The article deals with the notion of Hero in its interconnection with Fate in the epic «The Nibelungenlied». The author suggests that within the epic and the collective mindset of medieval Germanic military elite foreseeing one's fate is a sign of a real hero. Early medieval Germans were literally bewitched by heroic death, not without reason only those who fell in battle were honored with a glorious death in Valhalla. Therefore, it is logical that the leaders, whose will pushed hundreds of other people to this noble death, occupied a special place in the collective imagination of the Germanic peoples. The described understanding of heroics was typical for paramilitary feudal elites of Germanic societies

The article deals with the notion of Hero in its interconnection with Fate in the epic «The Nibelungenlied». The author suggests that within the epic and the collective mindset of medieval Germanic military elite foreseeing one's fate is a sign of a real hero. Early medieval Germans were literally bewitched by heroic death, not without reason only those who fell in battle were honored with a glorious death in Valhalla. Therefore, it is logical that the leaders, whose will pushed hundreds of other people to this noble death, occupied a special place in the collective imagination of the Germanic peoples. The described understanding of heroics was typical for paramilitary feudal elites of Germanic societies