The Nibelungenlied is a Germanic heroic motif which comprises of historic events and oral traditions. The accomplishments of the major literary work took place in the medieval German literature. The narrative shows the activities of lovely ladies and bold warriors who are high spirited during the period of great battles. Cultural trends have originated from the royalty imperial court and the German Empire from the eighth and thirteenth century. This is an influential and rich culture. The politics and humanistic imperial culture were as a result of the classical revival idea. The values of Germanic warrior culture and the courtly culture were adopted by the courts of counts and dukes.
In the beginning of the 12th century, the feudal courts in Germany produced brilliant literature in the western world. The courtly culture documented the civilization process. This created a significant transformation of values and ethics experienced in Germany. The warrior values of the medieval Europe showed an ideal of humanity, restraint, refined love and elegance. The German literary language produced literature that was radiant and had never existed before. According to the epic, a courtly lover should suffer endurance before winning the love of a woman (Greene 148). The divide between the modern and the ancient world raised tensions between love pedagogy and passion, which was evident in courtly literature.
How the tension manifest itself in the themes and characters of the epos
The tension manifests itself in the themes and characters of the epos in the following ways; the epic has been divided into two parts where the first one deals with the story of Kriemhild, Siegfried, and wooing of Brunhild. The death of Siegfried occurs at the hands of Hagen. Moreover, Hagen hides the Nibelung treasure in the Rhine. The second one deals with the marriage of Kriemhild to Etzel. She plans revenge during the journey of Burgundians where they have their last meeting in the hall of Etzel. The sister of King, Gunther who is a virgin, has a dream. The dream is about a falcon that is killed by two eagles. The mother’s king interprets the dream to mean that the future husband of Kriemhild is going to die through a violent death. This makes Kriemhild to vow that she will remain unmarried for the rest of her life. Siegfried youth is narrated through adventures attributed to him. He uses his youthfulness to win lands and a treasure from Nibelung and Schilbung who are brothers. Siegfried killed the two brothers after he found out that he could not divide the treasure between them. He left his treasure to a dwarf named Alberich in charge. He incidentally kills a dragon and bathes in its blood so that he would render himself invulnerable. Unfortunately a patch on his body is covered with a leaf which makes that part of the body venerable.
The dramatic tension in the epic is the conflicts between the opposing loyalties and whether to avenge the wrong doings of other people. The historic events of the Germanic migration period saga lead to the defeat of the Burgundians by Aetius with the help of Hunic near worms (Oergel 45).
The role that Nibelungenlied played during the German nationalist movement on the 19th century
The poem’s preface promises both dark and joyous tales. The four opening verses are believed to be a late addition of the poem. During the second half of the 18th century Nibelunglied became the new hope for the romantics. The epic gave the Germans a sense of a rich history which gave them a vibrant and new national identity. Earlier enthusiasts have assumed that the character traits of the German people were endemic. The tragic heroes have been identified with the heroic deeds and the grand tales of their loyalty, betrayal, confrontation and trickery.
Various moments have an impending struggle and crisis over a long period, which arouses the German patriotism and a desire to protect their land. The description of Nibelungenlied was in a Friedrich preface of the 1807 edition of the epic. The love for the work of the ancestors came in the middle of a devastating storm which has come to be appreciated in German. The following virtues have been depicted in the poem. They include honesty, hospitality, loyalty and friendship. Von der Hagen praised Nibelungenlied highly in 1812 when the Germans were preparing for a war against Napoleon (Green 113).
Works cited
Greene, Larry A., and Anke Ortlepp. Germans and African Americans two centuries of
exchange. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011. Print.
Liska, Vivian. Modernism. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins Pub., 2007. Print.
Oergel, Maike. The return of King Arthur and the Nibelungen: national myth in nineteenth-
century English and German literature. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1998. Print.
