The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Legend of Siegfried

[ 1 ] If we wish to form a vivid picture of the origins of the Norse mythological world, the period preceding the first Christian century and the period following it are particularly important. At that time, the northern regions of Europe were in a state of anticipation. The event whose impact was to spread throughout Europe—the descent of the divine Father Spirit into a physical human being—was known to the initiates of the Nordic peoples; this was also recounted in the mysteries.

[ 2 ] In the ancient Druidic mysteries of the North, initiations similar to those practiced by other rising peoples of that time were performed. However, one difference must be emphasized between what was taking shape in the North and what was happening in other regions. To form a conceptual understanding of this, we must look back at the emergence of the human races in the regions of the Earth that were gradually developing into human habitats. We can only speak of a physically habitable Earth beginning with the Lemurian root race. But this Lemurian era was preceded by an “etheric Earth,” to which the legends of Paradise refer, as do the legends of the various peoples of the southern and northern hemispheres. These legends constitute the treasure trove of wisdom of the Mysteries. The training in the Mysteries consisted in gradually revealing to people, in accordance with their level of understanding, what human souls were capable of absorbing and processing. One can thus speak of the common origin of the Mysteries, which lies in the imaginative and inspired knowledge of their guiding teachers, and of the resulting unity of the teachings, but also of their diversity, which is determined by the passage of time and the geographical and human environment. They were protected by the strictest obligation of secrecy, since immaturity would inevitably lead to evil rather than good, and the betrayal of the mysteries to immature people was punishable by death.

[ 3 ] But let us now shed some light on what served as the common guiding principles underlying the ancient Atlantean mysteries, which evolved from the oracles into schools of initiation. Drawing on Neoplatonic sources and Plotinus, theosophical literature has based its chronological investigations on the assumption that with Socrates came the historical moment when wisdom—which had previously been inspired by divine beings and used human beings as instruments—descended into humanity, the Anthropos, and gradually became its asset, its task, and its duty. Socrates even had to suffer death for imparting truths from the Mysteries to his students. He willingly and consciously accepted the death sentence imposed upon him. But the transformation of this idea of consciously experienced death—which alone leads to true life—was to reach maturity only among the Nordic peoples, who were slowly and gradually prepared for it through what lived within their own mysteries, and who, through a long period of waiting, were led to a greater maturity of their soul organism. Buddha was expelled from his religious community because he went out, wandered from place to place, and brought people the teaching of liberation through death. This was a mystery truth that was not yet permitted to be taught. It was to come into its own only in a distant future and could now live only in individual fiery souls, preparing for that distant time. It was not until Christianity that this truth would find its fulfillment. But until that time of fulfillment, certain peoples had to receive, through their mysteries, an education that predestined them, as a national substance, for the distant tasks of human civilization.

[ 4 ] There were four root races before us; we are now in the fifth root race, the post-Atlantean one. The names given to the first sub-races—cultural epochs—of this post-Atlantean era can be roughly translated into English as: the sub-races of the Spirit, the Flame, and the Stars. The first sub-race, the Race of the Spirit, was the first to receive the essence of the fifth root race in spiritual form through the Manu; it comprises the Indian people. The second subrace is the Race of the Flame, to which Zarathustra gave a religious creed. The third subrace was the Race of the Stars, that of the Chaldeans, Babylonians, and Assyrians, from which the Israelite tradition later emerged. The Greco-Latin peoples, whose primary early representatives were the Greeks and Romans, became the fourth subrace. It is the subrace in which Christianity first took root in Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome. It was destined to be most strongly influenced by Christianity, but it was not yet able to grasp its significance, which transcends human comprehension. This required a long period of preparation. This preparation had already been laid by the world of legends developed in the Nordic mysteries, which lived on in songs and epics, was carried from country to country by rhapsodes, and grew into religious devotion.

[ 5 ] Our fifth subrace has preserved the Christian faith, which was established at the beginning of our era. However, several centuries before Christianity was brought to the northern regions—and even in earlier times—the ancient Druidic initiations still existed. These persisted roughly until it became clear that the twilight of this preparatory Celtic culture had now begun. You must imagine that all the influences that had swept over other peoples did not reach these northern regions. All the currents belonging to the Race of the Flame and the Race of the Stars had not penetrated as far as the Nordic regions. In the north, something remained of the remnants of the Atlantean culture, which had been carried over by initiates. Wotan was the initiate of the Nordic peoples who had brought the elements of Atlantean culture to these regions.

