Sigfried Sigurd The Dragon Slayer

The Nibelungenlied & The Saga of the Volsungs

The Saga of the Volsungs is an Old Norse or Nordic work of literature that depicts the folk legend of Sigmund the dragon slayer. In The Nibelungenlied we get the story of Siegfried the dragon slayer in a German folk legend. Both of these stories depict the tales of might achievements of men and women from some of Iceland's and Germany's great families as they wrestle for political power, engage in blood feuds, and carry out raids and battles. We also see the clash between the pagan and the Christian in both version of the legend. These sagas also share a variety of common elements: victory and vengeance, honor and glory, blood and guts, feuds and battles, swords and sorcery, and warriors and poets. So, too, both tales devote a considerable portion of their text to the female characters. A number of important events turn on decisions made by women. Queens, sorceresses, wives, daughters and other types of women are significant to the unfolding of events. Through the relations between men and women we are witness to the often complex emotional and sensual needs of such individuals. This research will now compare and contrast the portrayal of women in The Saga of the Volsungs and The Nibelungenlied.

In both of these texts we see that women are portrayed on one level as warriors. Brynhild is a perfect example of this, as her miraculous strength and tremendous abilities as a warri

Related Essays

Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus In the first d .... and weary of the simple theory guiding art and architecture that asserted that form followed function ("Walter Gropius, p. 1). According to Sigfried Giedion (p .... (2217 9 )

The Weimar Era .... Walter Gropius. New York: Braziller, 1960. Giedion, Sigfried. Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition. 5th ed. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1967. .... (1790 7 )

The Weimar Republic and Architecture .... Walter Gropius. New York: Braziller, 1960. Giedion, Sigfried. Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition. 5th ed. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1967. .... (1802 7 )

am. When she explains the dream to her mother, Uta, she is told it is symbolic for a potential noble man who will enter her life. When Kriemhild argues she would keep her purity more if she never engaged in relations with the male sex, her mother basically tells her that no woman can find happiness if not engaged in a relationship with such a man: "Be not so sure; for wouldst thou ever on this earth have heart's gladness, it cometh from the love of a man. And a fair wife wilt thou be, if God but lead hither to thee a true and trusty knight" (Armour 5). Such sentiments are totally opposite modern sentiments that consider it demeaning to tell a woman her heart will never be happy without the love of a man. In The Saga of the Volsungs we get a completely different version of the dream of Kriemhild's counterpart, Gudrun. The dream is more elaborate and extended in this version of the legend. In this version there are feathers of gold on the hawk she dreams of and she casts away all of her wealth. Her mother is not present. However, Gudrun laments that she does not know who the perfect man will be that a woman tells her the dream (hawk) symbolizes. They thus decide to go to Brynhild for an answer. However, both women are po

Category: Literature - S