Greek and Germanic Mythology
in the Light of Esotericism
GA 92
21 October 1922, Berlin
III. The Sigfried Saga
In order to acquire a right understanding of the Siegfried saga we must first find its place in the great cosmic happenings in the world. Before our present root-race there were four others; we are in the fifth. The first sub-race of the present race consists of the Indian folk; we call this the Spirit-race, because the import of the fifth race was first given by the Manu in its spiritual form to this sub-race. The second sub-race we call the Flame-race, the race to which Zarathustra gave a religion. The third sub-race was the star-race, the race of the Chaldeans, Babylonians, Assyrians, from which later sprang the Israelite tradition. The race of the Greek and Roman peoples, whose first representatives are mainly to be found in Greece and Rome, became the fourth sub-race. It is the one in which Christianity first took root, in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. But it is our fifth sub-race which was to be the most strongly influenced by Christianity and was to carry it over into the sixth. Christianity came to our fifth sub-race as a tradition, after the beginning of the Christian era. But before this, for some centuries before Christianity was introduced into these regions, and even earlier, ancient Druid initiations were in existence. These were maintained until it became quite obvious that the evening of these preparatory Celtic races had come.
You must understand that all the streams I have named do not reach the northern world. None of the currents which passed over the Flame-race, the Star-race, the Greco-Roman race, got as far as the northern regions. In the north there still remained something from the culture of Atlantis which had been brought over by Atlantean initiates. Wotan was an initiate of the northern peoples. He is none other than the bearer of the elements of Atlantean culture into these parts. Everywhere in these northern regions the Druid initiation was still practised. I have already said that one of its founders, one can say its chief founder, was named Sieg. And in these northern parts something happened rather like what happened later in Palestine at the Foundation of Christianity. Sieg renounced his body and placed it at the disposal of a higher individuality. Hence later the transformed Sieg was named Odin. Odin is the highest initiate of the northern Mysteries. He is the bearer of the spiritual culture of that time. Sieg therefore was the Chela of the north who placed his body at the disposal of the higher, more spiritual Odin. He himself lived later as an initiate Master. Sieg is a quite special case. He is not able to introduce a movement as the Master Jesus 1The Master Jesus is described by Rudolf Steiner as a being who sees through history as the guide of the Christian spiritual stream, with relatively short intervals between each death and rebirth. He is not to be confused with Jesus of Nazareth. See also Lecture 7 of Rudolf Steiner's Course on the Luke Gospel. did after the foundation of Christianity. Sieg had to lead this northern culture to its downfall. He is called upon to guide the northern peoples until the fifth sub-race of the fifth root-race reached them from the south. The ancient Chela Sieg is the one who had to lead the northern peoples into tragedy. Hence he is also called Sieg-urt, which means, “he who leads into the past.” ‘Fried’ is the same word; it means, “that which leads to death, to destruction.” It is still found in the word ‘Friedhof,’ (graveyard). The very same Chela who had paved the way for the great initiate who is to lead the northern culture to its downfall. Its spiritual content declines and is replaced by the rising Christianity. What I am now saying is a prophetic augury which found expression everywhere in the later northern Mysteries. “We have to be a race that is led to its death”. That is the note which sounds forth in the various Mysteries of these northern peoples. The whole of the future event, which had been indicated in the scriptures since primeval times, and which was to take place in the future, was predicted in the northern Mysteries, and through this prediction arose what later became the content of the Nibelungenlied. The second part of the Nibelungenlied gives us the fulfilment of the Nibelungs' karma.
I must draw attention to one feature which we always find in such a situation in human evolution. Before a new phase takes root the earlier phases of evolution have to undergo a brief repetition. This repetition is plainly to be seen in the north. We are shown how all that has been experienced here in the north since the time of Lemuria and Atlantis has to be overcome before these northern nations will become mature, will really develop up to the level of the Christianised fifth sub-race. He in whom all that lives is the initiate Siegfried. Let us briefly run through the salient points of the Siegfried saga.
To begin with, life at the Court in Worms revolves round three heroes: Gunther, Magen and Giselher. We are further told that the hero Siegfried is wooing Brunhild. At the same time we are told that Siegfried is acknowledged to be a personality out of the ordinary. This he certainly is, for he has slain the possessor of the Nibelung treasure; in the fight with the dragon he has made his body hard as horn; he has won the cloak of invisibility. Thus he has two qualities that are always shown by the initiates of pre-Christian times; they are invulnerable and they are unrecognisable. They are made invulnerable by something that has preceded Christianity, has preceded the spirit. In the Gospel it says: “And there are three that bear witness ... the Spirit, and the water, and the blood.” 2I John, V. 8.
It is the blood which must be conquered, and it is the blood which made the heroes invulnerable in the times preceding Christianity. But these invulnerable initiates are always vulnerable in one spot. Achilles is an example of an initiate of these early times. He was plunged into the Styx and was vulnerable in his heel. Siegfried is bathed in the blood of the dragon and is vulnerable in the shoulder. The initiate can make himself unrecognisable to his own people. He can do that through the possession of the cloak of invisibility. It is this that makes the possessor of these higher occult faculties invisible to the outer world. The possessors of the Nibelung treasure had these faculties. They originated in Atlantis, Atlantean initiates in particular had them. But they were also retained by the initiates of the fifth race and hence by Siegfried. He came into possession of the Nibelung treasure. What is this treasure?
It expresses the fact that the northern peoples supplied the basis upon which the fifth sub-race could arise. We also call the race the race of the great discoveries and inventions, the race that has conquered the entire physical plane and that waxes great amid the harsh difficulties of the external world. It has both to possess things, and to develop its possessions. We shall see that ‘Nibelungenhort’ (the treasure of the Nibelungs) is merely a modification of the old word ‘Nifelheim, Nebelheim’ (land of mist). This it is what in the north is recognized as the physical earth, the earth in the moment of becoming physical. It is a firmer hold on the physical that this race of forerunners propagated and opposed to Christianity. Nibelung treasure represents earthly property. It is something that the forerunner possesses, which it is permissible for him to possess, because he can guard it in a suitable way.
