The Treasure of the Nibelungs
Siegfried (or Sigurd) is one of the principal characters of the Germanic epic poem The Song of the Nibelungs and of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung cycle.
Siegfried manages to obtain the treasure of the Nibelungs, which bears a curse upon it. He then woos Kriemhild, sister of Gunther, the king of the Burgundians.
Gunther grants him her hand in exchange for help in winning Brünnhilde, the queen of the Amazons, who always subjects her suitors to extremely harsh trials. Siegfried, disguised as Gunther, passes all the difficult trials and wins Brünnhilde for Gunther.
When both couples marry, the queens quarrel and the deception is thus revealed. Brünnhilde then swears revenge. To this end she enlists the help of Hagen, one of Gunther’s own vassals, who discovers that Siegfried has a vulnerable spot: on his back. Hagen then tells Kriemhild to mark the spot on Siegfried’s cloak in order to protect him, but in reality uses it to kill him. Brünnhilde, overcome with grief, decides to take her own life by throwing herself onto Siegfried’s funeral pyre.
Finally, Hagen steals the Nibelung treasure and hides it in the Rhine.
Afterward, Kriemhild marries Attila (Etzel), the king of the Huns, and has Gunther and Hagen killed. Hagen will not reveal the hiding place of the treasure even in the face of death.