Born with the grace of Odin

inside the blood of the warrior

he was the lonesome hero

and a fighter of king Gunther

black was his armour

his sword was faster than winds

under the sign of the falcon

he beats every enemy

 

one eye in his head that shows

how many fights he had

and the long scare in his face

that shows how he was injured.

his home in the higher north

is a place called Tronje

and his gloomy castle is behind storms and ice cold winds

 

the one and only love he had

was the beauty Kriemhild

he had sworn to fight for her

and to give his live

 

with Brunhild he made a bound

against the holy Xanten king

and at the right time he should kill

the dragonslayer

 

but there were other sides in his life

we talk about

he were a proud knight

many victories he had

in his whole life

and no one could destroy Hagens heart

in a fight he was to strong

all the strenght that he had

was from Odin

and to him he prayed until he died.

 

in the name of Wotan / Hagens soul was fighting

on his blackened horse / he rides till he dies

Ever on the search / of the sin of live

no quite moments / a traveller he was

ever on a journey / find a love of live

but his destiny was / ever to stay alone

It was a very black and acherontic person and lead my thoughts

directly to Snape, really. But that was Hagen indeed. So it comes that

your question encouraged me to find out something more for you.

 

Here we go:

from Richard Wagner: Götterdämmerung: (Twighlight of the

Gods)

Hagen: Unfroh - meid' ich die Frohen; ich selbst freue mich nie

(Unglad - I avoid the happy, I am never glad myself)

 

I also suggest the Film of Fritz Lang from 1924 Siegfrieds Death - Kriemhilds Revenge (I

think its available on DVD in USA & Canada )

 

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The Legend:

Hagen is a follower of King Gunter of Burgundy and also

his counsellor and half brother. He is half human and half Alb (in

latin  Albus  (double Haha)) it means elf. (For me it means that he is

the son of the Nibelung??)  Because he is illegitimate it

was refused to him to become king of Burgundy. It seems that his

mother has been repudiated from the court because of this misconduct

(??). Hagen is described as tall, black haired, hook nosed grim man

with one black eye. No information which color the other had. His

buckler showed an uncrowned eagle. He murders the traitor Siegfried

for his queen. He also hides Siegfried's gold to avoid that Kriemhild

can start up a new army. So its only natural that Kriemhild hated him

the most. In the second Part of the Nibelung legend he receives a

prophecy that all the heros will not return to Worms. The only

survivor of the adventure will be a priest. Hagen proofs the prophecy

by throwing the priest into the river. (is that snapish?) As the

nonswimmer reaches the show unharmed he recognised that the prophecy

must be true.

 

By the way: www.worms.de

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Nibelungentreue - Undying loyalty

 

Hagen von Tronje is the proud  inventor of the Nibelungentreue

(dont know if an english word exists)

The Nibelungen Saga however is very complex and I am not a expert in

it. We have there several topics

1. Siegfried courts for Kriemhild.

They get married. Siegfried is a young careless dragonfighter who by

the way also owns a cloak of invisibility (ha!).

2. Gunter courts for Bruenhild.

He is not able to impress the foreign princess by himself

so he borrowed the magic talents of Siegfried to conquer her heart.

Bruenhild is indeed a magic person she is a Valkyrie - a warrior

princes who leads the souls of heros to Wallhall (come kind of eternal

happy hunting grounds). Another nutty detail: also the wedding night

is fulfilled by Siegfried who takes away two souvenirs from Bruenhild.

Thats not a good start for a happy matrimony, isn't it?

3. Bruenhild is confronted with the truth;

Kriemhild shows her the two souvenirs

Siegfried has taken. Now the wheel of Revenge begins to turn:

Bruenhild assigns Hagen to kill Siegfried for his betrayals. Hagen is

clever enough to find out the vulnerabilty of Siegfried (who has

bathed once in dragonblood which makes unvulnerable, but a leaf of a

linden covered a part of his shoulder and left a vulnerable part). At

the next occasion Hagen kills Siegfried with a spear and takes the

Nibelungen Gold and throws it into the Rhine deepest place to avoid

Kriemhilds Revenge. Kriemhild then married the Etzel the King of Huns.

 

The Nibelung Gold is not found until today.

 

4. The key scene for the neverending loyalty is at the end of

the cruel battle which fulfills the Revenge of Princess Kriemhild:

She invited the Burgunds to come

the residence of her second husband King of the Huns Etzel for a

feast. There she let murder all of them in a very cruel way. Hagen and

her brother King Gunter survived cause she want to know where the

Nibelung treasure (Nibelungenhort) lies. Also this end does without no

cruel note: When caught and tied up Hagen says to Kriemhild , as long

as king Gunther lives, he will not say to her where the treasure lies,

this allows to kill her brother unceremoniously and bring his head to

Hagen to see. On this he laughs out loud and mocks Kriemhild: Now only

God knows out of him where the treasure lies. Kriemhild pulls sword of

Hagen which is the last and single what is left of Sigfrieds treasure,

and cut off his head with her own hands.

 

The end comes suddenly. Etzel deplores Hagen, (the murderer, the traitor,

the thief that mocked his wife) as "best of all swords"; now only,

for the first time in the whole song, a justice takes their run which

might never come before to the train.

Sigfried might Bruenhilde deceive, Hagen might kill with

impunity Sigfried and rob of his treasure, also declare himself openly

as a murderer, Kriemhild might arrange with impunity the death of all

Burgundians and waste Etzelburg and transform into a hell - only the

revenge death of Hagen calls a kind of justice on the plan.

Hiltebrant, the old men teacher of the hero Dietrich, avenges " the

bold Tronjers death " and hits Kriemhild in pieces with his sword .

 

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In other legends :

The Thidreks Saga

Hagen did not only occur in the

Nibelungen Saga - he is also present in numerous other legend stories.

For example in the legend Dietrich of Bern where the last fight with

the huns is described as a duel between Hagen and Dietrich where Hagen

is wounded and foreknowing his own death. Facing this fact he requires

from Dietrich a last grace which is to be with a woman that night. The

morning after he told her (the woman has no name in the legend) that

she is pregnant with a son whom she shall name Aldrian and he also

give to her the key to the treasury chamber of Siegfried. Aldrian in

turn killed Attila the hun by trapping him in a cave where he

pretended the gold treasure. The name of the son Aldrian cames from

Baldrian (Baldr) which is equal to the son of Wotan (Odin). That

brings us to another clue: Hagen is the same as Odin. Odin has a son

Baldr with Frigg who is bought to him by Dietrich of Bern. As well

there is an interpretation of the Nibelungen theme as a story of the

christianization of Germania in which Hagen embodies the old heathen

belief. That last theorie may cause that Hagen is always shown as a

black figure. --