bloodygranuaile (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bloodygranuaile) wrote2024-02-04 12:53 pm
bloodygranuaile) wrote2024-02-04 12:53 pm
Murder most foul and vengeance most verbose
Since I am in my epic poetry era and was apparently also doing Medieval January, I decided to follow up Beowulf with a much later medieval epic that I’ve had sitting on my TBR shelves for much longer: the twelfth-century German poem The Song of the Nibelungs, also known sometimes by its actual German name The Nibelungenlied. The copy I have is from the ‘70s and is a verse translation by one Frank G. Ryder.
This saga tells the story of Siegfried of the Netherlands, the most heroic hero to ever hero (as the subjects of all heroic epics are), and his wife Kriemhild of Burgundy, who is of course the most beautiful woman who ever lived. Siegfried does various heroic deeds to win Kriemhild’s hand in marriage, including helping her brother, the Burgundian King Gunther, win another superlatively lovely maiden’s hand, the Icelandic princess Brunhild. Gunther and Brunhild’s marriage, starting off strong with trickery and lies, puts into motion a series of events that culminates in Siegfried’s murder by one Hagen of Trony, a vassal of Gunther’s. Hagen is not punished even though everyone knows he did it—in part because he stole Sigfrid’s sword in the process—because these people have no concept of a trial apparently, and I guess they expect Kriemhild to just get over it eventually.
Kriemhild, however, is not one to get over things, and after several years of staying at the Burgundian court crying, she marries the recently bereaved Attila the Hun. I think it is supposed to be that Attila the Hun even though this one is kind of useless and never picks up a sword the whole poem. Everyone thinks Kriemhild is finally getting over Siegfried but in fact she’s just playing a long (though not real subtle) game where she invites the whole Burgundian court to come visit her and then gets all her Huns to fight them until literally everybody dies. And that’s the story, basically.
More than anything else, this poem is a fascinating look into the chivalric mindset and its frankly bonkers set of ideals. The first noticeable thing is that it has a bad case of the superlatives. Everything mentioned is the most thing to ever thing. Ever knight is the strongest and most valiant knight, every woman is the most beautiful woman, every occasion of gift-giving is the most generous display of largesse in the history of largesse, every outfit is the richest outfit, you get the idea. It’s honestly a little silly. Another noticeable thing is that everything must be done through personal prowess at arms. Kriemhild would rather get tens of thousands of knights killed in a big epic multi-phase fight than learn how to poison Hagen or even slit his throat in his sleep. However, it’s hard not to conclude that this is sort of what everybody deserves, given how much time everyone spends in the final act wibbling about the ethics of killing each other based on stuff like guest-right and kinship networks and oaths of fealty but absolutely nobody but Kriemhild gives a single shit that Hagen murdered Sigfrid.
That said, the poem is still a grand old sword-swingin’ time, and I’m glad I finally read it.
This saga tells the story of Siegfried of the Netherlands, the most heroic hero to ever hero (as the subjects of all heroic epics are), and his wife Kriemhild of Burgundy, who is of course the most beautiful woman who ever lived. Siegfried does various heroic deeds to win Kriemhild’s hand in marriage, including helping her brother, the Burgundian King Gunther, win another superlatively lovely maiden’s hand, the Icelandic princess Brunhild. Gunther and Brunhild’s marriage, starting off strong with trickery and lies, puts into motion a series of events that culminates in Siegfried’s murder by one Hagen of Trony, a vassal of Gunther’s. Hagen is not punished even though everyone knows he did it—in part because he stole Sigfrid’s sword in the process—because these people have no concept of a trial apparently, and I guess they expect Kriemhild to just get over it eventually.
Kriemhild, however, is not one to get over things, and after several years of staying at the Burgundian court crying, she marries the recently bereaved Attila the Hun. I think it is supposed to be that Attila the Hun even though this one is kind of useless and never picks up a sword the whole poem. Everyone thinks Kriemhild is finally getting over Siegfried but in fact she’s just playing a long (though not real subtle) game where she invites the whole Burgundian court to come visit her and then gets all her Huns to fight them until literally everybody dies. And that’s the story, basically.
More than anything else, this poem is a fascinating look into the chivalric mindset and its frankly bonkers set of ideals. The first noticeable thing is that it has a bad case of the superlatives. Everything mentioned is the most thing to ever thing. Ever knight is the strongest and most valiant knight, every woman is the most beautiful woman, every occasion of gift-giving is the most generous display of largesse in the history of largesse, every outfit is the richest outfit, you get the idea. It’s honestly a little silly. Another noticeable thing is that everything must be done through personal prowess at arms. Kriemhild would rather get tens of thousands of knights killed in a big epic multi-phase fight than learn how to poison Hagen or even slit his throat in his sleep. However, it’s hard not to conclude that this is sort of what everybody deserves, given how much time everyone spends in the final act wibbling about the ethics of killing each other based on stuff like guest-right and kinship networks and oaths of fealty but absolutely nobody but Kriemhild gives a single shit that Hagen murdered Sigfrid.
That said, the poem is still a grand old sword-swingin’ time, and I’m glad I finally read it.