Gudrun- Norse FigureMortal"Daughter of Gjúki"

Marriage to Sigurd

Gudrún Gjúkadóttir, daughter of King Gjúki and the sorceress Grímhild, dreamed of a golden hart before she ever saw Sigurd. Brynhild herself read the dream: a great marriage, then terrible sorrow.

Grímhild made it happen. Recognizing Sigurd after his slaying of Fáfnir, she prepared a potion of forgetfulness that erased all memory of Brynhild from his mind. Under this enchantment, Sigurd married Gudrún and swore blood-brotherhood with her brothers Gunnarr and Högni. He gave her the ring Andvaranaut as a love-token. The marriage was happy. The curse on the ring was patient.

But the marriage was built on magic. Sigurd had already sworn oaths to Brynhild, and the potion suppressed those bonds without breaking them. When Gunnarr wished to marry Brynhild, Sigurd helped him by riding through the flame-wall in Gunnarr's shape.

The Quarrel at the River

Gudrún and Brynhild quarreled while bathing in the river. Brynhild waded upstream, claiming her husband was the braver man. Gudrún told her the truth: it was Sigurd, not Gunnarr, who had ridden through the flames. She held up Andvaranaut as proof, the ring Sigurd had taken from Brynhild during the shape-swap and given to Gudrún.

Brynhild's love for Sigurd became a demand for his death.

Sigurd's Death

Gunnarr and Högni were bound by blood-oaths and could not strike Sigurd themselves. They incited their younger brother Guthormr, who had sworn no oath, to do it. In the Völsunga saga, Guthormr stabbed Sigurd in his one vulnerable spot as he lay sleeping beside Gudrún. In the Atlamál, the killing takes place in the forest. In both, Sigurd's infant son was also killed.

Gudrún sat beside the body and could not weep. She was so rigid with sorrow that the women around her feared she would die. They gathered and uncovered their own scars, telling their own stories of loss, trying to coax her tears. Not until they drew back the shroud from Sigurd's wounds and laid his bloodied head in her lap did she break. She wept so bitterly that the geese in the yard cried out in answer.

Brynhild stabbed herself and was burned on Sigurd's pyre, with Gram between them. Gudrún was left with the cursed gold and an empty hall.

The Marriage to Atli

Grímhild intervened again, giving Gudrún another potion and arranging a marriage to Atli. Gudrún resisted. She prophesied that the marriage would end in disaster. Grímhild overrode her with the potion and a promise of political alliance.

Gudrún bore Atli two sons, Erpr and Eitill, but the marriage was hollow. Atli wanted the Nibelung gold that her brothers had inherited from Sigurd.

The Death of the Brothers

Atli invited Gunnarr and Högni to his hall with promises of friendship. Gudrún tried to warn them, sending a ring wrapped with wolf's hair as a signal of treachery. The brothers chose to ride anyway.

Atli's men attacked. After a desperate battle, both brothers were captured. Atli demanded the gold. They brought Högni and cut the heart from his living body. When shown a heart first, Gunnarr recognized it was not Högni's. It trembled too much. When they brought the real heart, which lay still, Gunnarr laughed. Now only he knew where the gold was hidden, and he would never tell. They threw him into a pit of serpents. He played a harp with his toes until the snakes killed him.

Gudrún's Vengeance

Gudrún killed her own sons by Atli. She served their flesh to him at a feast, their skulls as drinking cups, their blood mixed into the wine. She told him what he had eaten after the meal was done. Then, with Högni's son Hniflung, she stabbed Atli in his bed and set fire to the hall, burning his retainers alive.

The Ordeal

The Guðrúnarkviða III tells of a false accusation of adultery brought against Gudrún. She refuted it by trial: she plunged her hand into boiling water and drew it out unscathed. Her innocence proved, the accuser was seized and dragged to a bog.

The Last Sons

The Guðrúnarhvöt tells how Gudrún, after Atli's death, was carried by the sea to the land of King Jónakr. She married him and bore sons: Hamðir and Sörli. When their half-sister Svanhildr, Gudrún's daughter by Sigurd, was trampled to death by horses on the orders of the Gothic king Jörmunrekkr, Gudrún sent her sons to avenge her. They cut off Jörmunrekkr's hands and feet but could not kill him. Odin told the Goths to stone them. Her last children died as her first ones had: by violence, for the sake of someone already dead.