Siegfried's Murder

by Anonymous, A.T. Hatto (Translator)

Having killed a dragon and bathed in its blood, the mighty Siegfried seems undefeatable. But during a bitter family feud, his naive and beautiful wife reveals he has one terrible weakness. So Siegfried's enemies take him with them into the dark depths of a forest, where they will exploit that weakness and plunge a spear deep into his heart.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mythology

138 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1200

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Priya Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating document. What strikes me as a modern reader isn't the style, which I expected but the dynamics. These were chivalrous men when this story was documented, the text detailing their finery and prowess. More lines are spent on the intricacies of their garb than the character and relationship of the two women who bring about Siegfried's demise.
To the modern eye, they're no so heroic. Siegfried tricks a woman into marriage and then into the marriage bed with his cloak of invisibility and his immense strength. He robs her of her freedom and power, for which he pays a high price, having been unwittingly betrayed by his own wife.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so much fun. It is a wild read. Crazy scenarios, stark displays of wickedness and moments I'm not sure were meant to be comedic but made me laugh nonetheless. This book truly has an impressionable cast of characters. Woman hanging their husbands from hooks because husbands wanted to get freaky and disturb the wife's sleep. Men grabbing at women and getting their hands crushed by super strong women. Yes, there are many depictions of men trying to mess with women, a Scandinavian theme which continues all the way up to the Steig Larsson books. It's interesting that such a theme is embedded throughout Nordic/Scandi mythology. The stories in this book vacillate between the light and the dark, in equal measure.

[Reuben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every once in a while I force myself to read classic literature and I almost never enjoy it. I think it's good to see where our stories come from but sometimes it feels like drudgery. So bear that in mind when you see my low rating. If you like older writing styles you might enjoy this book but it wasn't for me.

[Sarah chaher]

Jealousy and it’s wrong doings..

[Jelina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brunhild deserved better. The narrator shouldn't have blamed the women but the men.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic story of human striving and folly.

[Carin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My last name used to be a trial to me. But as I grew up, it grew on me. And one day I was at a random picnic with my mother of French speakers (I took German, thanks to my last name) and one of the few people who could and was willing to speak to me told me the story of Siegfried. I was familiar with the fact that he was a German mythological hero, a la Achilles or Hercules--not a god. But what this guy explained was how the myth came to be. That if you get a few hundred or thousand men with metal shields and have them all hold up the shields at once along a flank, it would look an awful lot like a dragon. And if they were doing things like shooting arrows tipped with fire, it could be come a fire-breathing dragon. Cool, huh?

Well this book is one in a line of ancient classics from Penguin, and it is an excerpt from the story of Siegfried, the inspiration for Wagner's Nibelungen, just about his murder. It leaves out most of the cool battle stuff. Because like Achilles, Siegfried has a weakness. He bathed in the blood of the aforementioned dragon after he killed her, but a leaf had fallen onto his back and it stuck and so there is a small spot between his shoulder blades that is not invincible like the rest of him. And when he and his wife go to visit her brother (Siegfried's best friend) and his wife, the two wives get into a spat, mostly about whose husband is better. And the other wife's men get offended by something she says, but they smooth everything over. Or do they? One guy stays pissed, but he acts like he isn't, and in the guise of needing to protect Siegfried from enemies, he gets Siegfried's wife to tell him the weakness. Well, you can guess what happens next.

This is translated from Middle German, from around the same era as Gilgamesh, and so the language is stilted and awkward. I don't know if a translator like Robert Fagles or Robert Fitzgerald could do more with it. But the story itself was pretty fast-moving and captivating. Some things were weird, like how both Siegfried and his future wife kept talking about how in love they were with each other before they ever met. But if you just go with it and overlook those weird things, it's an interesting ancient classic to add to your background. And at such a short length, the weirdness and awkward parts of a very old translation are easy to skim over in a way they wouldn't be at several hundred pages.

[Belinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Started off slowly and only piqued my interest right at the end.
The story skims over the earlier deeds of Siegfried's life, focusing more on the events leading to his demise. But those earlier, overlooked deeds included slaying a dragon and bathing in its blood, snaring himself a magical invisibility cloak and conquering other lands. Perhaps if I had experienced these feats through the story, I would have been more moved by his death. It seems to me that the tale was cropped and embellished in the wrong places.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as translations go this was one was pretty standard. Sometimes it felt like the translator was trying too hard to make it sound medieval instead of simply letting the text speak for itself. What really annoyed me though was the abruptness of the end. All through the story we keep hearing of Siegfried's murder and how his wife gets revenge on the murderers. We get the murder but it ends with Siegfried being buried. That's it. No sense of completion or closure. I know it was only an extract of a much longer text but this just feels like an unfair tease.

[Cai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, uhm, it was okay. I remember this book to be in my shelf since highschool and it is only now that I was able to finish it. It was much like the books of mythology, the way it is written - with the words too deep and the way of speaking is too formal.

A book like this... would only come to my possession if it was a gift. Which it was. I couldn't imagine myself buying it. Not that it was bad, but because it's not my element, not my choice in books.

[Austin Sheehan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story but felt something was lacking..
Perhaps there was some depths to the narrative that were lost in translation, or cut out to make the story shorter.
I want to keep learning about the heroes and culture of my heritage, but don't think I will do it through this series in future.

[Welwyn Wilton Katz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A portion of the Nibelungenlied. I believe it has been Christianized by the unknown translator. It also contains its own narrator, probably original. I prefer other versions

[J. Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sure someone much more brilliant than me has done some good work on this re: gender politics, and I'd like to read what that person has to say at some point. For my part, I was a bit baffled.

[Anneke]

Meh, I gave up. I really should stop trying to read books that are over 100 years old, it's really not my thing.

[Melissa Hitchens · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh -\_O_/

[Steven Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best edition of the tale by any means. Interesting though, how writing styles have changed!

[Adam]

Good riddance, Siegfried