Siegfrid, heir to the throne of the Netherland, has gained possession of the Nibelung hoard which is guarded by Alberich. He mounts his steed to ride Kriemhild, Princess of Burgundy, with the intent to woo. Her brother Gunther has been warned by the Burgundian retainer, Hagen, against allowing Kriemhild to enter into such a union, but the thing is done and as such the hoard is handed over to Kriemhild as part of the marriage bargain.
Another part of the bargain is that Siegfrid agrees to help Gunther in his pursuit to pitch woo at the very beautiful and very strong Brunhild, Queen of Iceland. The winning of Brunhild requires that Siegfrid reveal his fitfulness for marriage through a series of exhibitions of his strength. Gunther manages to succeed in these trials, but only with the assistance of Siegfrid hidden behind a cloak of invisibility. Brunhild remains suspicious and not particularly excited about the marriage to Gunther, but the double-wedding goes off as planned. When it comes time for consummation, Gunther is forced to turn once again to Siegfried for assistance and while so engage, Siegfried dares to steal Brunhild’s ring and girdle. Even worse from Brunhild’s perspective: he hands these prizes over to his lady love, Kriemhild.
Much, much worse from Siegfrid’s perspective is that during a quarrel between the two queens, Kriemhild lets slip what occurred in her wedding chamber and this stimulates Hagen to kill Siegfrid on the assumption that Gunther’s honor has been shamed by this act of treachery.
Later, the now-widowed Kriemhild remarries. The groom this time around is none other than a Hun named Etzel although he is much better known outside the realm of this saga as Attila. Kriemhild has married the king of the Huns expressly for the purpose of realizing her revenge plot against Hagen and to secure once against possession of the hoard which have in the interim sunk to the bottom of the Rhine courtesy of her own brothers. Kriemhild arranges for her brothers to visit the court of Etzel the Hun where they are immediately attacked. Despite being outnumbered and overcome, however, they remain surprisingly tight-lipped in regard to the where they hid the hoard. And so they are killed.
Hagen is the last remaining survivor who is aware of the exact location of the hiding place of the hoard, but he, too, is killed. In fact, he dies at the hand of Kriemhild using the sword of the Hagen killed: her dead husband Siegfrid. In turn, Kriemhild is slain by Hildebrand, retainer in the service of the Hun, Etzel.
