
The Lay of the Nibelungs
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Narrated by:
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David Rintoul
About this listen
One of the finest German medieval epic poems, The Lay of the Nibelungs is perhaps best known now as one of the principal sources for Wagner’s four-part music drama The Ring of the Nibelung. It is easy to see how Wagner was enthralled by the story and the poetry for the power of the tale drives the narrative: intense love, loyalty, jealousy, murder, duty, honour and massacre are all interwoven into a classic.
Many of the figures known to us by Wagner’s opera cycle are here: Alberich, Siegmund, Sieglind, Siegfried, Brunhilda, Gunther and Hagen, sometimes in familiar roles, sometimes very different from expectations.
The tragedy is driven by the enmity between two women who were originally friends - Brunhilda, who becomes the wife of Gunther, and Kriemhilda, Siegfried’s wife. A feud between the sisters-in-law leads to conflict and mayhem. Hagen has the dark persona which prompts him to commit treacherous murder, leading the protagonists to a final terrible end.
Unlike the Wagnerian version (he drew in the main from the Volsung Saga version, but also made the saga his own), there is no interference from gods or giants, and apart from the appearance of the ‘hood of darkness’, Tarnhelm, which confers mysterious powers on its wearer, there is little magic.
But this does not lessen the immense power of The Lay of the Nibelungs, as it moves inexorably forward to its climactic conclusion. The structure of the poem is crucial to the drama of the telling.
The anonymous poet established a form based on a steady four-line stanza with rhyming couplets. But the strength of it lies in the metre, three metrical feet, a caesura, and another three metrical feet, for the first three lines, adding an extra metrical foot for the last line for emphasis.
This classic verse translation by Alice Horton, edited by Edward Bell and revised for this recording, is still regarded by scholars as perhaps the most faithful to the 13th century German original. Though modern prose versions are available, they do not have the poetic grandeur befitting such a tale, and Horton’s verse is ideal for an audio recording. David Rintoul brings his decades of experience in classical theatre to bear in his stirring performance.
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Timestamps
- By randy on 01-16-25
By: Aristotle, and others
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Nibelungenlied
- By: div.
- Narrated by: Peter Wapnewski
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Peter Wapnewski liest die Nibelungen in der Übersetzung von Karl Simrock und im melodischen Vers des Mittelhochdeutschen...
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Fantastische Darstellung
- By EB on 02-25-16
By: div.
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The Kalevala
- By: Elias Lönnrot, Keith Bosley - translator
- Narrated by: Keith Bosley
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The Kalevala provides a compelling insight into the myths and folklore of Finland. Compiled by Elias Lönnrot in the 19th century, this impressive volume follows a tradition of oral storytelling that goes back some 2000 years, and it is often compared to such epic poems as Homer's Odyssey. However, The Kalevala has little in common with the culture of its Nordic neighbors: It is primarily poetic, it is mythical rather than historic, and its heroes solve their problems with magic more often than violence.
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This was Meant to be Read Aloud
- By FinalFrontier on 06-13-16
By: Elias Lönnrot, and others
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The Prose Edda
- The Rasmus Björn Anderson Translation
- By: Snorri Sturluson
- Narrated by: Collin Moore
- Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Eight hundred years ago, an heir to the Vikings collected their myths and wrote them down. Here are those original tales of Odin and Thor, magic and might, presented for your listening enjoyment. The Prose Edda (also known as Snorri's Edda or The Younger Edda) is a manual of poetics written by Snorri Sturluson around the year 1220. In it, Snorri compiled the old myths and legends of the Norsemen, in order that poets from his time might draw on these stories to keep the Icelandic-Viking heritage alive.
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Well-performed, but the names are tough going
- By Tad Davis on 11-12-21
By: Snorri Sturluson
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The Lays of Marie de France
- By: Marie de France
- Narrated by: Georgina Sutton, David Rintoul
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The 12 Lays of Marie de France offer one of the most striking collections of short narrative poems of the 12th century - two centuries before Chaucer. Written in Anglo-French, they contain beguiling and entertaining stories of love and romance, of chivalry and adventure with sometimes even a magical twist. They are especially unique in early literature by being ascribed to a female poet, Marie de France: in the very first Lay - 'Guigemar' - is the introductory line: ‘Hear my Lords, what Marie says, who does not wish to be forgotten in her time.’
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An Amazing Translation!
- By Stephen Daedelus on 12-29-20
By: Marie de France
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Four Arthurian Romances
- By: Chrétien de Troyes
- Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The Arthurian Romances by Chrétien de Troyes form the wellspring of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Stories of knightly valour in the Welsh Marches had existed before the 12th century, but it was the magnificent poetry and imagination of Chrétien, the 12th century French poet and trouvère, which brought alive the great characters of Arthur, his wife Guinevere, Lancelot and others.
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Ukemi Audio: Doing the Lord’s Work
- By John on 09-29-17
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Parzival
- By: Wolfram Von Eschenbach, Jessie L. Weston - translator
- Narrated by: Adriel Brandt
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Parzival is a romantic poem written by Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. Regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, the romance was the most popular vernacular verse narrative in medieval Germany. Dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, the poem tells the story of the Arthurian hero Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail. The most notable elements of the work are an emphasis on the importance of humility, compassion, and sympathy. Richard Wagner based his famous opera Parsifal on Parzival.
By: Wolfram Von Eschenbach, and others
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The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats
- By: Compiled by John Kavanagh
- Narrated by: Jim Norton, Denys Hawthorne, Nicholas Boulton, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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William Butler Yeats remains one of the most popular poets of the 20th century.
