This week, on Myths and Legends, it's the beginning of the Nibalonglide, an extremely famous story of dragons,

jewelry, love, and betrayal from the high mental ages. You'll see that if meeting your spouse

involves a murdery version of the Olympics, and you also need your invisible super buddy to

prop you up through the whole thing, it's probably not meant to be. The creature this time is what

happens when you mix a house cat and a dragon. It's a somehow more predatory dragon.

This is a podcast where I tell stories from mythology and folklore. Some are incredibly popular

stories you think you know, but with surprising origins. Others are stories that might be new to you,

but are definitely worth listening. So the Nibalonglide. Long ago, in episode 3E, I think,

I briefly mentioned the story, calling it a different version of the last part of the saga of

the Vulsungs. And while that's kind of right, it's more wrong than it is right. Considered in

some places to be an adaptation of the story of Sigurd, and in others that they both grew from a common

lost story, the Nibalonglide is set in what is now Germany in the 12th century. If you've heard

this story of Sigurd, you'll hear echoes of the Vulsungs, but in my opinion, this is almost a

completely different story. Also, today's story served as inspiration for Richard Wagner's 19th

century ring cycle. If you're familiar with the opera, you'll quickly see that while it shares a

lot with the original, there are also big differences. Anyway, we'll jump in with the story of a

princess who finds herself somewhere unexpected.

I came here to look at her hands. At the sky, she was in a field. How did she get into this field?

She looked back to her arm. Oh, there was a falcon on it. Where did this falcon come from?

Oh, yeah, it was hers. She had raised it from a hatchling. That's right. She loved him.

He loved her. She remembered the commands and the falcon took off. She was far from home,

or was she just outside the gates? She turned to face the Rhine, in the city of Worms and

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