04-09-2026, 04:57 PM
The Song of the Nibelungs
The gods gained all their powers through pacts and treaties
that, in exchange, prevented them from acting
directly in the lands of lesser men
sans offering a holocaust of flesh
and blood at best, at worst of bows and breaths,
to draw them in: their will was no longer their own
but ours, we thought, reducing to figureheads
these forms we once considered paragons
of wisdom, strength, and fullness of the flesh.
So what were demigods? A sort of theft
fashioned to try and circumvent this fate
only to leave destruction in their wake,
such names as Siegfried, Brunnhild, Kriemhild, Gunther,
Gernot, Giselher, Hagen, Dankwart, and Ruediger
stirred by revenge to immerse all the peoples they served
in one colossal holocaust of flesh.
The gods gained all their powers through pacts and treaties
that, in exchange, prevented them from acting
directly in the lands of lesser men
sans offering a holocaust of flesh
and blood at best, at worst of bows and breaths,
to draw them in: their will was no longer their own
but ours, we thought, reducing to figureheads
these forms we once considered paragons
of wisdom, strength, and fullness of the flesh.
So what were demigods? A sort of theft
fashioned to try and circumvent this fate
only to leave destruction in their wake,
such names as Siegfried, Brunnhild, Kriemhild, Gunther,
Gernot, Giselher, Hagen, Dankwart, and Ruediger
stirred by revenge to immerse all the peoples they served
in one colossal holocaust of flesh.