Brunhild, << BROON hihld >> is a mythical heroine who appears in German legends dating from the A.D. 400’s. The legends were not written until the 1100’s, when they appeared in Iceland and southern Germany. The oldest story is Scandinavian, told in the verse of the Poetic Edda and the prose of the Volsunga Saga. In this version, the hero Sigurd rescues Brunhild from a magic sleep imposed by Odin, the chief God. They promise to love each other. But Sigurd marries the princess Gudrun and helps her brother, Gunnar, win Brunhild. When Brunhild discovers this treachery, she has Sigurd killed.
A different version is found in the German Nibelungenlied. German composer Richard Wagner’s operatic treatment of her, as Brunnhilde in the Ring of the Nibelung, builds on the Scandinavian version. Brunhild’s name is also spelled Brynhild << BRIHN hihld >> .