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," "Down by the Salley Gardens," "The Secret Rose": these are just a few of the poems that made William Butler Yeats an international figure. Born in Dublin in 1865, Yeats drew strength from the Irish tradition, as can be seen in this special audiobook, which presents the most important poems in the context of his life and ambitions.
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Enlightening on all aspects of his life and work
- By Carol on 05-28-12
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The Decameron
- By: Giovanni Boccaccio
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Gunnar Cauthery, Alison Pettitt, and others
- Length: 28 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
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The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio's answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante's Divine Comedy.
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Not Up to the Usual Naxos Standard
- By John on 11-15-17
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The Secret History
- By: Procopius
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Secret History, written by the sixth-century Byzantine historian Procopius, is one of the most extraordinary and scandalous documents to have survived from the early Byzantine period. Procopius, the leading official historian of his time, lived during the testing and indulgent time of Emperor Justinian the Great and wrote the official records of the successful wars and the grand building projects of his ruler. These were words of aggrandisement. But covertly, Procopius kept a very different record....
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A Bit Hyperbolic
- By HalfWit on 10-13-19
By: Procopius
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien
- Narrated by: Terry Jones
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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A collection of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex and honour.
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An absolute delight!
- By Shannon Slee on 07-15-18
By: J. R. R. Tolkien
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The Odes of Horace
- By: Horace
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Along with Virgil, Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) was the greatest poet produced by Rome, and in many ways his work has had arguably an even greater impact. His brilliant expression and astonishing acumen continue to amaze readers today, either in their original Latin or in innumerable worldwide translations. Shakespeare's debt to Horace is incalculable, and it is difficult to read his Sonnets today without immediately being reminded of the famous Odes.
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The Odes of Horace
- By Thomas on 07-04-08
By: Horace
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Fairy Tales
- By: George MacDonald
- Narrated by: Georgina Sutton, David Timson
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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George MacDonald, described by W.H. Auden as "one of the most remarkable writers of the 19th century", was valued in his own time as an original thinker and spiritual guide. Of all his writing, it is the fairy tales that have retained their fascination, and this collection includes all 11 stories. The fairy tales feature the stock characters of traditional tales—fairies both good and bad, and children undertaking precarious journeys. Often adopting paradox and nonsense as Lewis Carroll did, the stories invite adults to deploy the same open-mindedness as children.
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The greatest author OAT
- By M. Mules on 12-21-23
By: George MacDonald
Stupendous
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Exceptional
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Original Game of Thrones
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Though the Nibelung poet blended a mere two elements (that I can see), these are so radically disparate that the effect is fascinating. Here we have an old Norse/Germanic saga replete with mighty men and even stronger-willed women, passion, murder and the inevitable cycle of revenge, told with all the chivalric trappings of a Medieval romance. Lances are shattered. Masses are heard. Yet behind it all broods the relentless, untrammeled fury of the pre-Christian northern stories.
David Rintoul serves it up perfectly. Unfortunately, the “modernized” text eliminates an occasional rhyme, but that’s about the only flaw in this otherwise flawless production.
Another Fabulous Grab Bag
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There's plenty of galloping to be done in the shattering climax to this sad and bloody tale. I’m no fan of Wagner, so I’ve never “done” the Ring cycle, which was partly inspired by this. It's not a complicated story, at least in this telling. Siegfried marries Kriemhild. Serving her family, he helps her brother win the shield maiden Brunhild of Iceland as his wife. But Brunhild develops a hatred for Siegfried and Kriemhild, and she engineers Siegfried’s murder. (Part of this involves the backstory of Siegfried’s fight with a dragon, which plays a major role in the Volsunga Saga, but is only briefly mentioned here. The action of the Lay of the Nibelungs takes place in this mundane world.)
The verse translation is by Alice Horton. I wasn’t able to find out much about it, except that it dates back at least as far as 1898, putting it in the public domain — always a plus for audiobook publishers. It’s a good listen, very clear in its exposition and vigorous in its dialogue; for the most part the rhymes flow naturally, only occasionally seeming forced. (A number of rhymes are visual, a common strategy of the period: for example, “ground” and “wound” — as in “bloody wound” — are deemed to rhyme.) The verse does have a certain quaintness characteristic of the time, when late Victorian translators tried to sound like Thomas Malory. (For example, there are “thees” and “thous” aplenty; “eke” is used in the sense of “even,” as in “his wife and eke his daughter”; “six hundred gallant wights” survive the climactic fire; and Kriemhild mourning the fallen Siegfried feels “mickle sorrow.”) I think if I were reading it on the page I’d be irritated, but David Rintoul’s beautiful voice covers a multitude of archaisms.
The story proceeds rapidly from one “adventure” to another — “adventure” in this case being equivalent to a chapter in the overall story, such as “How Siegfried and Kriemhild Came to Worms” or “How Siegfried Was Betrayed.” Five or six times in every chapter the poet drops in a line reminding the audience that this is all going to end badly and that everybody is going to die. There are many trips back and forth between kingdoms. Most are handled as summaries, but the final trip of the Burgundians to the court of Etzel the Hun, where that final conflagration will occur, becomes an adventurous travelogue full of bridges and plains and armies, some friendly and some not so friendly.
Ukemi Audio is to be commended for their efforts in bringing out some of these great works of literature — until now mostly strangers to the audiobook world — with first-class narrators, and translations that are pleasing to listen to if not the latest and greatest on the market. I had long wanted to re-read this medieval epic, but I'm not sure that I would have if the audio hadn't become available. (Ukemi seems to be peeking at my reading list. Recently they completed their Chrétien de Troyes collection, and they've also published The Lays of Marie de France, a poet I only heard of recently — in the Great Courses discussion of Arthurian literature from Dorsey Armstrong.)
Beautiful
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