The Nibelung-Siegfried Route – the wonderful world of the Nibelungs saga

Warrior heroes and beautiful women: local history here certainly packs a punch. The Rhine valley's Nibelung-Siegfried Route forms a 310km circuit between the Odenwald and Palatinate forests. Adventure-seekers wishing to retrace the footsteps of Siegfried – dragon slayer, hero of the Nibelungs and Prince of Xanten – can pick up the scent in Worms.

The Nibelungs are virtually unrivalled when it comes to history, mystery and legend. Most people have heard of the Song of the Nibelungs, and the story of the dangerous dragons, of Siegfried, Kriemhild, Brunhild and Hagen, the account of their lives, the festivals and the feuds. It was here in the mythical Odenwald forest, in the former kingdom of Burgundy, that one of the oldest legends – the Nibelungs saga – originated. The saga tells of love, murder and jealousy, of Siegfried's fight with the dragon, the feud between Kriemhild and Brunhild and Siegfried's death at the hands of Hagen von Tronje. The Nibelungs set off from their temporary capital, Worms, on one of the two routes leading, via Würzburg, to the kingdom of the Huns to see Attila on the banks of the Danube. Along this route, you'll step back in time to the Middle Ages and discover all the wonderful places through which the Nibelungs wandered and the forests in which they hunted. In a land of myths and legends, why not feel a little like a hero?