the secrets are out, and poison runs in Brynhild’s heart when she learns of how she has been deceived. Outraged, she can only think of vengeance. Brynhild turns to Gunnar and his brothers Hogni and Guttorm. She taunts and threatens her husband.
“All the people now laugh and say I have married a coward,” mocks Brynhild. “And now my disgrace is your disgrace, for they say not only did another man win your wife for you, but also took your place in the wedding bed. And no use is there to deny this, for the Ring of Andvari—which Sigurd gave your sister—is proof that this is so.”
“Sigurd shall die, then. Or I shall,” swears Gunnar. But he has neither the heart nor the courage to act alone, and slay his friend. Instead he and Hogni inflame the heart of their youngest brother, Guttorm, with the desire to slay Sigurd. That night Guttorm creeps into the chamber where Sigurd lies sleeping in Gudrun’s arms. Young Guttorm thrusts his sword down with such force that it pierces the man and the bedstead too. Waking to death, Sigurd still finds strength enough to snatch up Gram and hurl it after his killer. The terrible sword in flight severs the youth in half before he reaches the door. Guttorm’s legs fall forward, but his torso drops back into the room.
When Brynhild hears Gudrun’s scream she laughs aloud, but there is no joy in her terrible revenge. For that night, Brynhild takes Sigurd’s sword and slays herself. True to her Valkyrie passion, she resolves that if she cannot be wed to Sigurd in life she will be wed to him in death. Once again and finally, Sigurd and Brynhild lie side by side—with Odin’s bright sword between them—as the fierce flames of their funeral pyre slowly devours them.
So ends the life of Sigurd the Dragon-slayer, but this is not the end of the tale of the Ring of Andvari, nor of the dwarf’s treasure. For the ring remains on Gudrun’s hand and the treasure is taken by her brothers Gunnar and Hogni, and hidden by them in a secret cavern in the Rhine River.
Gudrun is filled with horror at Sigurd’s death at the hands of her brothers, but she does not grieve long before her mother Grimhild comes to comfort her. Once again the old witch has prepared a potion, which secretly she gives to Gudrun to make her forget her grief and the evil her brothers have done. Instead, the potion fills her with love and loyalty to her brothers in all matters.
Still, Gunnar and Hogni wish to have Gudrun gone. They also wish to increase the power and glory of the Nibelungs, and believe they might do so by an alliance with the mighty Atli, the king of the Huns. And so the brothers send Gudrun to Atli. Under her mother’s spell, Gudrun must obey her brothers’ wishes. She weds the king of the Huns and becomes his queen.
Now Atli the Hun is a powerful man, but one who is filled with greed. He has heard much of the huge treasure that Sigurd the Dragon-slayer once won, and that the Nibelungs have taken this hoard by a foul murder. Each time Gudrun walks before the Hun king, her gold ring glints, and Atli finds he can think of nothing else but that great golden treasure.
Time passes and Gudrun gives the king of the Huns two young sons, but all the while Atli plans an intrigue and finally he acts. King Atli invites Gunnar and Hogni and all the Nibelung nobles to a great feast in his mead hall. But when the Nibelungs come to the feasting hall, they discover that a huge army of Huns has surrounded them. The great hall becomes a slaughterhouse. Although the Nibelungs slay ten for every one they lose, finally they are overwhelmed and all are murdered, save the brothers Gunnar and Hogni. These two are bound with chains and held captive.
The Hun king has Gunnar brought before him in chains, and promises to spare his life if he will give up the golden horde that was taken from Sigurd the Völsung. But Gunnar says that he and Hogni have hidden the treasure in a secret cavern beneath the Rhine, and swore blood oaths that neither will reveal it while the other lives. At once Atli gives an order and within the hour a soldier returns. In his hand is Hogni’s heart, torn from his living breast.
Gunnar greets this loathsome act with cruel laughter. There had been no oath, he explains. Gunnar had been fearful that Hogni might surrender the treasure to save his life. But now that his brother is slain, only Gunnar knows the secret, and he will never surrender it. In rage, Atli has Gunnar bound and cast in a pit where serpents filled with venom finally still that warrior’s stubborn heart.
The Hun king’s wife, Queen Gudrun, is filled with grief at the death of her brothers and the obliteration of the Nibelungs. Although Andvari’s treasure is lost, Andvari’s ring still carries the dwarf’s curse while it remains on Gudrun’s hand. And Gudrun—as the last of the Nibelungs—resolves to have bloody retribution for Atli’s treachery.
Though the battle with the Nibelungs has cost Atli dearly and profited him little, the king of the Huns calls for a victory feast in his great hall. Secretly, Gudrun makes her own preparations for the feast. She murders her own two children, Atli’s sons. From their skulls, she makes two cups. Their innocent blood she mixes with the wine; and their hearts and entrails she spits and roasts as his meat. All these she serves up to the unknowing Atli at the feast. Then later that night, Gudrun takes a knife and cuts the Hun King’s throat while he sleeps. Not yet sated, she creeps away, bars all the doors from without, and sets the Hun’s great hall to the torch. This is the greatest funeral pyre ever seen in the land of the Huns, for all Atli’s soldiers and vassals perish in their sleep in that fire.
Before that inferno, Gudrun stands and stares with mounting madness, for the leaping flames bring back many terrible memories. She flees the land of the Huns and wanders until she comes to a high cliff overlooking the sea. There, Gudrun glances once more upon the glinting gold Ring of Andvari on her hand; then she fills her apron with stones and leaps into the sea.
_______________
1In earliest recorded sagas, the Nibelungs were called the Guikings. However, the names appear to be used interchangeably. Iceland’s Snorri Sturluson, in the thirteenth-century Younger Edda, states: “Gunnar and Hogni were called Nibelungen or Guikings; therefore the gold is called the Nibelungen hoard.” To minimize the confusion in view of later Germanic traditions, I will use the Nibelung name for the dynasty.
The Nibelungenlied is the national epic of the German people, written by an anonymous poet around 1200 for performance in the Austrian court. Although, more precisely, this Austrian poet was just the last poet to contribute to the Nibelungenlied, for the work was the product of a heroic poetic tradition that began sometime in the fifth century AD. The heroic age for all the Teutonic (Germanic and Scandinavian) races of northern Europe was the chaotic fifth and sixth centuries, when the authority of the Roman Empire was collapsing before the migrating Teutonic tribes. The chieftains of those times became the subjects of oral traditions that elevated them to mythic status. The events in the Völsunga Saga and the Nibelungenlied are both based on the historical events surrounding the catastrophic annihilation of an early Germanic people known as the Burgundians in AD 436 by the Huns of Attila who were acting as mercenary agents for the Roman Emperor.
Although many medieval hero cycles use elements of the Norse Völsunga Saga, the Nibelungenlied is the most direct rendering of that particular tale. Siegfried is definitely the Norse Sigurd, Gunther is Gunnar, Kriemhild is Gudrun, Brunhild is Brynhild, and Hagen is Hogni. Besides employing the German names, rather than Norse names, the Nibelungenlied represents much more of a courtly medieval world than the more primitive Norse world of the Völsungs. Historically, the Nibelungenlied concerns itself with the Burgundian kingdom on the Rhine near Worms that at the time was under Roman rule. In the year AD 436 the Burgundians rose up in rebellion against the Roman governor Aetius. By AD 437 they had been all but exterminated by a contingent of Huns acting on behalf of the Empire. What remained of the annihilated Burgundians fled westward from the Rhine to the Rhone (roughly that part of France now called Burgundy). The memory of this catastrophic end to a once powerful German tribe was retold by the neighboring Franks on the Rhine around Cologne. The story was adapted by their Norse neighbors and integrated into the Völsung legend, then—centuries later—was readapted and reclaimed by medieval Germans in the epic tale of the Nibelungenlied.
