Хаген: Нibelунг сағаларының кейіпкері

Character in German legend and Wagner's Ring Cycle

Hagen (German form) or Högni (Old Norse Hǫgni, often anglicized as Hogni, Old English Hagena, Latin Hagano) is a Burgundian warrior in Germanic heroic legend about the Burgundian kingdom at Worms. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half brother of King Gunther (Old Norse Gunnarr). In the Nibelungenlied he is nicknamed "from Tronje".

In the Nibelungenlied, he is called Hagen of Tronje. Some versions indicate that Hagen is the "Oheim" of the three kings, i. e. their mother Ute's brother (or brother in law, following a now outdated German dual model of indicating and differing between matrilineal and patrilineal kinship). Some count him as Gunter's, Gernot's and Giselher's "uncle" (originally a father's brother or brother in law, as opposed to "Oheim"), so this may more likely hint to an old custom nearly, but not yet completely outdated where people close to a family take over the role of a fatherly / motherly friend and acquire the "honorary title" of an uncle or aunt (see the German expression 'Nennonkel/ tante' 'termed uncle / aunt'). In the German traditions, Hagen is especially grim, implacable, and violent, and in two accounts, one eyed. According to the Thidreks saga, Hagen was Gunnar's (senior?) half brother. Not fully human, though, as being fathered by an elf, on the king's wife while the king was away. The Thidreks saga tells that it was Walter of Waskensten (Walter of Aquitaine) who put out Hagen's eye in a fight. In these forementioned accounts, it is Hagen who kills the hero Siegfried during a hunt, wounding him on the only part of his body which was not invulnerable. This version of the character is the most widely known and appears in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. In Norse tradition, Hagen's counterpart Högni is less extreme and the actual slayer of Sigurd (the Norse counterpart to Siegfried) is Gutthorm, a younger brother of Gunnar and Högni, who does so when egged on by his elder brothers. In German accounts, Gunther and Hagen, along with Kriemhild herself, are the final casualties of the fall of the Nibelungs. Hagen refuses to reveal the hiding place of the Nibelung treasure to Kriemhild as long as his king Gunther lives. When Gunther is slain, the mortally wounded Hagen continues his refusal with sure knowledge that Gunther cannot now weaken and betray the secret, being decapitated by Kriemhild with Balmung, Siegfried's sword which Hagen had stolen after his death.

In Norse accounts, however, it is Gunnar who refuses to tell the secret to Attila the Hun as long as Högni lives, and so brings about Högni's death. Högni laughs as Attila has his heart cut out. In Atlamál, Hniflung, a son of Hagen/Högni, avenges his father's death and the deaths of his kin, together with his aunt Guðrún. This work also states that Hogni had a wife named Kostbera and two other sons: Solar and Snævar. The Drap Niflunga mentions a fourth son named Gjuki (named after Hogni's father).

In the opera Götterdämmerung, part of The Ring Cycle, Hagen is portrayed as the half brother of Gunther and Gutrune, illegitimately fathered by the dwarf Alberich. He is similarly depicted as evil and cunning, acting under the influence of his father and for his own interests. The great German bass Kurt Moll pointed out that Hagen's music is unique in the bass repertoire: it requires a shouting, blaring vocal technique which risks damaging the singer's voice; only very large voiced, powerful singers can sing it.