Weekly Recommendation: Das Nibelungenlied
Hey there!
Here’s your weekly German media recommendation from Monoglot Anxiety — and for the month of August, every recommendation comes with a special "Clemens Seal of Approval" from my partner. It's a bit like a newsletter takeover... except he's too lazy to write anything so it's still me writing this thing at the end of the day.
This week's Clemens Seal of Approval recommendation is for the medieval German epic poem Das Nibelungenlied.
But first, a quick note from me:
Want to share your language journey on my blog? I'm looking for people at all stages of language learning to share their stories on my blog this summer and beyond. Specifically, I want to share your stories with the first foreign language(s) you learned because you wanted to, and not just for school.
If you're interested in writing a guest post, just shoot me an email!
Das Nibelungenlied
Originally penned in Middle High German sometime in the 13th century, Das Nibelungenlied is an epic poem based on heroic tales from Germanic folklore. It's a piece of the cultural consciousness in German-speaking countries. References to the legend pop up here and there in German media, and knowing the story will make it easier to catch them.
The story is a tragic heroic epic centered primarily on two protagonists: Kriemhild, the sister of the king of Burgundy, and Siegfried, a mythical warrior who won invisibility after slaying a dragon and taking a dip in its blood — save for spot on his back where a leaf had fallen before his bloody bath. The story unravels over practically all of Europe, from Hungary to Iceland, and involves treasure hordes, an Icelandic warrior queen, relationship drama, royal courts, prophecy, murder, and revenge. Fans of modern fantasy literature will easily see the threads running between today's fantastical stories and Siegfried's exploits.
A very old poem as a very long opera
The Nibelungenlied inspired a German-language opera by Richard Wagner — or, perhaps more accurately, four operas. Der Ring des Nibelungen is an operatic cycle in four parts, intended to be performed over four nights in a total of around 15 hours. While the opera takes its name and some of its inspiration from Das Nibelungenlied, its plot draws heavily from Scandinavian myths and folktales.
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That's all for this week,
Elise from Monoglot Anxiety