Kriemhild marries Germanic hero Siegfried of Xanten. A princess of Burgundy, she grows up in the halls of royal plots and suspicious deaths. Sheltered from the outside world she is trained in courtly life and etiquette. She can do a mean cross-stitch. The only thing required of her is obedience.
In Xanten, up near the Netherlands, Prince Siegfried is a strong, handsome young man. He's a little too tricky and a little too trusting at the wrong times, but without that we wouldn't have a story.
The fate of sweet Kriemhild is inexorably interwoven with his. Siegfried hears many tales of the southern Burgundian princess. Her beauty is legend, her temper meek and mild, her skills at music and poetry pleasing.
When not thinking of her, Siegfried keeps himself busy with heroic business such as dragon-slaying. He kills the dragon Fafnir, who guards a legendary treasure.
On the advice of a Dwarf, Siegfried bathes in the dragon's blood to make himself invulnerable to weapons. As he does so a linden leaf falls on his shoulder blade and blood doesn't touch that spot.
Siegfried gets the dragon's treasure and is rich beyond his wildest dreams. When a dragon, such as Lindwyrm, lies on a treasure the abundance multiplies.
Cash in hand, he comes courting Kriemhild. Her brother King Gunter entertains Siegfried in grand style, and they go on hunts and into battle. Siegfried slays a multitude of foes and saves Gunter's scraggly hide.
When Siegfried asks to see Kriemhild, Gunter is hesitant but considering he owes Siegfried his life, a cheap commodity in warlike times, has to agree.
It's love at first sight, or fiftieth sight as Siegfried manages to sneak a few peeks at Kriemhild when she passes by with her ladies. She flutters her lashes in his direction too, flattered by the attentions of the hero.
Scheming Gunter is no hopeless romantic. He says Siegfried can marry Kriemhild only if Gunter is married first. Gunter thinks Brunhilde, Queen of Isenland, is the woman for him.
He has only to defeat her in a series of trials of strength and speed, and wants help from Siegfried. And so Siegfried agrees, and goes off to steal the Tarnkappe from the Mountain Dwarfs, or Nibelungen.
The Tarnkappe, a cape or in some stories a hat, renders its wearer invisible and gives him superhuman strength. After deceiving the King of the Mountain Dwarfs, Siegfried gets the Tarnkappe and runs back to Worms.
After much feasting Siegfried and Gunter set sail for Isenland, a long miserable journey. The land is barren and snow-swept, but when Brunhilde comes to meet them they forget all that. Her hair is like fire, her bearing proud. She invites them in.
Siegfried stays beneath the Tarnkappe, invisible. After more feasting the games begin - the spear throw, long jump and boulder hurl. Brunhilde is mighty in strength as well as beauty but invisible Siegfried, with the strength of ten men, helps Gunter win.
The Queen has to admit defeat, but she's suspicious. Also, her jeweled ring is suddenly missing. She accompanies Gunter on his boat, but when he tries to approach her for pre-nuptial fun she ties him up and hangs him on a hook.
Thus Gunter convinces Siegfried to help once more. Invisible, Siegfried holds her down so she thinks it the strength of Gunter overpowering her, and she gives in. Siegfried takes her girdle as a souvenir and leaves.
Finally, Siegfried and Kriemhild get married and go to Xanten to rule as King and Queen, and spend the treasure. The treasure keeps replenishing itself, for it's taken on its own magic.
And now the real trouble starts. Brunhilde and Kriemhild are at odds over who has the more powerful husband. Brunhilde calls the couple from Xanten to Worms for midsummer celebrations.
Meanwhile Hagen, treacherous uncle of Gunter and Kriemhild, hatches a plot to murder Siegfried and get the treasure himself. He knows Siegfried has a vulnerability and tricks Kriemhild into revealing the spot.
Hagen and Gunter take Siegfried on a hunting trip. Hagen sneaks up behind Siegfried with a spear while he's drinking at a spring, and strikes a deadly blow.
Back at the castle the women's tempers flare. Brunhilde argues Siegfried is vassal to Gunter and Kriemhild triumphantly produces the girdle Siegfried stole, and points to Brunhilde's jeweled ring on her own finger.
At last Brunhilde to her horror realizes the trick. She goes to her room and falls upon a sword, ending her life. When Hagen and Gunter bring the dead Siegfried back to the castle, Kriemhild is stricken with grief.
She gets the treasure from Xanten and starts giving it away to people. Hagen decides she's gone mad and enlists Gunter's help to steal it and dump it in the Rhine. To this day people still search for the fabled Nibelungen hoard.
Kriemhild takes hold of Siegfried's sword. When Gunter won't tell her where the treasure lies, she takes a mighty swing and cuts off his head in a spray of blood. Meek and mild no more, Kriemhild tastes the bitter fruit of victory.
She wounds Hagen, who runs away. Sword in hand, she chases him down like a vengeful Valkyrie and slays him too. As the last of her innocence turns to blood on her hands, Kriemhild becomes a warrior with a heart of steel.
Her later fate is blurred. In some tales she marries or partners with Attila the Hun. In this version she invites all her relatives to a feast and burns them alive in the Great Hall.
In other tales she marries Attila, and he dies of a nosebleed on their wedding night. In others still, she marries a common man, has a couple of children and eventually dies peacefully of old age.
Non-Fiction Books:
Fiction Books:
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