The anonymous Austrian epic tragedy, the “Nibelungenlied,” written about 1200, combines Teutonic myth with realities of court life in the setting of courtly love and chivalry.

Based on the tales of the Norse “Elder,” or “Poetic Edda” and the “Volsungasaga” but less directly concerned with the gods, the somber tale revolves around heroic feats, royal revenge, and magical powers.

The warrior hero, the near-invulnerable Siegfried, possessed of a cape that bestows the power to become invisible and a wondrous sword called Balmung, enters the territory of the Nibelung kings of Burgundian legend and takes all the symbols of power, including Queen Kriemhild, by prowess.

The fatalistic plot sets Kriemhild and Brunhild of Iceland against each other, and a sequence of complicated reprisals leads to everyone's ultimate downfall.