Sigurd won Kriemhild's hand through his fame and splendor, and their union produced Svanhild and Sigmund Sigurdsson before jealousy and betrayal turned the golden age of the Burgundian court into ruin.
⚠ In the Völsunga saga, Sigurd marries Guðrún after drinking Grimhild's potion of forgetfulness. The Nibelungenlied omits the potion — Siegfried courts Kriemhild freely.
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.
Sigmund and Hjördís are Sigurd's parents. Sigmund died in battle before Sigurd's birth when Wodan shattered his sword. Hjördís preserved the sword's shards for their unborn son, who would reforge them into the blade Gram.
Regin became Sigurd's foster-father at the court of King Hjálprek, teaching him languages, runes, and skills. But Regin's true purpose was to manipulate Sigurd into killing his brother Fafnir so Regin could reclaim the cursed treasure of Andvari.
Sigurd and Gunther swore oaths of blood-brotherhood at the Burgundian court. Sigurd then impersonated Gunther to cross the wall of flames and win Brunhild for his sworn brother, a deception that would ultimately cost Sigurd his life.
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.
Hagen distrusted Siegfried from the moment the dragon-slayer rode into Worms, seeing in him a threat to Burgundian sovereignty. His suspicion hardened into lethal resolve when the quarrel of the queens exposed Siegfried's deception over Brunhild.
In the Völsunga saga, Gutthorm was chosen to kill Sigurd because he alone among the Gjukung brothers had not sworn oaths of blood-brotherhood with the hero. He stabbed Sigurd in his bed, but the dying Sigurd threw his sword Gram and cut Gutthorm in half.
⚠ In the Nibelungenlied, Hagen kills Siegfried directly rather than Guttorm. The Völsunga saga assigns the deed to Gutthorm, who was chosen because he alone had not sworn blood-brotherhood with Sigurd.
In the Nibelungenlied, Hagen murdered Siegfried by stabbing him between the shoulder blades — his one vulnerable spot where a linden leaf had blocked the dragon's blood — while Siegfried drank from a spring during a hunt. Hagen had tricked Kriemhild into revealing the location of the weak point.
⚠ In the Völsunga saga, Gutthorm kills Sigurd in his bed, not Hagen. The Nibelungenlied places the murder during a hunt.
Sigurd slew the dragon Fafnir on Gnita-heath by digging a pit in the path Fafnir used to drink and thrusting the sword Gram upward into the dragon's belly as it crawled overhead. The dying Fafnir warned Sigurd that the treasure was cursed and would bring his death.
After slaying Fafnir, Sigurd tasted the dragon's blood and gained the ability to understand birdsong. The birds warned him that his foster-father Regin planned to kill him for the treasure, so Sigurd struck off Regin's head with Gram.
Norse Sigurd and Germanic Siegfried/Sigurd are the same legendary hero transmitted through parallel traditions — the Völsunga saga and Poetic Edda in Old Norse, the Nibelungenlied in Middle High German.
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.
In the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried defeated the dwarf Alberich who guarded the Nibelung treasure hoard. From Alberich he won the Tarnkappe, the cloak of invisibility, and mastery over the Nibelung treasure.
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.
Grani was Sigurd's legendary horse, chosen with guidance from a mysterious old man (Wodan in disguise). Only Grani could carry Fafnir's cursed treasure, and only Grani could leap through the wall of flames surrounding Brunhild's hall, recognizing Sigurd as the fated rider.
Kriemhild unwittingly betrayed Sigurd to his killer Hagen in the Nibelungenlied. Trusting Hagen's false concern for Siegfried's safety, she marked the vulnerable spot between his shoulder blades on his garment so Hagen could 'protect' him — but Hagen used the knowledge to murder him.
Sigurd slew Fafnir and claimed the Nibelungenhort, the cursed treasure that would shadow his fate. He gave Brunhild's ring from the hoard to Kriemhild, whose display of it as proof of the bridal deception led to Siegfried's murder.
Sigurd gained runic knowledge from two sources: he learned the speech of birds after tasting Fafnir's blood, and Brunhild taught him the deeper lore of runes on Hindarfjall — victory runes, ale runes, wave runes, and thought runes — as recorded in the Sigrdrífumál.
Wodan watches over the Völsung line as their divine ancestor and patron, intervening at fateful moments — appearing as an old man to counsel Sigurd before the slaying of Fafnir, advising him to dig trenches so the dragon's blood would drain rather than drown him.
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