Ring of the Nibelungs

[karl]

Ring of the Nibelungs. A full movie during the time of dragons, Saxons and Icelandic Queens. If so desired, the address is available with click and scroll for later viewing or if desired, use address of youtube/Ring of the Nibelungs 2004.




Presenter

Karl

[karl]

A bit of Icelandic history:

www.historyanswers.co.uk/medieval-renaissance/a-saga-of-ice-and-fire-myth-meets-fact-in-the-viking-history-of-iceland/

Karl

[Jaga]

Hi Karl,

have you even been in Iceland? I really enjoyed the description of two different populations.

[karl]

Jaga

I am happy you enjoyed the movie and descriptions of Iceland. Yes, some years past whilst a university student I was to spend a few weeks in Iceland {summer season, those winters are truly cold}. The trip was financed by the university in the manner of my anthropology studies. Our purpose was to study the early preserved settlements and remaining locations of early settlers and their manner of life. Some of the remaining shelter homes were still some what intact with over grown sod and stone walls. The main remaining buildings badly worn down by time, were more or less community living quarters. We were prevented from any digs by the strict laws of the country as these were the historic sites depicting the national interest.

Reykjavik at that time was disappointingly small, not sure at present how much growth as evolved since then.

Iceland is very rugged and volcanic, very cool in summer and cold in winter. The following url is a nice description and visual vision of the country.



Of the video movie, although fiction, provides a nice impression of how vikings looked in clothing and attitude. The ring of the Nibelunge is the actual gold ring of possession of a large gold treasure owned by the Nibelunge which are nasty dirty dwarfs that live in caves in the forests. The gold treasure was stolen by the dragon and upon being killed, the person who had done so, once obtaining the gold ring, would be the rightful treasure owner, but with the curse that accompanied it.

Karl

[pieter]

Karl and Jaga,

Coming from North Western-Europe with it's Wagner tradition at Bayreuth in Bavaria and indeed the Nordic Scandinavian saga's the Ring of the Nibelungs belongs to this Germanic part of Europe. But more to the Scandinavian lands and North-Germany and Wagners Bavaria in South-Germany (Bayreuth) than to the Netherlands, Belgium and France. The Netherlands has more a Mahler tradition than a Wagner tradition. The new generations don't know classical music and the historical meaning of Nordic mythology, paganism and thus the roots of Der Ring des Nibelungen (the Ring of the Nibelungs). For me the first Ring des Nibelungen was the Ring des Nibelungen of the German composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883). Only later I learned about the roots of the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied behind it.


The German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor Richard Wagner

Sagas are stories mostly about ancient Nordic and Germanic history, early Viking voyages, the battles that took place during the voyages, and migration to Iceland and of feuds between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse language, mainly in Iceland.

The texts are tales in prose which share some similarities with the epic, often with stanzas or whole poems in alliterative verse embedded in the text, of heroic deeds of days long gone, "tales of worthy men," who were often Vikings, sometimes pagan, sometimes Christian. The tales are usually realistic, except legendary sagas, sagas of saints, sagas of bishops and translated or recomposed romances. They are sometimes romanticised and fantastic.

The Nibelungenlied (Middle High German: Der Nibelunge liet or Der Nibelunge nôt), translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem from around 1200 written 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 and that spread throughout almost all of Germanic-speaking Europe. Parallels to the German poem from Scandinavia are found especially in the heroic lays of the Poetic Edda and in the Völsunga saga.

Cheers,

Pieter

Source: Wikipedia

Der Ring des Nibelungen



Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied. The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel" (stage festival play), structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend ("preliminary evening"). It is often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagner's Ring, or simply The Ring.

Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four parts that constitute the Ring cycle are, in sequence:

- Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold)

- Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)

- Siegfried

- Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)

Although individual works of the sequence have occasionally been performed separately, Wagner intended them to be performed in series. The first performance as a cycle opened the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, beginning with Das Rheingold on 13 August and ending with Götterdämmerung on 17 August. Opera stage director Anthony Freud stated that Der Ring des Nibelungen "marks the high-water mark of our art form, the most massive challenge any opera company can undertake."

[pieter]

[karl]

Pieter

Thank you for your very reveling presentation of the Ring. The video's are very good of Richard Wagner epic music opera. I was to see the first two of the rings but not the last in Hamburg.

The story was read to us whilst a young man by Auntie and as with my emagination at that time. I always was sorry for Siegfried with being so tricked and his eventual death. The best I was to enjoy was of the Walküre, those warrier ladies riding down from the heavens to take up the souls of fallen hero's.

