Beowulf And The Song Of The Nibelungs Analysis

Characters of Beowulf and The Song of the Nibelungs When we read a piece of work, we often analyze the characters and use that the make judgments of their actions. When a character changes over the course of the story, as would be expected in a romance, we look at everything beforehand that could add insight into the process of the change. On the other hand, however, there are pieces of work where the protagonist does not change throughout his or her journey, which is common in an epic. Beowulf is an excellent example of an epic, because the main protagonist, Beowulf, faces a variety of beasts throughout his life, but he consistently reacts the same way each time he is faced with a new challenge. Beowulf is a character in the story that remains …show more content…
The two major characters are Siegfried and his wife, Kriemhild. There are other characters that are major as well, such as Gunther, Brunhild, and Hagen, but the story seems to focus on Siegfried and Kriemhild, and how they go about their lives. Kriemhild is an interesting character, because at the beginning of the story, she states that she never wanted to marry because she had a dream that she would lose her husband. But she is a princess and therefore she married to Siegfried, a well-known prince throughout the lands. Siegfried traveled to Burgundy to marry Kriemhild, but first he formed a relationship with her brother, Gunther. He helped Gunther marry and consummate his relationship with Brunhild with the use of his magic cloak, which led him to marry Kriemhild. Everything was good in the world, except that Brunhild did not think Siegfried was good enough for Kriemhild because when they first met, Siegfried introduced himself to her as Gunther’s vassal. This led to Brunhild confronting Kriemhild about Siegfried, and Kriemhild telling Brunhild that Siegfried was the one who was with her after her wedding, not Gunther, and had Brunhild’s ring to prove it. Brunhild obviously did not receive this news well, and Hagen, who from the start has not liked Siegfried vowed to kill him, because if Siegfried lie with Brunhild instead of Gunther, that would be a threat to their