Brynhild (Old Norse Brynhildr, “armour-battle”) is the great tragic heroine of Norse legend. A valkyrie who defied Odin, a shieldmaiden who swore to marry only the bravest of men, and a woman deceived by the very hero she loved, she is at the centre of the terrible chain of events that destroys the hero Sigurd and the royal house of the Gjúkungs. Her story is told in several Eddic poems — including Sigrdrífumál, Grípisspá, Sigurðarkviða in skamma, and Helreið Brynhildar (“Brynhild’s Ride to Hel”) — and in the Völsunga saga. In the German Nibelungenlied she is Brünhild, the warrior queen of Iceland. And in Wagner’s Ring she becomes Brünnhilde, the most famous role in all opera.
The Disobedient Valkyrie
In the Norse sources, Brynhild was a valkyrie — one of Odin’s “choosers of the slain,” who decide who dies in battle and carry the chosen to Valhalla (see Valkyries: The Choosers of the Slain). In some versions she is also the daughter of a human king, Buðli, and the sister of Atli (Attila the Hun).
Odin once promised victory in battle to an old king named Hjálmgunnar. But Brynhild struck him down and gave the victory to a young king, Agnarr, instead. In punishment, Odin pricked her with a sleep-thorn and decreed that she would never again fight in battle, but must marry a man. Brynhild answered with an oath of her own: she would marry only a man who knew no fear.
Odin laid her to sleep on a mountain, Hindarfjall, inside a wall of shields, surrounded by a ring of fire.
The Awakening
After slaying the dragon Fafnir, Sigurd heard the birds speak of a valkyrie sleeping on a mountain (see Sigurd and Fafnir). He rode there and saw a light like a great fire blazing up to the sky. Inside the wall of shields lay a sleeping warrior in full armour. When he removed the helmet, he saw that it was a woman. Her mailcoat was so tight it seemed to have grown into her flesh, and Sigurd cut it open with his sword Gram.
She woke and asked who had cut her mailcoat and woken her from sleep. In the Eddic poem Sigrdrífumál, she greets the day in one of the most beautiful passages in Old Norse poetry:
Hail to the day! Hail to the sons of day!
Hail to night and her daughter!
Look on us here with loving eyes,
and give victory to those who sit here.
She gave Sigurd a horn of mead and taught him the runes — victory runes to carve on his sword, ale runes to protect against poisoned drink, birth runes to help women in labour, sea runes, limb runes, speech runes, and mind runes. She also gave him eleven pieces of wise advice, many of them warnings that would prove tragically relevant.
Sigurd said that he had never met a wiser woman, and he swore to marry her. She said she would rather have him than any man, even if she could choose among all men. They pledged themselves to each other.
(In the Eddic poem, this valkyrie is called Sigrdrífa. The Völsunga saga identifies her with Brynhild, and most readers follow it, though some scholars think they were originally separate figures.)
The Potion of Forgetfulness
Sigurd rode on to the court of King Gjúki on the Rhine. Queen Grímhildr, a sorceress, saw how great a hero he was and wanted him to marry her daughter Guðrún. She gave Sigurd a drink that made him forget Brynhild completely. He married Guðrún and swore oaths of blood-brotherhood with her brothers Gunnar and Högni.
The Wooing Through the Fire
Grímhildr then urged her son Gunnar to marry Brynhild, who was now living in a hall surrounded by fire, awaiting the man who could ride through it. Gunnar’s horse refused the flames. Sigurd’s horse Grani would not carry Gunnar.
So Sigurd and Gunnar exchanged shapes by Grímhildr’s magic. Sigurd, looking like Gunnar, rode Grani through the fire. Brynhild, bound by her own oath to marry the man who rode through the flames, reluctantly agreed. For three nights “Gunnar” lay beside her, with the naked blade of Gram between them in the bed. On the last night Sigurd took the ring Andvaranaut from her finger and gave her another ring from Fafnir’s hoard.
Brynhild married Gunnar, believing him to be the man who had braved the fire.
