November 20, 2017

Often the most intriguing element of a hero’s story is his or her vulnerability. The ancient Greek hero Achilles had his heel, and the medieval German literary hero Siegfried had that little spot between the shoulder blades, you know, where scratching an itch can be difficult to reach. Both legendary warriors could have thwarted death had they not had an almost-avoided weak spot.

Sigurd the Dragon Slayer of Teutonic mythology was the model for Siegfried the medieval hero in German literature. Sigurd watches the bearded blacksmith Regin make a sword for him.
Credit: Detail of a wood panel (1100′s) from Setsdale Church, Oldsaksammlung, Oslo, Norway (photo © Dagli Orti, The Art Archive)

Achilles’s mother held the back of his foot as she dipped him in the River Styx of the underworld. The river’s water made those who bathed in it invulnerable. Achilles met his end when a poisoned arrow struck him in his, um, Achilles heel, the only spot that was not washed in the Styx.

Siegfried—hero of the Germanic epic poem the Nibelungenlied, written about A.D. 1200—also had a fatal flaw. The character of Siegfried was based on Sigurd the Volsung, a hero in the Icelandic Völsunga Saga, written around the same time. As the story goes, the young Siegfried obtained the massive treasure hoard of the Nibelungs. (Harry Potter readers might be interested that the treasure included an invisibility cloak.) Siegfried killed a dragon and bathed in its magical blood, making him invulnerable—except one specific spot. A leaf of a linden tree, it seems, had fallen on our hero’s back as he bathed, leaving a couple inches unprotected.

Siegfried would later help the Burgundian people—who lived along the Rhine River—defeat their enemies in battle. He wished to marry Kriemhild, a beautiful Burgundian princess. Siegfried agreed to help Kriemhild’s brother, King Gunther, woo the physically strong Valkyrie, Queen Brunhilde of Iceland. Gunther, aided by Siegfried’s trickery involving his magical cloak, succeeded, so the king and princess married their sweethearts in a double marriage ceremony. Brunhilde later found out about the trick and made Siegfried her enemy. Her ally, Hagen, discovered Siegfried’s leaf-shaped weakness and fatally speared him through the back. The story of the Nibelungenlied—a tale of bloodshed, revenge, treasure theft, and bathing advice—would go on, but sadly without its nearly unbreakable hero.

March 6, 2017

Brunhild, the beautiful, proud, and headstrong heroine of Teutonic mythology, had a complicated romantic life to say the least. Teutonic mythology, also called Norse mythology, consists of the myths and legends of Germany and Scandinavia that date from about the A.D. 400’s. In these stories, Brunhild was the fairest of the Valkyries, the warlike goddess-maidens sent to battlefields by Odin, chief of the gods. The Valkyries were armed with spears, shields, and helmets as they rode swift horses above the battlefield to choose who lived and died. Warriors who died a heroic and fearless death in combat were escorted to the great hall of Valhalla in Asgard, the home of the gods.

Brunhild was a bold warrior goddess of Teutonic and Norse mythology. Credit: Harold B. Lee Library/Brigham Young University

In one fateful battle, Brunhild strikes down Hjalmgunnar, a king who had been promised victory by Odin. Angered by Brunhild’s rash action, Odin orders her to take a husband as punishment. Yet Brunhild had sworn that she would only marry a man who could overcome her in combat—a nearly impossible man to find. Frustrated, Odin casts Brunhild into a magic sleep and surrounds her with a ring of fire. In time, the hero Sigurd (called Siegfried in German legends) fearlessly rides through the flames to awaken and rescue her.

Brunhild and Sigurd fall in love, but their story ends in tragedy. Sigurd spurns Brunhhild and marries the Teutonic princess Gudrun. He then helps Gudrun’s brother Gunnar win Brunhild as his bride. Disguising himself as Gunnar, Sigurd surprises Brunhild by defeating her in combat. Deceived, Brunhild submits and marries Gunnar. Years later, however, Brunhild is enraged when she learns of Sigurd’s treachery. She orders one of her servants to murder Sigurd in revenge. Overcome with remorse, Brunhild throws herself on his funeral pyre to join the hero in death.

The myths of Brunhild the Valkyrie were not written down until the 1100′s, when they appeared in Iceland and southern Germany. The oldest variations on her stories are told in the verse of the Poetic Edda and the prose of the Icelandic Volsunga Saga. A somewhat different version of Brunhild’s story comes from the Nibelungenlied, a German epic poem written about 1200. Here, her name is sometimes spelled Brynhild or Brünhild. Brunhild and the Valkyries also figure prominently in the famous opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung (1876) by the German composer Richard Wagner, who was inspired by the myths.