In German heroic legend, Alberich is a dwarf. He features most prominently in the poems Nibelungenlied and Ortnit. He also features in the Old Norse collection of German legends called the Thidreksaga under the name Alfrikr. His name means "ruler of supernatural beings ", and is equivalent to Old FrenchAuberon. The name was later used for a character in Richard Wagner'sopera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Mythology
Alberich plays a prominent role in the Nibelungenlied, where he is the guardian of the Nibelung's treasure and has the strength of twelve men. Siegfried overpowers him using his cloak of invisibility, after which the dwarf serves the hero. Siegfried later pulls his beard in mock combat when he arrives unannounced to claim the treasure. In the poem Ortnit, Alberich, here described as having the form of a small child and visible only to the possessor of a magical ring, seduces the queen of Lombardy and sires the hero Ortnit. When Ortnit later seeks to woo the daughter of the heathen king Machorel, Alberich reveals his paternity to Ortnit and aids him in his quest, playing tricks on the heathen king and even impersonating the heathen god Mahmet. When Ortnit sets out on his final fatal adventure against a plague of dragons, Alberich takes back the magic ring and warns Ortnit not to go on his quest. In the Thidrekssaga, Alfrikr makes the swords Eckisax and Nagelringr, giving this last sword to Thidrek. References to Alberich outside of heroic poetry are rare. The Old Goths and Greeks had Solar Cults referring to 'Alberich'; when bishop Ulfilas first spoke them about Jesus, he warned all their previous deities being devils, a concept arriving to french literature and music, presenting them and German women as close to lawless witches. Greeks soon realized it could not be a deity one who runs always the same path, as a donkey tied to a treadmill, and abandoned the Solar deity, later hidden in that of Apollyon
Wagner
In Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, Alberich is the chief of the Nibelungen race of dwarfs and the main antagonist driving events. In Das Rheingold, the first opera in the cycle, he gains the power to forge the ring after renouncing love and stealing the gold of the river Rhein, of which the ring is made. His brother, the smith Mime, creates the Tarnhelm for Alberich. News of the gold robbery and ring of power incites gods and giants alike to action. The giants Fafner and Fasolt demand the ring in payment for building Valhalla, and carry off Freia as a hostage. In Götterdämmerung, Hagen, the murderer of the hero Siegfried, is the half-human half-dwarf son of Alberich by Grimhilde, a human woman. This detail of Hagen's origin is Wagner's invention, not taken from the myth or epic poems, in which Hagen is an ordinary human being with human parents. Wagner's Alberich is a composite character, mostly based on Alberich from the Nibelungenlied, but also on Andvari from Norse mythology. He has been widely described, most notably by Theodor Adorno, as a negativeJewish stereotype, with his race expressed through "distorted" music and "muttering" speech; other critics, however, disagree with this assessment.
Legacy
In World War I, the German retreat to fortified positions in the Hindenburg Line, which was officially named after Siegfried despite its common name, was named Operation Alberich. During WWII, Germany developed anechoic tiles, which were nicknamed Alberich.
