"One day the two queens, while bathing in the river, fell to quarrelling as to which of their husbands was the greater. Brun hild taunted Gudrun with the fact that Sigurd was Gunnar's vassal, whereupon Gudrun retorted by telling her that it was not Gunnar but Sigurd who rode through the flames, and in proof of this held up Brunhild's ring which Sigurd had given to her. Brun hild, maddened by jealousy and wounded pride, now incited the three kings to murder Sigurd by exciting their jealousy of his power. The two elder, as bound to him by blood-brotherhood, refused; but the youngest, Guthorm, who had sworn no oaths, consented to do the deed. Twice he crept into Sigurd's chamber, but fled when he found the hero awake and gazing at him with flashing eyes. The third time, finding him asleep, he stabbed him; but Sigurd, before he died, had just strength enough to hurl his sword at the murderer, whom it cut in two. Brunhild, when she heard Gudrun wailing, laughed aloud. But her love for Sigurd was great as ever, and she determined not to survive him ; distributing her wealth to her hand-maidens she mounted Sigurd's funeral pyre, slew herself with his sword, and was burnt with him.
"In course of time Gudrun married Atli (Attila), king of the Huns, Brunhild's brother. Atli, intent on getting hold of the hoard which Gudrun's brothers had seized, invited them to come to his court. In spite of their sister's warnings they came, after sinking the treasure in the Rhine. On their refusal to surrender the hoard or to say where it was concealed, a fierce fight broke out in which all the followers of Gunnar and Hogni fell. Atli then once more offered to spare Gunnar's life if he would reveal his secret; but Gunnar refused to do so until he should see the heart of Hogni. So Hogni's heart was cut out, the victim laughing the while; but when Gunnar saw it he cried out that now he alone knew where the hoard was and that he would never reveal the secret. His hands were then bound, and he was cast into a den of venomous serpents; but he played so sweetly on the harp with his toes that he charmed the reptiles, except one adder, by which he was stung to death. Gudrun, however, avenged the death of her brothers by slaying the sons she had borne to Atli and causing him unwittingly to drink their blood and eat their hearts. Finally, in the night, she killed Atli himself and burned his hall; then, leaping into the sea, she was carried by the waves to new scenes, where she had adventures not connected with those recorded in the Nibelungenlied." This story, in spite of the late date of the V olsungasaga, repre sents a very primitive version. The setting of the Nibelungen story, on the other hand, is mediaeval rather than primitive, though its extant versions are of much earlier date, and it con tains primitive elements not found in the other. Everywhere the supernatural elements are eliminated or subordinated. The gods have vanished from the scene ; there is nothing of Loki and his theft of Andvar's hoard, nothing of Odin and his gifts of the sword Gram, and the magic horse Grani ; and not till the third Aventiure, when Siegfried comes to Worms, are we given even a hint that such things as the sword and treasure exist.
In the legend of Sigurd the Volsung, the plot had turned upon the love and vengeance of Brunhild, so in the Song of the Nibe lungs it is the love and vengeance of Kriemhild, the Gudrun of the northern saga, that forms the backbone of the story and gives it from first to last an artistic unity which the V olsungasaga lacks. The tragedy of the close of the story is emphasized by the pomp and circumstance that surround the ill-fated hero. The primitive setting of the northern version has vanished utterly. Sigmund is king of the Netherlands; the boy Siegfried is brought up by "wise men that are his tutors" (Avent. ii.) ; and when, attracted by the fame of Kriemhild's beauty, he rides to Worms to woo her, it is as the typical handsome, accomplished and chivalrous king's son of mediaeval romance.
It is at this point (Avent. iv.) that some primitive elements are suddenly and awkwardly introduced. As Siegfried approaches Worms, Kriemhild's brothers, the Burgundian kings Gunther, Giselher and Gernot watch his coming, and to them their faithful retainer, "the grim Hagen," explains who he is. This can be no other than the hero who slew the two kings of the Nibelungs, Schilbunc and Nibelunc, and seized their treasure, together with the sword Balmunc and the tarnkappe, or cape of darkness, which has the virtue of making him who wears it invisible. Another adventure, too, he can tell of him, namely, how he slew a dragon and how by bathing in its blood his skin became horny, so that no weapon could wound him save in one place, where a linden leaf had fallen upon him as he stooped, so that the blood did not touch this spot. In spite of Hagen's distrust and misgivings, Siegfried now fights as the ally of the Burgundians against the Saxons (Avent. iv.), and undertakes, on condition of receiving Kriemhild to wife, to help Gunther to woo Queen Brunhild, who can only be won by the man who can overcome her in three trials of strength (Avent. vi.). Siegfried and Gunther accordingly go together to Brunhild's castle of Isenstein in Iceland, and there the hero, invisible in his tarnkappe, stands beside Gunther, hurling the spear and putting the weight for him, and even leaping, with Gunther in his arms, far beyond the utmost limit that Brunhild can reach (Avent. vii.). Brunhild confesses herself beaten and returns with the others to Worms, where the double marriage is celebrated with great pomp (Avent. x.). But Brunhild is ill con tent ; though she saw Siegfried do homage to Gunther at Isenstein she is not convinced, and believes that Siegfried should have been her husband ; and on the bridal night she vents her ill humour on the hapless Gunther by tying him up in a knot and hanging him on the wall. "I have brought the evil devil to my house!" he complains to Siegfried next morning; and once more the hero has to intervene; invisible in his tarnkappe he wrestles with Brunhild and, after a desperate struggle, takes from her her girdle and ring before yielding place to Gunther. The girdle and ring he gives to his wife Kriemhild (Avent. x.).