Power of Fates:
An analysis of Foreknowledge in Das Nibelungenlied
Among several mystical components that characterize medieval literature, foreknowledge is the feature that takes a great deal of consideration in practice. Particularly, authors have to determine all kinds of questions as to how, where and what to incorporate in foreknowledge scenes. No matter what decisions being made, they do not go far away from the text’s objectives. Similarly, the thirteenth-century Austrian text Das Nibelungenlied’s author aesthetically integrates foreknowledge into the historical story of the Burgundians in such a creative manner that facilitates its purpose of being a “profoundly moral poem” (Raffel 338). By focusing on the narrative’s two main characters, analyzing how foreknowledge effects their characterizations presents an understanding as to how this supernatural element facilitates the conveyance of moral messages.
In form of Krimhild’s dream, foreknowledge appears comparatively early in the narrative. During her protected childhood, this princess has the dream that reveals a heartbreakingly metaphorical incident. On the surface, it unrelatedly displays the image of an ill-fated falcon being killed by two eagles: Living surrounded by splendor Krimhild dreamed a dream: she had a trained falcon, glorious, strong-winged, fierce, and wild, and a pair of eagles tore it apart in front of her eyes. No pain, no sorrows in all the world could be worse than what she’d seen. (4) Further analyzing the text, Krimhild’s dream utilizes the image of a falcon as a metaphor to foretell tragic events later in her life; it, however, fails to draws her attention to them. Regardless of the dream’s vagueness, Krimhild experiences so much pain and sorrows that she comes to tell her mother Otta about it to seek for some valid interpretations. The glorious and fierce falcon, Otta firmly explains, represents a noble man that possesses some prominent epithets of a hero. Sadly, according to the dream, a pair of eagles will bring about its death, meaning that someone will cause the loss of her hero. More importantly, such tragedy will be executed “in front of her eyes.” The grief is significantly augmented when she directly observes it, yet she is unable to change the situation. The parallel of such increasingly painful experience can be found in the fact that she inadvertently contributes to Hagen’s plot. The dream foretells exactly, though not literally, what is going to happen to Krimhild as well as other related protagonists.
Regardless of the ample amount of information she has acquired about her hero’s fate, Krimhild does not make any attempt to turn around the situation. Supposedly, Krimhild should have become more attentive in the future in order not to harm her beloved. On the other hand, Krimhild not only shows an immediate rejection to the dream’s meaning, but also displays no efforts to refrain herself from loving Sifried at first sight. When seeing the nobleman for the first time, she quickly gives him “a place in her heart” (21). Basically, she acts as if she had never had the dream or never heard her mother’s interpretations. Foreknowledge in Krimhild’s depiction does not alter this character’s behaviors. Thus, Krimhild that has dreamed such a dream acts just like a less informed Krimhild, who supposedly has never experienced this foreknowledge scene. Instead of affecting Krimhild’s actions, foreknowledge more likely influences the ways the audience perceives this character. Prior to Sifried’s death, she does not seem to conduct any wrongdoings. She does trust Hagen more than she should have. She reveals to the murder her husband’s single weak spot and sews a silken mark on the back of Sifried’s clothes out of a good intention to protect him (126), accidentally contributing to the conspiracy. Yet she does not know about Hagen’s plot; thus, she should not be held fully accountable for this action. Unfortunately, she later has to suffer much grief: her husband is murdered; her treasure is stolen by Hagen, who she thinks will never betray her (126). As a profoundly moral poem, there should be corresponding outcomes for each character’s actions; in particular, a virtuous person is not supposed to undergo that much sorrow. In order to support the poem’s moral purpose, foreknowledge in fact helps account for Krimhild’s gloomy consequences by implicitly eliciting her flaws.
With the inclusion of the dream at the beginning of the narrative, Krimhild can firstly be criticized for being ignorant and disobedient. The dream renders the audience to expect Krimhild to be more careful in the future and act against the dream’s truthfulness. For instance, she should have trusted her mother, who is more experienced and superior to her. Instead, she asserted that Otta was “wasting words” on her, completely ignoring her mother’s interpretation of the dream. Furthermore, as an extension of her ignorance, she rapidly fell for the hero, resulting in the entire catastrophe that follows such ignorance and naiveté. In actuality, “the Nibelungenlied poem seems incapable of creating a character without flaws” (Raffel 344). Krimhild’s flaw lies on her ignorance and disobedience to her mother, which partly justifies the pain she has to experience later. Krimhild’s actions, put forth by the inclusion of foreknowledge in the first adventure, help generate a moral lesson in interacting with superiors, namely parents.
