King Budli is the father of Brunhild, Etzel (Atli), and Bekkhild in the Völsunga saga and Eddic tradition. Brunhild became a valkyrie, Etzel became king of the Huns, and Bekkhild married the chieftain Heimir and lived a domestic life.
Brunhild married Gunther after Siegfried of Burgundy, disguised in Gunther's form, crossed her wall of flames and won her on Gunther's behalf. The marriage was built on deception from the first night.
⚠ The Völsunga saga has Sigurd cross the flame-wall using shape-changing magic (skipta lítum); the Nibelungenlied replaces this with the Tarnkappe (cloak of invisibility) and bridal contests of strength.
Aslaug is the daughter of Sigurd and Brunhild in the Völsunga saga tradition. After both parents died — Sigurd murdered and Brunhild self-immolated on his pyre — the infant Aslaug was entrusted to Brunhild's foster-father Heimir for protection.
Heimir was Brunhild's foster-father in the Völsunga saga, having raised her from youth. He was also married to her sister Bekkhild.
As a valkyrie, Brunhild defied Wodan's decree and granted victory to Agnar in battle against the old king Hjalmgunnar. This act of disobedience was the reason Wodan punished her with the sleep-thorn and imprisonment behind a wall of flames on Hindarfjall.
Brunhild and Kriemhild quarreled over precedence before the cathedral at Worms. Kriemhild produced the ring and belt that Sigurd had taken from Brunhild on the wedding night, proving that it was Sigurd, not Gunther, who had truly conquered the warrior queen. This public humiliation drove Brunhild to demand Sigurd's death.
⚠ The Nibelungenlied places the quarrel at Worms cathedral with a ring and belt as proof. The Völsunga saga places it at a river bathing, with the ring Andvaranaut.
Sigurd deceived Brunhild by crossing her wall of flames in Gunnar's form and winning her for another man. When Kriemhild revealed the truth, Brunhild's love turned to fury; she demanded Sigurd's death and after his murder, stabbed herself to join him on the funeral pyre.
Brunhild, acting as a valkyrie, chose Agnar over the old king Hjalmgunnar in battle, leading to Hjalmgunnar's defeat and death. Wodan had decreed that Hjalmgunnar should have victory, and Brunhild's defiance in slaying his chosen champion led to her punishment.
Brunhild was a valkyrie in the service of Wodan before she defied his will by granting victory to the wrong king in battle. As punishment, Wodan stripped her of her valkyrie status and placed her in an enchanted sleep behind a wall of flames.
Norse Brynhild and Germanic Brunhild are the same legendary figure. The Völsunga saga preserves the Norse version, while the Nibelungenlied presents the Germanic adaptation as a warrior queen of Ísland.
Grimhild brewed a potion that erased Sigurd's memory of Brunhild and his betrothal vow, then married her daughter Kriemhild to the bewitched hero and had him use shape-changing magic to win Brunhild for her son Gunther — a chain of deceptions that destroyed them all.
Siegfried wore the Tarnkappe to perform the bridal contests invisibly in Gunther's place, winning Brunhild through deception, then donned it again on the wedding night to subdue her supernatural strength — taking her ring and belt as trophies that would later betray the fraud.
Before her self-immolation, Brunhild prophesied in the Völsunga saga that her brother Etzel (Atli) would marry Gudrun (Kriemhild) and that this union would bring catastrophic destruction to the Burgundian kings at Etzel's court.
When Brunhild learned that Sigurd, not Gunther, had truly won her — whether by crossing the flame-wall or subduing her in the bridal chamber — the humiliation drove events toward Sigurd's murder, with Gunther complicit in the killing of his own sworn brother to preserve the deception.
⚠ The Völsunga saga has Brunhild directly demand Sigurd's death; the Nibelungenlied gives that role primarily to Hagen, with Gunther consenting rather than being manipulated by Brunhild.
Brunhild's insistence on Sigurd's death led to Gutthorm being chosen as the killer in the Völsunga saga, since he alone among the Gjukung brothers had not sworn blood-brotherhood with Sigurd and was therefore not oath-bound to protect him.
Hagen acts as the instrument of Brunhild's vengeance in the Nibelungenlied. After learning of the deception that won Brunhild for Gunther, Hagen takes it upon himself to murder Siegfried by stabbing him at a woodland spring, claiming to defend Brunhild's and the Burgundian royal honor.
The Nibelungenhort destroyed Brunhild twice: Sigurd gave her a ring from the hoard as a betrothal pledge, then reclaimed it while impersonating Gunther. When Kriemhild produced the ring as proof of the deception, it shattered Brunhild's honor and set the tragedy in motion.
In the Sigrdrífumál, after Sigurd awakens Brunhild on Hindarfjall, she teaches him the lore of runes — victory runes, ale runes, birth runes, wave runes, speech runes, and thought runes — making her one of the tradition's key transmitters of runic wisdom.
In the Völsunga saga, Sigurd rode through the wall of flames on Mount Hindarfjall and awakened the sleeping Brunhild by cutting off her mail coat. They exchanged vows and the ring Andvaranaut, pledging to marry, before fate and Grimhild's sorcery tore them apart.
In the shared Germanic Völsung tradition, Wodan punishes the valkyrie Brunhild by putting her into an enchanted sleep behind a wall of flame for defying his will in battle, a story preserved in both Eddic and continental sources.
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