Brynhildr

Information about 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.




Volsung Cycle
Volsunga saga
Poetic Edda
Norna-Gests şáttr
Artifacts
Andvarinaut
Gram
Dwarves
Andvari
Hreidmar
Otr
Regin
Dragon
Fafnir
People
Volsung
Sigmund
Signy
Sinfjötli
Helgi Hundingsbane
Sigurd
Brynhild
Gudrun
Attila
Gunnar
Locations
Gautland
Hunaland
Related
Nibelungenlied
Hagbard and Signy


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.

In Norse myth

According to the Völsungasaga, Brynhildr is the daughter of Budli. She was ordered to decide a fight 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, and imprisoned her in a remote castle behind a wall of shields on top of mount Hindarfjall in the Alps, and cursed her to sleep until any man would rescue and marry her. The hero Sigurğr Sigmundson (Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied), heir to the clan of Völsung and slayer of the dragon Fafnir, entered the castle and awoke Brynhildr by removing her helmet and cutting off her chainmail armour. He immediately fell in love with the shieldmaiden and proposed to her with the magic ring Andvarinaut. Promising to return and make Brynhildr his bride, Sigurğr then left the castle and headed for the court of Gjuki, the King of Burgundy.[1]

Gjuki's wife, the sorceress Grimhild, wanting Sigurğr married to her daughter Gudrun (Kriemhild in Nibelungenlied), prepared a magic potion that made Sigurğr forget about Brynhildr. Sigurğr soon married Gudrun. Hearing of Sigurğr's encounter with the valkyrie, Grimhild decided to make Brynhildr the wife of her son Gunnar (Gunther in the Nibelungenlied). Gunnar then sought to court Brynhild but was stopped by a ring of fire around the castle. He tried to ride through the flames with his own horse and then with Sigurğr's horse, Grani, but still failed. Sigurğr then exchanged shapes with him and entered the ring of fire. Sigurğr (disguised as Gunnar) and Brynhildr married, and they stayed there three nights, but Sigurğr laid his sword between them (meaning that he did not take her virginity before giving her to the real Gunnar). Sigurğr also took the ring Andvarinaut from her finger and later gave it to Gudrun. Gunnar and Sigurğr soon returned to their true forms, with Brynhildr thinking she married Gunnar. However, Gudrun and Brynhild later quarreled over whose husband was greater, Brynhildr boasting that even Sigurğr was not brave enough to ride through the flames. Gudrun revealed that it was actually Sigurğr who rode through the ring of fire, and Brynhildr became enraged. Sigurğr, remembering the truth, tried to console her, but to no avail. Brynhildr plotted revenge by urging Gunnar to kill Sigurğr, telling him that he slept with her in Hidarfjall, which he swore not to do. Gunnar and his brother Hogni (Hagen in the Nibelungenlied) were afraid to kill him themselves, as they had sworn oaths of brotherhood to Sigurğr. They incited their younger brother, Gutthorm to kill Sigurğr, by giving him a magic potion that enraged him, and he murdered Sigurğr in his sleep. Dying, Sigurğr threw his sword at Gutthorm, killing him. [2](some Eddic poems say Gutthorm killed him in the forest south of the Rhine, also while resting)[3]. Brynhildr herself killed Sigurğr's three-year-old son, and then she willed herself to die. When Sigurğr's funeral pyre was aflame, she threw herself upon it – thus they passed on together to the realm of Hel. [4]
Enlarge picture
Sigurd and Brynhild's funeral
However, in some Eddic poems such as Sigurğarkviğa hin skamma, Gunnar and Sigurğr lay siege to the castle of Atli, Brynhildr's brother. Atli offers his sister's hand in exchange for a truce, which Gunnar accepts. However, Brynhildr has sworn to marry only Sigurğr, so she is deceived into believing that Gunnar is actually Sigurğr. [5]

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

In the Eddic poem Helreiğ Brynhildar (Bryndhildr's ride to Hel), Brynhildr on her journey to Hel encounters a gıgr (giantess) who blames her for an immoral livelihood. Brynhildr responds to her accusations:
“Munu viğ ofstríğ
alls til lengi
konur ok karlar
kvikvir fæğask;
viğ skulum okkrum
aldri slíta
Sigurğr saman.
Sökkstu, gıgjar 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!?

