Nibelungenliedn.
/ˈniːbəlʊŋ(ɡ)ənˌliːd/, /ˌniːbəˈlʊŋ(ɡ)ənˌliːd/, U.S. /ˌnibəˈlʊŋənˌlid/, /ˈnibəˌlʊŋənˌlid/ Germanic Mythology.
A 13th-cent. Middle High German epic telling the story of Siegfried and the curse of the Nibelungs' treasure. Also in extended use.There have been many adaptations of the story, including Wagner's epic music drama Der Ring des Nibelungen (libretto published Zurich, 1853).
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > poem or piece of poetry > narrative poem > [noun] > epic poem > specific epic poems
AeneidOE
OdysseyOE
Iliad1579
Ramayana1714
Theseid1725
Thebaïd1728
Cid1755
Mahabharata1768
Nibelungenlied1810
1810 H. Weber Metrical Romances I. p. lxx The three principal romances..are the Nibelungen Leet, King Rother, and the Heldenbuch.
1839 H. W. Longfellow Hyperion I. i. viii. 93 He studied diligently the ancient poetic lore of Germany, from Frankish Legends of Saint George, and Saxon Rhyme-Chronicles, down through Nibelungen Lieds, and Helden-Buchs, and Songs of the Minnesingers and Mastersingers, [etc.].
1853 J. R. Lowell in Putnam's Monthly Mag. June 690 What hero, were they new to-day, would ever stop to read The Iliad, the Shanàmeh, or the Nibelungenlied?
1965 A. T. Hatto Nibelungenlied 349 The strophe of the Nibelungenlied is normally a balanced and self-contained unit with a marked rallentando in the last half-line owing to its extra filled bar.
1998 Washington Post (Nexis) 8 Apr. d2 If the Meadowlands were a nation, the Hoffa story would be its great national epic, a mob-related Niebelungenlied, with poetic stanzas memorializing various dumps and the Giants end zone.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1810