Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

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Song of the Nibelungs,
a heroic poem from medieval Europe
Inscribed 2009
What is it
The Nibelungenlied, or The Song of the Nibelungs, is an
epic heroic poem written in Middle High German.
Based on older oral tradition, it was transcribed around
AD 1200. Three separate manuscript copies on vellum
are listed.
Why was it inscribed
The Nibelungenlied is a rare example of heroic poetry
in German literature and is important in world terms,
ranking alongside Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata, Beowulf
and the Chanson de Roland.
Where is it
Codex A: Bavarian State Library, Munich, Germany;
Codex B: Monastic Library of St Gallen, Switzerland;
Codex C: Regional Library of the State of Baden,
Karlsruhe, Germany
The Nibelungenlied tells the story of dragon-slayer
Siegfried from his childhood and later marriage to
Kriemhild, to his murder and the subsequent story
of Kriemhild’s revenge. It culminates in the extinction
of the Burgundians or Nibelungs at the court of the Huns.
The story takes place in Central Europe along the Rhine
and the Danube, corresponding to modern Germany,
Austria, and Hungary; a single episode takes place in
Iceland. It dates back to the time of mass migration across
Europe in the 5th and 6th centuries AD and is known
across the continent.
The roots of the myth lie in the memory of a disastrous
defeat of the Eastern German tribe of the Burgundians by
the Roman general Aëtius as they advanced from the Rhine
to Roman Gaul in around AD 436.
The Nibelungenlied was written during the 13th century
in the Alemannic or Bavarian language area within the
Alps region. It originated in the classical time of Middle
German literature and was written in the form of singable
stanzas. Its author is unknown, but his patron was Wolfger
von Erla, bishop of Passau from 1191 to 1204.
Rediscovered by a new generation in the 18th century,
it came to the fore in the 19th as a national epic poem
94 Song of the Nibelungs, a heroic poem from medieval Europe
both in numerous illustrations and in the musical dramas
of Richard Wagner. It has exerted a wide infl uence on the
history of thought, literature, art and music.
It is known only in the versions that have survived in
thirty-seven manuscripts and manuscript fragments from
the 13th to the 16th centuries. The three main manuscripts
inscribed in the Register are labelled A, B and C. Each one
is unique and transmits a diff erent version of the text. They
were written within a century of the poem’s composition
and are the earliest and most important manuscripts
of the text.
Codex A preserves the shortest version, probably
in anticipation that its readers had some knowledge
of the oral text. Codex B, some decades older, contains
other Middle High German epic poems besides
The Nibelungenlied. The oldest codex is C, a revised
and expanded version of the text.