Sacred Texts: Legends and Sagas

Teutonic Myth and Legend: Chapter XXXIV. How Brunhild and Kriemhild were won

Summary only - full text stays on its own separately-gated source. Read the full text at the source »

This is a chapter from *Teutonic Myth and Legend* (1912) by Donald A. Mackenzie, a retelling of the Nibelung saga in the tradition of Victorian-Edwardian popular mythology — narrative prose that synthesizes medieval Germanic and Norse source material for a general audience. The chapter covers Gunther's courtship of the warrior-queen Brunhild, in which Siegfried secretly uses a cloak of invisibility to perform the athletic contests (spear-throw, stone-cast, and leap) that Brunhild requires of any suitor, allowing the physically overmatched Gunther to appear victorious and win her hand. Siegfried then travels to the underground Nibelung kingdom, defeats its giant and dwarf guardians, and returns with a thousand warriors to reassure Brunhild and complete the voyage to Burgundy, where a double wedding takes place — Gunther to Brunhild, Siegfried to Kriemhild. The chapter ends by introducing the central dramatic tension of the broader saga: Brunhild weeps bitterly upon learning that Kriemhild has married Siegfried, whom she believes to be a mere vassal, and refuses to consummate her marriage until Gunther explains the situation — planting the seed of jealousy and humiliation that will drive the tragedy forward. Mackenzie's retelling is straightforward and episodic rather than interpretive, prioritizing narrative momentum over mythological commentary.

Teutonic Myth and Legend: Chapter XXXIV. How Brunhild and Kriemhild were won

Related pages View as graph →