The poem is divided into thirty-nine "adventures," and contains two thousand four hundred and fifty-nine stanzas of four lines each.

The action covers a period of about thirty years and is based on materials taken from the Frankish, Burgundian, Austro-Gothic, and Hunnish saga cycles.
Dietrich von Bern, one of the characters, is supposed to be Theodoric of Italy, while Etzel has been identified with Attila the Hun, and the Gunther with a king of the Burgundians who was destroyed with all his followers by the Huns in 436.
_1st Adventure._ Three Burgundian princes dwell at Worms on the Rhine, where, at the time when the poem opens their sister Kriemhild is favored by a vision wherein two eagles pursue a falcon and tear it to pieces when it seeks refuge on her breast.
A dream was dreamt by Kriemhild the virtuous and the gay, How a wild young falcon she train'd for many a day, Till two fierce eagles tore it; to her there could not be In all the world such sorrow as this perforce to see.[30] Knowing her mother expert at interpreting dreams, Kriemhild inquires what this means, only to learn that her future spouse will be attacked by grim foes.

This note of tragedy, heard already in the very beginning of the poem, is repeated at intervals until it seems like the reiterated tolling of a funeral bell.

_2d Adventure._ The poem now transfers us to Xanten on the Rhine, where King Siegmund and his wife hold a tournament for the coming of age of their only son Siegfried, who distinguishes himself greatly and in whose behalf his mother lavishes rich gifts upon all present.
The gorgeous feast it lasted till the seventh day was o'er; Siegelind the wealthy did as they did of yore; She won for valiant Siegfried the hearts of young and old When for his sake among them she shower'd the ruddy gold.
_3d Adventure._ Hearing of the beauty of Kriemhild, Siegfried decides to go and woo her, taking with him only a troop of eleven men.

His arrival at Worms causes a sensation, and Hagen of Tronje--a cousin of King Gunther--informs his master that this visitor once distinguished himself by slaying a dragon and that he is owner of the vast Nibelungen hoard.