Nibelungenlied

Etzel and Kriemhild live “together in great splendor […] until the seventh year” (177) of their marriage. Kriemhild gives birth to another son, Ortlieb, and insists on having him baptized. Both foreigners and subjects hold the queen in high regard for 13 years. Kriemhild continues to “[brood] on the many wrongs that had been done to her at home and all the honours that had been hers in Nibelungland, but of which Hagen had stripped her by murdering Siegfried” (177). She decides to finally avenge her husband.

Kriemhild goes to Etzel and tells him that their subjects think of her as “a friendless foreigner” (178). She wishes her brothers would visit. Etzel agrees to invite them to a summer festival and calls on his minstrels Werbel and Swemmel to relay the message.

Without Etzel knowing, Kriemhild requests Werbel and Swemmel’s company. She promises to lavish them with clothes and riches if they deliver her version of the message. Kriemhild wants her kinsmen to think that she is no longer in mourning and insists that Hagen come along.