Brynhild’s Family Tree

About Brynhild →

Family

• Budli(parent),Atli(sibling)

  Budli was the father of Brynhild and Atli. Both children played central roles in the Völsung tragedy — Brynhild through her doomed love for Sigurd, and Atli through his greed for the Nibelung gold.

• Sigurd(spouse),Áslaug(child)— Consort

  Sigurd and Brynhild swore oaths of love on Hindarfjall after he woke her from Odin's enchanted sleep, and in some traditions their union produced a daughter, Áslaug. Their bond was severed when Grímhild's memory potion made Sigurd forget Brynhild and marry Gudrún.

• Gunnar(spouse)— Marriage

  Gunnarr married Brynhild after Sigurd rode through the flame-wall in his shape. When the deception was exposed, Brynhild demanded Sigurd's death and then killed herself on his funeral pyre.

Enemy of

• Gudrun

  Gudrún and Brynhild clashed bitterly when they quarreled at the river over whose husband was greater. Gudrún revealed the deception of Sigurd's wooing, and Brynhild's fury drove her to orchestrate Sigurd's murder and then take her own life on his pyre.

Slew

• Sigurd

  Guttormr stabbed Sigurd in his bed at Brynhild's instigation, but the dying Sigurd hurled Gram and cut Guttormr in half — a mutual killing described in the Völsunga saga.

Member of

• Valkyries

  Brynhild was one of the Valkyries who defied Odin by granting victory to the wrong warrior. He punished her with a sleep-thorn and confined her within a ring of fire on Hindarfjall.

Equivalent to

• Brunhild(Germanic)

  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.

Associated with

• Runes,Sigurd

  In the Sigrdrífumál, Brynhild taught Sigurd the wisdom of Runes after he woke her from enchanted sleep. She classified them by function — victory-runes, ale-runes, birth-runes, and more — each inscribed on specific objects.

• Gram

  Sigurd laid Gram between himself and Brynhild during the three nights behind the flame-wall. Brynhild commanded it be placed between them again on the funeral pyre — the sword that divided them in life uniting them in death.

• Odin

  Odin punished Brynhild for disobedience by pricking her with a sleep-thorn and surrounding her with fire. He decreed that only a fearless hero could cross the flames to wake her, stripping her of Valkyrie status.

• Sigurd

  Sigurd rode through a wall of fire to wake the sleeping Valkyrie Brynhild, and they swore oaths of love. A potion of forgetfulness made him betray those oaths, and Brynhild's fury led to his murder and her suicide on his pyre.

• Valhalla

  Brynhild served as a Valkyrie in Valhalla before Odin punished her for disobedience. Her banishment from the hall of the slain condemned her to mortal life and marriage.