[ 6 ] In these Nordic regions, the druidic initiation was widely practiced. I have already mentioned that one of the founders—indeed, arguably the principal founder—of these initiation sites was named Sig or Sigge. And here in these Nordic regions, something similar occurred to what later took place in Palestine at the founding of Christianity: Sig surrendered his body and placed it at the disposal of a higher individuality. Therefore, the transformed Sig was later called Odin; he was the highest initiate of the Nordic mysteries; Odin was the bearer of spiritual culture in that era. Sig was thus, in the North, the chela who placed his body at the disposal of the higher, more spiritual Odin. He himself lived on later as an initiated master. Sig is a very special case. He could not initiate a movement, as the Master Jesus did, for example, after Christianity had been established. Sig was, after all, destined to lead this Nordic culture, which had established itself here, to its downfall. He was called upon to lead the Nordic peoples until Christianity reached them from the south through the fourth subrace of the fifth root race. The ancient chela Sig is the one who had to lead the Nordic peoples into their tragic downfall. That is why he is also called Sigurd, meaning “the one who leads into the past.” Urd is the Norn of the past. “Fried” means the same thing: that which leads to peace—that is, to death, to ruin. This is still preserved in the word “cemetery”: that which has been led to death. The same Chela who paved the way for the great Initiate is to lead Nordic culture to ruin. Its spiritual content perishes and is replaced by the approaching Christianity. What I have just said is a prophetic message that was described in many ways in the later mysteries of the Nordic peoples: We must be a people led to peace—that is the message that resounds from the various mysteries among these Nordic peoples. The entire future process, which had been recorded in the writings since time immemorial, was proclaimed as a prophecy in the Nordic mysteries, and from these prophecies arose what later became the content of the *Nibelungenlied* and the *Siegfried* saga. The second part of the *Nibelungenlied* presents the conclusion of the Nibelungs’ karma.

[ 7 ] I must mention a peculiarity that always occurs in such cases in the course of human development: Before a new phase takes hold, the previous phase of development must be briefly repeated. Here in the North, in particular, this repetition of earlier phases is clearly evident. We are shown how what has been experienced here in the North since the Lemurian and Atlantean eras must be overcome before these Nordic peoples become mature enough to evolve into the Christianized fifth subrace. The one in whom the entire sum of the history of Nordic culture lives is the initiate Siegfried. Let us briefly review the main points of the Siegfried legend.

[ 8 ] First, we are introduced to the lives of the three heroes—Gunther, Hagen, and Giselher—at the court in Worms. We then hear how the hero Siegfried woos Brünhilde on Gunther’s behalf. We learn that Siegfried is recognized as an extraordinary figure at the court in Worms. And indeed he is, for he is invulnerable; he has slain the owner of the Nibelung hoard; he has made his body entirely horned in his battle with the dragon; and he has acquired the cloak of invisibility. He thus possesses two qualities that the initiates of pre-Christian times always display: they are invulnerable, and they are unrecognizable. They are invulnerable through their initiation. The Gospel states: “There are three that bear witness: blood, water, and the Spirit.” - Blood and water must be overcome. In the times preceding Christianity, it was blood and water that rendered one invulnerable. Yet these invulnerable initiates are always vulnerable in one place. Achilles represents an initiate from that earlier era. He was dipped in the Styx and was vulnerable at the heel. Siegfried was dipped in the dragon’s blood and is vulnerable between the shoulder blades. The initiate can render his true self unrecognizable by possessing the cloak of invisibility; it makes the possessor of these higher occult abilities imperceptible to the outside world. The possessors of the Nibelung hoard possessed these occult abilities. They were descended from the Atlantean race, and the initiates of the Atlantean root race in particular possessed these abilities; however, they were also present among the initiates of the fifth root race and thus also in Siegfried. When Siegfried slew the dragon, he came into possession of the Nibelung hoard. What, then, is the Nibelung hoard? It signifies that the Nordic peoples, so to speak, surrendered the very ground from which the fifth sub-race could arise. The fifth sub-race is also called the race of great inventions and discoveries, which conquers the entire physical plane and grows in power through its dominion over the outer world. It is meant, on the one hand, to possess, and on the other, to transform this possession into wisdom. In the Nibelung Treasure, we see nothing other than a linguistic transformation of the ancient word Nifelheim, “Land of Mist.” It is, therefore, what was known in the North as the physical earth—the earth at the moment of becoming physical. A firm possession—that is what this preparatory race spread around itself and set in opposition to Christianity. The gold of the Nibelungen Hoard is earthly possession, the embodiment of earthly possession. This is something the initiate possesses and is permitted to possess, because he is capable of guarding it appropriately.

