Legends -- France; Legends -- Germany; Legends -- Rhine River Valley
Great was the grief of Kriemhild when she learned of the murder of her
husband, whose body had been placed at her very door by the remorseless
Hagen. He and the rest of the Burgundians pretended that Siegfried had
been slain by bandits, but on their approach the wounds of Siegfried
commenced to bleed afresh in mute witness of treachery. Kriemhild
secretly vowed a terrible revenge and would not quit the land where
her beloved spouse was buried. For four years she spake never a word to
Gunther or Hagen, but sat silent and sad in a chamber near the minster
where Siegfried was buried. Gunther sent for the Nibelungen treasure for
the purpose of propitiating her, but she distributed it so freely
among Gunther's dependents that Hagen conceived the suspicion that her
intention was to suborn them to her cause and foment rebellion within
the Burgundian dominions; therefore he seized it and sank it in the
Rhine, forcing Kriemhild's brethren never to divulge its whereabouts.
It is a circumstance of some importance that when this treasure
enters the land of the Burgundians they take the name of Nibelungs,
as Siegfried was called Lord of the Nibelungs on first possessing the
hoard, and for this reason that part of the poem which commences with
the Burgundian acquirement of the treasure was formerly known as the
Nibelungen Not.
The confiscation of the treasure was another sharp wound to Kriemhild,
who appears to have bitterly cherished every hostile act committed
against her by her uncle Hagen and her brothers, and to have secretly
nursed her grievances throughout the remainder of her saddened
existence.
Kriemhild Marries Attila
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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