Now you all know how the Siegfried saga goes on in this old form. It is not the oldest form, but it is the one that concerns us. You know that Gunther woos Brunhild of Iceland. Twice Siegfried overcomes Brunhild, who believes that it is her suitor Gunther who has conquered her. Gunther woos her, but Siegfried in the cloak of invisibility fights at his side, and is glad that she becomes Gunther's wife. Now Kriemhild later in a weak moment betrays to Brunhild that in reality it was not Gunther who had vanquished her, but that Siegfried was there invisibly. Brunhild is incensed by this and plots to kill Siegfried. But she has yet to learn how she can do it. She wins to her side Hagen of Trony, who dwells at the court. We can recognise the figure of Hagen as deriving from the ancient Druid Mysteries. Hagen is a significant name among the ancient Druid initiates. Not only is he an initiate who represents the highest streams of spiritual life, but, what is more important here, he illustrates the fact that the predecessor always comes into conflict with his successor. Siegfried is the immediate predecessor of Christianity. Hagen belongs to an earlier Druid stream. Hagen therefore is sent for to bring about Siegfried's ruin. To this end Kriemhild must betray that he is vulnerable in one place. Here the significance of this place is revealed. Kriemhild betrays that he is vulnerable between the shoulders, in the very place where the Cross will have to be borne. He has not yet got the Cross. These early peoples have not yet got Christianity. To this spot the Christian initiate will have to come—so says the Siegfried saga—because it still lacks Christianity, because the place where the Cross has to rest is still vacant. Hence Siegfried is still vulnerable in this spot. Siegfried, who brings the Sieg-initiate to ‘Fried’, to rest, is vulnerable in the spot which Christianity will later render invulnerable. There Siegfried too is overcome by the powers which have remained over from earlier stages of northern culture. Hagen kills him and thus illustrates the supercession of the preceding northern races by the fifth sub-race. The import of this transition finds expression in the Siegfried saga.
What are these northern races, the forerunners of Christianity, fighting against? They are fighting against all the old that has remained behind from Atlantis. They have continually to be on their guard against it. Thus in the northern races there still lives something against which the soul of the northern peoples has to protect itself, something that still forces its way in from the remnants of Atlantean culture. An earlier stage of culture has been preserved into the fifth sub-race. But those who have remained behind in the Atlantean culture are a hindrance to further development, they have to be overcome. Hence the struggles that followed are represented by Gudrun. This Gudrun is the soul of the northern peoples. In an older version she wages war against the great initiates who continually come over from Asia from the remnants of old Atlantis. The initiates, the remnants of the Turanians, come over from Asia in a series of incarnations. This is why we also meet there the famous Attila, identical with Etzel, who was initiated in the Atlantean culture. In. fact the historic Attila, who was called ‘the scourge of God’ by his own people as well as by the Europeans, was an initiate who fought at the head of his people with quite outstanding occult forces. Hence a battle with the Huns was quite rightly described as a fight in the air. To anyone who knows these things it is quite clear what is meant. Attila shrank from nothing that he encountered in Europe; from the Pope alone, of his own free-will, he drew back. The races of northern Europe knew that they had to beware of the influence from the East. Christianity knew that this influence could do it no harm.
Now in the later saga we are told that Kriemhild plotted to take revenge on those who had killed Siegfried. She achieves this by throwing in her lot with these Atlantean elements and succeeds in wooing Attila's following to her cause. She becomes Attila's wife. Before that she had lived for a while at the Burgundian court. She came into possession of the Nibelung treasure and had been a great benefactress in her use of it. But the inevitable enemies, who belonged to an earlier culture, and who were represented by Hagen, had sunk the treasure in the Rhine. Now how wonderfully the events which followed are described; Kriemhild clung to her plan to destroy her enemies, her old northern enemies, with the help of Attila. They were enticed to Attila's court and on their way there they met the very spiritual power by which they were to be superseded. On the Danube, in Rudeger of Bechlaren and his wife Gotelind, they encounter Christianity. It is Christianity that is to supplant the northern European culture. Here we have an indication of the dawn of Christianity. Those who have paved the way for it go to meet their downfall. They are murdered at the court of the Huns. Kriemhild had her revenge but she herself must perish. How is this brought about? Kriemhild is really a metamorphosis of Gudrun, with the difference that in the earlier time the tragic outcome had not taken hold of men's hearts. It is Gudrun herself, the folk-soul who slays Attila. In the later version she unites herself with Attila. The soul of the earlier culture avenges itself on the culture which has brought about its downfall. Kriemhild herself perishes.
If you are studying the matter from the literary point of view, you will naturally ask how it comes about that, right at the end, at the court of the Huns, Dietrich of Bern, Hildebrand and all the Germanic heroes are introduced, for they belong to a period that has already gone over to Christianity. They are Christian heroes. Christianity brings death to the ancient folk-soul. First we have the dawn of Christianity in Rudeger of Bechlaren, and then Christianity reaches the essential element of the ancient folk-soul. This is not something told after the event, but something experienced as prophecy within the Mysteries long before the emergence of Christianity. These events were the subject of Mystery-initiation. Initiation into the Mysteries includes not only initiation into truths of the present, but also into truths of the past and of the future. Apocalypse always forms part of it. The Siegfried saga had long been the apocalypse of the northern peoples.
It is not a saga that has arisen somehow or other out of separate fragments, as philology supposes. ‘The folk’ does not make literature in this way. Only someone who has no clue to what goes on in a folk-soul could say this. The sagas are nothing but an account, a rendering of what had taken place in the crypts of the Mysteries. Just as in the south we have the word Mystery, so in the north a similar mystery event is called a ‘Mahr’, from which we get the word ‘Marchen’ (fairy tale). “Viele Wunderdinge melden die Mahren alter Beiten”.3This is the first line of the Nibelungenlied. Rudolf Steiner has spoken of the Nibelungen on various occasions, in lecture 8 of the Course entitled “The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the Kingdoms of Nature”, given at Helsingfors in April, 1912, and in “Das innere Verhältnis der Sprache zu den Cedanken. Das Nibelungenlied and Wilhelm Jordan” given in Dornach, 28th March, 1915, and not yet translated.) The ‘Wunder’ (wonder or miracle) is just a sign. There are things that must be regarded as events on a higher plane. The northern saga-world is so interesting because it expresses something that is not to be found in the entire range of southern saga. The sagas of the southern peoples express a step up; in them the people have always received something which leads them upwards. Of course, the Indian, Persian, Babylonian, Chaldean peoples and those who succeeded them at later stages also had their tragic figures. We need only remind you of the Chronos saga. But here in the north we have the thing in its most developed form, for these people had so long to wait, so long to live in a state of expectancy. Theirs was a culture of preparation, which lasted until a higher initiation evolved. And that is the important point. It was a culture that descended so low, that its initiate is human, is man. The Indian initiate is the Bodhisattva, then come the Rishis, later in Greece we get ‘the sons of the sun’, such as Hercules and Achilles, Only when the initiate had descended to the lowest rung of the ladder do we get, here in the north the initiated man who lacks only one thing, what is comprehended in the Christ. The Christ he has not got. Thus this culture has come so far that it has human initiates and the man-become-god. In the north we encounter the divine man—the divine Man who for us is the Christ—in an attitude of expectation, with the vulnerable spot which Christianity will have to cover.
