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There is much in the Norse Skalds which seems to support this mythological aspect of the tale. The name of Siegfried's murderer, Hagen who is one-eyed, even as Hödur, the God of Night, who kills Baldur, the God of Light, is blind has also been adduced for this interpretation. Odin stings Brynhild into her trance with a sleeping-thorn.
The outline is as follows: Sigurd the Volsung, son of Sigmund and brother of Sinfjötli, slays the dragon who guards the Nibelungs' hoard on the Glittering Heath, and thus inherits the curse which accompanies the treasure; he finds and wakens Brynhild the Valkyrie, lying in an enchanted sleep guarded by a ring of fire, loves her and plights troth with her; Grimhild, wife of the Burgundian Giuki, by enchantment causes him to forget the Valkyrie, to love her own daughter Gudrun, and, since he alone can cross the fire, to win Brynhild for her son Gunnar.
Brynhild answered, "It is not fated that we should abide together; I am a shield-may, and wear helm on head even as the kings of war, and them full oft I help, neither is the battle become loathsome to me." Sigurd answered, "What fruit shall be of our life, if we live not together: harder to bear this pain that lies hereunder, than the stroke of sharp sword."
The burning of Brynhild and Signy, and Sigrun's entrance into the howe, are mythical reminiscences of widow-burial. The "sister's son" is preserved in the Sigmund and Sinfjötli tale, which also has a trace of animism in the werwolf episode.
Soon after this the marriage of Gunnar and Brynhild is celebrated with great splendor, and all return to Giuki's court, where they live happily for some time.
"A young child have I For heritor; Too young to win forth From the house of his foes. Black deeds and ill Have they been a-doing, Evil rede Have they wrought at last. "Late, late, rideth with them Unto the Thing, Such sister's son, Though seven thou bear, But well I wot Which way all goeth; Alone wrought Brynhild This bale against us.
The bright-haired lady will offer thee her daughter." Völsunga gives additional details: Brynhild knows her deliverer to be Sigurd Sigmundsson and the slayer of Fafni, and they swear oaths to each other.
Impossible. You found it more than a week ago." "I know. It is ten days. Flowers don't die when one understands them not as most people think." Her mother looked up and said fretfully: "Since she was a child Brynhild has had that odd idea. That flower is dead and withered. Throw it away, child. It looks hideous." Was it glamour? What was it?
"What has come to you, that ye fare ye as witless women, or what unheard-of wonders have befallen you?" Then answered a waiting lady, hight Swaflod, "An untimely, an evil day it is, and our hall is fulfilled of lamentation." Then spake Gudrun to one of her handmaids, "Arise, for we have slept long; go, wake Brynhild, and let us fall to our needlework and be merry."
Then Wotan comes; the sisters fly in terror at his command; and he is left alone with Brynhild. Here, then, we have the first of the inevitable moments which Wotan did not foresee. Godhead has now established its dominion over the world by a mighty Church, compelling obedience through its ally the Law, with its formidable State organization of force of arms and cunning of brain.
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