Although Attila was certainly the Hun king at the time of the Burgundian uprising, he did not participate in the quelling of the revolts, and was elsewhere at the time. However, as the legend grew, inevitably, Attila became part of the tale as Atli in the Norse version and Etzel in the German retelling. The source of the death of Atli, the Völsung Hun king, at the hands of his wife is undoubtedly related to the historical events surrounding Attila’s death in the year 453 AD. Reliable historical accounts tell us that Attila died of a throat hemorrhage after drinking and feasting on the first night of his marriage to a German princess called Hildico. Immediately there sprang up a belief that Hildico had killed Attila in revenge for the Burgundian massacre.
The names of the two great queens of the Nibelungenlied are in fact etymologically connected with this historical German princess. Hildico means “Little Warrior Maiden,” which is fairly close to both Kriemhild or “Helmed Warrior Maiden,” and Brunhild or “Armored Warrior Maiden.” The characters of Brunhild and Kriemhild—and much of the plot of the Nibelungenlied and the Völsunga Saga—are also shaped by the deeds of another historical character, the notorious Visigoth Queen Brunhilda.
Born about AD 540, Brunhilda was married to King Sigebert of the Eastern Franks. King Sigebert’s brother Chilperic was king of the Western Franks and married to Queen Brunhilda’s sister. In the ensuing war between the brothers, King Sigebert was murdered through intrigue in AD 575, and Brunhilda was made a captive. Her life was saved and her freedom won, however, by her captor’s son, who took her as his wife. She soon became a powerful force among the Franks, and over the thirty years of her influence she brought about the murders of no less than ten royal noblemen. Finally, in AD 613, a group of Frank noblemen decided to put an end to her intrigues. They tortured Brunhilda for three days, had her torn apart by wild horses, and then burned her on a pyre—a spectacular and barbaric end to a remarkable historical character.
There are aspects of the medieval Nibelungenlied that obviously differ from the more worldly ones portrayed in the Völsunga Saga. One is that the ring-hoard of the Völsunga Saga has suffered severe inflation by the time it reaches the Nibelungenlied. Gold among the Norsemen was a rare commodity. We find the golden hoard that Sigurd’s horse Grani carried in the Völsunga Saga is so inflated in the Nibelungenlied that a baggage train consisting of hundreds of wagons is required to transport it.
There are also other curious variations. In the Völsunga Saga, the historical Attila as Atli is a savage and treacherous tyrant. However, in the Nibelungenlied, the Hun king as Etzel is portrayed as a humane and sympathetic character. This is certainly because of the politics of the Austro-Hungarian court for which this final version of the Nibelungenlied was composed.
Christian morality and chivalric tradition also resulted in changes. The supreme courtly behavior of the knights and the coyness concerning the defloration of Brunhild is at odds with the more direct Norse version. Also, there is undoubtedly a war-of-the-sexes aspect to the epic. Siegfried makes this clear in his battle with the Amazon queen: “If I now lose my life to this girl, the whole sex will become uppish and never obey their husbands forever after.” It does not seem to matter that Siegfried and Gunther cheat and lie to this obviously superior warrior woman in the arena and in the bedroom. It all serves the high moral purpose of keeping women subservient. This double standard is also vividly demonstrated in the last remarkable scenes of the Nibelungenlied.
The Nibelungenlied displays perspectives that sound strange to the modern reader since the epic is not primarily a vehicle for the hero Siegfried, as, for example, the Iliad is for Achilles. It also appears that our sympathies with the valiant Siegfried in the first half are supposed to shift in the second half to the heroic deeds of his murderers, Hagen and Gunther. The epic is not even a history of a single dynasty or race. The Nibelungs are first one people, then another, then a third, depending on who controls the Nibelung treasure, which has become separated from the ring. As Richard Wagner concluded in his studies of the epic: “The Hoard of the Nibelungen, as the epitome of earth power, and he who owns it, who governs by it, either is or becomes a Nibelung.”
The Nibelungenlied begins with a prophetic dream visited upon the young Princess Kriemhild of the Burgundians. In that dream a falcon is mounted upon Kriemhild’s jeweled wrist. This falcon is without equal; it is the most cherished of all things that Kriemhild calls her own. Yet, without warning, two eagles strike the bird in flight. Before Kriemhild’s eyes, the eagles tear her falcon to pieces and glut themselves on its flesh. A troubled young Kriemhild seeks solace from her mother who is a woman wise in the reading of dreams, but to her child she could give no comfort. The falcon is a prince whom Kriemhild will love and marry, while the eagles are two murderers who would destroy that prince. And so, because of this dream, Kriemhild swears she will wed no man. Though many chivalrous knights desire her and sing her praises, she will wed no one. Nor are there any who might force her to wed, for now she rules as queen jointly with her brothers, Gunther, Gernot, and Giselher, the three powerful kings of Rhineland.
Yet fate will not allow Kriemhild to keep her vow. North of the kingdom of the Rhine are the Netherlands and the great city of Xanten. There lives the hero Siegfried, the son of King Siegmund and Queen Sieglind. This is the mighty warrior who gained fame by traveling far to the north into the land of the Nibelungs, the richest kingdom in the world. There, Siegfried slays the twelve guardian giants of Nibelungenland, and takes from their armory that ancient sword called Balmung. With it, he defeats seven hundred men of Nibelungenland. Then, at last, he duels with the two mighty kings of the Nibelungs themselves and, in the din of combat, slays them both.
But the great treasure of the Nibelungs has one last guardian, more subtle and dangerous than all the rest. This is the ancient dwarf, Alberich, who not only possesses huge strength but also wears the Tarnkappe, the Cloak of Invisibility. So Siegfried now must wrestle an invisible foe that he finally locks in his grip, and wins from Alberich both the magic cloak and the Nibelung treasure. So vast was the Nibelung treasure that it would take one hundred baggage wagons to carry away the precious stones alone; though these were but a scattering over the mounds of red gold that were heaped on the floors of the secret cavern where it was kept.
By force of arms, Siegfried becomes master of the Nibelung treasure and lord of Nibelungenland. And although Siegfried returns to Xanten to rule the Netherlands, he is acknowledged as the king of Nibelungenland as well. However, this is not the end of Siegfried’s deeds, for besides countless duels with other men-at-arms, this hero also slays a mighty dragon. Further, by this deed Siegfried wins him not just fame but invincibility. For after slaying the monster, he bathes in the dragon’s blood, and his skin grows tough as horn so that no weapon can pierce him.
When Siegfried rides south in search of adventure, he ultimately comes to the land of the Burgundians, and there the three kings of the Rhine greet him with honor. For the best part of a year Siegfried remains in Rhineland in the great city of Worms, and with King Gunther swears an oath of friendship. Still, there is another reason for Siegfried’s journey. He has heard of the beauty of Kriemhild, and hopes he might win her as his queen.
Siegfried has reasoned well, for from her tower Kriemhild has often watched the hero from afar in pageants and in combat. By the sight of him alone, she is filled at once with love, and her resolve not to give her heart to any man is soon discarded. As the year of Siegfried’s visit approaches its end, there is a call to arms. The combined armies of the king of the Saxons and the king of the Danes are joined in a huge force to make war on the Burgundians. Siegfried champions the Burgundian cause. So great is Siegfried’s valor that although he leads a force of only one thousand knights, he crushes an army of twenty thousand Saxons and Danes in a single day.
Shortly after this great service to the Burgundians, Siegfried asks Gunther for his sister’s hand in marriage. With gladness Gunther agrees, for he knows that his sister’s heart is filled with love for this man, and that his kingdom has no stouter ally and friend. However, Gunther explains, one obstacle still stands before this union might he blessed. As Gunther is the eldest royal son and high king of the Rhine, the laws of the land insist he must he wed before his sister.
Now Gunther reveals that he has become enamored of another beautiful maiden-queen who rules in Iceland. The only problem is that Queen Brunhild is no ordinary woman. She is a warrior-queen blessed with supernatural strength, and she swears that she will wed no man unless he can defeat her in three feats of strength. If a suitor tries and fails, he will be put to death. Many suitors have tried to win Brunhild, and all have failed and died.
