Siegfried, who possessed a cloak of
invisibility, aided Gunther in these three contests, and Brunhild
became his wife. In return for these services, Gunther gave
Siegfried his sister Kriemhild in marriage.
After some time had elapsed, Siegfried and Kriemhild went to visit
Gunther, when the two women fell into a dispute about the relative
merits of their husbands. Kriemhild, to exalt Siegfried, boasted
that it was to the latter that Gunther owed his victories and his
wife. Brunhild, in great anger, employed Hagan, liegeman of
Gunther, to murder Siegfried. In the epic Hagan is described as
follows:
"Well-grown and well-compacted was that redoubted guest; Long were
his legs and sinewy, and deep and broad his chest; His hair, that
once was sable, with gray was dashed of late; Most terrible his
visage, and lordly was his gait."
--Nibelungen Lied, stanza 1789.
This Achilles of German romance stabbed Siegfried between the
shoulders, as the unfortunate King of the Netherlands was stooping
to drink from a brook during a hunting expedition.
The second part of the epic relates how, thirteen years later,
Kriemhild married Etzel, King of the Huns. After a time, she
invited the King of Burgundy, with Hagan and many others, to the
court of her husband. A fearful quarrel was stirred up in the
banquet hall, which ended in the slaughter of all the Burgundians
but Gunther and Hagan.
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