‘Hardly gear for woman to meddle with’: Kriemhild’s Violence in Nineteenth-Century Women's Versions of the Nibelungenlied

This article examines the depiction of violence in early female-authored translations and adaptations Nibelungenlied. For sixty years, anglophone reception this text, then frequently characterized as German national epic, was preserve male writers, but 1877, Auber Forestier published Echoes from Mist-Land, a free adaptation. By 1905 she had been followed by four other women. Margaret Armour Alice Horton produced fairly close translations. Two others, Lydia Hands Gertrude Schottenfels, adapted material for children. All based their work on nineteenth-century publications, each took different approach to female protagonist, Kriemhild. These range exculpatory – rewriting which eliminates violence; legalistic defence insanity; subtle shifting blame characters moralizing rejection emphasizes Kriemhild’s violence. The rationale is anchored contemporary understandings violent