Book description
Written by an unknown author in the twelfth century, this powerful tale
of murder and revenge reaches back to the earliest epochs of German
antiquity, transforming centuries-old legend into a masterpiece of
chivalric drama. Siegfried, a great prince of the Netherlands, wins the
hand of the beautiful princess Kriemhild of Burgundy, by aiding her
brother Gunther in his struggle to seduce a powerful Icelandic Queen.
But the two women quarrel, and Siegfried is ultimately destroyed by
those he trusts the most. Comparable in scope to the Iliad, this
skilfully crafted work combines the fragments of half-forgotten myths to
create one of the greatest epic poems - the principal version of the
heroic legends used by Richard Wagner, in The Ring.
Written around AD 1200, probably by a professional entertainer for
performance at court in Austria
A. T. Hatto has translated Tristan and Eschenbach's Parzival for
Penguin Classics.
