Sigurd - Cultural Impact - Adaptations of The Legend

Adaptations of The Legend

• The best-known adaptation of the Sigurd legend is Richard Wagner's cycle of music dramas Der Ring des Nibelungen (written between 1848 and 1874). The Sigurd legend is the basis of Siegfried and contributes the stories of Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung.
• William Morris's epic poem Sigurd the Volsung (1876) is a major retelling of the story in English verse.
• In 1884 the French composer Ernest Reyer wrote the lesser-known opera Sigurd, which has the benefit of condensing the story into one evening, with equally stirring music.
• The illustrator Arthur Rackham drew 70 vibrant renderings of the story for the book Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods, translated by Margaret Armour (1910).
• Arthur Peterson published a translation of the myth of Sigurd titled Andvari's Ring, in 1916.
• Fritz Lang and his then-wife Thea von Harbou adapted the story of Sigurd (called Siegfried) for the first part of their 1924 pair of silent films Die Nibelungen.
• This legend was also adapted into a movie, Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King (2004) (SyFy miniseries in 2006).
• Fantasy author Diana L. Paxson retold the story in her trilogy Wodan's Children: The Wolf and the Raven (1993), The Dragons of the Rhine (1995), and The Lord of Horses (1996).
• Stephan Grundy retold the story in his novel Rhinegold (1995).
• The Faroese viking/folk metal band Týr, has a song named "Regin Smiður", which is based on the a Faroese kvæði in three parts, Sjúrðarkvæðið, which chronicles the life of Sigurd (Faroese: Sjúrður).
• An adaptation of the legend written in verse by Oxford philology professor and fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, was released in May, 2009.
• Sigurd is a recurring character in various songs of the album Buch der Balladen by the German pagan folk band Faun.
• Anders Breivik cited Sigurd as his code name in "Knights Templar" during his trial for murder in Norway, April 2012.
• The Siegfried legend plays a role in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. The character Django is a Siegfried-like character who fights to set free his beloved Broomhilda (the spelling of the character's name), a slave held by a plantation owner.
• Robin Hardy's upcoming film The Wrath of the Gods will feature a main protagonist named Siegfried.