Brynhildr

This article is about the valkyrie Brynhildr. For the asteroid named after her, see 123 Brunhild. For the Queen of the Franks, see Brunhilda of Austrasia.

Sigurd and Brynhild's funeral

In Norse mythology, Brynhildr was a shieldmaiden and a valkyrie. She is a main character in the Völsunga saga and some Eddic poems treating the same events. Under the name Brünnhilde she appears in the Nibelungenlied and therefore also in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Brynhildr is probably inspired by the Visigothic princess Brunhilda of Austrasia, married with the Merovingian king Sigebert I in 567. The history of Brynhildr includes fratricide, a long battle between brothers, and dealings with the Huns.

According to the Völungasaga, Brynhildr is the daughter of Budli. She was ordered to decide a fight in between two kings: Hjalmgunnar and Agnar. The valkyrie knew that Odin himself preferred the older king, Hjalmgunnar, yet Brynhildr decided the battle for Agnar. For this Odin condemned the valkyrie to live the life of a mortal woman, imprisoned her in a remote castle behind a wall of fire on top of mount Hindarfjall in the Alps, and cursed her to sleep until any man would rescue and marry her. The hero Sigurðr Sigmundson (Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied), heir to the clan of Völsung and slayer of the dragon Fafnir, entered that ring and awoke Brynhildr by removing her helmet and cutting off her chainmail armour. He immediateley fell in love with the shieldmaiden and proposed to her with the magic ring Andvarinaut. Promising to return and make Brynhildr his bride, Sigurðr then left her castle and headed for the court of Gjuki, the king of Burgundy.

Siegfried awakens Brünnhilde in this illustration by Arthur Rackham to Wagner's version of the story.

Gjuki's wife, the sorceress Grimhild, when hearing of Sigurðr's encounter with the valkyrie, decided to make Brynhildr the wife of her son Gunnar (Gunther in the Nibelungenlied). She prepared a magic potion that made Sigurðr forget about Brynhildr. Gunnar then sought to court Brynhild but was stopped by the ring of fire that still surrounded her. Sigurðr exchanged shapes with him and entered the ring of fire a second time. Sigurðr duly betrayed Brynhildr as it thus is Gunnar who frees her from Hindarfjall, and she must accept becoming the queen of Burgund. Sigurðr also takes the ring Andvarinaut from her finger and later marries Gunnar's sister Gudrun, to whose custody he passes the ring. As Sigurðr and Gudrun marries, Brynhildr realizes his betrayal when seeing Andvarinaut on Gudrun's finger. Brynhildr plots a revenge by having her brother-in-law Guttorm kill Sigurðr. Brynhildr herself killed Sigurd's three-year-old son, and then she willed herself to die. When Sigurðr's funeral pyre is aflame, she throws hereself upon it â€" thus they pass on together to the realm of Hel.

According to the Völsunga saga, Brynhildr bore Sigurðr a daughter, Aslaug, who later married Ragnar Lodbrok.

In the Nibelungenlied, Brünnhilde is instead the queen of Isenland (Iceland). Gunther here overpowers her in three warlike games with the help of Siegfried â€" equipped with an invisibility cloak. Firstly, Brünnhilde throws a spear that three men only barely can lift towards Gunther, but the invisible Siegfried diverges it. Secondly, she throws a boulder that craves the strength of twelve men to lift twelve fathoms. Lastly, she leaps over the same boulder. Gunther, however, defeats her with Siegfried's help also in these games, and takes her as his wife.

In the Eddic poem Helreið Brynhildar (Bryndhildr's ride to Hel), Brynhildr on her journey to Hel encounters a gýgr (giantess) who blames her for an immoral livelihood. Brynhildr responds to her accusations, claiming that men have not understood the hardship of her fate. Brynhildr gets the last word:

{"Munu við ofstríðalls til lengikonur ok karlarkvikvir fæðask;við skulum okkrumaldri slítaSigurðr saman.Sökkstu, gýgjar kyn.":[1]:"Ever with grief:and all too long:Are men and women:born in the world;:But yet we shall live:our lives together,:Sigurth and I.:Sink down, Giantess!":