Adventure Gamers - Forums

With only one day to Christmas (yes, where I live we celebrate Christmas on the 24th), it is time for the centrepiece of my little Christmas cavalcade, and what could be more Christmassy than an adventure game based on Richard Wagners epic opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, where he tells the story of the Norse gods and the end of the world?
And that is exactly what Ring: The Legend of the Nibelungen is!

The game takes place in the 40th century, where the main character Ish is one of the last remaining humans, after earth has been destroyed by an alien race, and the remaining humans have been enslaved. They however give him a chance to restore humanity by enacting the story from the operas, and taking on the role of the main characters Alberich, Loge, Siegmund and Brünnhilde. Well the story is so big that they had to divide it into two games, with the sequel called Ring II: Twilight of the Gods, so in the first game we only get to play as Alberich and Loge.

The screenshot is from my absolutely favourite part of the game, where Alberich meets the three Rhinemaidens, and has to renounce love in order to steal the Rhine gold, which he then uses to forge his infamous ring. Being an adventure game there is of course is a bit more to it than just renouncing love, but the gist of it is the same as in the opera, and I thought that it was an exceptional well executed scene.


Now most of you are probably thinking: What the .. has Wagner and the Norse gods got to do with Christmas, and shouldn’t a Christmas game be all about Santa and cute little elfs? Well, not in my opinion, and as for Wagner himself then he has very little to do with Christmas - But as for the Norse gods, then they have absolutely everything to do with Christmas!

Many of you probably already knew that Christmas was an old pagan midwinter feast that has been adopted by Christianity, but how many of you know the actual story?
Well, fear not, because I will tell you:

It all started with the conversion of the Vikings to Christianity in the late part of the 10th century. Missionaries and priest were sent north from the Holy Roman Empire, and it became an almost instant success when the Danish (and Norwegian) king Harald Blåtand (Bluetooth) converted, probably more because of political reasons and fear of an invasion from the south if he didn’t, than because he suddenly “saw the light”. Anyway, Christianity spread across Scandinavia replacing the old Norse gods, and it was a huge success, except for one little detail called “Jul”, the Viking midwinter feast.

Jul was a week long feast with plenty to eat and drink, different games and tournaments, sacrifices even the occasional human sacrifice, presents, and .. well lets just say that a lot of marriages were arranged and a not insignificant number of babies were born 9 months later.

Of course the Vikings weren’t about to abandon the biggest feast and most important event in their social calendar, just because they had become Christians, and it didn’t matter how many times the priest told that they would burn for all eternity in hell if the didn’t abandon it. The priest on the other hand couldn’t just ignore this and allow them to continue to worship the old Norse gods in this way, so after a while they came to the conclusion that if we can’t beat them, we must join them.

So a depeche was sent to Rome, and after giving it some careful thought someone came up with the bright idea, that despite having all sort of other celebrations, they didn’t have one celebrating the birth of Jesus. So the church adopted the Viking Jul, though in a somewhat paler version, and called it Christ’s Mass or Mass of/for Christ.

As a little side note, I can add that in Denmark and I believe in Norway, we still use the old pagan word Jul instead of the catholic word Christmas.

Bravo! Great post.

Thank you.

Well, that was enlightening!

I enjoyed that, Izno!  Thanks for posting it. 

In the early 1990s, our public television station showed the entire Ring series over the course of 4 nights, and I ended up watching it all.  Much of the music is exciting and dramatic, especially the choral and instrumental pieces, but a lot of it is too turgid and heavy for me.  However, I now appreciate Anna Russell’s hilarious analysis of it even more:
Anna Russell

Iznogood - 23 December 2015 12:09 PM

Now most of you are probably thinking: What the .. has Wagner and the Norse gods got to do with Christmas midweek puzzle…

Oh, you removed the logo. Clever.

I enjoyed the post, Izno, very educative, and you brought a bit of that Scandinavian holiday “warmness”, of which I could only experience in movies, or for example, Hans Christian Andersen’s works.

giom - 23 December 2015 09:27 PM

That was a great post. I enjoyed reading it! Is the sequel of that game as bad as the review here says? I’m kind of curious about playing both of those games (or at least add them to my ever expanding backlog )

I must confess that I haven’t played the sequel myself, only the first game. I was kind of scared away from it because of the bad reviews it got, but now I of course regret not buying it so I could get the ending of the story. I can however recommend the first game, it might not be to everybody’s taste, but it has a strong story and I quite liked it.

Lady Kestrel - 23 December 2015 05:26 PM

In the early 1990s, our public television station showed the entire Ring series over the course of 4 nights, and I ended up watching it all.  Much of the music is exciting and dramatic, especially the choral and instrumental pieces, but a lot of it is too turgid and heavy for me.  However, I now appreciate Anna Russell’s hilarious analysis of it even more:
Anna Russell

I have never actually seen the whole Ring myself, only Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) and Siegfried, though I have always meant to do so. But thanks for the link, I will watch it as soon as I have time.

diego - 23 December 2015 07:54 PM

Oh, you removed the logo. Clever.

Yes, I think of everything and is always one step ahead of you - Mwahahahaha *cough* I mean Ho Ho Ho - Merry Christmas to all of you.