Ring of the Niebelung Mini-Series?

[Alatar]

I'm not a purist by any meqans but I really hope they do a better job on this than the dreadful Earthsea adaptation.

Kingdom Fulfills Helmer's Dream

Uli Edel, director of the upcoming SCI FI Channel original miniseries Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King, told SCI FI Wire it was a longtime dream of his to bring the German myth of the Nibelungen to the screen. In the epic four-hour miniseries, a young blacksmith (Benno Furmann) discovers that he's actually Siegfried, heir to a destroyed kingdom. As he faces his destiny, Siegfried romances the Norse warrior queen Brunhilde (Kristanna Loken), battles the fearsome dragon Fafnir and inherits the cursed treasure of the Nibelungs.

"It took me 18 years to get Dark Kingdom made," Edel said in an interview. "After The Mists of Avalon was so successful on TV and DVD, I finally got the green light for Dark Kingdom. And, of course, the popularity of the Lord of the Rings movies didn't hurt, either. German kids read this saga already in school. Every child knows the story. When it was aired last year, it became the most successful show of the year 2004 on German TV."

Edel, who is German, added: "The popular myth was already the subject for Richard Wagner's opera [cycle] The Ring and Fritz Lang's two-part silent classic film Nibelungen. And most recently it was the major source for [J.R.R.] Tolkien's Lord of the Rings [books]. Siegfried and Brunhilde are the first heroes we know about in the Norse mythology. They go back at least 1,500 years, further than the Celtic King Arthur. Some people here in the States might be familiar with the heroine Brunhilde as the Teutonic caricature with the horned helmet and armor-plated voluptuous body, because that's how she was presented on the opera stage in the 19th century. Most opera singers happened to be quite, ... well, ... big."

But, Edel explained, the Brunhilde of the saga is actually not only the most beautiful woman alive, but also the strongest. "That's how our ancestors imagined a great heroine already 1,500 years ago," Edel said. "For a man to win her, he had first to defeat her in single combat. If she won, she would kill the challenger. But when she finally falls in love, she will give everything for that man, even her life. What a girl. How can you not fall for her?" Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King will premiere March 27 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and conclude on the 28th at 9 p.m. —Ian Spelling

[truehobbit]

"The popular myth was already the subject for Richard Wagner's opera [cycle] The Ring and Fritz Lang's two-part silent classic film Nibelungen. And most recently it was the major source for [J.R.R.] Tolkien's Lord of the Rings [books].

German kids read this saga already in school. Every child knows the story. When it was aired last year, it became the most successful show of the year 2004 on German TV."

I don't know what he's talking about here, but we neither read LOTR nor the Nibelungen at school. I'd bet there are more kids who don't know either of the stories than those who do.

[Alatar]

"The popular myth was already the subject for Richard Wagner's opera [cycle] The Ring and Fritz Lang's two-part silent classic film Nibelungen. And most recently it was the major source for [J.R.R.] Tolkien's Lord of the Rings [books].

I thought Tolkien was the first to admit that he was heavily influenced by the Ring of the Niebelung?

[truehobbit]

I think I've read this so often on TORC, I can almost quote it by heart - on hearing his work compared to the Nibelungen, in some letter Tolkien wrote: Both rings are round, and that's the end of the similarity.

(Well, that's not a literal quote, but I'm sure it's close enough. )

Of course he might have said something else elsewhere, it's just that this quote comes up like a mantra in book discussions as soon as someone even just mentions the Nibelungen.

[truehobbit]

Ok, I can't bear the thought of maybe having conveyed incorrect information, so I went to look it up - and I thought I'd post the whole excerpt here, because it's the professor at his scathing best.

Italics are quotes from Ohlmark's (the Swedish translator) introduction to LOTR.

The Ring is in a certain way 'der Nibelungen Ring'....Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases.
.... which was originally forged by Volund the master-smith, and then by way of Vittka-Andvare passed through the hands of the mighty asar [Æsir] into the possession of Hreidmar and the dragon, after the dragon's fall coming to Sigurd the dragonslayer, after his murder by treacherous conspirators coming to the Burgundians, after their death in Atle's snake-pit coming to the Huns, then to the sons of Jonaker, to the Gothic tyrant Ermanrik, etc.
Thank heaven for the etc. I began to fear that it would turn up in my pocket. Evidently Dr. 0 thinks that it is in his. But what is the point of all this? Those who know something about the Old Norse side of the 'Nibelung' traditions (mainly referred to since the name-forms used are Norse) will think this a farrago of nonsense; those who do not, will hardly be interested. But perhaps they are also meant to conclude that Dr. O also has masterskap.1 It has nothing whatsoever to do with The Lord of the Rings. As for Wayland Smith being a Pan-type, or being reflected both in Bombadil and in Gollum: this is sufficient example of the silly methods and nonsensical conclusions of Dr. O. He is welcome to the rubbish, but I do not see that he, as a translator, has any right to unload it here.