Thus you have four levels which come one after another. First you have Wotan, who comes over from Atlantean times; then Odin. Wotan corresponds with what develops during the second sub-race of the fifth root-race. The last before Siegfried is Balder, the sun-hero. He corresponds with what develops in the Chaldean-Babylonian-Assyrian epoch. But whereas what developed in the south is an ascending, a progressive culture, here in the north we find a mood of suspense, of expectancy, of waiting for something to happen Then we come down from god to man; and while the southern sub-race developed further, Siegfried became the initiator of this culture of suspense. It is steeped in tragedy. Because this northern culture is coming to an end you have the tragic deaths of Baldur, of Siegfried.
Die Siegfried-Sage
Suchen wir uns eine lebendige Anschauung zu bilden über das Entstehen der nordischen Sagenwelt, so ist besonders wichtig der Zeitraum, der vor dem ersten christlichen Jahrhundert liegt und danach. Damals waren die nördlichen Gegenden Europas in einem Zustande der Erwartung. Das Ereignis, dessen Wirkung sich über Europa ausbreiten sollte, der Niederstieg des göttlichen Vatergeistes bis in einen physischen Menschen hinein, war den Initiierten der nordischen Völker bekannt; das wurde auch in den Mysterien erzählt.
In den alten Druiden-Mysterien im Norden wurden ähnliche Initiationen vollzogen wie bei andern aufsteigenden Völkern der damaligen Zeit. Ein Unterschied ist aber hervorzuheben zwischen dem, was sich im Norden vorbereitete und dem, was in andern Gegenden geschah. Um uns eine begriffliche Anschauung davon zu bilden, müssen wir einen Blick zurückwerfen auf die Entstehung der menschlichen Rassen auf den allmählich zu menschlichen Wohnstätten sich herausgestaltenden Gebieten der Erde. Von einer physisch bewohnbaren Erde können wir erst sprechen seit der lemurischen Wurzelrasse. Aber eine Äthererde ging dieser lemurischen Zeit voran, an welche die Sagen über das Paradies anknüpfen, ebenso die Sagen der verschiedenen Völker des südlichen und nördlichen Erdkreises. Sie sind dasjenige, was den Weisheitschatz der Mysterien bildet. Die Schulung in den Mysterien bestand darin, daß sie, dem Auffassungsgrade der Menschen gemäß, ihnen stufenweise dasjenige enthüllten, was die menschlichen Seelen imstande waren aufzunehmen und zu verarbeiten. Man kann also vom gemeinsamen Ursprung der Mysterien sprechen, der in der imaginativen und inspirierten Erkenntnis ihrer sie leitenden Lehrer liegt und von der dadurch gegebenen Einheit der Lehren, aber auch von deren Verschiedenheit, die durch die Zeitenläufe und die geographische und menschliche Umgebung gegeben ist. Sie waren geschützt durch die strengste Schweigepflicht, da durch Unreife Böses statt Gutes entstehen mußte, und auf dem Verrat der Mysterien an unreife Menschen stand Todesstrafe.
Doch lassen wir jetzt einige Streiflichter auf dasjenige fallen, was als gemeinsame Richtlinien zugrundelag den alten atlantischen Mysterien, die sich aus den Orakelstätten heraus zu Einweihungsschulen gestalteten. Auf neuplatonische Quellen und auf Plotin sich stützend, hat die theosophische Literatur ihre chronologischen Untersuchungen an die Annahme geknüpft, daß mit Sokrates der geschichtliche Augenblick gegeben war, in dem die früher von göttlichen Wesenheiten inspirierte und den Menschen als Werkzeug benutzende Weisheit sich in den Menschen, den Anthropos, hinuntersenkte und allmählich sein Gut, seine Aufgabe, seine Pflicht wurde. Sokrates mußte noch den Tod dafür erleiden, daß er Wahrheiten aus den Mysterien seinen Schülern vermittelte. Er nahm den über ihn verhängten Tod willig und bewußt auf sich. Aber die Metamorphosierung dieses Gedankens des bewußt erlebten Todes, der erst zum wahren Leben führt, sollte erst in den nordischen Völkern zur Reife gelangen, die langsam und allmählich dafür vorbereitet wurden durch dasjenige, was in ihren eigenen Mysterien lebte, und die durch eine lange Wartezeit hindurch zu einer größeren Reife ihres Seelenorganismus geführt wurden. Buddha wurde aus seiner Religionsgemeinschaft ausgestoßen, weil er hinausging, von Ort zu Ort wanderte und den Menschen die Lehre brachte von der Befreiung durch den Tod. Das war eine Mysterienwahrheit, die noch nicht gelehrt werden durfte. Sie durfte nur in einer fernab liegenden Zeit zur Geltung kommen und konnte jetzt nur in einzelnen Feuerseelen, diese ferne Zeit vorbereitend, leben. Ihre Erfüllung sollte sie erst finden durch das Christentum. Doch bis zu dieser Zeit ihrer Erfüllung mußten gewisse Völkerschaften durch ihre Mysterien eine Erziehung erhalten, die sie als Volkssubstanz für die fernab liegenden Aufgaben der Menschheitszivilisation prädestinierten.
Vor uns gab es vier Wurzelrassen; wir stehen in der fünften Wurzelrasse, der nachatlantischen. Die Bezeichnungen, die man den ersten Unterrassen - Kulturepochen - dieser nachatlantischen Zeit gab, kann man in der deutschen Sprache annähernd mit den Worten übersetzen: die Unterrassen des Geistes, der Flamme und der Sterne. Der ersten Unterrasse, der Rasse des Geistes, wurde zuerst der Gehalt der fünften Wurzelrasse in geistiger Form durch den Manu gegeben; sie umfaßt das indische Volk. Die zweite Unterrasse ist die Rasse der Flamme, welcher Zarathustra ein Religionsbekenntnis gegeben hat. Die dritte Unterrasse war die Rasse der Sterne, die der Chaldäer, Babylonier, Assyrer, aus der später die israelitische Tradition hervorgegangen ist. Die griechisch-lateinischen Völker, die im Griechentum und Römertum ihre hauptsächlichen ersten Repräsentanten hatten, wurden die vierte Unterrasse. Es ist diejenige, in welcher das Christentum zuerst Wurzel gefaßt hat in Kleinasien, Griechenland und Rom. Sie war bestimmt, am stärksten vom Christentum beeinflußt zu werden, aber erfassen konnte sie seine über menschliches Begriffsvermögen hinausgehende Bedeutung noch nicht. Dazu war eine lange Vorbereitung notwendig. Diese war schon gegeben durch die in den nordischen Mysterien herausgestaltete Sagenwelt, die in Liedern und Epen weiterlebte, durch Rhapsoden von Land zu Land getragen wurde und zur religiösen Innigkeit sich steigerte.
