Siegfried

A wood panel from a church in Setesdal, Norway. The carving shows the legendary hero Sigurd (Siegfried) resting in the forest with his sword. It dates from the 12th century, and can therefore be taken as a late example of Viking art.

Legendary Germanic and Norse hero. His story, which may contain some historical elements, occurs in the German Nibelungenlied/Song of the Nibelung and in the Norse Elder or Poetic Edda and the prose Völsunga Saga (in the last two works, the hero is known as Sigurd).

Siegfried wins Brunhild for his liege lord and marries his sister, but is eventually killed in the intrigues that follow.

He is the hero of the last two operas in Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung cycle.

Siegfried

Opera by Wagner, part of the trilogy of music dramas Ring des Nibelungen. The opera was first performed on 16 August 1876. The story concerns Siegfried, who, having been brought up by the dwarf Mime, slays the dragon Fafner and acquires the ring. He confronts the god Wotan, shattering his spear; the end of the gods is near. Although fearless in the face of battle, Siegfried awakens Brünnhilde and is frightened by the prospect of love, before being overcome by its power.