Knight Siegfried is famous for having triumphed over a dragon and fought two Burgundian chiefs of the Nibelung family, a family from which he also stole his treasure, a magic sword and the tarnkappe , a cape that makes the wearer invisible. Subsequently, Siegfried marries the beautiful Kriemhild before being cowardly murdered by the traitor Hagen, his treasure disappearing in the Rhine. This epic originates from The Song of the Nibelungs , a poem written shortly after 1200 in Austria by an anonymous author. Inspired by older mythologies, notably Scandinavian and Germanic, the Song of the Nibelungs is a story of love and betrayal, of greed and revenge, of happiness and suffering. The musician Richard Wagner uses the main themes to compose his Tetralogy (also known as the Ring of the Nibelung).
Siegfried and the Nibelungs
The story of Siegfried is told by a song taken from a codex dating from the beginning of the 13th century:theSong of the Nibelungs . Siegfried, son of the king of Xanten, forges a magic sword, triumphs over a terrifying dragon by trickery, becomes invulnerable by bathing in its blood and seizes the treasure of the dwarf people:the Nibelungen. Haloed by his recent feats of arms, he arrives at the court of the Burgundian king Gunther, and asks for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Kriemhild. Gunther accepts on condition that Siegfried manages to conquer for him the valkyrie of the name of Brünhild, a task which the hero fulfills. Brünhild, who has meanwhile fallen in love with Siegfried, is forced to marry the king, and the valiant knight can marry Kriemhild. At the head of King Gunther's armies, Siegfried won many victories, and aroused jealousy, including that of Hagen, a vassal of the king.
A curse hovers over the Nibelungen treasure, believed to bring bad luck to its owner. Thus, with the complicity of King Gunther and his wife Brünhild, Hagen decides to eliminate Siegfried. Through trickery and betrayal, he discovers Siegfried's "Achilles' heel" which makes him vulnerable, a small part of his back not covered by the dragon's blood. During a hunting party, Hagen mortally wounds the hero and seizes his sword.
After her husband's assassination, Kriemhild attempts to use her husband's treasury to recruit barons who would avenge her. Feeling threatened, Hagen seizes the treasure and throws it into the Rhine. Kriemhild must then resolve to leave the court of Worms, King Gunther protecting the murderers of her husband.
It was then that the king of the Huns asked for the hand of the beautiful widow. Kriemhild accepts, thinking he has found the weapon of his revenge. She invites King Gunther, his brothers and Hagen to the wedding ceremony, under the pretext of reconciliation. Despite the ban of the King of the Huns, she had the Burgundians massacred as soon as they arrived. Having recovered Siegfried's sword, she kills Gunther then beheads Hagen who refused to give her the location of the treasure. Enraged by Kriemhild's betrayal, the King of the Huns orders his future wife to be put to death.
Thus ends the song of the Nibelungen, the most famous Germanic legend.
The historical foundations of the Nibelungen legend
History passed down from generation to generation, the legend of the Nibelungen has historical foundations. It's a sword that made Siegfried a hero. The Germans' interest in swords stemmed from their encounter with the Romans, who made weapons of a quality they could not match. Thus the forge masters who mastered the art of making these swords, weapons considered magical, aroused the admiration of the Germans.
The confrontation between Germans and Romans on the banks of the Rhine is very probably one of the sources of inspiration for the legend of the Nibelungs. Thus Tacitus relates the story of a German, Arminius, son of a prince of the Cheruscan tribe, sent as a hostage to Rome and became an officer in the army of Augustus. In the year 9, Arminius is led to participate in a campaign against the Germans from the fortified city of Xanten…the presumed hometown of Siegfried.
Sickened by the cruel methods of the Roman commander Varus, Arminius deserts. Passing to the head of the Cheruscans, he lays a trap for the Roman army in the forest of Teutberg. The legions of Varus are completely annihilated there and Arminius probably seized the gold and the precious goods of the Romans. Among the loot, the standards of the Roman legions, adorned... with a dragon's head! Following this disaster, the Romans will never cross the right bank of the Rhine. Arminius meanwhile will not long enjoy his status as a hero and liberator. He will be assassinated in the year 21… by members of his family. A story and a battle that will be fertile ground to give birth to myths and heroes.
The other source of inspiration refers to the time when Kriemhild had to leave the court of the Burgundians and when Hagen had the treasure of the Nibelungs thrown into the Rhine - one hundred and forty - four ox carts filled with gold and precious stones. In historical reality, it is the turbulent time of the great invasions, during which the Roman Empire was in full decline and when the Germanic peoples were sinking ever further south and west.
The Burgundians
Coming from Scandinavia, the Burgundians settled in Poland, as attested by Pliny the Elder, who would have met them on the banks of the Vistula around 57. Driven out by the incessant migrations from the east, the Burgundians settled near the Rhine between Mainz and Worms in the 3rd century, and came up against the fortified Roman border, the Limes.
A border which is far from hermetic, the Germans multiplying the incursions into Gaul. Circulating rapidly on the Roman roads, the Germans escaped the Roman legions and recrossed the Rhine, laden with the fruit of their plunder. This is also where the Romans tried to intercept them, thanks to their galleys circulating on the river. Thus many Burgundians and Alamans were swallowed up in the waters of the Rhine on the way back, giving credence to the legend of the curse that surrounds the treasures.
As in the song of the Nibelungen, the Burgundians had a run-in with the Huns. Between 435 and 436, after several decades of peaceful cohabitation with the Romans, the Burgundians invaded Belgium. They are crushed there by the army of General Aetius, conveniently allied with the … Huns. The Burgundian people are decimated, their king killed, and the survivors must go into exile on the banks of the Rhône, the future Burgundy.
Rhinegold
The Burgundians are the tribe about which historians have the fewest records but which are known to have indeed been wiped out. But where could the treasure of the Burgundians disappear? Nowadays, some continue to search for the Rhine gold. The song of the Nibelungen evokes a treasure buried at the bottom of the Rhine, the equivalent of 144 chariots filled with gold and precious stones. From time immemorial, the Rhine has been sifted in search of gold by the Celts, the Romans and then the Alemanni… And the legend of the Nibelungen has long fueled the fever for Rhine gold. In the last century, the Nazis, very attached to the myth of Siegfried, also sought the famous treasure. In vain…
In 1980, dredgers unearthed an impressive collection of precious objects of Roman origin and dating from the end of the Roman Empire. In total, nearly a thousand objects have been brought to the surface, constituting the most important archaeological treasure ever discovered in Europe. Deliberately damaged objects, most likely following the sharing of loot, according to the custom of the Germanic peoples. More recently in 2014, another discovery, consisting mainly of jewelry, was made in Rhineland-Palatinate. The location and dating of the treasure agree with the legend, leaving the experts wondering...
Bibliography
- The Nibelungs of Joël Schmidt. Zulma, 2001.
- The Nibelungen song by Claude Mettra. Albin Michel, 1984.
To go further
- Richard Wagner:Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) - 8 DVD set - incl. Making Of. DVD, 2005.
- The Nibelungs, by Fritz Lang. Fiction, MK2, 2008.
- The Sacred Ring - Box 2 DVD. Fiction,2006.