The following explains the story in detail for better understanding.

The story has a long history and, as a result, contains a number of disparate elements. For example, the word Nibelung itself presents difficulties. In the first part of the poem, it appears as the name of Siegfried’s lands and peoples and his treasure, but, throughout the second, it is an alternate name for the Burgundians.

The poem’s content falls into two parts. It begins with two cantos (aventiuren) that introduce, respectively, Kriemhild, a Burgundian princess of Worms, and Siegfried, a prince from the lower Rhine. Siegfried is determined to woo Kriemhild despite his parents’ warning. When he arrives in Worms, he is identified by Hagen, a henchman of Kriemhild’s brother King Gunther. Hagen then recounts Siegfried’s former heroic deeds, including the acquisition of a treasure. When war is declared by the Danes and Saxons, Siegfried offers to lead the Burgundians and distinguishes himself in battle. Upon his return, he meets Kriemhild for the first time, and their affections develop during his residence at court.

At this point a new element is introduced. News reaches the court that a queen of outstanding strength and beauty may be won only by a man capable of matching her athletic prowess. Gunther decides to woo Brunhild with the aid of Siegfried, to whom he promises the hand of Kriemhild if successful. Siegfried leads the expedition to Brunhild’s abode, where he presents himself as Gunther’s vassal. In the ensuing contests, Gunther goes through the motions of deeds actually performed by Siegfried in a cloak of invisibility. When Brunhild is defeated, she accepts Gunther as her husband. Siegfried and Kriemhild are then married as promised, but Brunhild remains suspicious and dissatisfied. Soon the two queens quarrel; Brunhild ridicules Kriemhild for marrying a vassal, and Kriemhild reveals Siegfried’s and Gunther’s deception.
Now Hagen becomes a prominent figure as he sides with Brunhild and takes the initiative in plotting vengeance. He wins Kriemhild’s confidence and learns Siegfried’s one vulnerable spot and then strikes the fatal blow.

During these events, Brunhild drops almost unnoticed out of the story, and the death of Siegfried does not appear to be so much vengeance on her part as an execution by Hagen, who is suspicious of Siegfried’s growing power. Siegfried’s funeral is conducted with great ceremony, and the grief-stricken Kriemhild remains at Worms, though for a long time estranged from Gunther and Hagen. Later they are reconciled in order to make use of Siegfried’s treasure, which is brought to Worms. Kriemhild begins to distribute it, but Hagen, fearing that her influence will grow, sinks the treasure in the Rhine.

The second part of the poem is much simpler in structure and deals basically with the conflict between Hagen and Kriemhild and her vengeance against the Burgundians. Etzel (Attila), king of the Huns, asks the hand of Kriemhild, who accepts, seeing the possibilities of vengeance in such a union. After many years, she persuades Etzel to invite her brothers and Hagen to his court. Though Hagen is wary, they all go to Etzel’s court, where general combat and complete carnage ensues. Kriemhild has Gunther killed and then, with Siegfried’s sword, she slays the bound and defenseless Hagen, who to the last has refused to reveal where Siegfried’s treasure is hidden. Kriemhild in turn is slain by a knight named Hildebrand, who is outraged at the atrocities that she has just committed.

Assessment

In the Nibelungenlied some elements of great antiquity are discernible. The story of Brunhild appears in Old Norse literature. The brief references to the heroic deeds of Siegfried allude to several ancient stories, many of which are preserved in the Scandinavian Poetic Edda (see Edda), Vǫlsunga saga, and Thidriks saga, in which Siegfried is called Sigurd. The entire second part of the story, the fall of the Burgundians, appears in an older Eddaic poem, Atlakvida (“Lay of Atli”; see Atli, Lay of). Yet the Nibelungenlied appears to be not a mere joining of individual stories but rather an integration of component elements into a meaningful whole.

It is the second part of the poem that suggests the title “The Book of Kriemhild.” The destruction of the Burgundians (Nibelungen) is her deliberate purpose. The climax of the first part, the death of her husband, Siegfried, prepares the ground for the story of her vengeance. Furthermore, Kriemhild is the first person introduced in the story, which ends with her death; and all through the story predominating attention is paid to Hagen. This concentration on Kriemhild and on the enmity between her and Hagen would seem to suggest that it was the poet’s intention to stress the theme of Kriemhild’s vengeance.