So a bargain is struck: King Gunther will grant Queen Kriemhild’s hand to Siegfried, if Siegfried helps Gunther win the beautiful Queen Brunhild. Siegfried and Gunther set sail for far Iceland. They take with them only two of Gunther’s brave vassals: Hagen of Troneck and his brother Dancwart. This is a suitor’s quest, and so they take no weapons of war, but array themselves in their finest clothes.
Queen Brunhild’s fortress-city has eighty-six towers and three palaces, and her royal hall is built of sea-green marble. This proud and beautiful queen of Iceland graciously receives the royal travelers. On her hand Brunhild wears an ancient red-gold ring and about her waist is a girdle adorned with precious gems: a splendid orphrey of jewels and fine silk braid from Nineveh.
Gunther’s heart goes out to Brunhild at once. But it is to Siegfried that Brunhild speaks first, for the queen assumes that Siegfried is the most noble of her visitors, and that it is he who has come as suitor. Here is the first of Siegfried’s deceptions. To Brunhild, Siegfried falsely claims that he is a vassal to King Gunther, who is the greatest and strongest of heroes, and it is Gunther who comes to compete for her hand. With some reluctance the queen accepts Gunther’s challenge and agrees to the contest.
Queen Brunhild stands alone in the vast arena, surrounded by an iron ring of seven hundred men-at-arms who will judge the contest. The warrior-queen dresses herself in steel armor adorned with gold and gems. It takes four strong men to lift the Queen’s bright shield, and three men to carry her spear: both of these she takes and wields like childish toys. Then into that arena marches her suitor and challenger, King Gunther of the Rhine. However, though he appears to stand alone against the warrior-queen, this is not so. The wily Siegfried has covered himself in Tarnkappe, the Cloak of Invisibility, but which has a second power, that of increasing the strength of its wearer twelvefold.
So, when the contest of the javelin is made, it is the invisible Siegfried who stands between Gunther and his shield and stops the force of the queen’s throw. Certain death would have been delivered to Gunther alone, for even with Siegfried’s twelvefold strength, both heroes are staggered when the spear strikes and a tongue of flame leaps from the pierced shield. Brunhild is amazed when Gunther does not fall. Instead, Gunther appears to lift up her spear and, turning the blunt end to the fore—so as not to slay the maid—throws the weapon with such force as to drive her to the ground. But here Brunhild is deceived by appearances, for it was the invisible hand of Siegfried that hurled the spear.
Then come the next two tests: the casting of a great stone and the long leap. The stone is so heavy it takes twelve men to carry it into the arena. Without hesitation, Queen Brunhild lifts the stone and throws it the length of those twelve men laid end to end; then she makes a mighty leap that overshoots the distance of the stone.
In silent reply, Gunther goes to the stone and appears to lift it effortlessly, but once again it is the invisible Siegfried who does the deed and hurls the stone far beyond Brunhild’s mark. Then, lifting Gunther by his waist, Siegfried leaps, carrying Gunther with him through the air, landing far beyond their stone-cast.
So, by the strength and cunning of Siegfried, Gunther has won a bride, and to the kingdom of the Rhine comes the proud Queen Brunhild. In Gunther’s court at Worms there is much celebration and joy. There are to be two royal marriages: Gunther to Brunhild and Siegfried to Kriemhild.
Wedding guests receive gifts of bracelets, lockets, and rings, while an iron ring of armed knights solemnly stands about the betrothed couples as they swear their holy vows. Joyfully, Gunther and Siegfried march out of the chapel with the two loveliest of brides. As night comes, they retire to their wedding beds, as their guests revel on.
In the morning, Siegfried and Kriemhild are radiant with their mutual love while Gunther seems distraught, and Brunhild distant and aloof. Gunther has none of the bridegroom’s natural joy and pride. Indeed, that very afternoon, Gunther comes to confide in Siegfried and tell him of his humiliation. On their wedding night Brunhild tells Gunther that although he has won her hand by his skill in the arena, she will not willingly give up her body to him. For to give herself to a man would break the spell of her warrior’s strength, which she wishes to keep all her life. When Gunther tries by force to claim his nuptial rights, Brunhild merely laughs at him. She binds him up with her braided girdle, and hangs him like a slaughtered pig from a peg on the wall until dawn.
Once again, Siegfried is drawn into an intrigue against the warrior-queen. That night in darkness, using Tarnkappe, the Cloak of Invisibility, Siegfried enters Brunhild’s room. In Gunther’s place he lies in Brunhild’s bridal bed. Thinking it is Gunther in the dark, Brunhild strikes Siegfried with such force that blood leaps from his mouth and he is thrown across the room.
Wrestling with the hero, Brunhild grips Siegfried’s hands so tightly that blood spurts from his nails and he is driven against the wall. Yet finally, aided by the twelve-fold power of Tarnkappe, Siegfried’s huge strength prevails. He lifts her from the ground, throws her down upon the bed, and by main force crushes her in his gathered arms so fiercely that all the joints of her body crack at once. Only then does she submit and cry out to her conqueror to let her live.
Now most who tell this tale say that at this moment Siegfried is an honorable friend to Gunther and does not rest in the lovely cradle of Brunhild’s long limbs that night. But whatever the truth of the matter, in one way at least Siegfried does dishonor this proud woman. For in the darkness, Siegfried sees the dull glint of red gold. It is Brunhild’s ring, and in his pride of conquest, he takes the ring from her hand. Then, as he leaves the marriage bed, he also takes the jeweled girdle of woven Nineveh silk as well.
In stealth, Siegfried flees the dark chamber, and Gunther comes to the bed of the vanquished bride who no longer dares to resist his advance. When the dawn comes, Brunhild is as pale and meek as the mildest bride. For with the loss of maidenhead and her ring, Brunhild’s warrior strength flees her body forever. She becomes a good and submissive wife to King Gunther.
Now twelve years pass happily. Siegfried and Kriemhild live and rule over the Netherlands and Nibelungenland from their palace in Xanten while Gunther and Brunhild live and rule over the Rhinelands and their palace at Worms. Then Gunther invites Siegfried and his sister to come to a festival in his court.
Perhaps the ancient power of the ring is at work, or perhaps the fault was in Siegfried’s pride. Whatever the reason, Siegfried makes a tragic error, for in Xanten he gives to Kriemheld as a gift the ring and the silken girdle he took from Brunhild in her wedding bed. And, even more foolishly, he reveals to Kriemhild the secret of the winning of them.
One day the two queens meet at the cathedral door and a dispute arises between them as to who should enter first. Brunhild is rash and maintains that Kriemhild has displayed unwarranted arrogance toward her; for obviously Siegfried is nothing more than a vassal of Gunther. Kriemhild will not stand for this insult. She argues that Siegfried is the greater man and no man’s vassal. Filled with exasperation, Kriemhild’s discretion is abandoned. To Brunhild, she holds up the stolen ring of red gold, and then reveals the jeweled girdle of braided Nineveh silk that Brunhild once wore.
Contemptuously, before all who will listen, she claims that Brunhild had been Siegfried’s concubine before she wed Gunther; and that Siegfried had taken these trophies after he had been the first to enjoy her body upon the bridal bed. The humiliated Brunhild flees to Gunther with this tale and demands that he redeem her honor. Full of anger, Gunther calls Siegfried to him. Alarmed at this scandalous talk, Siegfried tells Gunther that what his wife has said is untrue and that he had not so used Brunhild that night.
With no gentleness, Siegfried chastises his wife, and demands that she apologize for this shameful argument. In his haste to make amends so that Brunhild should not discover the other stratagems by which he deceived and subdued her, Siegfried orders an iron ring of knights to form about him, and swears a sacred oath that all these tales are black lies.
This false oath is the final seal on Siegfried’s fate. His honor is despoiled. For although it seems that most accept this denial, the proof of the gold ring and the girdle cannot be withdrawn and rumor of the scandal of the marriage bed spreads. To Brunhild comes the steadfast Hagen of Troneck, the queen’s champion and the king’s stoutest vassal. Brunhild inflames Hagen’s heart, and these two persuade Gunther that only blood vengeance can restore their honor.
