Whom the Gods Wish to Destroy 2

Brunhild discovers, through treason, by what deceit she was won for King Gunther of Burgundy by Siegfried of Xanthen, and she has exacted revenge through Hagen's foul murder, yet further bloodier vengeance seems inevitable. Hagen steals the Nibelungen-treasure to sink it in the stream, and he manages to kill Alberich and seize his invisibility-cap. Queen Kriemhild is packed off to an abbey so her son may grow up to become a prelate, but Hagen's men raid the abbey and slay the child. She accepts to become the wife of Etzel, king of the truly barbaric Hun nomads, and invites the Burgundian court to their Danube realm for the baptism of their heir years later, but she engineers a bloody conspiracy with her xenophobic brother-in-law behind her chivalrous husband's back, while Gunther accepts, hoping to avert a far bloodier war, despite the danger to his knights, which materializes.