Brynhildr

:This article is about the valkyrie Brynhildr. For the asteroid named after her, see 123 Brunhild.

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In Norse mythology, Brynhildr was a shieldmaiden and a valkyrie. She is a main character in the V?lsunga saga and some Eddic poems treating the same events. Under the name Br?nnehilde she appears in the Nibelungenlied and therefore also in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Brynhildr is probably inspired by the Visigothic princess Brunhilda of Austrasia, marrid with the Merovingian king Sigebert I in 567. The history of Brunhilda includes fratricide, a long battle between brothers, and dealings with the Huns.

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According to the V?lungasaga, Brynhildr is the daughter of Budli. She was ordered to decide a fight in between two kings: Hjalmgunnar and Agnar. The valkyrie knew that Odin himself preferred the older king, Hjalmgunnar, yet Brynhildr decided the battle for Agnar. For this Odin condemned the valkyrie to live the life of a mortal woman, imprisoned her in a remote castle behind a wall of fire on top of mount Hindarfjall in the Alps, and cursed her to sleep until any man would rescue and marry her. The hero Sigur?r Sigmundson (Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied), heir to the clan of V?lsung and slayer of the dragon Fafnir, entered that ring and awoke Brynhildr by removing her helmet and cutting of her chainmail armour. He immediateley falls in love with the shieldmaiden and proposes to her with the magic ring Andvarinaut. Promising to return and make Brynhildr his bride, Sigur?r then leaves her castle and heads for the court of Gjuki, the king of Burgundy.

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Gjuki's wife, the sorceress Grimhild, when hearing of Sigur?r's encounter with the valkyrie, decides to make Brynhildr the wife of her son Gunnar (Gunther in the Nibelungenlied). She prepares a magic potion that makes Sigur?r forget about Brynhildr. Gunnar then sought to court Brynhild but was stopped by the ring of fire that still surrounded her. Sigur?r exchanged shapes with him and entered the ring of fire a second time. Sigur?r duly betrayed Brynhildr as it thus is Gunnar who frees her from Hindarfjall, and she must accept becoming the queen of Burgund. Sigur?r also takes the ring Andvarinaut from her finger and later marries Gunnar's sister Gudrun, to whose custody he passes the ring. As Sigur?r and Gudrun marries, Brynhildr realizes his betrayal when seeing Andvarinaut on Gudrun's finger. Brynhildr plots a revenge by having her brother-in-law Guttorm killeing Sigur?r. Brynhildr herself killed Sigurd's three-year-old son, and then she willed herself to die. When Sigur?r's funeral pyre is aflame, she throws hereself upon it ? thus they pass on together to the realm of Hel.

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According to the V?lsunga saga, Brynhildr bore Sigur?r a daughter, Aslaug, who later married Ragnar Lodbrok.

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In the Nibelungenlied, Br?nnehilde is instead the queen of Isenland (Iceland). Gunther here overpower her in three warlike games with the help of Siegfried ? equipped with an invisibility cloak. Firstly, Br?nnehilde throws a spear that three men only barely can lift towards Gunther, but the invisible Sigfried diverges it. Secondly, she throws a boulder that craves the strength of twelve men to lift twelve fathoms. Lastly, she leaps over the same boulder. Gunther, however, defeats her with Sigfried's help also in these games, and takes her as his wife.

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In the Eddic poem Helrei? Brynhildar (Bryndhildr's ride to Hel), Brynhildr on her journey to Hel encounters a g?gr (giantess) who blames her for an immoral livelihood. Brynhildr responds to her accusations, claiming that men have not understood the hardship of her fate. Brynhildr gets the last word:

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Asteroid: An asteroid is a small, solid object in our Solar System, orbiting the Sun. An asteroid is an example of a minor planet (or planetoid), which are much smaller than planets. Most asteroids are believed to be remnants of the protoplanetary disc which were not incorporated into planets during the syste...

123 Brunhild: 123 Brunhild is a fairly typical stony S-type main belt asteroid....

Shieldmaiden: A skjaldm? (Shieldmaiden) was a virgin who had chosen to fight as a warrior, in Scandinavian mythology. They are often mentioned in sagas such as Hervarar saga and in Gesta Danorum....