[ 9 ] Now you all know how the Siegfried legend continues in this ancient version. It is not the oldest form of the legend, but it is the one that is relevant to us. As is well known, Gunther then woos Brünhilde of Isenland. Siegfried defeats Brünhilde twice. Gunther woos her, but Siegfried fights invisibly—armed with the cloak of invisibility—at Gunther’s side, and Brünhilde believes that her suitor, Gunther, has defeated her. Siegfried is happy that she becomes Gunther’s wife. Now, in a moment of weakness, Siegfried’s wife Kriemhilde reveals to Brünhilde that it was not Gunther, but Siegfried—invisible—who had actually defeated her. Brünnhilde is outraged by this and hatches a plan to kill Siegfried. But first, she must be told how he can be killed. She enlists Hagen von Tronje, who lives at court, for this purpose.

[ 10 ] Hagen is a figure known from the ancient Druidic mysteries. Hagen is an important name among the ancient Druidic initiates. He is an initiate who represents the past, highest currents of spiritual life, which are expressed in the fact that what came before always stands in opposition to what follows and enters into conflict with it. Siegfried belongs to the subsequent current, which immediately precedes Christianity. Hagen belongs to the preceding Druidic current. Hagen is therefore brought in to corrupt Siegfried. To this end, Kriemhilde must reveal that Siegfried is vulnerable in one spot. Here the significance of this spot is revealed. Kriemhilde reveals that Siegfried is vulnerable between his shoulders—precisely at the spot where the cross must be borne. He does not yet have the cross. Christianity is still absent among these prehistoric peoples. At this spot, where the cross is to rest so that it may be carried through the world, Siegfried is vulnerable—so says the Siegfried saga—because Christianity is still missing. Siegfried, who brings peace and tranquility to the Sig-initiates, is vulnerable at the very spot where Christianity will later render him invulnerable. He is overcome by the forces that remain from earlier cultures. Hagen, the representative of preceding currents, kills him. This is a symbol of the replacement of the preceding Nordic culture by the fifth subrace. The meaning of this replacement is depicted in the Siegfried legend.

[ 11 ] What, exactly, are these Nordic races fighting against? As pioneers of Christianity, they are fighting against all that remains of the Atlantean era. They must continually defend themselves against it. The soul of the Nordic peoples must defend itself against what still surges forward from the past—the remnants of Atlantean culture. It is an earlier cultural layer that extends into the fifth cultural epoch. But those who have remained stuck in Atlantean culture are a stumbling block to further development; they must be opposed.

[ 12 ] The battles that follow are described in an older version of the Gudrun saga. There, the soul of the Nordic peoples confronts us as Gudrun. She fights against the great Initiate of the Atlanteans, Attila, Atli, or Etzel, who comes from Asia from among the remnants of an Atlantean race, the Turanian. The historical Attila and his people were also referred to by the European peoples as the “Scourge of God.” Attila was an initiate who fought at the head of his people with very significant occult powers. That is why the Battle of the Huns is quite correctly depicted as the army fighting in the air. For anyone who knows and understands these things, it is clear what this is all about. Attila did not shrink from anything that stood in his way in Europe; only before the Pope, the representative of Christianity, did he voluntarily step back, for he was fully aware that he was powerless against the representative of Christianity. The Nordic peoples knew that they had to defend themselves against Eastern influences, but these influences could do Christianity no harm.

