Transitioning to The Nibelungenlied from Sir Gawain romances, I’m noticing some big differences in the way women are portrayed. For me, the women of Sir Gawain function as another force determining his actions and highlighting his lack of agency. As soon as he meets a woman, be it Ragnelle or the Green Knight’s wife, he ceases to assert his own will, defaulting to the lady out of courtesy. Particularly Ragnelle. She asks him to choose which he would rather have: a wife fair by day, hideous at night or a wife hideous by day, fair at night. Rather than assert his wish, Gawain considers it for a moment and then basically says “Yes, dear. Whatever you want, dear.” Even when Gawain refuses and attempts to stand his ground, his will is still subjugated by the will of the lady of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He refuses to take the belt/girdle, but the lady insists and eventually he gives.
In the Gawain romances, it’s the woman’s appearance that changes Gawain. The lady’s goodly appearance influences Gawain’s actions, and Ragnelle’s beauty at the end of the romance compels Gawain to give up jousting. However, more specifically, her proximity to Gawain is what sways Gawain. In both instances when Gawain’s will is melded to the wishes of Ragnelle and the Lady respectively, they are in their shared bedchamber.
In The Nibelungenlied, however, women are rarely in close quarters with men, owing to the strict societal codes of behavior. Women are kept hidden and secret from men. Brunhild expresses this best with her interactions with her troop of maids. “Then the Queen told her superb young ladies to move away from the windows—they were not to stand there as a spectacle for strangers.” (Nibelungenlied 60) While the seclusion speaks to the maintenance of women’s secrecy, the maids turn the idea of spectacle on its head. Unlike the women of Gawain romances, the ladies are not displayed, but they spy on showy Sigfried and Gunther, dressed in their fine new clothes.
Proximity with ladies in Gawain’s case made him subject to the will of women, whereas in Sigfried and Gunther’s case, separating women, literally behind walls, makes the men the object in the relationship. Gawain is passive because of the sway of the lady’s presence. Sigfried and Gunther are not aware of the maid’s voyeurism, which gives the women the power of the gaze. The act of secluding the Other, in the case of The Nibelungenlied, allows the maids, a usually passive and peripheral position for a woman, to become powerful in a way unlike the women of Gawain.
Unlike the women of Gawain, the maids of The Nibelungenlied are not to be looked at. In fact, Sigfried and Gunther fall in love with Kriemhild and Brunhild not because they have gazed upon the most wondrous beauty of their generation. They “fall in love” with them because they hear about their beauty. Once again, Kriemhild and Brunhild exist in the story behind a wall, and in the case of Kriemhild, only she has the power to gaze upon Sigfried. “Had Siegfried but known that his beloved was observing him, it would have been a source of unending delight to him, and if he could have seen her I dare assert no greater pleasure could ever have befallen him.” (Nibelungenlied 31-32) Kriemhild wields the power to bestow great pleasure on Siegfried by showing herself, but she can hold back because she is in the position to watch but not be watched. Unlike Gawain’s ladies who rely on their appearance and proximity, using intimacy to win Gawain over, Kriemhild and the other maids use distance to create a mystique, which gives them more power and puts them in the position of observer, a place normally reserved for men.
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There is always something to exercising power via taking oneself out of the realm of vision. No matter what the heroes hear about these women, they aren't able to be gazed upon, thus their bodies cannot be read.
Normally we think of it backwards, that to be invisible is to be negated, but in the Nibelungenlied, to be visible is to be negated.
The only thing I can think of in regards to this that doesn't totally work is the issue of Brunhilde. She places herself back in the shadows, yet does not regain any of her power. Perhaps once you subject yourself to the power of being seen, you can never undo that?
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