Tales of dragons, revenge and invisible cloaks ...... Medieval Germany ..... on Radio 4

So I have never really done dragons, knights mystical deeds  of warriors, and all that hokum.

The death of Siegfried

Which is why I have never read the The Nibelungenlied, which was written in the 1190s mixed bits of folk memories and German and Scandanavia sagas and in its time was appropriated by antisemites, nationalists and of course the Nazis.

I bought a copy around 1966 and it has sat on a shelve ever since.

So I nearly didn't listen Melvyn Bragg and his guests explore the story and I would have been the loser, because it was an excellent listen, and is available online by following the link. 

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Song of the Nibelungs, a twelfth century German epic, full of blood, violence, fantasy and bleakness. 

It is a foundational work of medieval literature, drawing on the myths of Scandinavia and central Europe. 

The poem tells of two couples, Siegfried and Kriemhild and Gunther and Brunhilda, whose lives are destroyed by lies and revenge. It was extremely popular in its time, sometimes rewritten with happier endings, and was rediscovered by German Romantics and has since been drawn from selectively by Wagner, Fritz Lang and, infamously, the Nazis looking to support ideas on German heritage.

With, Sarah Bowden, Reader in German and Medieval Studies at King’s College London, Mark Chinca, Professor of Medieval German and Comparative Literature at the University of Cambridge and Bettina Bildhauer, Professor of Modern Languages at the University of St Andrews

Producer: Simon Tillotson" 

That said I still don't think I will take down my copy from the shelf.

Picture; The death of Siegfried, Nibelungenlied Manuscript K, (480-1490, unknown artist

*The Nibelungenlied, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fmpd