Unsere fünfte Unterrasse hat das am Beginn unserer Zeitrechnung begründete Christentum überliefert erhalten. Einige Jahrhunderte aber, bevor das Christentum in die nördlichen Gegenden gebracht worden ist, und auch in älteren Zeiten, bestanden die alten Druiden-Einweihungen. Diese hielten ungefähr so lange stand, bis man ganz genau wußte, daß jetzt die Abenddämmerung dieser vorbereitenden keltischen Kultur eingetreten war. Sie müssen sich vorstellen, daß alle die Einflüsse, die über andere Völker gezogen waren, nicht in diese nördlichen Gegenden gekommen sind. Alle die Strömungen, welche zu der Rasse der Flamme und der Rasse der Sterne gehörten, waren nicht bis zu den nordischen Gegenden vorgedrungen. Im Norden war noch etwas übriggeblieben von den Überresten der atlantischen Kultur, die durch Initiierte herübergetragen worden war. Wotan war der Initiierte der nordischen Völkerschaften, der die Elemente der atlantischen Kultur in diese Gegenden herübergebracht hatte.
In diesen nordischen Gegenden war überall die Druiden-Einweihung in Geltung. Ich habe bereits erzählt, daß einer der Begründer, man kann sagen der hauptsächlichste Begründer dieser Einweihungsstätten, Sig oder Sigge hieß. Und hier in diesen nordischen Gegenden geschah etwas ähnliches, wie es später in Palästina zur Begründung des Christentums geschah: Sig gab seinen Leib ab und stellte ihn zur Verfügung einer höheren Individualität. Daher ist der verwandelte Sig später Odin genannt worden; dieser war der höchste Initiierte der nordischen Mysterien; Odin war der Träger der geistigen Kultur in dieser Zeit. Sig war also im Norden der Chela, der dem höheren, geistigeren Odin seinen Leib zur Verfügung gestellt hat. Er lebte selbst später als initiierter Meister weiter. Sig ist ein ganz besonderer Fall. Er konnte nicht eine Bewegung einleiten, wie es etwa der Meister Jesus tat, nachdem das Christentum begründet war. Sig muß ja diese nordische Kultur, die sich hier geltend gemacht hatte, zum Untergang führen. Er ist berufen, die nordischen Völker so lange zu führen, bis vom Süden her durch die vierte Unterrasse der fünften Wurzelrasse das Christentum zu ihnen kam. Der alte Chela Sig ist derjenige, der die nordischen Völker in den tragischen Untergang hineinführen mußte. Daher heißt er auch Sigurd, das heißt derjenige, der in die Vergangenheit führt. Urd ist die Norne der Vergangenheit. Fried bedeutet dasselbe, das, was zum Frieden führt, das heißt zum Tode, zum Untergang. Dies ist noch erhalten in dem Wort Friedhof: dasjenige, was zum Tode geführt worden ist. Derselbe Chela, der dem großen Initiierten den Weg gebahnt hat, soll die nordische Kultur zum Untergang führen. Ihr geistiger Inhalt geht unter und wird durch das herankommende Christentum ersetzt. Das, was ich jetzt gesagt habe, ist ein prophetischer Inhalt, der in den späteren Mysterien der nordischen Völker vielfach so beschrieben wurde: Wir müssen ein Stamm sein, der zum Frieden geführt wird - das ist der Klang, der aus den verschiedenen Mysterien in diesen nordischen Völkern herausspricht. Der ganze zukünftige Vorgang, der in den Schriften seit uralten Zeiten aufgezeichnet war, wurde als Vorhersagung in den nordischen Mysterien verkündigt, und aus diesen Vorhersagungen ist das entstanden, was später zum Inhalt des Nibelungenliedes und der Siegfried-Sage wurde. Im zweiten Teil des Nibelungenliedes ist der Abschluß des Karmas der Nibelungen gegeben.
Eine Eigentümlichkeit muß ich erwähnen, die immer in einem solchen Fall in der Entwicklung der Menschheit eintritt: Bevor eine neue Phase Platz greift, muß die frühere Entwicklungsphase kurz wiederholt werden. Gerade hier im Norden stellt sich diese Wiederholung früherer Phasen deutlich dar. Es wird uns dargestellt, wie dasjenige, was hier im Norden durchgemacht worden ist seit der lemurischen und atlantischen Zeit, überwunden werden muß, bevor diese nordischen Völker reif werden, sich zur christianisierten fünften Unterrasse heraufzubilden. Derjenige, in dem die ganze Summe der Geschichte der nordischen Kultur lebt, das ist der Initiierte Siegfried. Lassen wir einmal kurz die hauptsächlichsten Punkte der Siegfried-Sage an uns vorüberziehen.
