Hagen (
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
form) or
Högni (
Old Norse Hǫgni, often anglicized as
Hogni) is a
BurgundianBurgundian can refer to any of the following:*Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe, who first appear in history in South East Europe. Later Burgundians colonised the area of Gaul that is now know as Burgundy ....
warrior in tales about the Burgundian kingdom at
WormsWorms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over title of "Oldest City in Germany"...
. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half-brother of King
GuntherGunther is the German name of a semi-legendary king of Burgundy of the early 5th century...
(
Anglicized Old Norse Gunnar).
In the
NibelungenliedThe Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge....
, he is called Hagen of Tronje (perhaps
DrongenDrongen is a submunicipality of the city of Ghent .Drongen is divided into three parishes: Drongen, Luchteren and Baarle....
in
GhentGhent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
). In
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
tradition, Hagen is especially grim, implacable, and violent and in two accounts one-eyed.
Hagen (
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
form) or
Högni (
Old Norse Hǫgni, often anglicized as
Hogni) is a
BurgundianBurgundian can refer to any of the following:*Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe, who first appear in history in South East Europe. Later Burgundians colonised the area of Gaul that is now know as Burgundy ....
warrior in tales about the Burgundian kingdom at
WormsWorms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over title of "Oldest City in Germany"...
. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half-brother of King
GuntherGunther is the German name of a semi-legendary king of Burgundy of the early 5th century...
(
Anglicized Old Norse Gunnar).
In the
NibelungenliedThe Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge....
, he is called Hagen of Tronje (perhaps
DrongenDrongen is a submunicipality of the city of Ghent .Drongen is divided into three parishes: Drongen, Luchteren and Baarle....
in
GhentGhent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
). In
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
tradition, Hagen is especially grim, implacable, and violent and in two accounts one-eyed. According to the
Thidreks sagaÞiðrekssaga is a chivalric saga of the adventures of the hero Dietrich von Bern who is based on the historical Theodoric the Great, and Bern refers to the city of Verona in Northern Italy. The saga was written down in the mid-13th century in Norway, and it was to be widely read in medieval...
, Hagen was not fully human, being fathered by an elf on the king's wife. In these accounts, it is Hagen who kills the hero
SiegfriedSigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr) is a legendary hero of...
during a hunt, wounding him on the only part of his body which was not invulnerable. This version of the character appears in
Wagner'sWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas...
Der Ring des NibelungenDer Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas or 'music dramas' by the German composer Richard Wagner. The operas are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
(in this version, Hagen drowns trying to steal the Rhinegold). In Norse tradition, Hagen's counterpart Högni is less extreme and the actual slayer of Sigurd (the Norse counterpart to Siegfried) is Gutthorm, a younger brother of Gunnar and Högni. But Gutthorm does so when egged on by his elder brothers.
In German accounts, Gunther and Hagen are the last survivors of the fall of the
NibelungThe German Nibelungen and the corresponding Old Norse form Niflung is the name in Germanic and Norse mythology of the royal family or lineage of the Burgundians who settled at Worms. The vast wealth of the Burgundians is often referred to as the Niblung or Niflung hoard...
s. Hagen refuses to reveal the hiding place of the Nibelung treasure as long as his king Gunther lives. When Gunther is slain, the mortally-wounded Hagen continues his refusal with sure knowledge that Gunther cannot now weaken and betray the secret. In Norse accounts, however, it is Gunnar who refuses to tell the secret as long as Högni lives, and so brings about Högni's death.
In
AtlamálAtlamál in grœnlenzku is one of the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda. It relates the same basic story as Atlakviða at greater length and in a different style...
, Hniflung a son of Hagen/Högni avenges his father's death and the deaths of his kin together with his aunt
GuðrúnGudrun is a major figure in early Germanic literature centered around the hero Sigurd, son of Sigmund. She appears as Kriemhild in the Nibelungenlied and as Gutrune in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.-Norse mythology:...
. This work also states that Hogni had a wife named
KostberaKostbera is the wife of the mythical Norse hero Hogni. She is mentioned in Atlamál. With Hogni they are the mother of four sons: Solar, Snævar, Hniflung and Gjuki. Gjuki is only mentioned in Drap Niflunga....
and two other sons: Solar and Snævar. The Drap Niflunga mentions a fourth son named Gjuki (named after Hogni's father).