In Nibelungenlied

In the Nibelungenlied, Brünnhilde is instead the queen of Isenland (Iceland). Gunther here overpowers her in three warlike games with the help of Siegfried – equipped with an invisibility cloak. Firstly, Brünnhilde throws a spear that three men only barely can lift towards Gunther, but the invisible Siegfried diverts it. Secondly, she throws twelve fathoms a boulder that requires the strength of twelve men to lift. 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.

The Nibelungenlied also differs from Scandinavian sources in its silence on Brünnhilde's fate; she fails to kill herself at Siegfied's funeral, and presumably survives Kriemhild and her brothers.

In Wagner's "Ring" cycle

Though the cycle of four operas is titled Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner in fact took Brünnhilde's role from the Norse sagas rather than from the Nibelungenlied. Brünnhilde appears in the latter three operas (Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung), playing a central role in the overall story of Wotan's downfall.

In Wagner's tale, Brünnhilde is one of Valkyries; but the latter are formed out of a union between Wotan and Erda, a personification of the earth. In Die Walküre Wotan initially commissions her to protect Siegmund, his son by a mortal mother. When Fricka protests and forces Wotan to have Siegmund die, Brünnhilde disobeys her father's change of orders and takes away Siegmund's wife (and sister) Sieglinde and the shards of Siegmund's sword Nothung. She manages to hide them but must then face the wrath of her father, who is eventually persuaded to seal her in a ring of fire to await awakening by a hero who does not know fear.

Enlarge picture
Siegfried awakens Brünnhilde in this illustration by Arthur Rackham to Wagner's version of the story.
Brünnhilde does not appear again until near the end of the third act of Siegfried. The title character is the son of Siegmund and Sieglinde, born after Siegmund's death and raised by the dwarf Mime, the brother of Alberich who stole the gold and fashioned the ring around which the operas are centered. Having himself taken the ring from the giant-turned-dragon Fafner, Siegfried is guided to Brünnhilde's rock, where he awakens her.

Siegfried and Brünnhilde appear again at the beginning of Götterdämmerung, at which point he gives her the ring and they are separated. Here again Wagner chooses to follow the Norse story, though with substantial modifications. Siegfried does go to Gunther's Hall, where he is given a potion to cause him to forget Brünnhilde so that Gunther may marry her. All this occurs at the instigation of Hagen, Alberich's son and Gunther's half-brother. The plan is successful, and Siegfried leads Gunther to Brünnhilde's rock. In the meantime she has been visited by her sister valkyrie Waltraute, who warns her of Wotan's plans for self-immolation and urges her to give up the ring. Brünnhilde refuses, only to be overpowered by Siegfried who, disguised as Gunther, takes the ring from her by force.

As Siegfried goes to marry Gutrune, Gunther's sister, Brünnhilde sees that he has the ring and denounces him for his treachery. Still rejected, she joins Gunther and Hagen in a plot to murder Siegfried, telling Hagen that Siegfried can only be attacked from the back. So Gunther and Hagen take Siegfried on a hunting trip, in the course of which Hagen stabs Siegfried in the back with a spear. Upon their return, Brünnhilde takes charge, and has a pyre built in which she is to perish, cleansing the ring of its curse and returning it to the Rhinemaidens. Her pyre becomes the signal by which Valhalla also perishes in flame.