At this time rumors of war with the Danes again arise in the Rhine, and Siegfried once again makes ready for battle, but Kriemhild has dire forebodings. Artfully, Hagen comes to Kriemhild, saying that he too has heard evil omens concerning her husband but that he cannot believe these omens, as all know that the spell of dragon’s blood protects Siegfried. It is then that Kriemhild reveals the secret of Siegfried’s mortality. For when Siegfried bathed in dragon’s blood, a lime leaf covered one place between his shoulder blades. In this place alone, Siegfried can he pierced with sharp steel. On Hagen’s instructions, Kriemhild secretly sews a tiny cross on Siegfried’s doublet over his one mortal place. Then Hagen swears he will always be at Siegfried’s back, and will guard the hero from any unexpected blow.
The very next day, Hagen, Gunther, and Siegfried go hunting in the royal forest. When Siegfried lies down to drink from a stream after a long chase, Hagen drives his spear into the cross and through Siegfried’s back to his heart. Mortally wounded, Siegfried is like a wild, dying beast flailing in the air. But after Hagen strikes, Gunther seizes Siegfried’s weapons and flees, so the hero might not wreak vengeance with his final breath.
When at last Siegfried’s life’s blood spills out upon the forest floor and he breathes no more, the assassins return. They take up his body and carry it to the court, proclaiming lawless highwaymen have treacherously murdered Siegfried. With Siegfried’s death, Brunhild believes her husband Gunther and her champion Hagen have upheld her honor. Not only has she brought death to the man who deceived her, but also now the proud rival queen who had humiliated her is brought to despair. Further, because Kriemhild is without a husband, Gunther takes her under his protection, and with this pretext plunders her inheritance: the Nibelung treasure.
In this treacherous way, the Burgundians win the Nibelung treasure. For days and nights an endless caravan of wagons filled with gold and jewels carries the huge treasure into the walled city of Worms where Gunther and Brunhild rule. This treasure entirely fills the city’s greatest tower. Yet, so rich is this hoard that King Gunther mistrusts its keepers and others who might steal it. Stealthily over the years, under the cover of night, Gunther and Hagen pillage all that huge treasure and take it to a secret place on the Rhine. In that place, Gunther and Hagen find a deep river cavern and sink all that vast treasure of gold and gemstones, so only these two alone know where it is hidden.
For a time the power and strength of Gunther’s people are without parallel. With the Nibelung hoard in their possession, they are renowned as the wealthiest of nations. Indeed, because that famous treasure now rests in their land, the Burgundians of the Rhine soon become known by all people as the Nibelungs: possessors of the Nibelung treasure and the luckiest of men.
Not all within the kingdom are content. The grieving Kriemhild for one is not deceived by the tale of Siegfried’s death. She guesses well enough the truth of his murder. Gradually her despair is replaced by a desire for revenge. Daily she stares at the gold ring on her hand that reminds her of the dispute that was the reason for her hero’s treacherous murder.
At last Brunhild decides she can no longer have Kriemhild within the royal court, for she rightly fears that Siegfried’s widow might ferment revolt. As chance would have it, Etzel, emperor of the Huns of the Danube, has sent word to the Nibelung court. The noble and elderly ruler of the Huns wishes to make the fair Kriemhild his queen. He has often heard of her beauty, and further he would be honored to marry and protect the widowed queen of Siegfried the Dragon-slayer.
To this proposal Gunther gives his blessing. He gives the hand of his sister to the Emperor Etzel and sends her to the Hun city of Gram on the banks of the Danube. Now Gunther believes that he and Brunhild might live forever, secure from retribution for the slaying of Siegfried.
This is not to be. For although Kriemhild is taken to the mighty royal city of Gram and the palace of Etzel on the banks of the Danube, her desire for vengeance is never forgotten. Although the generous Etzel gives to her every luxury and she feigns happiness in his presence, Kriemhild works always toward one end.
The Emperor Etzel is quite unaware of Kriemhild’s intrigues, and seems little concerned as his queen comes to command greater and greater power among the Huns. She gains the sworn allegiance and obedience of great numbers of Etzel’s vassals. Many knights, out of compassion, love, or greed, swear loyalty to Kriemhild above all others. After many years, when Kriemhild believes that her power is great enough, she persuades Etzel to invite all her kinsmen on a midsummer visit to the city of the Huns.
So open-handed and fair has Etzel always been with the Nibelungs that they suspect no evil intent. So to Gram come the three Nibelung kings: Gunther, Gernot, and Giselher. There also come the dauntless Hagen and his brother Dancwart, the mighty warriors Volker and Ortwine, and a thousand more heroic men as well. No nobleman is left within the walls of Worms, and from her tower Brunhild and her servants watch them go.
In the emperor’s city, the midsummer celebrations are filled with pageantry and pomp. There are tournaments, games, and festivals of song and dance. Yet the Nibelungs do not take part in the celebrations, for Gunther and Hagen see the fierce light of hatred that is in Kriemhild’s eyes. Well they know its source, although they had hoped she had long ago laid her hatred to rest. Then, too, they have received ill omens on their long journey to the land of the Huns.
On the twelfth day of the journey, they came to the wide banks of the Danube. There Hagen came upon the swan maidens, those fatal river women some call Nixies, and others call Water Sprites. From them Hagen was given a prophetic vision: all the Nibelungs by fire and sword would perish, and none would live to return to Rhineland.
So although all the Nibelungs had hoped that the Nixies had delivered to Hagen a false vision, the dreadful look of Kriemhild forewarns them of their doom. Thereafter they go about fully armed among the revelers. They do not have long to wait. That very night Kriemhild acts while all the Nibelung knights sit in the feasting hall. Secretly, without Etzel’s knowledge, Kriemhild sends a force of armed men to the quarters of the Nibelung squires, and all those valiant youths are slaughtered. When news of the slayings reaches the hall, Hagen leaps to his feet at the feasting table. With relentless savagery, he draws his sword and strikes off the infant head of Ortlieb, the emperor’s only child, as he plays upon his father’s lap.
Then Hagen calls out to the Nibelungs, telling them they have fallen into a trap, that like the squires they too would all be slain. The Nibelung knights leap into battle and the hall becomes a slaughterhouse. Though Etzel and Kriemhild escape, two thousand Huns fall in that battle in the hall.
Much to Etzel’s distress, Kriemhild urges on more of the Hunnish legions and allies. The feasting hall is transformed. The tables are covered with severed limbs and heads, silver dishes are filled with human entrails, and gold cups are filled to the brim with human blood. Kriemhild too is transformed; once the gentlest of women, she is now an avenging angel of death. Relentlessly, she urges the Huns into battle, and although more than half the Nibelungs have been slain, they hold the doors to the hall until a wall of bodies blocks the entrance, and the Huns have to clear their own dead to renew the fight.
Filled with fury, Kriemhild calls for torches and has the hall set ablaze to drive the Nibelungs into the open. But the fire does not drive the Nibelungs out, though many perish by flame and heat and smoke. They fight on through the blazing night. Taking refuge beneath the stone arches of the hall while the wooden structures burn about them, they battle on and drink the blood of the dead to slake their thirst.
Through the horror of that night a number of the Nibelungs survive, but with the dawn, the queen calls forth many more grim Hunnish men-at-arms. These vengefully attack the Nibelungs in the burnt wreckage of the feasting hall. Yet these warriors find even the remnants of the Nibelung knights a terrible foe, and many fall before their pitiless weapons.
Some of the Nibelungs might yet have lived had not that mighty hero, Dietrich, king of Verona, come to the aid of the Huns. Dietrich has no great desire to stand against the valiant Nibelungs; however, too many friends and kinsmen have now died at their hands. He knows he must act, so he sends his noble lieutenant Hildebrand with his men before him into the ruined hall. He asks Hildebrand to make some treaty between the Nibelungs and the Huns, so he himself need not be drawn into this feud.
