REPRESSION AND DENIAL IN THE 'NIBELUNGENLIED'

by Winder McConnell- Davis, Ca!.

Subsequent to the "interpretation" of her falcon-dream by Ute, Kriem• hild unequivocally states her intention to remain "ane recken minne"l and, since many a woman has discovered that joy is ultimately usurped by sorrow, she will studiously avoid either (17,2-4). Her reaction prompted Gottfried Weber over thirty years ago to make the astute comment: "Im programmatischen Falkentraumgespräch mit Mutter Uote, die richtig zu deuten vermag und doch weiblich-unfolgerichtig nur die positive Lebenserfüllung aus der Liebe sieht und diese der Tochter nicht vorenthalten wissen möchte, ist Kriemhildens tief ahnen• des Erschauern spürbar, daß die Wegnahme künftiger Liebe nicht belie• biger Schmerz und Kummer, sondern, geboren aus totaler Erfüllung, totale Zerstörtheit sei, und - dies steht dahinter - daß in ihr etwas adäquates Negatives aufbrechen werde, das letztes leit, d.i. Untergang, besagen müßte. "2 One might view the 'Nibelungenlied' as the unveiling over many years of that demonie element, the "etwas adäquates Negatives" in Kriemhild with all of its unimaginable consequences. The text itself provides transparent reasons for the inexorable manner in wh ich the plot unfolds: Siegfried's overbearing attitude is destined to foster tension between himself and the Burgundians, Kriemhild's cultivation of the individual at the expense of the welfare of her own clan leads inevitably to estrangement from the latter, even though she may not be entirely aware of the extent to which that occurs, Hagen's (perhaps justified) betrayal of Kriemhild as demonstrated both by the murder of her spouse and the theft of her hort unleashes all of the demonie forces within his adversary which eventually brings about the clash of entire peoples at the conclusion of the epic. On another level, however, there is an element which may be con• sidered integral to the inexorability of events as they transpire in the 'Nibelungenlied': the repression or denial, by numerous figures in prominent positions, of things known or evident which, had they been acted upon, would have had significant consequences for the narrative structure and perhaps even the plot of the epic. It has been contended that "[t]he repression concept was probably Freud's most important single contribution to depth psychology. Quite early in his development of psychoanalysis he realized that any mental content that is disturbing

1 All quotations from the Nibelungenlied are indicated by strophe and verse number in the text and have been laken from Das Nibelungenlied, after the edition by Karl Bartsch, ed. Helmut de BOOT, 21st edition ed. by Roswitha Wisniewski, Wiesbaden, 1979. Here: 15,2a. 2 Gottfried Weber, Das Nibelungenlied. Problem und Idee, Stuttgart, 1963, p. 6. 364 to the conscious mind can be repr[e]ssed or 'pushed down' into the un• conscious. Moreover, memory of the act of repression is itself re• pressed with the result that the whole incident is effectively forgotten. Unfortunately, this strategy brings only temporary respite to the ego, because, in the unconscious, the repressed content remains active and makes efforts to force its way back into consciousness. In order to keep it unconscious, therefore, repression is often backed up with de• ni al - the flat refusal to accept the existence of ideas or events asso• ciated in any way with the content originally repressed. "3 One is well advised to move with caution and prudence when exa• mining a work of medievalliterature from the vantage point of modern psychoanalytical theory. The absence of an objective "medieval" psy• chology does not preclude, however, the existence of psychological phenomena at that time which are the legitimate subject of investigation. To my knowledge, Walter Haug was the first, in a brilliant article written more than a decade ago, to point to the manner in which the figures of the 'Nibelungenlied', in contrast to the characters of Arthurian romance, can no longer be considered "schlicht mit ihren Rollen identisch."4 Haug refers to the "Spielraum zwischen Person und Rolle, in der sich das Neue etabliert, der Innenraum, von dem her irrationale Beweggründe nach unfaßbaren psychischen Mustern zunächst punktuell, dann radikal die Führung übernehmen" (287). Let us return for a moment to the "tief ahnendes Erschauern" which Weber attributed to Kriemhild. Certainly the Burgundian princess's reaction to the interpretation of her mother's dream was extreme; if we concur with Weber, however, it does indicate that Kriemhild, even as a very young woman, is remarkably aware of the deep, irrational forces within her own soul and the potential for chaos if they are unleashed. At this point, however, it can hardly be more than personal, individual turmoil or chaos which Kriemhild imagines possible should she give in to the joy of a man's love, albeit of an intensity that her very existence is imperilled. What causes her to abandon her resolve? In strophe 133 there is an oblique reference to her observation of "diu kint,/riter unde knehte" (133,lb-2a) as they engage in chivalrous sport and Siegfried is certainly to be counted among them. By strophe 224 in the fourth aventiure, Kriemhild has come to regard Siegfried as "ir vii liebez herzen trfit" (224,4b), although they have not met in the course of more than a year since he arrived at Worms. She takes particular delight in the messenger's report of Siegfried's remarkable exploits against the Danes and Saxons (238,4) and the narrator paints a picture of un• abashed sentimentality in 240,4-241,3:

3 Anthony Stevens, Archetypes. A Natural History of the Self, New York, 1983, p. 237. 4 Walter Haug, "Montage und Individualität im Nibelungenlied," in: Nibelungenlied und Klage: Sage und Geschichte, Struktur und Gattung. Passauer Nibelungengesprä• che 1985, ed. Fritz Peter Knapp, Heidelberg, 1987, p. 287.