The Nibelungenlied was written at a time in medieval German literature when the current emphasis was on the “courtly” virtues of moderation and refinement of taste and behaviour. The Nibelungenlied, with its displays of violent emotion and its uncompromising emphasis on vengeance and honour, by contrast looks back to an earlier period and bears the mark of a different origin—the heroic literature of the Teutonic peoples at the time of their great migrations. The poem’s basic subject matter also goes back to that period, for it is probable that the story of the destruction of the Burgundians was originally inspired by the overthrow of the Burgundian kingdom at Worms by the Huns in 437 ce, and the story of Brunhild and Siegfried may have been inspired by events in the history of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks about 600 ce. Much of the heroic quality of the original stories has remained in the poem, particularly in the author’s conception of Hagen as the relentless protector of King Gunther’s honour.

Probably no literary work has given more to Germanic arts than the Nibelungenlied. Many variations and adaptations appeared in later centuries. The most significant modern adaptation is Richard Wagner’s famous opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (1853–74).
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

Austria: Later Babenberg period

…the saga known as the Nibelungenlied was written down by an unknown Austrian. Historical writing flourished in the monasteries. The era also produced first-rate Romanesque and early Gothic architecture.…

Der Ring des Nibelungen: Background and context
…including the medieval German epic Nibelungenlied (“Song of the Nibelung”), when he sketched out a prose version of the Nibelung myth in 1848. His first libretto to use that version was called Siegfrieds Tod (“The Death of Siegfried”), which became the basis of Götterdämmerung. He began composing the music in…
Edda: The Poetic Edda.
…the great medieval German epic Nibelungenlied. Unlike the Nibelungenlied, which stands on the threshold of romance, the austere Eddic poems dwell on cruel and violent deeds with a grim stoicism that is unrelieved by any civilizing influence.

[pieter]

Although I am not a great fan of Richard Wagner, some of his music is really great. It is resplendant, monumental, extatic, and typical 19th century with it's symbolism, German romanticism, Nationalistic elememts (German nationalism like Italian nationalism is a 19th century concept). In my fathers household and many other households Wagner was nearly taboo. That terrible German, 'Adolf Hitlers' composer, that anti-semite, to German, to grandiloquent, to pompous.

No Wagner in my parents home where Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, Sergei Prokofiev, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Borodin, Antonín Dvořák, Franz Liszt, Giuseppe Verdi, Felix Mendelssohn, Camille Saint-Saëns, the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, Antonio Vivaldi and the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók were and are popular. Wagner is to pompous for my Polish mother who loves Frédéric Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninoff especially. And he is to German mythological and to controversial for my father. I looked beyond Wagners history and the fact that he was Hitlers favorite composer for several reasons.

I think Wagners music is very strong and suitable for cinematographic use too as movie soundtracks, as movie music.

[pieter]

It is interesting that Scandinavian mythology and ancient Saxon and German sages, tales and stories inspire people so much. Thank you for the interesting and very informative explenation of the "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in detail for better understanding. Burgundy and Burgundians are important in Dutch history and that of the Belgians and French. In Dutch we have the word and term Burgundic (Bourgondisch). He is/she is burgundic (Hij/zij is bourgondisch) means in Dutch; "He/she likes good quality food, good wine, good beer, good life!" There is also a word in Dutch for such a person, a burgundian, een Bourgondiër.


This is a map of the Burgundian empire

[karl]

Pieter

It is interesting how words are interjected in to the vocabulary {Bourgondisch} of an adjacent state such as the Nederlands. But then must consider as non-mystery for as of Germanic states of North Western Europe has in common of the early peoples in what then was forest/salt marshes that made up our lands in that time.

In consideration of the war time experience your father lived through, it is well understood of his aversion to any thing Germanic such as Wagner. I do enjoy the quieter sequences in the Ring, and jump with the heavy down beats that seems to be Wagner's manner in this music. Still enjoy the part of the: Ride of the Walküre as they descend from the heavens to take the souls of battle dead heros. It is very inspiring and raises my energy levels.

There are many questions as for of Skandia tales of Gods and things that lurk in the dark and under bridges. Many had a truth so many years in far past so far as to be forgotten, but it is not wise to scoff at what we do not know or understand in the present. For the powers of the mind are very strong when set upon in to the subconscious.

Karl

[karl]

Pieter

I was remiss with the previous reply for not providing more of what was/is on my mind. For this, to include to the present, what I have to say:

You would make an excellent instructor be it antiquities to historic subjects. For with you topic descriptions complete with maps of each time period makes your topic both educational and interesting.

I do appreciate your work, presentations and research that accompanies many of your reply and presentations.

Thank you

karl

[pieter]

You're welcome Karl.