But this act of reconciliation fails; the truce erupts at once in a bloody dispute that entirely eclipses both Dietrich’s army and the ragged remainder of the Nibelungs. Only the wounded Hildebrand lives to return with the disastrous news. Grimly Dietrich arms himself and comes to the ruined hall to find that only the exhausted but defiant Gunther and Hagen remain alive of all the Nibelungs. In a rage of despair, Dietrich uses his mighty strength to drive the exhausted Gunther and Hagen to the wall. It might have been the ghost of Siegfried himself that had come, so great is Dietrich’s might. The weapons of the Nibelungs—even the sword Balmung, which Hagen had usurped—are struck from their hands, and they are subdued and bound.
Still, Dietrich is a man of compassion and he implores Kriemhild to have pity on these brave knights. For a moment, it seems that Kriemhild will hold back her wrath. In truth, Kriemhild has now become an avenging fiend gone far beyond redemption. In the throne room she declares that there is yet the matter of her rightful inheritance to be resolved: the Nibelung treasure must he brought to Etzel’s court.
In secret, Kriemhild has already been to the cells. She meets Hagen and makes to him a false promise of freedom if he will tell her where the Nibelung treasure is hidden. Hagen is a dark and stoic man, and he trusts not a word that Kriemhild speaks. Hagen tells the queen he has sworn an oath never to reveal where the Nibelung treasure is buried while his lord, Gunther, lives.
Queen Kriemhild orders Hagen to he brought in chains to the throne room. Then, to the horror of all, Kriemhild throws the severed head of her brother King Gunther upon the floor. The Emperor Etzel and the hero Dietrich are aghast at the queen’s savagery, but the fierce Hagen of Troneck defiantly laughs aloud. There had been no oath of silence. Hagen had provoked the slaying because he feared that Gunther would trade his life for the treasure. But now that Gunther is gone, Hagen alone knows where that hoard is hidden, and no torture will ever make him tell. For if he cannot return the treasure to his Queen Brunhild, he can now at least deny that reward to her rival. Hagen laughs aloud, boasting that he would gladly suffer death and damnation to keep this last rich victory locked within his heart. Hagen’s defiance so enrages Queen Kriemhild that in an instant she takes into her hands Hagen’s sword: the Balmung that was once Siegfried’s. Then, before the emperor or his courtiers can recover from the first shock of the unnatural murder of Gunther, Kriemhild strikes off the head of Hagen of Troneck as well.
All now see the monstrous being Kriemhild has become. At this last act of treachery, all the royal court recoil in horror. All know that no greater shame can befall a knight than to be slain by the hand of a woman. It is Dietrich’s lieutenant, Hildebrand, who acts out the will of all the assembled nobles when he leaps forward with his drawn sword. In a deed that might almost have been merciful, he ends the tortured life of Queen Kriemhild with a single stroke.
With the death of Hagen, the last Nibelung lord is slain and the Nibelung treasure is gone forever from the sight of men. The Nixies and Water Spirits of the Rhine alone know where it lies, and they have no use for gold or gems. The ancient ring that was the cause of all this despair is buried with Queen Kriemhild who was once the gentlest of women; while her rival Queen Brunhild, who was once the strongest of her sex, is now broken by the loss of husband, champion, and all wealth. She mourns the disaster that has extinguished all her noble men-at-arms and left her alone in a ruined and empty realm.
So ends the tale of the rivalry of the two queens.
The first performance of the four operas comprising Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung (also called simply the Ring Cycle) in 1876 has often been cited as the first great expression of the identity of the recently unified German nation. Certainly, Wagner saw art as a political as well as an aesthetic act, and with his Ring Cycle he was attempting to claim a mythological heritage and a national art. For Wagner, art and myth were linked. He believed that true art must arise from the primordial depths of the Volk (a people’s collective being). His Ring Cycle was a purposeful act of making a statement of German identity and claiming the root of that identity was to be found in the Germanic epic tradition of the ring quest myths.
Criticized as Wagner may be for his manipulations and distortions of Norse myth and medieval German literature (see also TOLKIEN’S RING The Lord of the Rings), it was his genius that recognized the significance of the ring myth, and the importance of reclaiming it for his own time. Furthermore, one must recognize that Wagner’s Ring Cycle brilliantly conveys the huge spirit of this ancient tale on a truly epic scale. Just as the Völsunga Saga and the Nibelungenlied were interpretations of the quest appropriate to their times, so Wagner’s interpretation was true to the spirit of his.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, there was an awakening and flowering of interest in the Teutonic mythologies in Europe, and the ring quest emerged as a major theme in European literature. It was William Morris who (with Eiríkr Magnússon) gave the English the first full-blooded translation of the Völsunga Saga in 1870. Morris proclaimed the Icelandic epic the Iliad of northern Europe. Later, Morris followed this up with his own epic-length poem, Sigurd the Völsung, which appeared in 1876, the same year Wagner’s Ring Cycle was first staged at Bayreuth.
The playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw saw Morris’s Sigurd as one of the most monumental poems of the century. Shaw also wrote what must be the most brilliantly eccentric examination of Wagner’s four operas in his pamphlet The Perfect Wagnerite. Shaw saw The Ring of the Nibelung as an allegory about socialism, with the working class of Manchester being the hell-born, miserable dwarf-slaves of the evil dictatorial corporate stockholder Alberich.
The Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen adapted the Völsunga Saga in his early play The Vikings at Helgeland, and later used many of the same elements and themes in such mature works as Peer Gynt. During this period, the English poet, Matthew Arnold, wrote his Balder Dead; while Andrew Lang, George MacDonald, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were among the many who popularized Teutonic myth and legend in the English-speaking world. Another German, the poet and dramatist, Christian Hebbel wrote a trilogy based on Die Nibelungen, and Jacob Grimm wrote a monumental and massively influential study entitled Teutonic Mythology.
However, of them all, it is Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung that is the ring legend of the age. In these four operas, we see all of what comes before: mythically, historically, and spiritually. It was Wagner who, in the four operas of his Ring Cycle (The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried, and The Twilight of the Gods) reforged the ring for his time.
I. THE RHINEGOLD
ACT I
SCENE I
In the depths of a river, the three water nymphs—the Rhine maidens—play and sing in the limpid green waters. These beautiful daughters of the Rhine River are spied on by Alberich the Nibelung. The ugly Dwarf has made his way down into their watery realm, where he lustfully and fruitlessly pursues the teasing nymphs. Enraged by their mocking, the Dwarf is suddenly overcome by a brilliant golden glow. Rays of sunlight catch on a gold pinnacle of rock that fills the murky river with shimmering gold light. The nymphs sing praises to this treasure. It is the Rhinegold, a golden stone that, if forged into a gold ring, would allow its master to become lord of the world. However, the Rhinegold can be taken and mastered only by one who is willing to curse love and renounce all love’s pleasures. Since Alberich is too ugly to win love anyway, he will take power: he swears an oath renouncing love. Alberich the Nibelung then snatches the Rhinegold from the pinnacle and flees into the dark.
Dawn comes to a mountain height above the Rhine Valley where Wotan, the king of the gods, and Fricka, his queen, sleep. In the distance stands a magnificent castle with gleaming battlements, up on an impossibly high peak. Fricka wakes Wotan, and the god is filled with delight at the sight of the newly completed kingdom of the gods. This was a realm built by the brute force of giants, but conceived in Wotan’s dreams. Unfortunately, the price promised to the giants Fasolt and Fafner for building this kingdom was the hand of Fricka’s sister, Freia, the goddess of youth. However, with the loss of Freia the gods will also lose the golden apples of immortality of which she is guardian, and without this fruit they will soon grow old and die. When the giants come for their payment, Donner, the god of thunder, Froh, the god of spring, and Loge, the trickster god of fire, come to side with Wotan to defend Freia. However, the bargain cannot be broken, as Wotan has sworn to make payment upon his sacred spear of law. It is up to Loge to come up with an alternative payment. The giants agree: they will have the Ring of the Nibelung that Alberich has forged from the stolen Rhinegold, along with all the golden treasures he has amassed through its power. Loge also reveals that if the ring is not soon taken from Alberich, he will rule over all of them anyway. The giants take Freia as a hostage as Wotan and Loge descend into the bowels of the Earth in search of the realm of Alberich the Nibelung.
