Gender in "Das Nibelungenlied" (or Why do heroes always have to kill people?)
Violence is generally connected to gender. Most often it is the male characters who are violent whereas the female characters are mainly their victims. Masculinity is defined by how violent a man is, and the degree to which a man is masculine itself decides whether he is powerful or considered attractive by women. Siegfried's attractiveness is not just based on his looks but mainly by his heroic deeds: he kills a dragon and he is super strong and invincible. That is why both Kriemhild and Brunhild are attracted to him, instead of Gunther who is a very weak king. He is just not masculine enough. Hagen von Tronje, however, is also a very strong man, a fighter to which Brunhild is more attracted to him than to her own husband.
The role of female characters in "Das Nibelungenlied" is even more interesting, I think. They most often are objectified: they are a prize for the hero and become his possession as soon as he has earned them. First, a women is the possession of her family (brothers, father, uncles etc.) until she is passed on to a new owner, i.e. her husband. Of course the hero can treat what belongs to him however he pleases. Therefore, when is wife is disobedient (e.g. when Kriemhild has the fight with her sister-in-law about who has the best husband), it is legitimate that he beat her in order to teach her a lesson and to punish her.
Yet, Brunhild seems to be exempt from that tradition at first. She is living isolated in Iceland, and is almost equal to a male. Her strength and her ability to fight and compete against most men has given her freedom and independence. This only ends when Siegfried deceives her and defeats her with unfair means. Then she suddenly has to comply to rules for females because she has shown weakness which is the only thing a man is never allowed to show. Her "punishment" is the marriage to Gunther. But even there she tries to inhabit the male role because she refuses to sleep with him. Only when Siegfried wrestles her down so that Gunther can have sex with her, she is finally giving in and she is submissive from then on. Consequently, masculinity and therefore, violence determines every relationship in "Das Nibelungenlied". How strong and violent a man is, determines his rank in the social hierarchy of the males, it also determines who he is going to marry, and if this marriage is successful, i.e. if his wife is obedient to him or not.
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| The heroic Siegfried slaying the dragon |
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