Nibelungenlied, also called DER NIBELUNGE NÖT, an old German epic poem, that takes rank next after the Homeric poems amongst the great epics of the world. The original substratum of the work is undoubtedly the saga of Sigurd, recounted in the Elder Edda; it is from that source the epic derives its mythological elements, and in all probability the tragic conception of an all-compelling destiny which dominates the action of the poem. To this original substratum must be added two others—one taken from the legendary history that grew up out of the migrations of the peoples, especially the struggle between the Huns and the Burgundians; the other embodying the spirit, the sentiment, the life and circumstances of the crowning age of chivalry, the middle of the 12th to the middle of the 13th century, during which period the poem, as we now have it, was unquestionably written. Who was its author, or rather the man who cast it in its present form, is altogether unknown; the attribution of it to the minnesinger of Kürenberg in Upper Austria now finds very little acceptance. The oldest elements of the work must have been long current in the form of popular songs or versified sagas; but the incidents of the story as recounted in the epic seem to have been fused into a unity some time previous to the 12th century. The existing version is due to one who was steeped in the ideas of the courtly poetry of the middle ages; the writer took the story that had in process of time grown together into a connected epic narrative, and impressed upon it his own methods of poetic vision, and his own peculiar versification—in short, his own style. German commentators are of opinion that the writer worked from originals composed in Latin. After the Reformation all interest in the poem quite died out, and was only revived in the end of the 18th century. But it was not until twenty years and more of the 19th century had passed that German students began to be aware of the inestimable literary treasure they possessed in the Nibelungenlied. A keen discussion arose as to its unity; one school, headed by Lachmann, maintained that it was merely a collection of folk-songs, loosely strung together, or rather intermingled one with another; an opposing school defended the unity of the narrative and of the poem. The views of the latter body of scholars are now generally accepted.
The narrative is briefly this. Sigfried, the son of the king of the Netherlands, has become the possessor of the storied treasure of the Nibelungs, which carries with it the curse of dire evil to its owner. Sigfried marries Kriemhild, sister of Gunther, king of Worms, and then helps Gunther to win to wife Brunhild of Iceland, by taking Gunther's place without her knowledge and overcoming her in three trials of bodily skill and strength. After some years a bitter dispute breaks out between the heroines as to whether Gunther or Sigfried is the greater. Brunhild's jealousy is so great that she induces Hagen, one of Gunther's vassals, to murder Sigfried. Kriemhild, though she mourns long years for her husband, at length marries Etzel (Attila), king of the Huns. After Sigfried's death she had become the possessor of the
Nibelungs' treasure; but Hagen had wrested it from her and sunk it at the bottom of the Rhine. At the end of several years Kriemhild, who still mourns for Sigfried, and still nourishes the desire for revenge upon Hagen and Gunther, invites her brother and his court to visit her. They do so, accompanied by a body of 11,000 knights and men-at-arms. The conclusion of the epic relates the bloody incidents attendant upon the total annihilation of the Burgundians at the court of Etzel, and the slaughter they made amongst their foes. There is a continuation of the poem, called the Nibelungenklage, or Lament for the Nibelungs, a production in every way much inferior to the Nibelungenlied. In spite of the uncouth versification of this last, it exercises a strong fascination upon the reader, owing to the grandeur of its conception, its strong characterisation, its earnestness and tragic intensity.
There exist numerous old MSS. of the poem; but the most valuable are three, called respectively the Munich, St Gall, and Lassberg MSS., all of the 13th century. The best modern High German versions are those by Simrock (40th ed. 1880), Bartsch (2d ed. 1880), and L. Freytag (2d ed. 1886). There are English translations by Lettson (1850), Foster-Barham (1887), and Birch (3d ed. 1887). See also Carlyle's Miscellanies (vol. iii.).