Nibelung

American  

[nee-buh-loong] / ˈni bəˌlʊŋ /

noun

Teutonic Legend.

plural

Nibelungs, Nibelungen

1. any of a race of dwarfs who possessed a treasure captured by Siegfried.

2. the followers of Siegfried.

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Nibelung British  

/ ˈniːbəˌlʊŋ /

noun

1. any of the race of dwarfs who possessed a treasure hoard stolen by Siegfried

2. one of Siegfried's companions or followers

3. (in the Nibelungenlied ) a member of the family of Gunther, king of Burgundy

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Example Sentences

“Exploring nature. Enjoying home!” gushes one Facebook post above a photo of a musclebound guy on a mountaintop wearing Resistend-branded sportswear, one of the Nibelung tournament’s sponsors.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 24, 2021

In The Perfect Wagnerite, his anticapitalist reading of The Ring of the Nibelung cycle, Shaw wrote that the descent into Nibelheim, the realm of the enslaved dwarves, is “frightfully real, frightfully present, frightfully modern”.

From The Guardian • Sep. 17, 2020

Words, concepts and images that pervade his work have become commonplace signifiers in contemporary discourse: Valhalla, Liebestod, Valkyrie, Gesamtkunstwerk, Flying Dutchman, Nibelung, Brünnhilde, Götterdämmerung, Siegfried, Leitmotiv, endless melody, to name just a few.

From New York Times • Sep. 16, 2020

For hours on end, artists come and go from stage left or right; sometimes they enter through a small door or stand in a trough which makes even a god look like a little Nibelung.

From BusinessWeek • Jan. 31, 2012

The Nibelung, still shrieking and cursing at his own folly, was placed upon a rock, while Loge and Wotan stood looking down at him.

From Operas Every Child Should Know Descriptions of the Text and Music of Some of the Most Famous Masterpieces by Bacon, Mary Schell Hoke