appear as a deed of horror demanding fearful vengeance, and on
the other, to make the king of the Burgundians an active
participator in Siegfried's death, for otherwise it would not
seem natural, that the whole race should be exterminated for a
crime committed by the king's brother or vassal. As the role of
Brunhild's husband had become vacant, and as Gunther had no
special role, it was natural that it should be given to him.
Boer traces very ingeniously the gradual development of this
exchange of roles through the various sources.

Another method of explaining away Siegfried's relation to two
women is to identify them, and this has been done by the Seyfrid
ballad. Here the hero rescues Kriemhild from the power of the
dragon, marries her, and then is later killed by her brothers
through envy and hatred. As Brunhild and Kriemhild are here
united in one person, there is no need of a wooing for the king,
nor of vengeance on the part of Brunhild, accordingly the old
motive of greed (here envy) reappears.

As to the fight with the dragon, Boer believes that it did not
originally belong to the saga, for in none of the sources except
the popular ballad is the fight with the dragon connected with
the release of Brunhild. If the Siegfried-Hagen story is purely
human, then the dragon cannot have originally belonged to it, but
was later introduced, because of the widespread belief in the
dragon as the guardian of treasure, and in order to answer the
question as to the provenience of the hoard. This is, however,
only one answer to the question. Another, widespread in German
legends, is that the treasure comes from the Nibelungs, that is,
from the dwarfs. Many identify the dwarfs and the dragon, but