The Nibelungen: the historical truth

Note: This site is still under construction. Unfortunately, I think I'll have little time to expand it in the forseeable future. Therefore, it'll remain half finished for a while. Nonetheless, you can find interesting things here.

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It is generally assumed that the great Germanic legendary heroes Dietrich von Bern and the Nibelungen have their counterparts in history: Theodoric the Great and the Burgundians of Late Antiquity.
Unfortunately, the stories told about these great heroes have no relation whatsoever to the known historical facts. In addition, the heroes might be identified in a radically different way.

Purpose of this site is to compare two theories:

The traditional theory outlined above
The new theory of Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg, who claims the Nibelungen were not the Burgundians and Dietrich von Bern was in fact a fifth century king of Bonn and not Theodoric the Great.

In 1981, Ritter published his book Die Nibelungen zogen nordwaerts, in which he concluded that the 13th-century Thidrekssaga has retained many place-names which can be traced to the 5th-century Rhineland, thus making Dietrich, the Nibelungen and Siegfried Rhinelandic princes of the era of the Great Migrations.

Despite Ritter's passionate plea for revising the traditional identifications, scholars have largely ignored his work.

If Ritter is right,

the traditional identifications of the great heroes are incorrect.
5th-century Burgundian history must be partially rewritten, since modern historians have always assumed that the extirpation of the Burgundians in 436 is reflected in the Nibelungenlied and therefore has taken place on the Rhine (maybe near Worms).
we are forced to conclude that two Attila's the Hun have existed.
the (un)reliability of oral tradition must be reconsidered.
we finally have a chance to look at the era of the Great Migrations through the eyes of the Germanic invaders.

All in all, enough points of interest to merit a website.

I advise new readers to follow the Introduction first, since the subsidiary pages sometimes deal with very specialized matters which can only be understood after reading all the introductory pages.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any comments, suggestions or extra literature. Also contact me when the site appears not to be working as it should.

Start the Introduction.
Hereafter, follow the "Continue the Introduction" links.

I advise new visitors to read the Introduction first.

Start the Introduction.

Story lines:

I have set out several story lines through my site to help new readers understand the various problems involved in identifying Dietrich, Siegfried and the Nibelungen.

Choose an interesting one, read each page and then follow the large link at the bottom of the page. At the end, you will return here.
Of course, you can also stray to other story lines.

My main reason for thinking the Thidrekssaga an accurate fifth century source has nothing at all to do with topography or exact identifications.

Load the page discussing oral tradition.

I offer an extended version of the Thidrekssaga, which is excellently suited to get to know the saga.

Load the extended summary of the Thidrekssaga.

Miscellaneous items:

Load the page containing interesting external hyperlinks.

Load the page discussing Ritter's evidence for Dietrich's dragonfight.

Load the page discussing Ritter's reception by critics.

You can also use the links in the Navigation-frame on the right to load any page.

The Nibelungen: the historical truth

Table of contents

Story lines: