Die Welt der Ersten und der Besten? Die Brautwerbung im Nibelungenlied und in der Kudrun als Ausdruck der Unzulänglichkeit des Heros

It may be accepted as a premise that medieval epics present the lives of legendary heroes against the context of epochal events. Against such a background two specific medieval works Nibelungenlied and Kudrun may be perceived as mutual contradictions. While Nibelungenlied is dominated by the theme of revenge, in Kudrun, apart from the classic elements of the heroic epic, there appear also elements of reconciliation, and it is women characters who, on numerous occasions, advocate abstention form violence. Whereas Nibelungenlied ends in tragic revenge, Kudrun ends in political pacts based on marriages. What unites both epics is that the motif of wooing serves to reveal the imperfections of the male perception of heroic greatness.