The Rhinegold of the Nibelungs

Somewhere in the Rhine, the old German epic says, lies the hoard of the Nibelungs, cursed gold sunk in the river by Hägen after the murder of the hero Siegfried. Wagner made an opera cycle of it and it runs to the root of German legend. The stretch below the Loreley rock, where the river narrows past a cliff said to hide a siren who lured boatmen to wreck, is the heart of the tale, and the Rhine gorge is a UNESCO World Heritage landscape of castles and vineyards. Told as the deep folklore it is; the gold is a story, the river and the Loreley are real.