Abstract：This essay tried to observe firstly Hegel's criticizing on the epic Nibelungenlied and its hero Siegfried. It thought that, Hegel's disagreement with the epic may come from a contradictory between the works itself and Hegel's concept of the form of epics. Then it observed Wagner's comments on the same mythology in Der Ring des Nibelungen, which was certainly an extreme transfiguring of the same hero. It was evident that both Hegel and Wagner have distorted the original image of the hero. In the observation of the epic itself, this essay found out more complicated characteristics of the heroes: an outstanding but childish Siegfried and a humble but truly heroic Hagen. However, neither of them could be proper enough for the ideal German hero until Wagner transfigured Siegfried. What the essay suggests here was that Wagner may have conferred Hagen's character unconsciously into the ideal hero Siegfried, and, as a result, it contributed to the German youth an idol, who desired either the absolute realization of his own will, or the absolute destruction of everything. Wagner was strongly criticized by Nietzsche, which represented the self-criticism of the nation's conscience.