Zunächst wird uns das Leben der drei Helden Gunther, Hagen und Giselher am Hofe in Worms dargestellt. Wir hören weiter, wie der Held Siegfried für Gunther wirbt um Brünhilde. Wir hören, daß in Siegfried am Hofe in Worms eine außerordentliche Persönlichkeit erkannt wird. Das ist er auch, denn er ist unverwundbar, er hat den Besitzer des Nibelungenhortes getötet, er hat im Kampfe mit dem Drachen seinen Körper ganz hörnern gemacht, und er hat sich die Tarnkappe erobert. Er besitzt also zweierlei Eigenschaften, die die Initiierten der vorchristlichen Zeit immer zeigen: Sie sind unverwundbar, und sie sind unerkennbar. Sie sind unverwundbar durch ihre Einweihung. Im Evangelium heißt es: Drei sind es, die da zeugen: Blut, Wasser und Geist. - Blut und Wasser müssen besiegt werden. Was unverwundbar machte in den Zeiten, die dem Christentum vorhergingen, waren Blut und Wasser. Diese unverwundbaren Initiierten sind aber immer an einer Stelle verwundbar. Achilles stellt uns einen Initiierten der vorhergehenden Zeit dar. Er ist in den Styx getaucht worden und war an der Ferse verwundbar. Siegfried ist in das Blut des Drachen getaucht worden und ist zwischen den Schulterblättern verwundbar. Seinen eigentlichen Menschen kann der Eingeweihte dadurch unkenntlich machen, daß er die Tarnkappe besitzt; sie macht den Besitzer dieser höheren okkulten Fähigkeiten für die Außenwelt unbemerkbar. Diese okkulten Fähigkeiten haben die Besitzer des Nibelungenhortes gehabt. Sie stammten von der atlantischen Rasse ab, und insbesondere die Eingeweihten der atlantischen Wurzelrasse besaßen diese Fähigkeiten; sie waren aber auch bei den Eingeweihten der fünften Wurzelrasse und daher auch bei Siegfried vorhanden. Als Siegfried den Drachen erschlug, gelangte er in den Besitz des Nibelungenhortes. Was ist nun der Nibelungenhort? Darin ist ausgedrückt, daß die nordischen Völkerschaften sozusagen den Grund und Boden abgaben, aus dem die fünfte Unterrasse entstehen konnte. Man nennt die fünfte Unterrasse auch die Rasse der großen Erfindungen und Entdeckungen, die den ganzen physischen Plan erobert und im Besitz der äußeren Welt groß wird. Sie soll einerseits besitzen und andererseits dieses Besitztum zu Weisheit ausbilden. Im Nibelungenhort haben wir nichts anderes zu sehen als eine sprachliche Umbildung des alten Wortes Nifelheim, Nebelheim. Es ist also dasjenige, was man im Norden kannte als die physische Erde, die Erde im Augenblicke des Physischwerdens. Ein fester Besitz, das ist es, was diese vorbereitende Rasse um sich ausbreitet und dem Christentum entgegengestellt hat. Das Gold des Nibelungenhortes ist der irdische Besitz, der Repräsentant des irdischen Besitzes. Das ist etwas, was der Initiierte besitzt und was er auch besitzen darf, weil er in entsprechender Weise darüber wachen kann.
Nun wissen Sie alle, wie die Siegfried-Sage weitergeht in dieser alten Gestalt. Es ist nicht die älteste Form der Sage, aber diejenige, die für uns in Betracht kommt. Bekanntlich wirbt dann Gunther um Brünhilde von Isenland. Siegfried besiegt Brünhilde zweimal. Gunther wirbt um sie, aber Siegfried kämpft unsichtbar, mit der Tarnkappe gewappnet, an der Seite Gunthers, und Brünhilde glaubt, daß ihr Freier Gunther sie besiegt hätte. Siegfried ist glücklich, daß sie Gunthers Gemahlin wird. Nun verrät Siegfrieds Gemahlin Kriemhilde in einem schwachen Augenblick der Brünhilde, daß in Wirklichkeit nicht Gunther, sondern Siegfried unsichtbar sie besiegt habe. Darüber entrüstet sich Brünhilde und faßt den Plan, Siegfried zu töten. Nun muß ihr aber erst noch verraten werden, wie er getötet werden kann. Sie gewinnt Hagen von Tronje, der am Hofe lebt, dafür.
Hagen ist eine Gestalt, die man aus den alten Druiden-Mysterien kennt. Hagen ist ein wichtiger Name von alten Druiden-Eingeweihten. Er ist ein Eingeweihter, der die zurückliegenden höchsten Strömungen des geistigen Lebens vertritt, die dadurch zum Ausdruck kommen, daß das Vorhergehende immer dem Nachfolgenden entgegensteht und mit ihm in Kampf kommt. Siegfried gehört der folgenden Strömung an, die unmittelbar dem Christentum vorangeht. Hagen gehört der vorhergehenden Druidenströmung an. Hagen wird also herbeigeholt, um Siegfried zu verderben. Dazu muß Kriemhilde verraten, daß Siegfried an einer Stelle verwundbar ist. Hier enthüllt sich, was diese Stelle zu bedeuten hat. Kriemhilde verrät, daß Siegfried zwischen den Schultern verwundbar ist, und zwar gerade an der Stelle, wo das Kreuz getragen werden muß. Er hat noch nicht das Kreuz. Das Christentum fehlt noch diesen vorzeitlichen Völkern. An dieser Stelle, wo das Kreuz ruhen soll, um durch die Welt getragen zu werden, da ist Siegfried verwundbar — so sagt die Siegfried-Sage -, weil das Christentum noch fehlt. Siegfried, der die Sig-Initiierten zum Frieden, zur Ruhe bringt, ist verwundbar an der Stelle, wo das Christentum später unverwundbar macht. Er wird überwunden von den Mächten, die von den früheren Kulturen übriggeblieben sind. Hagen, der Vertreter vorhergehender Strömungen, tötet ihn. Das ist ein Bild für die Ablösung der vorhergehenden nordischen Kultur durch die fünfte Unterrasse. Der Sinn dieser Ablösung wird in der Siegfried-Sage dargestellt.
Wogegen kämpfen denn eigentlich diese nordischen Rassen? Indem sie Wegbereiter sind für das Christentum, kämpfen sie gegen all das Alte, das geblieben ist von der atlantischen Zeit. Gegen das müssen sie sich fortwährend wehren. Die Seele der nordischen Völker muß sich wehren gegen dasjenige, was noch heranstürmt von früher, von den Überbleibseln der atlantischen Kultur. Es ist eine frühere Kulturschicht, die hier in die fünfte Kulturepoche hineinragt. Diejenigen aber, die stehengeblieben sind in der atlantischen Kultur, sind ein Hemmschuh der Weiterentwicklung, sie müssen bekämpft werden.
Die später erfolgenden Kämpfe sind in einer älteren Fassung der Gudrun-Sage dargestellt. Da tritt uns die Seele der nordischen Völker als Gudrun entgegen. Sie kämpft gegen den großen Initiierten der Atlantier, Attila oder Atli oder Etzel, der aus den Überbleibseln einer atlantischen Rasse, der turanischen, von Asien herüberkommt. Auch der historische Attila und sein Volk wurden von den europäischen Völkern als «Geißel Gottes» bezeichnet. Attila war ein Initiierter, der mit ganz bedeutenden okkulten Kräften an der Spitze seiner Völkerschaft kämpfte. Daher wird die Hunnenschlacht ganz richtig so dargestellt, daß das Heer in der Luft kämpft. Für jeden, der die Dinge weiß und versteht, ist es klar, um was es sich da handelt. Attila wich vor nichts zurück, was ihm in Europa entgegentrat; nur vor dem Papst, dem Vertreter des Christentums, trat er freiwillig zurück, denn er war sich voll bewußt, daß er gegen den Vertreter des Christentums nichts vermochte. Die nordischen Völkerrassen wußten, daß sie sich zu wehren hatten gegen die östlichen Einflüsse, aber dem Christentum vermochten diese nichts anzuhaben.
