The Nibelungenlied: From Worms to the Danube

Siegfried is a prince from Xanten: the poem has him born "ze Santen an dem Rhîne", the son of King Siegmund and Queen Sieglind. His legend comes with him — the dragon he slew, the gold hoard he won, and the bath in the creature's blood that made his skin impenetrable, all told later in Worms by Hagen. Xanten's church of St Viktor, the town's "cathedral", is the pin: its towers rise 72 and 74 metres, and the present building dates from a foundation stone laid in 1263, long after the poem's world.

Location precision: The poem names only the town; the pin marks Xanten's main church, not any building from the story.

Visitor guidance: The church of St Viktor stands in Xanten; its towers are 72 and 74 metres high.

At the cathedral door the poem's trouble comes into the open. Brünhild and Kriemhild argue over whose husband ranks higher, Gunther or Siegfried, and so which queen enters first. It is the key episode that leads to Siegfried's death: Hagen soon advises Gunther to have Siegfried murdered. The portal of the story was on the north side and was destroyed in 1689, so the building you see is not the one in the poem. Since 2002 a Nibelungen festival has been staged on an open-air stage in front of it.

Visitor guidance: The festival stage stands in front of the cathedral.

Kriemhild agrees to mark for Hagen Siegfried's one weak spot, between his shoulder blades. When Siegfried bends over a spring to drink, Hagen spears him in the back. His body is left before Kriemhild's door, where it bleeds in Hagen's presence. The poem gives no exact place, so many communities claim the spring. Gras-Ellenbach's, on a forest path about 1.5 km south-east of the village, is the best known; it rests on Johann Friedrich Knapp's research of 1844, and it ran dry in 1951.

Location precision: The poem names no spot; this is one of several rival Siegfried springs, and critics say it lies too far from Worms for a body to be carried back overnight.

Visitor guidance: Forest path about 1.5 km south-east of Gras-Ellenbach; the spring ran dry in 1951.

Thirteen years after Siegfried's death, Etzel, king of the Huns, wants to marry Kriemhild. She agrees only after his messenger, Margrave Rüdiger of Bechelaren, swears loyalty to her personally and she realises the Huns can avenge Siegfried for her. Tulln on the Danube claims the scene where Etzel saw and proposed to her; a Nibelungen fountain was dedicated to the event in 2005. The pin marks the town.

Location precision: Tulln's claim is a local tradition; the pin marks the town centre, not the fountain.

Visitor guidance: A Nibelungen fountain, dedicated in 2005, commemorates the event.

Kriemhild's brothers accept her invitation and, on Hagen's advice, travel with an army. As the Burgundians prepare to cross the Danube in Bavaria, Hagen meets nixies who prophesy that only the king's chaplain will return from Etzel's hall. To prove them wrong he throws the chaplain overboard from the ferry, in a flooded river, but the chaplain swims ashore. Once everyone has landed, he destroys the ferry to show that there is no way back.

Location precision: The poem puts the crossing only in Bavaria, so no pin is given.

Pöchlarn is named in the Nibelungenlied as the seat of Margrave Rüdiger von Bechelaren. The Burgundians are welcomed there: Rüdiger betroths his daughter to Giselher, and gives Gernot a sword and Hagen a shield. Later Etzel and Kriemhild force Rüdiger into the battle, bound by guest-friendship and kinship to the Burgundians. The town lies on the south bank of the Danube, at the mouth of the Erlauf.

Location precision: The identification of Bechelaren with Pöchlarn is the traditional one; the pin marks the town centre.

Visitor guidance: The town has a Nibelungen monument with the arms of the Nibelungen towns.