# Random question: E Nomine's "Der Ring Der Nibelungen" - How could a German group screw that up?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-question-e-nomines-der-ring-der-nibelungen-how-could-a-german-group-screw-that-up/501850>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 3, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-question-e-nomines-der-ring-der-nibelungen-how-could-a-german-group-screw-that-up/501850 "2009-07-03T21:48:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-question-e-nomines-der-ring-der-nibelungen-how-could-a-german-group-screw-that-up/501850/1 "2009-07-03T21:48:01Z")

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This is a very silly and inconsequential question, but I feel like I have to get it off my chest nonetheless. 😛

Not too long ago I discovered the German “monumental dance” group E Nomine. I really like their music, but one of their songs is bugging me. Specifically, “[Der Ring Der Nibelungen](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_IvY6OeQmk),” which is pretty clearly in reference to Wagner’s cycle of operas. It’s a kickass song, but the title is wrong: Wagner’s cycle is titled _Der Ring **des** Nibelungen_, which more or less literally means “The Nibelung’s Ring,” where “The Nibelung” is the dwarf Alberich.

“Der Ring _der_ Nibelungen” would instead mean “The Ring of the Nibelungs.” As I understand it, it’s fairly common for English speakers to misinterpret the title of Wagner’s cycle in this fashion. But since E Nomine is a German group, I would have assumed that they’d know the difference. I can’t think of any reason for them to deliberately get the name wrong, and I haven’t really been able to shed any light on the matter by googling either.

…Is it possible that a German musical group doesn’t know the first thing about Wagner? :dubious:

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**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/random-question-e-nomines-der-ring-der-nibelungen-how-could-a-german-group-screw-that-up/501850/2 "2009-07-03T22:45:12Z")

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I can offer three explanations:

1. the obvious one: almost everyone is pretty ignorant about almost everything, even in their own culture.

2. one charitably assuming a bit more education: commonly, in the context of the Nibelungenlied, the word _Nibelungen_ is usually encountered as a plural noun (the Nibelungs - Gunther’s folk, originally Franks (_franci nebulones_) but, according to the Nibelungenlied, Burgundians). _Des Nibelungen_ seems to be an archaic-ish genitive form of _Der Nibelung_ - I presume nowadays if my neighbour were one of the _Nibelungen_, i.e. a _Nibelung_, and had a ring, I’d refer to it as _Der Ring des Nibelungs_. So, someone with today’s language background can be excused miscorrecting _des Nibelungen_ to _der Nibelungen_.

3. Deliberate choice - making some point of ‘hey, it wasn’t the ring of one particular Nibelung but the ring of all the Nibelungs’.