SCENE III
The subterranean caverns of Nibelheim, the home of the Nibelung Dwarfs, are a vast stone labyrinth of tunnels and chambers. This is a dark and sinister world lit only by the red glow of furnace and forge. Here, Alberich, the ring lord, torments Mime, his enslaved brother, who has just completed the forging of the magic helmet called Tarnhelm on Alberich’s orders. Tarnhelm has the power to make the wearer invisible or change him into whatever form he desires. It can also transport him to any place he wishes. Alberich places the Tarnhelm on his head and immediately vanishes. The invisible Alberich then cruelly kicks and beats Mime until he cries out for mercy. Delighted with his new toy, Alberich goes off to terrorize his other enslaved Dwarfs. Mime continues to bewail his enslavement, as the gods Wotan and Loge enter the cavern. Alberich soon returns, driving his treasure-bearing Dwarfs before him. They pile up a huge hoard of purest gold. Alberich contemptuously greets his guests, and arrogantly reveals how he will build up such vast wealth and power that he will eventually overthrow the gods and rule the world. Wotan can barely contain his anger, but crafty Loge flatters Alberich and asks him about the powers of Tarnhelm. He asks if it can really transform him into any shape. Certainly, Alberich replies, and immediately becomes a huge dragon. Loge feigns fear and astonishment, but then suggests that it would surely he more impressive if the Dwarf could become something really small, like a toad. Alberich foolishly obliges and transforms himself into a tiny toad. Wotan immediately seizes the tiny toad, while Loge snatches up Tarnhelm. When Alberich resumes his usual shape, he is bound and dragged off as a captive.
SCENE IV
Alberich is taken to the misty mountain height above the Rhine where the bargain with the giants was struck. In order to win his freedom, Alberich is forced to give up his hoard of gold, Tarnhelm, and his magic ring. The enraged Dwarf refuses, but finally everything is taken from him. Once the humiliated Alberich is released, he wrathfully places a curse of disaster and death on anyone who commands the ring. Soon after, all the gods gather with the giants, Fasolt and Fafner, and their hostage Freia. Fasolt is in love with Freia, but agrees to accept gold only if it completely hides her from his sight. The gods pile all the gold around her, but Fasolt can still see the sheen of her hair, so Loge gives up Tarnhelm to cover it. She seems entirely covered, but Fasolt cries out that he can still see the starlike glint of one of her eyes. The giants demand the ring to seal the crack, but Wotan is enthralled by the ring’s power and will not give it up. Loge meanwhile claims it for its rightful owners, the Rhine maidens. In the middle of the quarrel, the earth splits open and Erda, goddess of the Earth, arises out of the ground. She is the spirit of the world and the prophet of the gods. She commands Wotan to surrender the ring or the gods and the entire world will be doomed. Almost immediately the curse of the ring strikes when the giants quarrel over its possession. Fafner brutally murders Fasolt and takes both the ring and the treasure. After Fafner’s departure, Donner walks into the mountain mists, where the thunder of his hammer is heard and flashes of lightning are seen as he forges a rainbow bridge. It arches through the air and leads up to the great castle of the gods that Wotan now names Valhalla. Wotan leads the godly procession over the rainbow bridge to Valhalla, while far below the Rhine maidens cry out for the loss of their gold.
II. THE VALKYRIE
ACT ONE
SCENE I
A storm is raging and the hero Siegmund the Walsung enters the great hall of the warrior-chieftain Hunding. In the middle of the dwelling is the trunk of a huge ash tree, the limbs of which support the roof. Siegmund, wounded and exhausted from pursuit by enemies through the forest, collapses on a bearskin before the fire in the enormous stone hearth. Hunding’s wife Sieglinde enters the house and, seeing the now unconscious Siegmund, takes pity on him and revives him. Instantly, there is a powerful attraction between the two.
SCENE II
Hunding arrives home and reluctantly offers shelter and food to Siegmund. When he asks Siegmund his name, the youth gives his outlaw name, Wehwalt the Wolfing. His name means “Woeful” as his father Wolfe, his mother, and his twin sister were all either brutally slain, or hopelessly lost to him. As he describes his latest disasters, it is soon revealed that his enemies are Hunding’s kinsmen. Hunding tells his guest he is safe for the night, but in the morning he must find a weapon and they will duel to the death.
SCENE III
Alone in the great hall, Siegmund is soon joined by Sieglinde, who has given Hunding a sleeping potion. Sieglinde tells Siegmund how she had been orphaned as a child, and as a captive was given as a reluctant bride to Hunding. But a stranger—an old man dressed all in gray with a slouch hat and a single glittering eye—came to the wedding. That old man brought a bright sword and drove it into the mighty ash tree that holds up the roof of Hunding’s house. Many heroes since that time have tried to draw it out, but none could do it. When Sieglinde confesses her unhappiness, Siegmund swears his love for her and promises to free her from her forced marriage. As Sieglinde swears her love in return, they tell each other more about their past lives. When the hero reveals that his father’s real name was Walse, Sieglinde suddenly realizes that Siegmund is her long-lost twin brother, and their mutual passion redoubles. Siegmund draws the gleaming sword from the great ash tree as the two lovers rejoice in this union of Walsung blood. They then rush out into the night.
ACT II
SCENE I
In a craggy mountainous wilderness, the mighty Wotan talks to his Valkyrie daughter, Brünnhilde, and tells her she must go into battle and give a just victory to his mortal son, Siegmund the Walsung, over Hunding. Joyfully, she obeys him and departs, just as Wotan’s wife, Fricka, arrives upon a chariot drawn by two rams in the wake of a storm. Queen Fricka, who is also the goddess of marriage, insists that Hunding’s sacred marriage rights must be defended and the Walsungs punished for adultery and incest. Wotan is forced against his will to uphold the law, for his power will leave him if he does not. Wotan swears an oath to command the death of Siegmund the Walsung. Queen Fricka celebrates her victory over Wotan and rides off in her chariot.
SCENE II
Angered and saddened, Wotan now tells the Valkyrie Brünnhilde how Valhalla was bought with the ring, and how the Dwarf and Rhine maidens doubly cursed the ring. To prevent disaster, Wotan went to the goddess Erda, with whom he conceived the nine Valkyries who would gather in Valhalla with a vast army of heroes to help defend the gods in their hour of need. Yet the fate of the world is dependent on Alberich’s ring, for the Dwarf of Nibelheim still plots continually to seize it from the giant Fafner, who broods over his golden treasure and guards it night and day. If the Nibelung eventually seizes the ring, the fate of the gods will be sealed. For by its power, Alberich will turn Wotan’s heroic army against him and overthrow the gods. Wotan is forbidden the ring, and only Alberich who has cursed love can command its power, so the only hope for the gods is to be found in a mortal hero who is brave and strong enough to slay the giant and seize the ring on their behalf. To this end, the mortal hero Siegmund the Walsung was conceived and given a godly sword called Notung. But the curse of the ring is at work, for the laws of Fricka dictate that Wotan must order Brünnhilde to slay Siegmund.
SCENE III
The Valkyrie Brünnhilde sees Siegmund and Sieglinde approaching a rocky gorge and slips away. Siegmund comforts his sister-bride, who hears the hunting horn of Hunding in pursuit and tells Siegmund to leave her and flee. Siegmund will not and swears to protect her with his sword, Notung, and tenderly comforts her until she falls into an exhausted sleep.
Brünnhilde appears as if in a vision to Siegmund, leading her horse. Only warriors condemned to die can see the Valkyries, and Brünnhilde tells Siegmund that she will take him to Valhalla. Siegmund says he will not leave his sister-bride for the warrior’s heaven. The Valkyrie tells him he has no choice, but Siegmund says he will make sure they are together in death. He takes out his sword with the intention of slaying both Sieglinde and himself. The Valkyrie stays his hand and swears she will violate the will of Wotan and give victory to Siegmund the Walsung.
