Kriemhild’s & Brunhild’s Promise of Love & Damnation.

After reading Francis G. Gentry’s essay, I revisited the opening of, “ The Nibelungenlied.” Gentry focuses on the ‘conceptual pair of love and sorrow’ that seems to be invoked, and foreshadowed through Kriemhild’s character,and I think this theme is readily felt on the first page of the story. Despite this, Gentry fails to assert how a profound female power drives this theme or motif in the story.

The fact that the story first focuses on Kriemhild’s before anyone else, instills weight and significance to her actions, words, and presence within the story; in first introducing us to her, she is already given an authoritative voice in the story. Kriemhild seems to possess a profound feminine power, or at least a profound access to a feminine power. Not only is she ‘beyond all measure lovely,’ but she is described as ‘the adornment of her sex.’ Here, Kriemhild is simultaneously reduced to her sex, and instilled with a kind of power, for her sex, her femininity or any notions attached to ‘female,’ is something that adds to her attractiveness, allure, or one could even say, her influence over men. With this in mind, after Kriemhild’s initial introduction, the poet reveals, ‘She came to be a beautiful woman, causing many knights to lose their lives.’ The poet also describes how she was ‘made as if for love’s caress.’ Thus, Kriemhild seems to promises both love and death; this illustrates Gentry’s examination of the relationship between love and sorrow in the story, for one could argue, that Kriemhild’s love for Siegfried is damning, or, will produce sorrow/grief. As Gentry points out, Kriemhild’s conversation with her mother, on the first page of, “The Nibelungenlied,” reinforces the ‘leitmotif of love/sorrow.’ Yet, I think Gentry fails to assert that there is a profound feminine power or element within the story, at the root of this love/sorrow motif.’

Shortly after Kreimhild’s introduction, it states: “They (Lords) held sway at Worms beside the Rhine…were served in high honour by many proud knights…till their dying days, when the enmity of two noble ladies was to bring them to a sad end.” This line seems to determine Siegfried’s, as well as Gunther, Gernot, and Giselher’s fate. The line quite literally states that feelings of hostility, hatred, ill will, animosity manifest themselves between two women, who I think after reading the first section of this book, we can assume are Kreimhild and Brunhild; despite the fact that this ‘enmity’ has not yet developed in the first section of this book, they are the most prominent of all the female figures that appear. Also, although Brunhild does not literally appear on the first page, , she seems to possess a certain power over Gunther, who motivated by his ‘love’ for her, with the aid of Siegfried, ‘wins’ her over; this mirrors, to a degree, Kreimhild’s ‘love’ and how it motivates Siegfried’s actions. Like the women in, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” Kriemhild and Brunhild seem to be the driving forces behind the events that will take place in the story; both seem to promise damnation, while motivating the knights’ actions through the ‘love’ that they are believed to promise. The fact that they are both women, and are prominent figures whose relationship seems to damn the knights’ in the story, reinforces how this motif of love/sorrow is closely connected to a profound female force.

I think it’s curious how Brunhild seems to possess both feminine and masculine attributes. Brunhild possesses the same political status of a man or ‘Lord,’ for the fortress of Isenstein is in ‘Brunhild’s land (page 59), and her territory is also described as the ‘Lady’s (Brunhild’s) country.’ It almost seems as if Seigfried, Gunther, Hagen, and Dancwart enter a profound feminine realm; not only is this ‘Brunhild’s land,’ but the repeated images of beautiful maidens seems to reinforce this. Complicating this, is Brunhild’s surprising ‘tremendous strength (page 66), which Hagen at two points in the story, describes as emanating from the devil. It was interesting also, how the story of Eve is invoked on page sixty-five with Hagan’s words; the allusion to Eve and the devil, as well as Brunhild’s ‘masculine strength,’ seem to not only illuminate or enhance the queens physical power or influence, but her ability to damn. Hence, illustrating the motif of ‘love/sorrow,’ and adding a new element to the feminine driving factor behind it – evil. Kriemhild has yet to be equated with evil, although her prominence, femininity, and promise of both ‘love and death,’ associate her with Brunhild. It will be interesting to see how this story develop, and more importantly how Kriemhild may embody the ‘evilness’ that is attached to Brunhild’s femininity or female power. Also, I’m interested to see the repercussions that are given birth to when Gunther and Siegfried ‘deceive (page 63)’ Brunhild, for they seem to have directly violated her trust, and infringed on the power she possesses.