In popular culture

  • In the 2005 TV epic , Norwegian-American actress Kristanna Loken played Brunhild, the Queen of Iceland and the mightiest woman in the world, who was based on the legendary Valkyrie.
  • In season 6 of the popular TV series , the character Brunhilda was played by Brittney Powell in three feature episodes: The Rheingold, The Ring and The Return of the Valkyrie.
  • In the classic Warner Bros. cartoon What's Opera, Doc?, Bugs Bunny impersonates Brunnhilde to trick Elmer Fudd.
  • The name of the comic strip witch Broom-Hilda is a play on the Valkyrie's name.
  • In anime Fafner of the Azure, Brunhilde was name of system with Tsubaki Minashiro serving as its core, located in Valkyrie cave, capable of completely controlling an island. Her older brother Soushi Minashiro operated Siegfried system, used to link Fafner mecha pilots brains directly forming single team to protect the island.
  • Henrik Jǣger describes Hjördis, the protagonist of The Vikings at Helgeland, "a Brynhild shut up in a parlor."[6]
  • In manga "The Violinist of Hameln" there's a character who's a valkyrie, called Brunhilde.
  • Brunnhilde appears in the Marvel Universe as the superheroine Valkyrie. She spends a significant portion of her crime-fighting career as a member of the Defenders.
  • In the video game Tales of Symphonia, the Brunnhilde is a suit of armor worn by Kratos Aurion at one point in the game.
  • In the Mother Love Bone Song "Bone China", Brynhildr is mentioned in the lyrics "She's like a Brunhilda-A child of the water"
  • In the 1994 animated film The Swan Princess, one of the princesses in the song "Princesses on Parade" is named Brunhilde.

Other names

  • Brünhild
  • Brunhild
  • Brunhilda
  • Brunhilde
  • Brunhilt
  • Brunnehilde
  • Brünnhilde
  • Brynhild
  • Brynhilt
  • Bruennhilde

References

1. ^ Byock, Jesse L. The Saga of the Volsungs. London: Penguin, 1990. ISBN 0-14-044738-5.
2. ^ Byock
3. ^ "Gudrunarkviğa I" in Bellows, Henry Adams. (Trans.). (1923). The Poetic Edda: Translated from the Icelandic with an Introduction and Notes. New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation. Reprinted Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellon Press. ISBN 0-88946-783-8. (Available at Sacred Texts: Sagas and Legends: The Poetic Edda. An HTML version transcribed with new annotations by Ari Odhinnsen is available at Northvegr: Lore: Poetic Edda - Bellows Trans..)
4. ^ Byock
5. ^ Bellows
6. ^ Jǣger, Henrik. Henrik Ibsen, 1828-1888. A Critical Biography. Trans. William Morton Payne. Chicago: McClurg, 1890.
 •  • [ e]
Norse mythology
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SourcesPoetic Edda • Prose Edda • The Sagas • Volsung Cycle• Tyrfing Cycle• Rune stones• Old Norse language• Orthography • Later influence
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People, places and things
Asteroids, also called minor planets or planetoids, are a class of astronomical objects. The term asteroid is generally used to indicate a diverse group of small celestial bodies in the solar system that orbit around the Sun.
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123 Brunhild
Discovery
Discovered by: Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
Discovery date: July 31, 1872
Orbital characteristics
Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
Aphelion distance: 452.102 Gm (3.022 AU)
Perihelion distance: 353.
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Franks or Frankish people (Latin: Franci or gens Francorum) were West Germanic tribes first identified in the 3rd century as an ethnic group living north and east of the Lower Rhine.
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Brunhilda[1] (c. 543 – 613) was a Frankish queen who ruled the eastern kingdoms of Austrasia and Burgundy in the names of her sons and grandsons. Initially known as a liberal ruler of great political acumen, she became notorious for her cruelty and avarice.
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The Völsung Cycle is a series of legends in Norse mythology that were first recorded in medieval Iceland. The original Icelandic tales were greatly expanded with native Scandinavian traditions, such as that of Helgi Hundingsbane, which, in turn, originally appears to have been a
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Völsunga saga is a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Volsung clan (including the story of Sigurd and Brynhild and destruction of the Burgundians). It is largely based on epic poetry.
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The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends.
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Norna-Gests şáttr or the Story of Norna-Gest is a legendary saga about the Norse hero Norna-Gest. The story is inserted into the Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason in the Flatey Book and contains several poems from the Poetic Edda.
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Andvarinaut ("Andvari's Gift") was a magical ring capable of producing gold, first owned by Andvari.