SCENE V
Siegmund leaves the sleeping Sieglinde and goes in search of Hunding. As the storm clouds flash and roar, the battle between the heroes commences on a distant mountain ridge. Sieglinde wakes and is tormented by the sight of the conflict. Siegmund is protected by the Valkyrie’s shield and Hunding is driven back. But just as Brunnhilde guides Siegmund’s sword in what would certainly be a fatal blow; the storm clouds part and throb with fiery light. The fierce Wotan appears; he stands over Hunding and blocks Siegmund’s stroke with the shaft of his spear. Siegmund’s sword shatters and Hunding immediately plunges his own spear into the unarmed Siegmund’s breast. Brünnhilde, seeing the hero lost, swiftly lifts Sieglinde onto her steed and rides away. Wotan remains sadly looking over the body of his mortal son Siegmund. Hunding pulls his spear from Siegmund’s body, but stands too near the god. With a contemptuous wave of his hand, Wotan strikes Hunding dead and then vanishes in a flash of lightning.
ACT III
SCENE I
On the craggy heights of the Valkyrie Rock, the Valkyries arrive one by one with dead warriors slung across their saddles. The eight shield maidens gather to await Brünnhilde before they ride off to Valhalla. They are astonished when they see the rebel Valkyrie arriving with a living maiden across her saddle. Fear fills them when they are told what has occurred. Sieglinde despairs and does not wish to live until Brünnhilde tells her that she is carrying Siegmund’s child. For this Sieglinde is thankful and determined to live. She takes the shards of the hero’s sword from the Valkyrie, who also tells her that her son’s name is to be Siegfried meaning “victorious” and “free.” Brünnhilde tells Sieglinde to escape into the pine forest below the rock because Wotan avoids this place. In it lives the evil giant Fafner, who after long years of brooding over his treasure and his ring has become a great dragon. Sieglinde flees, while Brünnhilde bravely awaits Wotan’s wrath.
SCENE II
Wotan appears before the nine Valkyries in a flash of fiery red light. In his fury he condemns Brünnhilde to lose all her supernatural powers and become a mortal man’s wife. The other Valkyries are filled with horror at their sister’s fate, and beg Wotan to have pity on her. Wotan silences them and drives them away by threatening them with the same terrible fate.
SCENE III
Wotan and Brünnhilde remain alone on the rock. She claims that in defying his command she was actually doing his will and protecting his favorite mortal children, the Walsungs. But Wotan cannot take back his judgment. He tells her he will cast a spell of sleep on her. She will be left upon this rock for any mortal man to find and when she is awakened, she will be his prize. Sadly, Wotan tenderly kisses Brünnhilde’s eyes and she falls into an enchanted sleep. Wotan lays her gently upon the ground, closes the visor of her helmet over her face, and places her Valkyrie shield over her breast. Invoking Loge’s fire, Wotan encircles the rock where the sleeping beauty lies with its wall of flame. Striking the rock as he departs, Wotan invokes a spell forbidding the rock to anyone who fears his spear.
ACT I
SCENE I
A large cave on the edge of a deep wood serves as a smithy for the Dwarf Mime, the ill-humored brother of Alberich. Mime toils at the forge, complaining about his ungrateful foster son, Siegfried. The greedy Dwarf has no love for the powerful youth, but his plan is to get Siegfried to slay the dragon Fafner, who lives nearby, and so win the ring and treasure for Mime. The problem is that Mime doesn’t have the skill to reforge the sword Notung, and all the swords he makes are not strong enough for the youth. Dressed in skins, the young Siegfried enters the smithy leading a huge bear on a rope, and jokingly has the bear chase the smith around the cave until he gives him his new sword. Once again, when Siegfried tries the blade, it breaks, and the youth scolds the Dwarf. Siegfried wonders at his own dislike of this Dwarf, who has nurtured him. But something has always told him that Mime is evil. After threats from Siegfried, Mime finally tells the youth of how Sieglinde, his mother, died in childbirth. Siegfried demands proof, so Mime shows him the fragments of the sword Notung. Siegfried rejoices and orders Mime to reforge the sword.
SCENE II
An ancient one-eyed man in a dark blue cloak and a large broad-brimmed hat enters the smithy. He is weary from his travels and uses a spear as a staff. He is called the Wanderer, but is actually Wotan in his earthly guise. He asks the inhospitable Mime for shelter. The Dwarf tries to turn the traveler from his door, but the Wanderer challenges him to a contest of riddles that will conclude with the loser forfeiting his head. The Wanderer easily answers Mime’s three riddles: who lives under the Earth (the Dwarfs or black-elves of Nibelheim); on it (the giants of Reisenheim); and above it (the gods of Valhalla). In return, Mime answers two of the Wanderer’s riddles: the name of the family that Wotan loved best yet treated most harshly (the Walsungs) and the name of the sword of the Walsungs (Notung). However, when the Wanderer asks him to name the one who can reforge Notung, Mime is beaten. The answer to the riddle is: only one who has never known fear. To that same man, the Wanderer says, as he departs, he will leave the forfeit of Mime’s head.
SCENE III
Siegfried returns for his sword and finds it not yet made. Mime now understands that Siegfried is the “one who has never known fear” and desperately tries to teach him the “meaning of fear.” This proves impossible, so Mime suggests that they go to visit Fafner the dragon, so the youth might learn about fear. Siegfried is keen to learn this new sensation, but decides that he must reforge his father’s sword, as Mime cannot. With sheer barbaric energy and demonic strength, Siegfried succeeds where Mime has failed. As he works at the forge, the Dwarf cooks up a sleeping potion for the youth. He believes that the youth will now slay Fafner the dragon, so the only way Mime may win the ring and save his life is to drug the youth and slay him while he sleeps. At last, the frenzy at the forge comes to a halt. Siegfried holds up the brilliant reforged blade of Notung. Then, with a single stroke, he splits the anvil in two.
ACT II
SCENE I
In the depths of the forest of the Mirkwood in the dark of night, Alberich the Nibelung watches Fafner’s cave and broods over the ring. Wotan the Wanderer greets him in the dark. Alberich immediately recognizes him, but the god assures the Dwarf that he is not after the ring. He warns Alberich that his real rival is his brother Mime. The young Siegfried knows nothing of the dragon’s gold and the ring, and Wotan is banned from informing or helping him. Then the Wanderer calls out to wake the dragon. Both the Wanderer and Alberich offer to save Fafner’s life in exchange for the ring, but the dragon finds this a ridiculous offer. He fears no one and goes back to sleep. Wotan laughs as he departs, telling Alberich he woke the dragon only to show the Dwarf how fate cannot be altered.
SCENE II
As day breaks, Siegfried and Mime the Dwarf climb to a knoll above the mouth of the dragon’s cave. Mime leaves Siegfried alone and the youth blows his horn and wakes the dragon. Surprised, but not alarmed by Fafner’s size, Siegfried jokes with the monster, and then asks him if he might teach him fear. The dragon grows impatient with the cocky youth and a titanic struggle ensues. The battle ends when Siegfried pierces the monster’s heart. As Fafner dies, he warns the youth of the ring’s curse. He also tells the hero that because of the ring, Siegfried will also soon die. Some of the dragon’s blood drips on Siegfried’s fingers and he puts them in his mouth. He finds, at once, that he can understand the language of birds. The Woodbird tells Siegfried about the dragon’s gold, the magic helmet Tarnhelm, and the Ring of the Nibelung, to be found within the monster’s cave.
SCENE III
The Dwarf brothers Alberich and Mime emerge from hiding. Seeing Fafner dead, they begin at once to argue over who will claim the treasure. Siegfried emerges from the dragon’s cave with the ring on his hand and Tarnhelm tied to his belt. The Woodbird now warns him about Mime’s plot. When Mime approaches and offers Siegfried a poisoned drink, the young hero cuts the Dwarf’s head off. Alberich laughs in the distance as Siegfried blocks the door to the treasure cave with the body of the dragon. He then sets out on a new adventure when he is told by the Woodbird about a sleeping maiden who is to be found surrounded by a ring of fire on Valkyrie Rock.
