It portrays the existential struggles and downfall of an entire people, the Burgundians, in a military conflict with the Huns and their king."--Jacket.

The first translation into English of this monumental epic in over forty years. Written around the year 1200 by an unknown Middle High German poet, probably an Austrian knight-cleric, The Song of the Nibelungs is composed of thirty-nine adventures and is divided into two major parts. Two great complexes of epic action are joined together: the life and death of Sigfrid, his glory, fault, and betrayal, and the massive destruction of those who betrayed him, engineered by Kriemhild, Sigfrid's wife. The translator has reproduced the principal characteristics of style and language, in a verse form approximating that of the original. This modern translation, with its naturalness of language, will appeal to the general reader and scholar alike.

The Nibelungenlied, has been regarded as significant work throughout human history, and in order to ensure that this work is never lost, we have taken steps to ensure its preservation by republishing this book in a contemporary format for both current and future generations. This entire book has been retyped, redesigned, and reformatted. Since these books are not made from scanned copies, the text is readable and clear.

This Companion to the Nibelungenlied draws on the expertise of scholars from Germany, Britain, and the United States to offer the reader fresh perspectives on a wide variety of topics regarding the epic: the latest theories regarding manuscript tradition, authorship, conflict, combat, and politics, the Otherworld and its inhabitants, eroticism (in both the Nibelungenlied and Wagner's Ring), the twentieth-century reception both of the Nibelungenlied and of its most intriguing protagonist, Kriemhild, key concepts used by the poet, the heroic, feudal, and courtly elements in the work, and an analysis of archetypal elements from the perspective of Jungian psychology.

This thorough study of the moral values of the Nibelungen and of their paradoxical behavior posits the work as an indictment of a society that results time and again in collective human tragedy. Told with tragic insight, yet sympathetically, the epic may well be described as the story of man, the victim of himself. Mueller analyzes the work in three chapters, focused on substance, essence and significance, in order to make the epic poem relevant to a modern audience.

The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The Nibelungenlied is based on an oral tradition that has some of its origin in historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries. The poem is split into two parts: in the first part, Siegfried comes to Worms to acquire the hand of the Burgundian princess Kriemhild from her brother King Gunther. Gunther agrees to let Siegfried marry Kriemhild if Siegfried helps Gunther acquire the warrior-queen Brünhild as his wife. Siegfried does this and marries Kriemhild; however Brünhild and Kriemhild become rivals, leading eventually to Siegfried's murder by the Burgundian vassal Hagen with Gunther's involvement. In the second part, the widow Kriemhild is married to Etzel, king of the Huns. She later invites her brother and his court to visit Etzel's kingdom intending to kill Hagen. Her revenge results in the death of all the Burgundians who came to Etzel's court as well as the destruction of Etzel's kingdom and the death of Kriemhild herself. The Nibelungenlied was the first heroic epic put into writing in Germany, helping to found a larger genre of written heroic poetry.