The Nibelungenlied: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Nibelungenlied, credited to Anonymous, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Nibelungenlied translated by Daniel B. Shumway The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge. The Nibelungenlied is based on pre-Christian Germanic heroic motifs (the "Nibelungensaga"), which include oral traditions and reports based on historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries. Old Norse parallels of the legend survive in the Völsunga saga, the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda, the Legend of Norna-Gest, and the Þiðrekssaga. The present translator has endeavored to translate literally and accurately, and to reproduce the spirit of the original, as far as a prose translation will permit. To this end the language has been made as simple and as Saxon in character as possible. An exception has been made, however, in the case of such Romance words as were in use in England during the age of the romances of chivalry, and which would help to land a Romance coloring; these have been frequently employed. Very few obsolete words have been used, and these are explained in the notes, but the language has been made to some extent archaic, especially in dialogue, in order to give the impression of age.(from the introduction

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Nibelungenlied
• Author credits: Anonymous
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 40
• Listed recording duration: 10:28:16

Catalogue topics

• myths
• ring cycle
• germanic hero motifs

Opening tracks: first 24 of 40

1. 00 - Preface — 2:52
2. 01 - Adventure I — 6:00
3. 02 - Of Siegfried — 6:56
4. 03 - How Siegfried Came To Worms — 24:27
5. 04 - How He Fought with the Saxons — 28:48
6. 05 - How Siegfried First Saw Kriemhild — 14:52
7. 06 - How Gunther Fared to Isenland for Brunhild — 15:47
8. 07 - How Gunther Won Brunhild — 27:24
9. 08 - How Siegfried Fared To His Men-At-Arms — 11:35
10. 09 - How Siegfried Was Sent To Worms — 12:49
11. 10 - How Brunhild Was Received At Worms — 33:45
12. 11 - How Siegfried Journeyed Homeward With His Wife. — 9:49
13. 12 - How Gunther Bade Siegfried To The Feasting. — 17:01
14. 13 - How They Journeyed To The Feasting. — 11:13
15. 14 - How The Queens Reviled Each Other. — 19:36
16. 15 - How Siegfried Was Betrayed. — 12:11
17. 16 - How Siegfried Was Slain. — 19:49
18. 17 - How Kriemhild Mourned Her Husband And - How He Was Buried. — 16:35
19. 18 - How Siegmund Journeyed Home Again. — 8:55
20. 19 - How The Nibelung Hoard Was Brought to Worms. — 10:18
21. 20 - How King Etzel Sent To Burgundy For Kriemhild. — 34:51
22. 21 - How Kriemhild Journeyed To The Huns. — 11:41
23. 22 - How Etzel Made Kriemhild His Bride. — 12:48
24. 23 - How Kriemhild Thought To Avenge Her Wrongs. — 8:39

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.