The mischievous Loki tricked Andvari into giving Andvarinaut to him. In revenge, Andvari cursed the ring to bring destruction to whoever possessed it.
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Gram was the name of the sword that Sigurd (Siegfried) used to kill the dragon Fafnir. It was forged by Weyland the Smith and originally belonged to his father, Sigmund, who received it in the hall of the Volsung after pulling it out of a log into which Odin had stuck
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Andvari was a dwarf who lived underneath a waterfall and had the power to change himself into a fish at will. He had a magical ring named Andvarinaut, which helped him become wealthy.
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Hreidmar was the avaricious king of the dwarf folk, who captured three gods with his unbreakable chains. He was father of Fafnir, Ótr and Regin. He owned a house of glittering gold and flashing gems built by Regin and guarded by Fafnir.
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Otr or OTR may refer to:
  • Ótr, a dwarf in Norse mythology
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OTR is an acronym for:

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Regin was the son of Hreidmar and foster father of Sigurd. Regin had all wisdom and deftness of hand. Regin built a house of glittering gold and flashing gems for his father.
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Fáfnir (Old Norse) or Frænir (Faroese) was a son of the dwarf king Hreidmar and brother of Regin and Ótr. In the Volsunga saga, Fáfnir was a dwarf gifted with a powerful arm and fearless soul.
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Vǫlsung was murdered by the Geatish king Siggeir and avenged by one of his sons, Sigmund and his daughter Signy who was married to Siggeir. Vǫlsung was the common ancestor of the ill-fortuned clan of the Vǫlsungs, including the greatest of Norse heroes, Sigurd.
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Sigmund is a hero whose story is told in Volsunga saga. He and his sister, Signy, are the children of Volsung and his wife Ljod. Sigmund is best known as the father of Sigurd the dragon-slayer, though Sigurd's tale has almost no connections to the Volsung tales.
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Signe is the name of two heroines in two connected legends from Scandinavian mythology which were very popular in medieval Scandinavia. Both appear in the Völsunga saga, which was adapted into other works such as Wagner's Ring, including its famous opera The Valkyrie.
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Sinfjötli (in Old Norse) or Fitela (in Anglo-Saxon) in Norse mythology was born out of the incestuous relationship between Sigmund and his sister Signy. He had the half-brothers Sigurd, Helgi Hundingsbane and Hamund.
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Helgi Hundingsbane was a hero in the Norse sagas, who appears in the Volsunga saga and in two lays in the Poetic Edda named Helgakviğa Hundingsbana I and Helgakviğa Hundingsbana II.
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Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurğr) was a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictoral form from seven runestones in Sweden[1]
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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
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Gudrun, who is called Kriemhild in the Nibelungenlied, was the sister of Gunnar. She is loosely based on the princess Ildico in her role as the wife of Attila the Hun.
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Attila the Hun
Khan of Hunnic Empire
("Khan of the Huns")

Reign 434–453
Died 453
Buried
Predecessor Bleda & Rugila
Successor Ellac
Royal House Dulo
Royal anthem
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Gunther (Gundahar, Gundahari, Latin Gundaharius or Gundicharius, Old English Gúğere, Old Norse Gunnarr, anglicised as Gunnar) is the German name of a semi-legendary king of Burgundy of the early 5th century.
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Götaland ( listen   (help info ) ), Gothia, Gothland[1][2], Gothenland, Gotland[3], Gautland,
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Hunaland and its people are mentioned several times in the Poetic Edda, and in the Fornaldarsagas.

Its origins are partly the old Frankish kingdom (the Franks were once called Hugones, in Latin, and Hūgas in Old English) and partly in the Huns.
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The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. It tells the story of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, his murder, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge.
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Norse, Viking or Scandinavian mythology comprises the indigenous pre-Christian religion, beliefs and legends of the Scandinavian peoples, including those who settled on Iceland, where most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled.
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