Nibelungenlied

The Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs) is an epic poem composed around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous author likely came from the Passau region. This work draws upon Germanic heroic legends transmitted through oral tradition, some rooted in historical events and figures from the 5th and 6th centuries. These legends spread throughout Germanic-speaking Europe, with parallel narratives appearing in Scandinavian works like the Poetic Edda and the Völsunga saga.

The narrative unfolds in two parts. In the first, Prince Siegfried travels to Worms seeking to marry the Burgundian princess Kriemhild. Her brother King Gunther agrees to the marriage on condition that Siegfried helps him win the warrior-queen Brünhild. Though Siegfried succeeds and marries Kriemhild, tension grows between the two queens, ultimately leading to Siegfried's murder by the Burgundian vassal Hagen with Gunther's complicity.

The second part follows the widowed Kriemhild after her marriage to Etzel, king of the Huns. Seeking vengeance, she invites her brother and his court to Etzel's kingdom. Her revenge culminates in the death of all the visiting Burgundians, the destruction of Etzel's realm, and her own demise.

As the first heroic epic written in the German vernacular, the Nibelungenlied helped establish a tradition of written heroic poetry in Germany. Its tragic ending troubled medieval audiences, prompting the creation of a sequel, the Nibelungenklage, to soften the tragedy.

Forgotten after approximately 1500, the poem was rediscovered in 1755 and hailed as the "German Iliad," becoming Germany's national epic. It was later misappropriated for nationalist purposes and featured prominently in anti-democratic, reactionary, and Nazi propaganda before and during World War II. Today, its most famous adaptation is Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, though Wagner drew primarily from Old Norse sources. In 2009, UNESCO recognized the historical significance of the three main Nibelungenlied manuscripts by inscribing them in the Memory of the World Register. Scholars have described it as "one of the most impressive, and certainly the most powerful, of the German epics of the Middle Ages."