In a wild mountain pass, Wotan in his earthly guise as the Wanderer summons the prophetic goddess Erda and demands to learn the fate of the gods. When Erda will not give an answer, Wotan accepts that the doom of Valhalla is near. His remaining hope lies with the young hero Siegfried, who now holds the ring, and with Brünnhilde. He bequeaths the world to the Walsungs and the race of mortal men.
SCENE II
In the middle of the god’s reverie, Siegfried approaches. The Wanderer detains him and blocks his path. With a single stroke of the reforged Notung, Siegfried shatters Wotan’s spear shaft. Thunder and lightning flash at his deed and the Wanderer vanishes. Siegfried goes on his way, but the wall of fire soon confronts him. He blows his horn and plunges fearlessly into the flames.
SCENE III
Siegfried emerges from the flames at Valkyrie Rock, where he finds an armored warrior asleep. However, when he removes the armor, he discovers the maiden Brünnhilde, and is overwhelmed by her beauty. For the first time, he claims to understand what fear is, but he controls his trembling and wakens the sleeping beauty with a long kiss. Brünnhilde awakens to her lover. She soon realizes that by surrendering to Siegfried, she will lose her immortality, but she does so joyfully.
PROLOGUE
Flames light up the Valkyrie Rock where the three fatal sisters, the Norns, sing of the ancient days of Wotan’s great deeds, as they weave the golden cord of fate. They sing of the shattering of Wotan’s spear of law and how this released Loge, the god of fire, whose flames will soon consume Valhalla. They attempt to learn when the end will come, but the cord snaps. They understand that their own end has come, and they flee in terror to the caverns of Erda. As dawn arrives, Siegfried and his bride Brünnhilde emerge from their cave. Although she is afraid that she may lose her lover, Brünnhilde knows how a warrior’s heart yearns for adventure. She gives him her armor and her horse Grane to help in his quest. Siegfried swears his eternal love and gives Brünnhilde the Ring of the Nibelung as his constant pledge before he sets off into the Rhine Valley.
ACT I
SCENE I
Gunther, the king of the Gibichungs, and his sister Gutrune sit enthroned in the vast hall of their castle on the Rhine. They are in council with their dark, brooding half-brother Hagen, who advises them how they may increase the Gibichung dynasty’s wealth and power. He tells them they both must soon marry: Gunther to the wise and beautiful Brünnhilde, and Gutrune to Siegfried the Dragon-slayer, who possesses the treasure of the Nibelung gold. This can he achieved only by guile. They agree that when the approaching hero comes, Gutrune will give him a magic potion that will make Siegfried forget Brünnhilde and fall in love with her.
Siegfried’s horn sounds from a riverboat as he approaches the castle. Hagen and Gunther welcome him with friendship and honor, and Gutrune brings to him a cup with the fatal magic potion. Though he toasts them in the name of his lover Brünnhilde, the moment the drink touches his lips he opens his eyes and heart to Gutrune. He swears his undying love for her and asks for her hand in marriage. Gunther agrees on the condition that Siegfried win for him the fair Brünnhilde, whose name now means nothing to the drugged Siegfried. Hagen advises Siegfried that they may achieve their aim with the Tarnhelm, by whose magic he may change his shape to that of Gunther. Gunther and Siegfried swear blood oaths of brotherhood and ride off on their quest.
SCENE III
On the Valkyrie Rock, Brünnhilde calls out a greeting of welcome to a sister Valkyrie, but the Valkyrie brings news of disorder and degeneration in Valhalla since Wotan’s spear was shattered. Wotan has no authority to rule or act, and nothing will lift the curse of the ring except its return to its rightful guardians. However, Brünnhilde angrily refuses to return the ring to the Rhine maidens, and drives her sister away. The ring is the token of Siegfried’s love and nothing will make her part with it. After the Valkyrie’s departure, however, a strange man penetrates the flames of the wall of fire. It is Siegfried wearing Tarnhelm, which has changed him to Gunther’s form. As Gunther the Gibichung, he claims Brünnhilde as his bride because he has passed the test of the ring of fire. After he seizes the ring from her hand, Brünnhilde has no power to resist him. He carries her off into the cave as his bride, but resolves to lay his sword between them as they sleep, so as not to dishonor his blood brother.
In front of the Gibichung hall on the bank of the Rhine, Hagen, armed with spear and shield, is leaning against a doorpost, asleep. It is dark, but in the moonlight Alberich the Nibelung appears to Hagen in a dream. It is revealed that Hagen is the son of Alberich from a loveless union with Gunther’s mother. Alberich makes his unhappy son swear that he will win back the Nibelung’s ring.
SCENE II
As dawn breaks, Hagen awakens and Siegfried joyfully returns and greets him and Gutrune with the news that he has won Brünnhilde for King Gunther. He tells how he remained faithful that night, and then how on the journey back Gunther came and took Siegfried’s place. Siegfried then returned to his own form and rode back to reach the Gibichung castle.
SCENE III
Hagen has summoned all the vassals of the kingdom to welcome King Gunther and Brünnhilde as their new queen. They offer up sacrifices to the altars of the gods and swear to uphold Queen Brünnhilde’s honor.
SCENE IV
When Gunther arrives to present his new bride, Brünnhilde sees Siegfried with the ring upon his hand. She realizes at once that Gunther treacherously won her by deception. Siegfried the Walsung, she tells all, is her true husband. Siegfried swears upon the point of Hagen’s spear that he has never known this woman as a bride. Brünnhilde is inflamed with a sense of betrayal and swears that his oath is false and that his sword hung on the wall, not between them. Siegfried denies the charge and leaves with Gutrune, although the vassals clearly believe Brünnhilde’s story.
Brünnhilde is devastated and bent on vengeance for her betrayal. She turns to Hagen, and tells him that Siegfried is protected from all weapons by a magic spell she wove. There is one way Siegfried may he slain, however. Because she knew he would never flee from battle, the spell does not protect his back. So if Hagen drives his spear blade into Siegfried’s back, he will die. Brünnhilde’s taunts and Hagen’s promises of wealth and power eventually persuade Gunther to join in the conspiracy to murder Siegfried as his wedding procession passes by.
ACT III
SCENE I
In a wood on the banks of the Rhine, the three Rhine maidens lament their lost gold. When Siegfried, who is out hunting, appears, they plead that he give back the ring, but he refuses. They warn him that if he does not return the Ring of the Nibelung to the Rhine, he will be slain this day.
SCENE II
When the rest of the hunting party arrives, Hagen and Gunther urge Siegfried to entertain them with tales of his childhood with Mime and his slaying of Fafner the Dragon. Finally, after giving him a drink to revive his memory, Hagen persuades him to tell of the wooing of Brünnhilde. With the pretense of moral outrage, Hagen drives his spear into the hero’s back. Calling out his love for Brünnhilde with his last breath, Siegfried dies.
SCENE III
In front of the Gibichung hall in the moonlight, Gutrune, awakened by an evil dream, is anxiously waiting. Hagen comes to tell her that Siegfried has been killed by a wild boar. However, when his body is carried in, Gutrune will have none of it. She accuses Gunther of murder, but Gunther denies it and curses Hagen. Hagen defiantly admits the murder, but says it was justice. Then he claims the golden ring for himself. When Gunther disputes his right, Hagen slays him. Yet, when he is about to seize the ring, the dead Siegfried’s hand rises threateningly against him. Hagen falls back in fear, as Brünnhilde commands all to stand back from the hero. She orders a funeral pyre to be made for Siegfried. She takes the ring and places it on her own finger, torches the pyre, and calls on the Rhine maidens to retrieve the gold from her ashes. She then rides Grane into the flames. The Rhine overflows its banks as the Gibichung hall is also consumed in the flames. The Rhine maidens rise with the river. They joyfully seize the ring, and vengefully drag the damned Hagen down to a watery grave. The flood subsides to leave only the burnt ruin of the hall, but in the distance, in the heavens, Valhalla can be seen catching alight, as it is finally entirely engulfed in flames.
