The Nibelungenlied

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Song of the Nibelungs, a twelfth century German epic, full of blood, violence, fantasy and bleakness. It is a foundational work of medieval literature, drawing on the myths of Scandinavia and central Europe. The poem tells of two couples, Siegfried and Kriemhild and Gunther and Brunhilda, whose lives are destroyed by lies and revenge. It was extremely popular in its time, sometimes rewritten with happier endings, and was rediscovered by German Romantics and has since been drawn from selectively by Wagner, Fritz Lang and, infamously, the Nazis looking to support ideas on German heritage.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Sarah Bowden No other episodes
  Reader in German and Medieval Studies at King's College London
• Mark Chinca 2 episodes
  Professor of Medieval German and Comparative Literature at the University of Cambridge
• Bettina Bildhauer No other episodes
  Professor of Modern Languages at the University of St Andrews

Reading list

• Medieval Things: Agency, Materiality, and Narratives of Objects in Medieval German Literature and Beyond
  Bettina Bildhauer (Ohio State University Press, 2020) Google Books →
• The Nibelungenlied: The Lay of the Nibelungs
  Cyril Edwards (trans.) (Oxford University Press, 2010)
• Brides and Doom: Gender, Property and Power in Medieval German Women's Epic
  Jerold C. Frakes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994) Google Books →
• Rules for the Endgame: The World of the Nibelungenlied
  Jan-Dirk Muller (trans. William T. Whobrey) (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)
• Women and the Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and the Limits of Epic Masculinity
  Sara S. Poor and Jana K. Schulman (ed.) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) Google Books →
• Gender Bonds, Gender Binds: Women, Men, Family in Middle High German Literature
  Sara S. Poor, Alison L. Beringer, and Olga V. Trokhimenko (eds.) (De Gruyter, 2021) Google Books →
• The Dark Queens: A Gripping Tale of Power, Ambition and Murdeous Rivalry in Early Medieval France
  Shelley Puhak (Head of Zeus, 2022) Google Books →
• Narrating Law and Laws of Narration in Medieval Scandinavia
  Roland Scheel (ed.) (De Gruyter, 2020) Google Books →
• Das Nibelungenlied: Mittelhochdeutsch, Neuhochdeutsch
  Ursula Schulze (ed.) and Siegfried Grosse (trans.) (Reclam, 2011) Google Books →
• Medieval Literature on Display: Heritage and Culture in Modern Germany
  Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand (Bloomsbury, 2020) Google Books →

Related episodes

• Beowulf
  
  5 Mar, 2015 820 English and Old English literatures
• Wagner
  
  20 Jun, 2002 780 Music
• Icelandic Sagas
  
  9 May, 2013 830 German and related literatures
• The Mabinogion
  
  10 May, 2018 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
• Tristan and Iseult
  
  31 Dec, 2015 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  
  21 May, 2020 820 English and Old English literatures
• The Brothers Grimm
  
  5 Feb, 2009 390 Customs, etiquette and folklore
• The Song of Roland
  
  4 Nov, 2021 840 French and related literatures
• Sturm und Drang
  
  14 Oct, 2010 830 German and related literatures
• The Norse Gods
  
  11 Mar, 2004 290 Other religions

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: m001fmpd

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fmpd

Auto-category: 831 (German literature)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. The Nibelungenlied is a 12th century German epic full of blood, violence, fantasy and bleakness and it's a foundational work of medieval literature.