Ring Of The Nibelungs
Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King (also known, in different cuts, formats and markets, as Ring of the Nibelungs, Die Nibelungen, Curse of the Ring and Sword of Xanten) is a 2004 German television film directed by Uli Edel and starring Benno Fürmann, Alicia Witt, Kristanna Loken and Max von Sydow. The film is based on the Norse mythology story Völsungasaga and the German epic poem Nibelungenlied, which tells the mythological story of Siegfried the Dragon-Slayer. Richard Wagner's music dramas Siegfried and Götterdämmerung are based on the same material. Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King was written by the husband and wife team of Diane Duane and Peter Morwood and is a Tandem Communications production. It was filmed entirely in South Africa.
Ring of the Nibelungs
Twelve years later, Brunhild, the Queen of Iceland (still a pagan like Eyvind and Eric) follows her adviser's runes that lead her to where Eric lives. The runes foretell that a star will fall from the sky and from its smoke a man will appear who will defeat her. Brunhild initially has doubts as no one has ever beaten her in a fight before. That night a meteor, a described announcement to a war between the gods called Ragnarök, hits the earth near the smithy and despite Eyvind's warning, Eric goes to investigate. In the middle of the crater there are two rocks of a strange kind of metal. Wearing a cloak over her face, Brunhild arrives and Eric, believing she is a Saxon, attacks her. After a short battle he defeats her, and they instantly fall in love with each other, seeing their gathering as the will of the gods. After making love, Eric promises to go to Iceland to meet Brunhild and they fall asleep. In the morning Eric wakes up alone after Brunhild has taken one of the rocks and left. Eric convinces Eyvind to let him go with him to Burgund (the kingdom of the Burgundians) and on their way down the river they see a town in flames.
Gunther returns injured with Hagen; all the other knights have been killed. Eric promises to Kriemhild that Gunther and his men will be avenged. He enters Fafnir's lair and, after a fierce battle, manages to slay the dragon while receiving only a scratch on his arm. Seeing that Fafnir's blood has healed his scratch, Eric bathes in the blood, rendering his skin invulnerable (save for a single spot where an errant leaf had fallen upon his upper back, leaving that one spot untouched by the blood).
Eric explores the cave and finds a vast hall filled with treasure. He finds a ring, the Ring of the Nibelung, and is then confronted by ghosts of immortal twilight beings, the Nibelungs. They warn him that taking any of their treasure [de] will bring a curse down on him, but he does not listen and takes the ring and promises to come back for the rest. Outside he is attacked by an ex-Nibelung who lost his immortality for trying to take all the treasure, who happens to be Hagen's father Alberich. Eric soon defeats Alberich and takes his Tarnhelm, an item that lets him take the shape of anyone else. The Nibelungs tell Siegfried again to return the treasure, and when Siegfried offers to return half to them they say it will not be sufficient. Eric returns to Burgund with Fafnir's head and shows it to the people; Gunther proclaims he is a hero, which makes Hagen jealous.
That night, Eric dances and spends the evening with Kriemhild, who wears a mask during the party, and tells her he is already in love with another woman (Brunhild). Meanwhile, the entire dragon's hoard is moved to the Burgund treasury and fills it near to overflowing. The Saxons suddenly decide to invade Burgund to take the gold and Eric rides with the army to confront the twin Saxon kings, the men who slew his father. During a short fight Eric remembers who he is, then he declares the kingdom to be split between himself and King Gunther. He sadly remembers his father's death, giving the two Saxons the choice to leave, but they attack again and are slain.
The fight starts and unbeknown to everyone else Giselher sees the two Gunthers and becomes suspicious but tells no one. Brunhild loses the fight after the two fall off a waterfall and Siegfried saves her. She reluctantly and sadly returns to Burgund, where she is devastated to find that Siegfried had found Kriemhild for lover. She then marries Gunther next to Siegfried and Kriemhild, who are also marrying on the same day. Brunhild confronts Siegfried who (due to effects of the potion) claims he never loved her. Brunhild ardently refuses to believe him and tries to find reasons that would explain his actions, but Siegfried once again denies caring for her, and Brunhild declares she will not know joy until she forgets how much she loved him, or until he remembers. She is deeply hurt and upset and she takes her anger out by challenging Siegfried to combat, which he purposely loses to take away any thoughts that it was him who defeated Brunhild. During their wedding night, Brunhild overpowers Gunther, after revealing that the power she possess comes from her pageant belt, and pointing out her doubts in the way Gunther defeated her back in Iceland. Nearly accusing him to have cheated his victory, she leaves him tied up for the night, greatly convinced she had been deceived. Gunther requests Siegfried use the Tarnhelm again to get the belt away from Brunhild, which he does after hesitation. He overpowers Brunhild, who is surprised to see that Gunther once again found his strength. She then offers herself to Siegfried as Gunther, who is briefly conflicted perhaps remembering of his old feelings towards Brunhild, but nonetheless retrieves himself from the room to get rid of the belt he has taken from her.
