Worms und Isenstein. Nibelungische Widersprüche als Kohärenzprinzip

The article describes the contradictory constellation of the Nibelungenlied as a result of a poetic reflection on heroic tradition. Beginning with the observation that the poet covers the occurrences in large parts of the narrative as if they hark back to disparate eyewitness accounts, I continue to enunciate this impression through the example of King Gunther’s bridal quest to Isenstein, which proves to be a highly complex narrative arrangement. This arrangement is, first of all, characterized by techniques of schematic composition and focalization generating two mutually distinct perspectives that can be seen as reflecting the opposing sides of Worms and Isenstein. Moreover, the arrangement is characterized by moments clearly inhering in another narrative, one that remains vague and a-perspective, and that constantly runs foul of the two perspectives. It interferes with the poet’s objective of visibility by marking the dark points of the narrated world, representing the unseen things and the unknown whereabouts, in short: what cannot be talked about. So, all in all, the Nibelungenlied can be seen as a narrative artefact that is coherent, though not in spite of, but, rather, because of its contradictory constellation, for coherence here arises out of cultural knowledge on the history-telling ‘Sage’.