Nibelungenlied : God or Evil

Brunhild then gives away all her possessions and kills herself, despite Gunnar's attempts to convince her not to. As she dies, she prophesies the future misfortunes of Gudrun and Gunnar. Finally, she asks to be burned on the same pyre as Sigurd. Although the title indicates the poem is about Sigurd, the majority of the poem is actually concerned with Brunhild, who justifies her actions. On her way, she encounters a giant who accuses her of having blood on her hands. In response, Brunhild tells the story of her life, defending herself and justifying her actions.

She accuses the Burgundians of having deceived her.

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According to the saga, Brunhild is the daughter of Budli and the sister of Atli. She is raised at a place called Hlymdalir by her King Heimir, who is married to her sister Bekkhild. When she is twelve years old, King Agnar steals Brunhild's magical swan shirt, and she is forced to swear an oath of loyalty to him. As punishment, Odin stuck her with a sleep thorn and declared that she must marry.

She swore that she would not awaken to marry unless a man came who knew no fear. Odin places the sleeping Brunhild on mount Hindarfjall and surrounds her with a wall of shields. Eventually, Sigurd comes and awakens Brunhild. She makes foreboding prophecies and imparts wisdom to him. The two promise to marry each other. After this, Brunhild returns to Heimir. One day while Sigurd is hunting, his hawk flies up and lands at the window of the tower where Brunhild is living.

Sigurd feels love when he sees her and, despite her insistence she wants only to fight as a warrior, convinces her to renew her vow to marry him. Meanwhile, Gudrun has had a foreboding dream and goes to Brunhild to have her interpret it. Brunhild tells Gudrun all of the misfortune that will befall her. Soon afterward, Gunnar, Gudrun's brother, decides to woo Brunhild to be his wife. Sigurd, who has married Gudrun after having been given a potion to forget his previous vows to Brunhild, aids him.

Brunhild can only be wed by a man who will ride through the flames around her tower; Gunnar is unable to do this, so Sigurd takes his shape and performs the deed for him. While Brunhild is reluctant to marry Gunnar, Sigurd in his disguise reminds her of her vow to marry the man who can cross the flames.

Wagner and Teutonic Mythology

The two then wed and Sigurd places his sword between them for three nights while they share the marriage bed. Sigurd and Gunnar return to their normal shapes and take Brunhild back to Gunnar's hall. One day, Brunhild and Gudrun are bathing at a river; Brunhild declares that she should not have to use the same water as Gudrun, as her husband is the more important man. Gudrun then reveals that Sigurd had crossed the flames and not Gunnar, and shows a ring that Sigurd had taken from Brunhild and given to her. The next day, the queens continue their quarrel in the king's hall.

Brunhild is so full of pain that she takes to bed. She demands vengeance against Sigurd, despite Gunnar's attempts to pacify her. Sigurd comes and confesses his love for her, offering to leave Gudrun to be with her, but Brunhild refuses. Afterwards, she demands that Gunnar kill Sigurd. Once the deed is done, Brunhild laughs loudly when she hears Gudrun's cry of lament. She reveals that she had slandered Sigurd by claiming that he had slept with her. She then stabs herself, and while dying holds a long conversation with Gunnar in which she prophesies the future.

According to her wish, she is burned on the same pyre as Sigurd. Brunhild lived on as a character in several late medieval and early modern Scandinavian ballads. These often have sources both from the Scandinavian tradition and from the continental tradition, either via the Thidrekssaga or directly from German sources. Brynhild then tells Hagen to kill Sigurd, and Hagen does this by first borrowing Sigurd's sword then killing him with it. He then shows Brunhild Sigurd's head and kills her too when she offers him her love.

To attract him, she tells her father Budli to create a hall with a wall of fire around her. One day, Gunnar comes and sues for her hand, but she refuses. Then Sigurd comes, breaks through the wall of fire, and they sleep together. When he leaves, however, Gudrun and her mother Grimhild cast a spell on Sigurd so that he forgets Brunhild and marries Gudrun. Some time later Brunhild and Gudrun argue in the bath, with Gudrun refusing to share water with Brunhild. Budli tries unsuccessfully to change his daughter's mind; once Sigurd is dead, Brunhild collapses in grief.

The German Brunhild was nevertheless still associated with Scandinavia, as shown by her kingdom being located on Island Iceland. Brunhild is introduced to the story when word of her immense beauty reaches Worms one day, and King Gunther decides he wishes to marry her. Siegfried , who is familiar with Brunhild, advises him against this marriage, but Gunther convinces Siegfried to help him woo Brunhild by promising to let Siegfried marry Gunther's sister Kriemhild.