Nun wird uns in der späteren Nibelungen-Sage weiter erzählt, daß Kriemhild den Plan faßte, Rache zu nehmen an denjenigen, die Siegfried getötet hatten. Sie nimmt Rache in der Weise, daß sie sich gerade mit den atlantischen Elementen verbindet. Sie leistet der Werbung Attilas Folge; sie wird die Gattin des Hunnenkönigs Attila. Zuvor lebte sie nach dem Tode Siegfrieds eine Zeitlang am burgundischen Hofe. Sie war in den Besitz des Nibelungenhortes gekommen und hat ihn verwendet als große Wohltäterin. Aber ihre Feinde, die aus früheren Epochen stammten und die in Hagen repräsentiert sind, versenkten den Nibelungenhort in den Rhein. Kriemhild hält an ihrem Plan fest, mit Hilfe Attilas die alten nordischen Feinde zu vernichten. Durch Kriemhilds Racheplan werden die Nibelungen hinuntergelockt nach dem Hofe Attilas, und da tritt ihnen am Wege gerade diejenige Geistesmacht entgegen, von der sie abgelöst werden sollen. An der Donau tritt ihnen in Rüdiger von Bechlaren und seiner Gemahlin Gotelinde das Christentum entgegen. Das ist die Morgenröte des Christentums, dasjenige, was an die Stelle der nordeuropäischen Völkerkulturen treten soll. Die Nibelungen gehen dem Untergang entgegen; sie werden am Hunnenhofe ermordet. Kriemhild nimmt zwar Rache, muß aber selbst untergehen. Und wodurch geht sie unter? Sie, die ja die umgewandelte Gudrun ist, die Volksseele der nordischen Kultur, verbindet sich mit Atli-Attila-Etzel, dem Atlantier, und rächt sich an dem Vertreter ihrer eigenen Kultur, der den Initiierten getötet hatte. Sie selbst geht zugrunde.
Wenn Sie die Sage nur ästhetisch betrachten, so werden Sie sich natürlich fragen: Wie kommt es, daß nun am Schlusse noch am Hunnenhofe Dietrich von Bern, Hildebrand und alle die anderen Helden eingeführt werden, die einer Schicht angehören, die bereits zum Christentum übergegangen ist? Das sind ja bereits christliche Helden. - Das Christentum bringt der alten Volksseele den Tod, es überwindet die alte Volksseele. Das ist nicht etwas, was nachträglich der Sage angehängt worden ist, sondern etwas, was lange vor dem Auftreten des Christentums innerhalb der Mysterien als Prophezeiung gelebt hat. Diese Vorgänge waren Gegenstand der Mysterieneinweihung. Zu der Mysterieneinweihung gehörte nicht nur die Einweihung in die Wahrheiten der Gegenwart, sondern auch in die der Vergangenheit und der Zukunft. Immer gehörte dazu die Apokalyptik. Die Siegfried-Sage ist lange Zeit die Apokalypse des nordischen Volkes gewesen. Diese Sage ist nicht Dichtung, die irgendwie im Volk entstanden ist aus einzelnen Stücken, wie man sich das in der Philologie vorstellt. Das Volk dichtet nicht. Das kann nur jemand sagen, der keine Ahnung davon hat, wie es in der Seele eines Volkes zugeht. Die Sagen sind nichts anderes als Wiedergaben dessen, was in den Krypten der Mysterien sich vollzogen hat. Was man in der Sage hat, ist nichts anderes als die Wiedergabe von Mysterienvorgängen. Einen solchen Vorgang, für den man im Süden das Wort «Mysterium» hatte, nannte man im Norden eine «Maere», woraus das Wort «Märchen» für die kleineren Vorgänge dann entstanden ist. «Uns ist in alten maeren wunders vil geseit». «Wunders» ist nichts anderes als ein «Zeichen», ein Zeichen für Dinge, die als Vorgänge auf höheren Planen anzusehen sind.
Die nordische Sagenwelt ist deshalb so interessant, weil sie etwas darstellt, was Sie in der ganzen südlichen Sagenwelt nicht finden können. Was die südlichen Völkerschaften in ihrer Sagenwelt darstellen, bedeutet immer einen Aufstieg; sie haben immer etwas aufgenommen, etwas bekommen, was zu einer höheren Stufe hinaufführt. Die indischen, persischen, babylonischen, chaldäischen Völker und die, welche sie abgelöst haben, haben zwar auch tragische Gestalten; ich erinnere nur an die Chronos-Sage. Aber hier im Norden ist das Tragische am meisten ausgebildet, weil diese Völker lange warten mußten. Es war eine lang dauernde, vorbereitende Kultur mit einer hohen Initiation, die - und das ist das Wichtige - eine Kultur war, die so weit hinunterging, daß der Initiierte der Mensch war. Der Initiierte der Inder ist der Bodhisattva, dann sind es die Rishis, später bei den Griechen sind die Initiierten die Sonnensöhne wie Herakles und Achilles. Dann erst, nachdem die Stufenleiter der Initiierten so weit heruntergegangen war, kam der initiierte Mensch hier im Norden, dem nur das eine fehlte, nämlich das, was der Christus ist, der Gott-gewordene Mensch. Der Mensch im Norden tritt uns in wartender Haltung entgegen; er ist verwundbar an der Stelle, wo das Christentum einsetzen muß.
So haben wir also vier «Schichten» zu beachten:
Erstens: Wotan. Er geht parallel dem, was im Süden in der ersten Unterrasse der fünften Wurzelrasse sich entwickelt.
Zweitens: Odin. Er geht parallel mit der zweiten Unterrasse der fünften Wurzelrasse.
Als drittes: Baldur, der Sonnenheros. Er geht parallel mit dem, was sich im Süden als babylonisch-chaldäisch-assyrische Epoche entwickelt. Was jedoch dort aufsteigende Kultur ist, ist im Norden Wartekultur.
Initiierte der Wartekultur, in der überall das Tragische sich ausdrückt. Weil es mit den alten Kräften zu Ende geht, sehen wir den tragischen Tod Baldurs und den tragischen Tod Siegfrieds.
The Siegfried Saga
If we want to form a vivid picture of the origin of the Nordic saga world, the period before and after the first Christian century is particularly important. At that time, the northern regions of Europe were in a state of expectation. The event whose effect 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.