The Quarrel of the Queens
The truth came out through a quarrel between Brynhild and Guðrún. The two queens went to wash their hair in the river. Brynhild walked further upstream, saying she would not let water that had run through Guðrún’s hair touch her own, since her husband was the braver man — the one who had ridden through the fire.
Guðrún, stung, revealed the truth. It was not Gunnar who had ridden through the fire, but Sigurd. And to prove it, she showed Brynhild the ring Andvaranaut, which Sigurd had taken from Brynhild’s finger and given to his wife.
Brynhild went pale and said nothing more.
Brynhild’s Grief
Brynhild took to her bed and lay there as if dead. She would not eat or speak. When Sigurd came to her, she told him she had loved him from the start, and that she had been cheated: she had sworn to marry the bravest man, and she had been given to the lesser one.
In the Völsunga saga, the memory of his love for her returns to Sigurd, and he offers to leave Guðrún and marry Brynhild. She refuses. She will not have two husbands in one hall. Sigurd leaves her, and the saga says that “his heart was so swollen that the rings of his mailcoat burst apart.”
The Demand
Brynhild told Gunnar that she would leave him unless he killed Sigurd. She claimed — falsely, in most versions — that Sigurd had betrayed Gunnar by sleeping with her during the three nights.
Gunnar and Högni were bound by oaths of brotherhood to Sigurd and could not kill him themselves. They persuaded their younger brother Guttormr, who had sworn no oath, by feeding him wolf and serpent flesh to make him savage. Guttormr stabbed Sigurd as he slept in Guðrún’s arms. Sigurd, dying, hurled Gram at his killer and cut him in two.
The Laugh and the Pyre
When Guðrún woke in her husband’s blood and cried out, Brynhild laughed — once, so loudly that the whole hall heard it.
Then she put on her golden mailcoat, stabbed herself with a sword, and asked to be burned on the same pyre as Sigurd, with the naked sword between them as it had been in their bed. Before she died, she prophesied the fates of all the Gjúkungs: Guðrún’s marriage to Atli, the murder of her brothers, and the destruction of their house.
Brynhild’s Ride to Hel
The short Eddic poem Helreið Brynhildar imagines Brynhild riding in a wagon along the road to Hel after her death. A giantess blocks her way and accuses her of causing the deaths of good men. Brynhild tells her own story, defending herself: she was deceived, she broke no oath, and she and Sigurd will now be together for ever. “Sink down, giantess!” the poem ends.
Brünhild in the Nibelungenlied
In the German Nibelungenlied, Brünhild is not a valkyrie but the formidable warrior queen of Iceland, who challenges her suitors to athletic contests — throwing a spear, hurling a stone, and leaping — and kills those who fail. Siegfried, wearing a cloak of invisibility, secretly performs the feats for Gunther. On the wedding night, Brünhild ties Gunther up and hangs him from a nail, and Siegfried must again subdue her in the dark, disguised as Gunther, taking her ring and belt. The quarrel of the queens at the cathedral door, and Hagen’s murder of Siegfried, follow.
Brünnhilde in Wagner
In Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, Brünnhilde is Wotan’s favourite daughter, who disobeys him out of compassion, is put to sleep on a rock surrounded by fire, and is woken by Siegfried. At the end of Götterdämmerung, she rides her horse into Siegfried’s funeral pyre, returning the ring to the Rhine and setting the hall of the gods ablaze. The famous caricature of the Wagnerian soprano in a horned helmet derives from productions of this role.
A Heroine of Honour
Brynhild is often described as jealous and vengeful, but the Norse sources present her with great sympathy. Her tragedy is a matter of honour. She swore to marry the bravest man; she was deceived by magic and false shapes into marrying a lesser one; and the man she loved betrayed her without even remembering. In a culture where an oath was sacred, the deception destroyed her world. Her demand for Sigurd’s death and her own suicide are the acts of a woman who would rather die than live with dishonour.
Last reviewed: September 2026.