Gernot

Also known as: Sir Gernot · Family: Burgundians · Role: king · First appears: Adventure I

After Dankrat left the heritage to his sons in Adventure I, Gernot was one of the three kings raised by their mother, Uta, alongside Gunther and Giselher, and brother to Kriemhild. He ruled with liegemen including Hagen, Dankwart, Ortwin, Gere, Eckewart, Folker, Sindolt, and Hunolt. In Adventure IV, after the victory over the Saxons, he sent messengers to Worms to report the news to his kin. In Adventure XIV, he joined Ortwin and Hagen in counseling Siegfried’s death.

In Adventure XIX, Gernot and Giselher fetched Kriemhild’s hoard and brought it to the Rhine; he and Giselher condemned Hagen’s seizure of her treasure as wrong. When Etzel’s marriage proposal came in Adventure XX, Gernot, Giselher, and Gunther agreed to let Kriemhild marry if she wished. He later opened the treasure chamber so gold could be handed out, and escorted her as she departed. At Vergen in Adventure XXI, he and Giselher took leave of her and rode back toward the Rhine.

In Adventure XXIV, Gernot urged acceptance of Etzel’s invitation, saying, “We will not stay,” and declared that the Burgundians would attend the feast to see their sister. At Bechelaren in Adventure XXVII, he and Gunther pledged castles and land for Rudeger’s daughter, and Rudeger gave him a weapon. In Adventure XXXIII, Gernot fought Etzel’s warriors with that sword. During the fighting in Adventure XXXVI, he refused Kriemhild’s demand that Hagen be given as hostage, saying they would “rather all lie dead” than surrender one of their kin.

In Adventure XXXVII, Gernot fought Rudeger, and the two slew each other.