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

Volsunga older than Arthur? At a rough guess I would have said they were coeval. I remember the Volsunga saga as being in the first book I ever took out from the Children's Library. The black and white drawings were enhanced with red for the copious blood! It would make a great mini series. I'm always interested in how gods and divinities are portrayed. I have never seen it done satisfactorily yet.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

I'm not sure how "The Ring of the Nibelung" story traditionally goes, but in Wagner's opera Siegfried reforges his father's sword, Nothung.

I seem to recall a certain Ranger of the North in LOTR wielding a re-forged sword as well.

[Sassafras]

I thought this was interesting.

Tolkien wrote in a letter: "Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases." [L #229 (306)] But you have to consider the historical context. A Dr. Ohlmarks had produced an error-riddled Swedish translation of The Lord of the Rings, with an introduction containing such gems as the remark that Sauron was an allegory of Stalin. Specifically, the quote from Letter 229 was Tolkien's response to Ohlmarks' claim that Sauron's Ring "is in a certain way 'der Nibelungen Ring'." Perhaps Tolkien's justified irritation led him to go for the memorable one-sentence rebuttal, even if it was not strictly accurate.

No, Sauron's Ring was not Alberich's Ring: Tolkien did not consciously borrow from Wagner, he was not writing an allegory of Wagner or of anything else, there were major differences between the two Rings, and the two plots are quite different. Most notably, the central theme of The Lord of the Rings is the quest to destroy Sauron's Ring; nobody in the Nibelungenlied even thinks of destroying Alberich's Ring. Also, of course, the One Ring started as an invisibility device, and Wagner's Ring did not make its wearer invisible. Further, Tolkien's idea of the Ring as the ruler of other Rings, a device for enslaving their bearers, has no counterpart in Wagner at all.

But certainly there are similarities between the two Rings. ("A Tsar Is Born" even makes a plausible case for Tolkien in fact having done some subconscious borrowing and gives some background on Wagner and his sources. [r.a.b.t article, 11 Apr 2002, archived here]. In a later article [r.a.b.t article, 17 May 2002, archived here], he goes on to say that Wagner invented the idea of one Ring to rule the world "forty years before Tolkien was born", and that Tolkien came up with his idea of a Ruling Ring years after attending performances of Wagner's Ring cycle. Anyone who wishes to claim that Wagner had no influence at all on Tolkien must somehow get past those facts. (Some have pointed out that rings of power are a common myth; but "a ring of power" is not the same thing as "a Ring to rule the world".) The thread Wagner and Tolkien in r.a.b.t contains a lot of fascinating background on the Northern legends.)

Pace Tolkien, it seems clear to me that the resemblance between the two Rings does not cease with the fact that "both were round." Here are some similar points:


Alberich's Ring
Bearer can become master of the world.

Sauron's Ring:
Bearer can become master of the world.

Alberich's Ring:
The Ring was cursed, and brought misfortune to each of its bearers.

Sauron's Ring:
The Ring was evil, and corrupted each of its bearers (except Sam, who bore it only briefly).

Alberich's Ring:
Fafner killed his brother Fasolt to get the Ring, then took it and hid in a cave for many years.

Sauron's Ring:
Sméagol killed his friend Déagol to get the Ring, then took it and hid in caves under the Misty Mountains for many years.

Alberich's Ring:
The driving force of the story is Wotan's efforts to get the Ring back.

Sauron's Ring:
The driving force of the story is Sauron's efforts to get the Ring back.

Alberich's Ring:
The Ring's history ends when its former bearer Siegfried is burned in a funeral pyre, and Valhalla and all the gods burn too, and the Rhinemaidens take the ring beneath the waters. Men henceforth rule the world, with the gods gone.

Sauron's Ring:
The Ring's history ends when its former bearer Gollum falls into the volcano while holding it and is burned to death. Men henceforth rule the world, with the Elves departing.

Doubtless there are other similarities too. But as far as we are aware, Tolkien did not consciously borrow from the Nibelungenlied or Wagner's version of it in any significant way. Conrad Dunkerson points out [r.a.b.t article, 23 Feb 2004, archived here] that the ring Bilbo found was a plain invisibility ring and had nothing in common with Wagner; the similarities we end up with in The Lord of the Rings were created to make other elements of the story work.