German Essay

Describing the flaws of any character in the Nibelungenlied involves the problem of choosing one character out of a wealth of options. I will describe the flaws of the person whom I think is the hero of this story. Well, how can a hero how flaws ? Generally the following scene comes to mind when you think of hero , “ The hero rides off into the sunset with his lady signifying a happily ever-after ending , all is well in the end“ . Something seen often in Disney movies meant to be good clean fun for the family. The Nibelungenlied however , is no fairy tale. It is full of blood , violence , vengeance and betrayal , in other words it is a very grim and realistic story , depicting human relationships and behavior as it would be in real life situations. This means that our hero too is not the usual pretty faced , charming boy with impeccable gentlemanly behavior. And who exactly is the hero of this great epic ? That is open to personal interpretation of the story, I choose to describe the flaws of mighty Siegfried, mainly because the entire story revolves around him . Siegfried’s flaw is his brash character and over-confidence. This flaw is referenced throughout the length of the epic. In fact, it is also the cause of his death and can be considered his ‘fatal flaw’. Siegfried in all sense is a tragic hero. He has a brash character since he tends to be hasty and unthinking in his decisions. His huge ego and sense of self-pride means that he often tries to gain honor and is greedy for glory, putting himself at unnecessary risk. He is also very poor at speaking and makes enemies quickly as he desires to prove himself one-better up in every conversation . Siegfried shows a tendency to be naïve about matters relating to human relationships such as issues of trust as he regards himself to be invincible and hence above such petty matters. All these inadequacies in his character can be backed up by examples from the Nibelungenlied itself and by drawing parallels with