In the ancient Druid mysteries in the north, initiations similar to those of other ascending peoples of that time were performed. However, a difference must be emphasized between what was being prepared in the north and what was happening in other regions. In order to form a conceptual view of this, we must look back to the emergence of the human races in the areas of the earth that were gradually developing into human dwellings. We can only speak of a physically habitable earth since the Lemurian root race. But this Lemurian period was preceded by an etheric earth, to which the legends about paradise are connected, as are the legends of the various peoples of the southern and northern hemispheres. These legends constitute the treasure of wisdom contained in the mysteries. The training in the mysteries consisted in gradually revealing to people, according to their level of understanding, what human souls were capable of receiving and processing. One can therefore speak of the common origin of the mysteries, which lies in the imaginative and inspired knowledge of their guiding teachers, and of the unity of the teachings that this gives rise to, but also of their diversity, which is due to the passage of time and the geographical and human environment. They were protected by the strictest secrecy, since immaturity would have led to evil instead of good, and the betrayal of the mysteries to immature people was punishable by death.
But let us now shed some light on what were the common guidelines underlying the ancient Atlantean mysteries, which developed from the oracles into schools of initiation. Based on Neoplatonic sources and Plotinus, theosophical literature has linked its chronological investigations to the assumption that with Socrates, the historical moment arrived when the wisdom formerly inspired by divine beings and used as a tool by humans descended into humans, the Anthropos, and gradually became their good, their task, their duty. Socrates had to suffer death for imparting truths from the mysteries to his disciples. He willingly and consciously accepted the death imposed on him. But the metamorphosis of this idea of consciously experienced death, which leads to true life, was only to come to maturity among the Nordic peoples, who were slowly and gradually prepared for it by what lived in 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 taught people about liberation through death. This was a mystery truth that was not yet allowed to be taught. It could only come into its own in a distant time and could now only live in individual fiery souls, preparing for that distant time. It was only to be fulfilled through Christianity. But until that time of fulfillment, certain peoples had to receive an education through their mysteries that would predestine them as the substance of the people for the distant tasks of human civilization.
There were four root races before us; we are in the fifth root race, the post-Atlantean. The names given to the first sub-races – cultural epochs – of this post-Atlantean period 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 first given the content of the fifth root race in spiritual form by the Manu; it encompasses 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, which gave rise to the Chaldeans, Babylonians, Assyrians, and later the Israelite tradition. The Greek-Latin peoples, who had their main representatives in Greek and Roman civilization, became the fourth sub-race. It is the one 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 meaning, which was beyond human comprehension. This required a long period of preparation. This had already been provided by the world of legends that had developed in the Nordic mysteries, which lived on in songs and epics, was carried from country to country by rhapsodes, and grew into religious fervor.
Our fifth subrace has handed down the Christianity 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 existed. These lasted until it was clear that the twilight of this preparatory Celtic culture had now begun. You must imagine that all the influences that had spread 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 did not penetrate as far as the Nordic regions. In the north, something remained of the remnants of the Atlantean culture that 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.
In these Nordic regions, the Druidic initiation was prevalent everywhere. I have already mentioned that one of the founders, one might say the principal founder of these places of initiation, was called Sig or Sigge. And here in these Nordic regions something similar happened to what later happened in Palestine with the founding of Christianity: Sig gave up his body and placed it at the disposal of a higher individuality. That is why the transformed Sig was later called Odin; he was the highest initiate of the Nordic mysteries; Odin was the bearer of spiritual culture at that time. Sig was thus the chela in the north 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 after Christianity was founded. Sig had to lead this Nordic culture, which had established itself here, to its downfall. He was called to lead the Nordic peoples until Christianity came to them from the south through the fourth subrace of the fifth root race. The old Chela Sig is the one who had to lead the Nordic peoples into their tragic downfall. That is why he is also called Sigurd, which means 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 destruction. This is still preserved in the word cemetery: that which has been led to death. The same disciple who paved the way for the great initiate is to lead the Nordic culture to destruction. Its spiritual content is going under and being replaced by the approaching Christianity. What I have just said is prophetic content that was described many times in the later mysteries of the Nordic peoples: We must be a tribe that is led to peace — that is the message that comes out of the various mysteries of these Nordic peoples. The entire future process, which had been recorded in the scriptures since ancient times, was proclaimed as a prediction in the Nordic mysteries, and from these predictions arose what later became the content of the Nibelungenlied and the Siegfried saga. In the second part of the Nibelungenlied, the karma of the Nibelungs is brought to a conclusion.
I must mention a peculiarity that always occurs in such cases in the development of humanity: before a new phase takes hold, the earlier phase of development must be briefly repeated. Here in the north, this repetition of earlier phases is particularly evident. We are shown how what has been experienced here in the north since the Lemurian and Atlantean periods must be overcome before these Nordic peoples can mature and develop into the Christianized fifth subrace. The one in whom the entire history of Nordic culture lives is the initiated Siegfried. Let us briefly review the main points of the Siegfried saga.
First, we are presented with the lives of the three heroes Gunther, Hagen, and Giselher at the court in Worms. We hear how the hero Siegfried woos Brünhilde for Gunther. We hear that Siegfried is recognized as an extraordinary personality at the court in Worms. He is indeed extraordinary, for he is invulnerable, he has killed the owner of the Nibelungen treasure, he has made his body completely horned in his fight with the dragon, and he has conquered the magic helmet. 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. In the Gospel it says: Three are there that bear witness: blood, water, and the Spirit. Blood and water must be defeated. What made people invulnerable in the times before Christianity were blood and water. However, these invulnerable initiates are always vulnerable in one place. Achilles represents an initiate from the previous era. He was dipped in the Styx and was vulnerable at the heel. Siegfried was dipped in the blood of the dragon and is vulnerable between the shoulder blades. The initiate can make his true self unrecognizable by wearing the magic helmet, which makes the possessor of these higher occult abilities invisible to the outside world. The possessors of the Nibelungen treasure had 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 in the initiates of the fifth root race and therefore also in Siegfried. When Siegfried slew the dragon, he came into possession of the Nibelungen treasure. What is the Nibelungen treasure? It expresses that the Nordic peoples, so to speak, gave up the land 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 becomes great in possession of the outer world. On the one hand, it is to possess, and on the other hand, it is to develop this possession into wisdom. In the Nibelungen treasure, we see nothing other than a linguistic transformation of the old word Nifelheim, Nebelheim. It is therefore what was known in the north as the physical earth, the earth at the moment of becoming physical. A fixed possession is what this preparatory race spread around itself and opposed to Christianity. The gold of the Nibelungen hoard is earthly possession, the representative of earthly possession. This is something that the initiate possesses and is allowed to possess because he can watch over it in the appropriate manner.