Gunther needs Siegfried's help because Brunhild has set a series of three feats of strength that any suitor for her hand must complete; should the suitor fail any one of these feats, she will kill him. Siegfried agrees to help Gunther by using his cloak of invisibility Tarnkappe to aid Gunther during the challenges, while Gunther will simply pretend to accomplish them himself. He and Gunther agree that Siegfried will claim to be Gunther's vassal during the wooing. When Siegfried and Gunther arrive at Isenstein, Brunhild initially assumes that Siegfried is the suitor, but immediately loses interest in him once he claims that he is Gunther's vassal.

Gunther and Brunhild then agree to marry. The heroes return to Worms with Brunhild, and Siegfried marries Kriemhild at the same time that Brunhild marries Siegfried. Brunhild cries seeing this however, believing that the royal princess Kriemhild has been married to a vassal. On her wedding night, when Gunther attempts to sleep with Brunhild, Brunhild quickly overpowers Gunther, tying him up by his hands and feet with her belt and leaving him hanging on a hook until morning.

Gunther is forced to rely on Siegfried again, who takes Gunther's shape using his Tarnkappe and is only able to subdue Brunhild due to the Tarnkappe granting him the strength of twelve men. Gunther is secretly present during all of this, and is able to confirm that Siegfried did not sleep with Brunhild.

It is mentioned that Brunhild and Gunther have a son, whom they name Siegfried. This culminates when the two queens encounter each other in front of the cathedral at Worms, and fight over who has the right to enter first.

Brunhild declares that Kriemhild is the wife of a vassal, to which Kriemhild replies that Siegfried has taken Brunhild's virginity, showing her the belt and ring as proof. Brunhild bursts into tears and Kriemhild enters the church before her. Brunhild then goes to Gunther and Gunther forces Siegfried to confirm that this is not the case.

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However, Brunhild convinces Gunther to murder Siegfried nonetheless. The deed itself is carried out by the Burgundian vassal Hagen , who justifies his action with the sorrow that Siegfried has caused Brunhild. After this point, Brunhild plays no further role in the story. After the dead are buried, Dietrich von Bern arranges for a messenger to travel to Worms to inform the Burgundians.

The messenger is received by Brunhild, who admits her responsibility for Siegfried's death and is shown to be greatly saddened by Gunther's death. Following a period of mourning, Brunhild and Gunther's son Siegfried is crowned as the new king of the Burgundians. In the Rosengarten zu Worms version D after , Brunhild is mentioned as among the spectators watching the tournament in Kriemhild's rose garden. The saga-author can nonetheless be shown to have changed some details to accord with Scandinavian traditions, of which he was aware.

According to the Thidrekssaga , Brunhild is the daughter of king Heimir and lives in the castle of Saegard in Swabia. Sigurd encounters Brunhild shortly after he has killed the dragon Regin; he breaks into her castle and kills several of her warriors, but Brunhild recognizes Sigurd, tells him the names of his parents, and gives him the horse Grani before he leaves.

Later, Sigurd, who has gone to the court of the Burgundians called Niflungs , advises Gunnar Gunther to marry Brunhild, and the two go to see her. She is angered that Sigurd has not kept his promise to marry only her—something which was not mentioned in their previous encounter [78] —but Sigurd persuades her to marry Gunnar. She nevertheless refuses to consummate the marriage on the wedding night, and Sigurd must take Gunther's place and shape to take her virginity for Gunnar, which robs her of her strength.

Some time later, while Sigurd is living with the Burgundians, Brunhild begins to quarrel with Sigurd's wife Grimhild over which of them has the higher status. One day, Grimhild fails to rise when Brunhild enters the hall. This causes Brunhild to accuse Grimhild of being married to a man without noble birth, whereupon Grimhild produces a ring that Brunhild had given to Sigurd thinking he was Gunnar after he had deflowered her, [80] and publicly proclaims that Sigurd and not Gunnar took Brunhild's virginity.

In Biterolf und Dietleib c. When the Dietrich heroes succeed in reaching the gates of Worms, Brunhild and the other Burgundian women force a stop to hostilities.

Nibelungenlied/Adventure XVI

Theodore Andersson has argued that Brunhild was originally the more important figure of the two, as she is the main character in the surviving Eddic poems. Only later, he argues did Sigurd come to be regarded as the more significant figure, as he acquired more stories beyond his murder.

