Nibelung

The German Nibelungen — with the corresponding Old Norse form Niflung (Niflungr; pl. Niflungar) — is the name in Germanic and Norse mythology of the royal family or lineage of the Burgundians who settled in the early 5th century at Worms.

The vast wealth of the Burgundians is often referred to as the Niblung or Niflung hoard. In some German texts Nibelung appears instead as one of the supposed original owners of that hoard, either the name of one of the kings of a people known as the Nibelungs, or — in variant form Nybling — as the name of a dwarf. In Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (1848-1874), Nibelung denotes a dwarf, or perhaps a specific race of dwarves.