In the first act of Siegfried, the third opera of the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner, Siegfried asks Mime, the blacksmith who raised him - with selfish intentions though: "Jetzt sag, woher heiß’ ich "Siegfried" ?" Taking into consideration the fact that this Siegfried is more or less the same as the hero Sigurd in the medieval Scandinavian epic tradition, we can ask a similar question here: "Jetzt sag, woher heiß’ ich "Sigurd" ?"(Now say, why am I called "Sigurd" ?).

Sigurd is the abbreviated name for The Socrates Initiative for Germanic Understanding and Recognition of Discourse. This Lingua-project on the similarities and differences between Germanic languages has been named after the famous medieval hero Sigurd in anonymous thirteenth century Old Norse stories such as the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda and the Icelandic Völsungasaga. Many of Siegfried’s acts of heroism in the German Nibelungenlied, which were written down down round 1200 – probably after an oral tradition of several centuries – have a place in the Old Norse (Icelandic) stories. Sigurd seems to be Siegfried.

Siegfried/Sigurd has always spoken to the imagination. Also since the Middle Ages there have been numerous adaptations of the Nibelungen-story and of the Siegfried/Sigurd-figure. The most well known adaptation is Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner (1813-1883), who based this work both on Edda-sources and on the Nibelungenlied. In fact when you mention the name "Siegfried", most people tend to think of Richard Wagner first and only much later (or not at all) of the Nibelungenlied.

Reason enough to consider Der Ring des Nibelungen (focussing on Siegfried though) in brief.

The tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, Ein Bühnenfestspiel für drei Tage und einen Vorabend, was composed between 1848 and 1874. It consists of four operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. It is not until the third opera that the hero Siegfried appears on stage.

The Siegfried story in the Wagner adaptation (with those Nibelungenlied and Edda-elements in it) tells the story of the bringing back of the gold that has been stolen by a dwarf (a Nibelung) from the Rhine maidens. From that gold a ring has been made which will give world dominion to he who forswears love. When the God Wotan tries to steal it back a curse has been laid on it by the Nibelung Alberich. Through unfortunate initiatives of this Wotan the ring comes into wrong hands again and it is really a task to retrieve it. No one less than a special hero, a free man, ‘the new human being’ (with awkward misinterpretations (and adaptations) of this figure by the National Socialists to follow) can get back the ring and free Brünnhilde - the Walküre who tried to support the love of Siegmund and Sieglinde, children of Wotan, brother and sister, parents of Siegfried - from the rage of Wotan. As a punishment for not doing the will of Wotan, Brünnhilde has been put asleep in a circle of flames. Only the free hero, who doesn’t know what fear is, the one who is able to forge together the pieces of the magic sword Notung, will be able to set her free. And that will be the hero Siegfried, who was raised by the blacksmith Mime, brother of Alberich, who himself yearns for the ring. Brought up by Mime, Siegfried is prepared to slay a dragon and doing so he will obtain the ring from the dragon as well as a Tarnhelmet, a helmet which makes a person invisable or enables him to change into another person. He kills the dragon Fafner. The dragon blood enables him to understand the language of the birds. The woodbird (Waltvogel) now tells him the evil intentions of his foster father, Mime. Siegried kills Mime and is led by the Waltvogel to Brünnhilde. This Brünnhilde, who rescued him and protected him even before his birth, is released from the flames by Siegfried. She is the first woman he ever sees and ecstatic love is to follow. But not for long and then we are in the fourth opera: Götterdämmerung. Siegfried’s love for Brünnhilde is obstructed by the evil Gibichungs. At their court Siegfried is served a drug to drink, which makes him forget ever having seen a woman before. Not remembering Brünnhilde anymore, he falls in love with Gutrune. For Gunther (brother of Gutrune) and as Gunther (transformed by the Tarnkappe) he will go through the flames again in order to obtain Brünnhilde as a bride for this Gibichung. When Brünnhilde and the Gibichungs have learned about Siegfried’s unknowing treachery his life is led to an end. Siegfried is killed by Gutrune’s half brother Hagen (son of the Nibelung Alberich). Siegfried’s death makes it finally possible to return the ring to the Rhine; the flames of his pyre (which purify the ring from the curse) set the Walhalla on fire.

This means the end of the gods, but the ring is back where it belongs.

Listening to the 15 odd hours of Wagner music again and again remains an overwhelming experience. Of course an outline – and it is not as much the dramatic development of the drama, but the magic of the music that makes the overwhelming experiece -doesn’t do justice to the characteristic details of the story. But it gives an idea of this Siegfried.

From Wagner’s Siegfried back to the Scandinavian Sigurd. From the different Old Nordic sources the following story can be reconstructed. Sigurd, son of a Danish king, was brought up by the blacksmith Reginn. From the pieces of the sword his father left for him, he forges a new sword, Gramr, with which he cleaves an anvil. Reginn advises Sigurd to kill the dragon Fafnir, Reginns transformed brother and guardian of a treasure. Reginn tells Sigurd to boil the heart of the dragon. When doing so he burns his finger, which enables him to understand the language of the birds. He hears two birds telling one another that Reginn wants to kill Sigurd to obtain the treasure. On hearing this, Sigurd kills Reginn, takes the treasure on his horse, Grani, and leaves. In Hindarfjall in Frakland he finds a girl, sleeping on the top of a mountain, surrounded by flames. According to some sources she is called Sigrdrifa, according to others Brynhildr. They promise to stay together and exchange rings. Yet, later on Sigurd will marry Gudrun and he promises to be faithful to her brothers Gunnarr and Högni. He changes appearances with Gunnarr and in order to obtain Brynhilder for Gunnarr, he goes through the wall of flames for the second time. Later on Brynhildr discovers the ring on the finger of Gudrun, the ring which she gave Sigurd as a token, and she realizes that he has deceived her and that he must die. Gutthormr, an other brother of Gudrun’s kills Sigurd in his bed. (source: N.Th.J.Voorwinden: ‘Siegfried’ In: W.P Gerritsen, A.G. van Melle: Van Aiol tot de Zwaanridder : Nijmegen 1993).

Sigurd seems to have become an archetypical hero. He figures as Sigurd or as Siegfried in a large number of stories. This hero has come to us through (most likely) oral traditions, through anonymous medieval written versions (Nibelungenlied, Edda etc.), through later literary versions (including drama; only think of Friedrich Hebbel: Die Nibelungen) and of course through the popular Wagner opera-cycle.

When studying and comparing differences and similarities between Germanic languages, with fairy tales and folk stories as a starting point, it doesn’t seem too strange to adapt the name of Sigurd. The hero, who slew the dragon (see also the carved doorpost of the medieval church at Hylestad, Setesdal, Norway) was alive in stories in a wide variety of Germanic languages. The spread of his name and fame wasn’t obstructed by (later) country boundaries. In that way he was a proto-European.