Yareah Magazine

Andy Spackman

The national epic of German peoples is both glorious and dour. The hero, Siegfried, is betrayed to his death halfway through the story. His widow's vengeance leaves everyone else dead by the end. But through the treason, the bitterness and the blood there shines a strength that reaches beyond both honor and redemption.

Speaking of Beowulf, J.R.R. Tolkien described this northern ethos as the "theory of courage" or "creed of undying will," in which heroes face their doom without hope, nor yet with the slightest wavering. What's most interesting to me about Das Nibelungenlied is that it is not Siegfried who embodies this ideal. While he is the only character portrayed in an entirely positive light, his death comes early, and catastrophe flows from his actions.

Nor do the women typify Tolkien's "naked will and courage." Brünhild's prowess is tied to her virginity, and when Siegfried deprives her of both she becomes docile; proud but petty. When Kriemhild is deprived of her husband Siegfried and the Nibelung treasure, she makes a stunning transformation from the ideal woman into a bitter and bloodthirsty psychopath.

Instead it is ill-tempered Hagen, who deceives Kriemhild and murders Siegfried, but proves indomitably courageous and loyal. He is not a noble character, willing to drown a monk to prevent the prophesied finale. But the brotherhood he shares with Volker is touching; and only Hagen's fierce will stands as strong as Kriemhild's fury.

The cultural vacuum created by the fall of the Roman Empire did not last until the Renaissance. It was filled by the "barbarians" themselves, whose deep traditions vied with their envy of past Roman glory, a nostalgia encouraged by the Church. This tension suffuses the recorded versions of oral traditions like Das Nibelungenlied. Filled with complex characters, rawness of spirit, and difficult moral questions, it is powerful in the darkness of its doom. It surpasses the veneer of Christianity and chivalry oerlaid by its unknown scribe, pointing to individual will as the only eternal unconquerable.

BIOGRAPHY
	http://www. epinions.com/ user-panguitch Andy Spackman Andy Spackman is a librarian at Brigham Young University. He reviews science fiction and fantasy at Epinions.com: http://www.epinions.com/userpanguitch