What are the powers attributed to the Nibelung Ring?

[blackshirt5]

I know that I've heard it mentioned that "The One Ring" was based on the Nibelung Ring from Norse Mythology.

What were the powers of the Nibelung Ring? I've watched the Harlock Saga, but I can't really remember how it was made or what it did.

 

[Lars Frehse]

The Nibelungen are not exactly norse mythology but German mythology. That means that there are some common elements but some elements which sets it apart. For once, by the time it was written down, it was already done so by christians, and hence it is not as "original" as the norse myths, like the "Edda". Which was written by christian monks as well, IIRC, but at a time when the old religion was still alive. The "Lied der Nibelungen" comes approximately from the 11th century and so is already more mixed up with christian images.

Anyway, the ring is supposed to become nine rings every nine nights. Hence it is the base of the wealth of the Nibelungen.

Oh, and if you are looking for cool magical items from the Nibelungen-tales, there is also a cap that makes you invisible.

Finally, speaking of the Nibelungen, I have to quote Major Black Adder:" However, the Teutonic reputation for brutality is well-founded: their operas last three or four days; and they have no word for `fluffy'."

 

[Wormwood]

The Ring of the Nibelungen's powers were broad, but vague. From what I recall of Wagner's version:

1. Control the World.
I'll admit that sounds pretty good, but we don't get too much in the way of detail here. Alberich uses the Ring to summon and control a bunch of slaves, but Wotan and Loge still manage to take the Ring from him. Quite easily, too IIRC.

2. Keep a Husband Faithful.
Bad news for Wotan, good news his wife.

3. Alberich's Curse.
Everyone will covet the Ring, and it will bring death to all who claim it. Whoever wears the Ring will be envied and hated for it.

Ultimately, Wagner's Ring is little more than an Epic Maguffin. I'll take the Tarnhelm any day

ps. As for comparisons between Tolkien's Ring and Wagner's...well, the Professor said it best himself:

"Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases"
JRR Tolkien, From a letter to Allen & Unwin 23 February 1961

 

[tarchon]

Nibelung really comes from the same root as Nifl in Niflheim, the idea being that the Nibelungs ("-ung"/"-ing" was a common suffix used to derive tribal and clan names) were denizens of the underworld, dwarves. The story has a very close parallel in ON sources, particularly in the <i>Volsungasaga</i>, perhaps the greatest epic in the Norse corpus.
This saga is really THE dragon-slaying sword and sorcery epic that inspired Tolkein, from dragon hoard to shattered sword, and the modern form of high fantasy owes its shape to no medieval work more than the <i>Volsungasaga</I>.

Getting to the topic of the ring, it most famously had the curse of Andvari:

("Force" here is an obscure word for a waterfall or channel.)

"Now," says Regin, "there was a dwarf called Andvari, who ever abode in that force, (1) which was called Andvari's force, in the likeness of a pike, and got meat for himself, for many fish there were in the force; now Otter, my brother [who had shape-shifted into an Otter of course], was ever wont to enter into the force, and bring fish aland, and lay them one by one on the bank. And so it befell that Odin, Loki, and Hoenir, as they went their ways, came to Andvari's force, and Otter had taken a salmon, and ate it slumbering upon the river bank; then Loki took a stone and cast it at Otter, so that he gat his death thereby; the gods were well content with their prey, and fell to flaying off the otter's skin; and in the evening they came to Hreidmar's [Otter and Regin's father] house, and showed him what they had taken: thereon he laid hands on them, and doomed them to such ransom, as that they should fill the otter skin with gold, and cover it over without with red gold; so they sent Loki to gather gold together for them; he came to Ran [the sea goddess], and got her net, and went therewith to Andvari's force, and cast the net before the pike, and the pike ran into the net and was taken. Then said Loki --

"`What fish of all fishes,
Swims strong in the flood,
But hath learnt little wit to beware?
Thine head must thou buy,
From abiding in hell,
And find me the wan waters flame.'

"He answered --

"`Andvari folk call me,
Call Oinn my father,
Over many a force have I fared;
For a Norn of ill-luck,
This life on me lay
Through wet ways ever to wade.'

"So Loki beheld the gold of Andvari, and when he had given up the gold, he had but one ring left, and that also Loki took from him; then the dwarf went into a hollow of the rocks, and cried out, that that gold-ring, yea and all the gold withal, should be the bane of every man who should own it thereafter."

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Volsunga/

Some of the other sources indicate that the reason Andvari tried to keep it back was that the ring had the power to find gold. The second part of its Norse name <i>Andvaranaut</i> is curiously translated as "loop" by Morris and Magnusson - I've also seen "gem" and "ring," and "naut" commonly means "cattle" in ON, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally "naudh" = "need" or "nautr" = "gift."
The version of the story that most strongly influenced Wagner was from the <i>Nibelungenlied,</i> which is rather abridged from the version current among the Norse and also seems to interpolate some other legendary figures like Theoderic the Great and Attila the Hun. The <i>Nibelungenlied</i> though doesn't elaborate much on the ring, and most of Wagner's attributions to it aside form the curse and its function as a plot device are probably his own invention.
Speculative persons might speculate that the ring was intended as a metaphor for avarice and covetousness in the original cycle.