Brunhild is nevertheless first attested as a legendary figure in the Nibelungenlied c. There is no consensus as to whether Brunhild's identification as a valkyrie in the Norse legends represents an old common Germanic tradition or a late development, unique to the Scandinavian tradition.

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It is possible that the German Brunhild's immense strength alludes to a mythological past in which she was a valkyrie. It is possible that the Norse Sigurd was originally involved with two separate women, a valkyrie and his sister-in-law, who have been "imperfectly merged. There is considerable debate about whether the ride through the wall of flames attested in the Norse tradition or the feats of strength attested in the continental tradition represents the version of the wooing of Brunhild.

Winkler , D. Sacker , H. Bekker , and W. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Retrieved December 18, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia. The Nibelungs of the poem's title were originally evil dwarfs who had a magical but cursed treasure of gold. In time, people who possessed the gold were also identified as Nibelungs.

Tales of the Nibelungs. The dwarfs known as the Nibelungs lived in Nibelheim, an underground land of darkness or mist. Many stories about their treasure appear in Norse and Germanic mythology. The Nibelungenlied, written in about a.

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Some of these stories may have been based on events of an earlier age. The work had a tremendous impact on later Germanic art and literature. Most notably, it provided the characters for a series of operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen The Ring of the Nibelung , written by German composer Richard Wagner between and The story begins in the city of Worms on the Rhine River, where Princess Kriemhild Gudrun of Burgundy has a vision in which two eagles attack and kill a falcon.

Her mother, a skilled interpreter of dreams, explains that this means that Kriemhild's future husband will be attacked. Meanwhile, farther west on the Rhine , Prince Siegfried hears of Kriemhild's great beauty and decides to woo her. When Siegfried arrives in Worms, he is recognized in the court as a great hero who possesses some of the famed Nibelungen gold. Kriemhild notices the prince while gazing from her window and falls in love with him. Siegfried wins the favor of Kriemhild's brother, King Gunther Gunnar of Burgundy, when he helps the Burgundians defeat their enemies in Saxony and Denmark.

After meeting Kriemhild at a victory tournament, Siegfried asks for her hand in marriage. Gunther agrees, on one condition. He asks Siegfried to help him win the hand of Brunhilde of Iceland , a queen of outstanding strength and beauty who has vowed to marry only a man who can match her athletic skills. Disguised as Gunther's vassal, Siegfried accompanies the king on his quest. When they arrive in Iceland, Brunhilde warns Gunther that he and his men will all die if he does not match her skills.

Gunther becomes fearful when he sees the spear he must hurl, a spear that can barely be lifted by 12 men. But Siegfried reassures the king, telling him to pretend to lift and throw the spear. Meanwhile, Siegfried puts on a magic cloak, which makes him invisible, and hurls the great spear farther than Brunhilde can. He also throws an enormous stone and beats the queen as well. Defeated, Brunhilde agrees to marry Gunther. The adventurers return to the Rhine, where in a double wedding ceremony, Gunther marries Brunhilde and Siegfried marries Kriemhild.

However, Brunhilde wonders why the king's sister is marrying Siegfried, a mere vassal. Later that night, she questions Gunther about the apparent mismatch and refuses to sleep with him until he explains. When Gunther refuses to answer, she angrily picks her husband up and hangs him from a peg on the wall. When Siegfried hears what has happened, he again uses his magic cloak to make himself invisible. The next evening, he follows Gunther and Brunhilde to their room and wrestles with Brunhilde in the dark.

Believing that it is her husband who is overpowering her, Brunhilde submits to Gunther, and in doing so she loses her miraculous strength. Before leaving their room, Siegfried takes Brunhilde's belt and gold ring. These he gives to his wife after explaining what happened. Siegfried then returns to his own country with Kriemhild. After many years, Siegfried and Kriemhild visit Gunther and Brunhilde. During a ceremonial feast, the two women quarrel. Brunhilde ridicules Kriemhild for marrying a mere vassal, and in retaliation, Kriemhild suggests Brunhilde has been unfaithful to her husband and allowed Siegfried to sleep with her.

She produces Brunhilde's belt and ring as proof. Siegfried denies the charge, but the matter is not settled. Brunhilde persuades Gunther's friend Hagen that Siegfried has wronged her, and Hagen promises to avenge her. Siegfried had become invulnerable after he bathed in the blood of a dragon.