[ 13 ] The later *Nibelungen* saga goes on to tell us that Kriemhild resolved to take revenge on those who had killed Siegfried. She exacts her revenge by aligning herself with the Atlantean elements. She accepts Attila’s proposal of marriage; she becomes the wife of Attila, King of the Huns. Prior to this, after Siegfried’s death, she lived for a time at the Burgundian court. She had come into possession of the Nibelung hoard and used it as a great benefactor. But her enemies, who originated from earlier eras and are represented by Hagen, sank the Nibelung hoard into the Rhine. Kriemhild sticks to her plan to destroy the old Nordic enemies with Attila’s help. Through Kriemhild’s plan for revenge, the Nibelungs are lured down to Attila’s court, and there, on their way, they encounter precisely the spiritual power from which they are to be liberated. On the Danube, they encounter Christianity in the form of Rüdiger von Bechlaren and his wife Gotelinde. This is the dawn of Christianity, the very force destined to replace the folk cultures of Northern Europe. The Nibelungs are heading toward their downfall; they are murdered at the Hun court. Kriemhild does indeed take her revenge, but she herself must perish. And how does she meet her end? She—who is, in fact, the transformed Gudrun, the folk soul of Nordic culture—unites with Atli-Attila-Etzel, the Atlantean, and takes revenge on the representative of her own culture, the one who had killed the Initiate. She herself meets her end.

[ 14 ] If you view the legend purely from an aesthetic perspective, you will naturally ask yourself: How is it that, at the very end, Dietrich von Bern, Hildebrand, and all the other heroes—who belong to a social class that has already converted to Christianity—are introduced at the Huns’ court? After all, they are already Christian heroes. - Christianity brings death to the ancient folk soul; it overcomes the ancient folk soul. This is not something that was added to the saga later on, but something that lived on as a prophecy within the mysteries long before the advent of Christianity. These processes were the subject of the mystery initiation. Mystery initiation involved not only initiation into the truths of the present, but also into those of the past and the future. Apocalyptic elements were always part of it. The Siegfried legend has long been the apocalypse of the Nordic people. This legend is not a work of fiction that somehow arose among the people from individual fragments, as is often imagined in philology. The people do not compose poetry. Only someone who has no idea what goes on in the soul of a people could say such a thing. The sagas are nothing other than renditions of what took place in the crypts of the mysteries. What we find in the saga is nothing other than the rendering of mystery rituals. Such a ritual—for which the South used the word “Mysterium”—was called a “Maere” in the North, from which the word “fairy tale” (Märchen) for smaller rituals then arose. “Much has been told to us in ancient maeren.” “Wonders” are nothing other than “signs”—signs of things that are to be regarded as events on higher planes.

[ 15 ] Norse mythology is so interesting because it depicts something you cannot find in the entire body of southern mythology. What the southern peoples depict in their mythology always signifies an ascent; they have always absorbed or received something that leads to a higher level. The Indian, Persian, Babylonian, and Chaldean peoples—and those who succeeded them—certainly also have tragic figures; I need only recall the myth of Cronus. But here in the North, the tragic element is most fully developed, because these peoples had to wait a long time. It was a long-lasting, preparatory culture with a high level of initiation—and this is the important point—a culture that reached so far down that the initiate was the human being. The initiate of the Indians is the Bodhisattva; then there are the Rishis; later, among the Greeks, the initiates are the Sons of the Sun, such as Heracles and Achilles. Only then, after the ladder of the initiated had descended so far, did the initiated human being appear here in the North, lacking only one thing: namely, what Christ is—the God-become-human. The human being in the North approaches us in a posture of waiting; he is vulnerable at the very point where Christianity must take hold.

[ 16 ] So we have four “layers” to consider:

[ 17 ] First: Wotan. He develops in parallel with what unfolds in the south within the first sub-race of the fifth root race.

[ 18 ] Second: Odin. He corresponds to the second subrace of the fifth root race.

[ 19 ] Third: Baldur, the sun hero. He corresponds to what developed in the south as the Babylonian-Chaldean-Assyrian era. However, what is a rising culture there is a culture of waiting in the north.

[ 20 ] He initiated a culture of waiting, in which the tragic is expressed everywhere. Because the era of the old powers is coming to an end, we witness the tragic deaths of Baldur and Siegfried.