Brynhildr,the daughter of Budli, is a shieldmaiden and a valkyrie in Norse folklore, where she appears as a main character in the Völsunga saga and some Eddic poems treating the same events...
Under the name Brünnhilde she appears in the Nibelungenlied and therefore also in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.
She may be inspired by the Visigothic princess Brunhilda of Austrasia.
The history of Brynhildr includes fratricide, a long battle between brothers, and dealings with the Huns...
According to the Völsunga saga, Brynhildr is a valkyrie She was ordered to decide a fight between two kings, Hjalmgunnar and Agnar, and knew that Odin preferred the older king, Hjalmgunnar, yet she decided the battle for Agnar.
For this Odin condemned her to live the life of a mortal woman, and imprisoned her in a remote castle behind a wall of shields on top of mount Hindarfjall in the Alps, where she must sleep within a ring of fire until any man rescues and marries her...
The hero Sigurðr Sigmundson (Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied), heir to the clan of Völsung and slayer of the dragon Fafnir, entered the castle and awoke Brynhildr by removing her helmet and cutting off her chainmail armour.
He immediately fell in love with the shieldmaiden and proposed to her with the magic ring Andvaranaut...
Promising to return and make Brynhildr his bride, Sigurðr then left the castle and headed for the court of Gjuki, the King of Burgundy...
Gjuki's wife, the sorceress Grimhild, wanting Sigurðr married to her daughter Gudrun (Kriemhild in Nibelungenlied), prepared a magic potion that made Sigurðr forget about Brynhildr.
Sigurðr soon married Gudrun. Hearing of Sigurðr's encounter with the valkyrie, Grimhild decided to make Brynhildr the wife of her son Gunnar (Gunther in the Nibelungenlied)...
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