Further justifying for this female protagonist’s catastrophic outcomes, placing the dream at the beginning renders Krimhild depicted as a disloyal person. Upon talking to Otta, she insistently expresses her objection and ensures that such incidents will never happen. She appears to have set her mind “against all thought of love” (Raffel 5). However, she does not hold this personal belief strongly enough and easily falls for a man simultaneously upon seeing him. At that point, she has not even talked to him yet. This discloses Krimhild’s lack of loyalty to her own principles, a seriously unfavorable characteristic. Loyalty is in fact “the one supreme measure of the excellence of an individual’s character” (Gentry 73). By being disloyal to her own ideals, Krimhild has set herself against the moral standards. Hence, as a discouragement against unfaithfulness, she is then punished through the pain generated from her husband’s death as well as subsequent depressing events. The existence of the dream as a representation of foreknowledge, in the first adventure, allows the audience to observe how Krimhild has failed to live up her ideals and how she has to suffer as a result of such disloyalty. The poem, in effect, discourages loyalty by presenting unfavorable outcomes it can cause.
Not only is Krimhild not consistent with her personal virtues, her predetermination early in her life against love, alone, can put her in a negative spot. Otta explicitly refers to her opposition to marriage as “bitter words” (Raffel 4). Unlike her experienced mother, Krimhild straightforwardly refuses to love any man. The princess primarily prefers to keep her beauty forever and sees no use for men’s love (4). Unfortunately, one way or another, women have to be subordinated by male-dominance (Raffel 346). Female characters are expected to follow males’ will. Having such an absolute opposition against marriage will somehow put Krimhild in the position that challenges the rule of women being subordinated by men. Even though this female protagonist does not show much resistance in the following adventures, she reflects a potential threat to the societal standards through this foreknowledge scene, which also helps rationalize her sufferings.
Dreaming is not the only way to incorporate foreknowledge; medieval literature utilizes different levels of creativity in including this mystical element. Interestingly, it can also be integrated with supernatural characters. In particular, Gunter’s lieutenant Hagen also experiences the significance of foreknowledge when he encounters two water spirits in the middle of his accompanying the Burgundian kings to Etzel’s land. They advise him to turn around and go back to Wurms by warning him about the death of everyone, except for the priest, if continuing the journey (214). By selecting the priest to be the only survivor, among all other characters, Hagen’s religious belief is being testified through this foreknowledge scene. This antagonist further proves himself the opponent of social standards by attempting to kill the priest. More importantly, he is now officially depicted as an antagonist to Christianity; defying the representative of Christianity is added to Hagen’s list of hideous deeds. As a result, despite his heroic combats in the end of the poem, his head is struck off embarrassingly by Krimhild, a woman with significantly less physical strength (328). The poem’s author is undoubtedly Christian and writes positively of medieval Christian (Raffel 338). Thus, by imposing punishments on Hagen character that is disrespectful to this religion, the poet validates the righteousness of Christianity and its related figures.
Within the depictions of Krimhild and Hagen, foreknowledge is presented and positioned in such a manner that allows the poem to elicit critical moral messages. Clearly, “the poet of the Nibelungenlied drew on the traditional story known to all of his contemporaries to make a thoroughly contemporary object lesson for his expected audience” (Haymes xv). It is impossible to understand the exact lessons being conveyed, it is worth examining different ways that one text can diversely influence the listeners or readers across time and space.

Work Cited
Gentry, Francis G. “Key Concepts in the Nibelungenlied.” A Companion to the Nibelungenlied. Ed. Winder McConnell. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 1998. 66-78.
Haymes, Edward R. Introduction. Das Nibelungenlied: Song of the Nibelungs. By Burton Raffel, trans. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. xii-xxi.
Raffel, Burton, trans. Das Nibelungenlied: Song of the Nibelungs. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Print.