Hagen kills Alberich after not returning the Tarnhelm to him and then serves of council to Gunther after the incident at the church. Hagen points out the betrayal of Siegfried on his vow and his threatening power that could well plot the downfall of Gunther knowing Siegfried also had a claim to the throne, being married to the king's sister Kriemhild. He tells Gunther that the people will not forget the way Siegfried had substituted for him both in Iceland and in the privacy of his room; he convinces Gunther that they may go as far as to believe that any son of Gunther is a bastard son of Siegfried. Gunther decides to send Siegfried back to Xanten and out of Burgundy, but is then stopped by Brunhild, who establishes that the punishment is far too light, and describing herself as disgraced and fooled, she asks for Siegfried's death to Gunther. He refuses at first, given his relationship with Siegfried, but reluctantly accepts because Brunhild threatens to kill herself if the punishment is not carried out. Gunther is disillusioned but Hagen plans on Siegfried's death the next day during the hunt as a simple accident. Siegfried confronts Kriemhild who breaks down after thinking about all she has done, Siegfried assures her that everything is all right, and that they are leaving to live in Xanten the next day after the hunt. The men leave for the hunt, where Gunther and Hagen plot to cause Siegfried's death, but for a long time they are unable to. Kriemhild confronts Brunhild again and returns her belt; Brunhild reveals that her troubled state of mind is because of Siegfried forgetting about their love. Kriemhild, realizing that Siegfried's previous love was in fact Brunhild, is devastated with guilt and confesses the use of the potion given to her by Hagen.
Brunhild realizes that it was not Siegfried's fault that he forgot her, and that she has just sentenced him to death. On the hunt Hagen kills Siegfried by throwing a javelin through his weak spot (which Hagen found out about by eavesdropping while Siegfried and Gunther were going through a blood brother ritual). Siegfried remembers his love for Brunhild and says her name before death seizes him. His body is found by Giselher before they must go back to Burgund and it is wept over by Kriemhild. Gunther claims it was a Saxon ambush but she accuses him of murder by envy and guilt. She throws the Nibelung's ring onto the ground (Siegfried gave it to her as engagement ring) and Gunther and Hagen fight over it to Gunther's death. Giselher then tries to kill Hagen but is easily overpowered. A vengeful Brunhild arrives and furiously kills the men who allied themselves with Hagen using the belt that Kriemhild returned to her earlier. Brunhild defeats and beheads Hagen and disappears.
Kriemhild places the ring on Siegfried's hand as they give him a pagan funeral. Giselher wishes the Pagan gods would live again on his death but Lena tells him that the Pagan gods die with him. When the boat has burst into flames, Brunhild appears from below Siegfried's altar and kills herself with his sword. She collapses on top of Siegfried's body and the boat sinks into the river, where the treasure hoard is shown having been thrown into.
Wagner's title is most literally rendered in English as The Ring of the Nibelung. The Nibelung of the title is the dwarf Alberich, and the ring in question is the one he fashions from the Rhine Gold. The title therefore denotes "Alberich's Ring".[3]
The scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods, heroes, and several mythical creatures over the eponymous magic ring that grants domination over the entire world. The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung.
The music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba, bass trumpet and contrabass trombone. Remarkably, he uses a chorus only relatively briefly, in acts 2 and 3 of Götterdämmerung, and then mostly of men with just a few women. He eventually had a purpose-built theatre constructed, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, in which to perform this work. The theatre has a special stage that blends the huge orchestra with the singers' voices, allowing them to sing at a natural volume. The result was that the singers did not have to strain themselves vocally during the long performances. 041b061a72