Now you all know how the Siegfried saga continues in this ancient form. It is not the oldest form of the saga, but 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 his magic helmet, at Gunther's side, and Brünhilde believes that her suitor Gunther has defeated her. Siegfried is happy that she is becoming Gunther's wife. Now, in a moment of weakness, Siegfried's wife Kriemhilde reveals to Brünhilde that it was not Gunther but Siegfried who defeated her invisibly. Brünhilde is outraged and plans to kill Siegfried. But first she must find out how he can be killed. She wins over Hagen von Tronje, who lives at court, to help her.
Hagen is a figure known from the ancient Druid mysteries. Hagen is an important name among ancient Druid initiates. He is an initiate who represents the highest currents of spiritual life in the past, which are expressed in the fact that what has gone before always opposes what follows and comes into conflict with it. Siegfried belongs to the following current, which immediately precedes Christianity. Hagen belongs to the previous Druidic current. Hagen is therefore summoned to destroy Siegfried. To this end, Kriemhilde must reveal that Siegfried is vulnerable in one place. Here, the meaning of this place is revealed. Kriemhilde reveals that Siegfried is vulnerable between the shoulders, precisely where the cross must be carried. He does not yet have the cross. Christianity is still lacking among these primitive peoples. At this point, where the cross is to rest in order to be carried through the world, Siegfried is vulnerable—so says the Siegfried saga—because Christianity is still lacking. Siegfried, who brings peace and tranquility to the Sig initiates, is vulnerable at the point where Christianity later makes him invulnerable. He is overcome by the forces that remain from earlier cultures. Hagen, the representative of previous currents, kills him. This is an image of the replacement of the previous Nordic culture by the fifth subrace. The meaning of this replacement is depicted in the Siegfried legend.
What are these Nordic races actually fighting against? By paving the way for Christianity, they are fighting against everything old that remains from the Atlantean era. They must continually defend themselves against this. The soul of the Nordic peoples must defend itself against what is still rushing toward it from the past, from the remnants of Atlantean culture. It is an earlier cultural layer that protrudes into the fifth cultural epoch. But those who have remained in Atlantean culture are a stumbling block to further development and must be fought.
The later battles are depicted 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 or Atli or Etzel, who comes from Asia with the remnants of an Atlantean race, the Turanians. The historical Attila and his people were also described 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. Therefore, 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 is going on here. Attila did not shy away from anything that stood in his way in Europe; he only voluntarily withdrew before the Pope, the representative of Christianity, because 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 were powerless against Christianity.
Now, in the later Nibelungen saga, we are told that Kriemhild conceived a plan to take revenge on those who had killed Siegfried. She takes revenge by joining forces with the Atlantean elements. She accepts Attila's proposal of marriage and becomes the wife of the Hun king Attila. After Siegfried's death, she lived for a time at the Burgundian court. She had come into possession of the Nibelung treasure and used it as a great benefactor. But her enemies, who came from earlier epochs and were represented by Hagen, sank the Nibelung treasure into the Rhine. Kriemhild sticks to her plan to destroy the old Nordic enemies with Attila's help. Kriemhild's plan of revenge lures the Nibelungs down to Attila's court, where they encounter the very spirit that is to replace them. On the Danube, they encounter Christianity in the form of Rüdiger von Bechlaren and his wife Gotelinde. This is the dawn of Christianity, which is to replace the cultures of the northern European peoples. The Nibelungs are doomed; they are murdered at the Hun court. Kriemhild takes revenge, but must herself perish. And how does she perish? She, who is the converted Gudrun, the soul of the Nordic culture, unites herself with Atli-Attila-Etzel, the Atlantean, and takes revenge on the representative of her own culture who had killed the initiates. She herself is destroyed.
If you look at the legend purely from an aesthetic point of view, you will naturally ask yourself: How is it that at the end, Dietrich von Bern, Hildebrand, and all the other heroes, who belong to a class that has already converted to Christianity, are introduced at the Hun camp? These are already Christian heroes. Christianity brings death to the old folk soul; it overcomes the old folk soul. This is not something that was added to the legend after the fact, but something that lived as a prophecy long before the advent of Christianity within the mysteries. These events were the subject of the mystery initiations. The mystery initiations included not only initiation into the truths of the present, but also into those of the past and the future. Apocalypticism was always part of this. The Siegfried legend has long been the apocalypse of the Nordic people. This saga is not fiction that somehow arose among the people from individual pieces, as philologists imagine. The people do not compose poetry. Only someone who has no idea what goes on in the soul of a people can say that. The sagas are nothing more than renditions of what took place in the crypts of the mysteries. What we have in legends is nothing more than the reproduction of mysterious events. Such an event, for which the word “mystery” was used in the south, was called a “maere” in the north, from which the word “fairy tale” for smaller events then developed. “Uns ist in alten maeren wunders vil geseit” (“We have heard many wonders in old tales”). “Wunders” is nothing other than a “sign,” a sign for things that are to be regarded as events on higher planes.
The Nordic world of legends is so interesting because it represents something that cannot be found in the entire southern world of legends. What the southern peoples represent in their legends always signifies an ascent; they have always absorbed something, received something that leads to a higher level. The Indian, Persian, Babylonian, Chaldean peoples and those who replaced them also have tragic figures; I need only recall the legend of Cronus. But here in the north, the tragic is most highly developed because these peoples had to wait a long time. It was a long preparatory culture with a high level of initiation which – and this is the important point – was a culture that descended so far that the initiate was the human being. The initiate of the Indians is the Bodhisattva, then there are the Rishis, and later, among the Greeks, the initiates are the sons of the sun, such as Heracles and Achilles. Only after the ladder of the initiated had descended so far did the initiated human being arrive here in the north, lacking only one thing, namely what Christ is, the God-become-human. The human being in the north meets us in a waiting attitude; he is vulnerable at the point where Christianity must begin.
So we have four “layers” to consider:
First: Wotan. He runs parallel to what develops in the south in the first subrace of the fifth root race.
Second: Odin. He runs parallel to the second subrace of the fifth root race.
Third: Baldur, the sun hero. He runs parallel to what develops in the south as the Babylonian-Chaldean-Assyrian epoch. However, what is an ascending culture there is a culture of waiting in the north.
Initiators of the culture of waiting, in which tragedy is expressed everywhere. Because the old forces are coming to an end, we see the tragic death of Baldur and the tragic death of Siegfried.