the whole story of the twofold deception to
which Brunhild has been subjected, and then triumphantly sweeps into
the church, leaving her rival stunned and humiliated by the news she
has heard. In the Norse tradition the scene serves merely to enlighten
Brunhild as to the deception played upon her. In the "Nibelungenlied" it
becomes the real cause of Siegfried's death, for Brunhild plans to kill
Siegfried to avenge the public slight done to her. She has no other
reason, as Siegfried swears that there had been no deception. Brunhild
appeals to us much less in the "Nibelungenlied" than in the Norse
version. In the latter she feels herself deeply wronged by Siegfried's
faithlessness, and resolves on his death because she will not be the
wife of two men. In our poem she has no reason for wishing his death
except her wounded pride. In the "Nibelungenlied", too, she disappears
from view after Siegfried's death, whereas in the Norse tradition she
ascends his funeral pyre and dies at his side.

The circumstances of Siegfried's death are likewise totally different
in the two versions. In the Norse, as we have seen, he is murdered while
asleep in bed, by Gunnar's younger brother Gutthorm. In our poem he is
killed by Hagen, while bending over a spring to drink. This is preceded
by a scene in which Hagen treacherously induces Kriemhild to mark the
one vulnerable spot on Siegfried's body, on the plea of protecting
him. This deepens the tragedy, and renders Kriemhild's misery and
self-reproaches the greater. After Siegfried's burial his father,
who had also come to Worms with his son, vainly endeavors to persuade
Kriemhild to return with him to the Netherlands. Her refusal is
unnatural in the extreme, for she had reigned there ten years or
more with Siegfried, and had left her little son behind, and yet she
relinquishes all this and remains with her brothers, whom she knows to
be the murderers of her husband. This is evidently a reminiscence of
an earlier form in which Siegfried was a homeless adventurer, as in the
"Thidreksaga".

The second half of the tale, the destruction of the Nibelungs,
is treated of very briefly in the early Norse versions, but the
"Nibelungenlied", which knows so little of Siegfried's youth, has
developed and enlarged upon the story, until it overshadows the first
part in length and importance and gives the name to the whole poem.
The main difference between the two versions is that in the older
Norse tradi