Guest Author - Deanna Joseph
Brynhild was the beautiful warrior daughter of the great Norse god, Odin. She was the chief of the Valkyries and a fierce shield maiden who claimed that no man could ever be her equal.
However she displeased her father when she helped a man whom Odin had sentenced to death. For her disobedience, she was put to sleep with a magic thorn, and surrounded by a ring of fire that no ordinary mortal could cross.
One day, a very extraordinary man named Sigurd came upon this ring of fire. Sigurd, a local hero, had slain the great dragon, Fafnir, and after bathing in the dragon’s blood became invulnerable (except for a tiny spot next to his shoulder blade where a linden leaf had fallen, and prevented the dragon’s blood from touching his skin). He entered the ring of fire and found the beautiful and dangerous Brynhild. They fell in love, and as a token of their love he gifted her with a magic ring.
However, Sigurd had some pressing matters with King Gunnar in the land of the Nibelungs. Giving his promise of a speedy return, Sigurd left Brynhild.
Sigurd arrived safely in at the kingdom of Gunnar, where the king’s sister, Gudrun, immediately fell in love with Sigurd. As Sigurd did not return her love, Gudrun gave to him a magic potion that would make him fall in love with her and forget his love for Brynhild. Under this spell, he married Gudrun.
As time went by, Sigurd’s friend, the king, longed for a wife of his own. He had heard of a beautiful and powerful battle maiden princess that would marry no man but the man who could defeat her in battle. He thought she’d make a fine queen, but doubted his ability to defeat her, so he enlisted the help of his friend Sigurd. Sigurd and Gunnar traveled to this far kingdom in Iceland where Sigurd used a magic helmet to disguise himself as Gunnar. He fought Brynhild and defeated her. Believing that it was, indeed Gunnar, who defeated her, Brynhild agreed to marry him, and traveled with him back to his kingdom.
When Brynhild saw Sigurd she was broken hearted. He had not only forgotten who she was, but he had married another woman.
Back at the castle, Brynhild did indeed marry Gunnar, but she would not allow him into her bed. Gunnar again asked for his friend’s help. Sigurd went to the bed chamber and once again fought Brynhild, where he took her magic belt and ring (and later gave them to his wife Gudrun). Once the belt was removed, Brynhild no longer had her power, and Gunnar returned to her with full husband privileges.
Brynhild’s heartbreak soon turned to bitterness, however, as Sigurd’s wife, Gudrun, who was very jealous of the new queen, had to brag to Brynhild that it was actually her own husband who conquered her, and not Gunnar at all. She showed Brynhild her very own belt of power and the ring which Sigurd had presented to her after he had subdued Brynhild.
Brynhild, filled with hate and a need for vengeance, went to her husband and told him that she had found out about his deception, and informed him that Sigurd had taken her virginity on the night when she believed it had been her husband. Gunnar, angered by his friend’s betrayal, plotted with his brother, Hagni, against Sigurd.
Hagni had always been jealous of Sigurd, so on a hunting trip Hagni shot Sigurd in the back with an arrow. The arrow hit the one tiny spot in which the dragon’s blood could not protect Sigurd, and Sigurd died.
The tale of the hero and the shield maiden ends tragically. Brynhild found out about the spell Sigurd had been placed under by Gudrun and she was once again heartbroken and inconsolable. When Sigurd was placed upon his funeral pyre, she stabbed herself with her sword, and threw herself on the pyre to be with him, dying in the manner of a true shield maiden.
