The Nibelungenlied is sometimes called “the German Iliad.” The comparison is most likely due to the similarities between Siegfried and Homer’s Achilles. How are these two characters alike? How are they different?

The Nibelungenlied is concerned with the perversion of women’s roles in medieval Germanic culture. How should a woman act according to the poet? In what ways do women in modern Western culture deviate from the medieval Germanic ideal?

Hagen speaks of honor throughout the epic. How would you define the word “honor” based on the text? Who in the epic is truly honorable?