The Dragon Slayer and the Valkyrie or The Awakening of Brunhild
Once upon a time, there was a handsome boy. He had golden hair and was as strong as ten fully grown men. His name was Siegfried and he was the son of mighty king Siegmund and his wife Sieglind who ruled over a kingdom called Xanten. Siegfried grew up to be a strong knight and was eager to go on an adventure and to find himself a beautiful wife. So he set out on his journey and wandered into the dark and dangerous forest, armed with his mighty sword Baldur.
There in the deep woods, he suddenly heard a terrible noise coming from a cave. He approached it carefully and as he came closer, he saw a dragon creeping out of the cave. It looked horrifying with its huge claws and teeth. The dragon’s name was Fafnir and he guarded a wonderful treasure which our hero did not know just yet. Siegfried immediately decided to kill the monster. So he ran towards it and before Fafnir even knew what was happening he had Baldur deep in his heart. Blood shot out of Fafnir’s chest and covered Siegfried’s whole body. Suddenly, the dragon slayer heard a friendly voice next to him. A little bird had landed on his shoulder and whispered into his ear. He told Siegfried to bathe in Fafnir’s blood in order to become invincible. Siegfried did as he was told, and after he was done with that rather messy procedure, he began to explore the dragon’s dark cave. Deep inside of the dark cave, he found endless riches. Fafnir was the guardian of the treasure of the Nibelungs. And right on top of a huge pile of pure gold, he found Andvaranaut the legendary magic ring of the Nibelungs.
Having successfully slain the mighty dragon, Siegfried continued his journey through the dark forests. After weeks of traveling, he reached a small village. He kept hearing people whisper about a beautiful Valkyrie sleeping in a castle hidden in the nearby mountains. Punished by Odin for being disobedient he condemned her to a mortal woman’s life until a brave man rescues her. Siegfried knew that he was going to be this man, and set out for his new adventure. Soon he caught sight of the castle that was sitting on top of a huge mountain. But Siegfried was determined to save the beautiful maiden and rushed up to the castle. He had to climb over a wall of shields which was no big obstacle for the strong and swift dragon slayer.
As he entered the court, he beheld three rings of fire in the midst of which beautiful Brunhild lay asleep on a canopy bed. And how marvelous she looked! She wore impressive but beautiful armour. Her long blonde hair dwelled from underneath her golden helmet. Siegfried fell in love with her as soon as he laid his eyes on her for the first time. For he was made invincible by Fafnir’s blood, he walked straight through the fire and removed the helmet from fair Brunhild’s head and kissed her.
She opened her eyes marveling at the stranger in front of her. As she had looked at him, she started to smile and thanked the dragon slayer for rescuing her. Siegfried knelt down in front of her and asked her to become his wife. Brunhild happily accepted and so Siegfried gave her the ring Andvaranaut as an engagement ring. Then they started their journey back to Siegfried’s kingdom Xanten where Siegfried became king. The dragon slayer and the Valkyrie celebrated a gigantic wedding that lasted for two whole months. After that they ruled their land justly for many years, and they were loved by their subjects. And they lived happily ever after.
Critical Reflection of the Transmission Project
In the majority of the narrative traditions such as the Volsunga Saga or the Poetic Edda, it is Siegfried and Brunhild who fall in love with each other. Yet there basically exist two different versions about how the two of them meet: the awakening of Brunhild and the version where Siegfried woes Brunhild for Gunther. However, the legend says that the dragon slayer promises eternal love to Brunhild but he is tricked into marrying Kriemhild because he is given a magic love potion. Before Siegfried even meets Kriemhild, he has a child together with Brunhild. When they meet again, though Siegfried has forgotten about her and she is devastated. Her true love has obviously betrayed her and on top of that she is (unfairly) defeated by Gunther whom she now has to marry. In the end she commits suicide after Siegfried is murdered so they are finally reunited in death.
Brunhild really has it rough. Therefore, she deserved a happy ending in my opinion. And the perfect genre for happy endings is of course the fairy tale which is why I have transformed parts of the Volsunga saga into a fairy tale where Siegfried and Brunhild can live happily together without all the bloody drama which arises from Siegfried marrying Kriemhild and socializing with the Burgundians. It seems only fair to me that the hero and the betrayed woman get to have some happy time. But my inspiration was mainly a reading the excerpts from the Poetic Edda we had read in class. The idea of a betrayed Brunhild somehow appeals more to me as the suffering Kriemhild, because if you take into consideration that she made Siegfried love her with the help of a love potion, it spoils the image of their love. For Siegfried’s love is artificial. Therefore, this is something to be set right.
I’ve tried to employ all characteristic features of the fairy tale. The legend itself already has a lot of these features in it: a hero, a dragon, a sleeping beauty, the castle and so on. Therefore, the genre of the fairy tale feels almost natural for this story. I have focused merely on the awakening legend here due to the fact that I like this version of how Siegfried and Brunhild meet best. Consequently, by transforming the legend into a fairy tale it was necessary to change the ending so that it is a happy one.
I guess what I was trying to show about the epic tradition is that the epic always seems to be tragic. But I highlighted that by inverting this concept. The hero always has to achieve heroic deeds but he still has to suffer. Love in the epic is always closely connected with pain, suffering, and also being separated. Most lovers in the epic have to stay apart from each other: Odysseus and Penelope, the Cid and Jimena, and in this case Siegfried and Brunhild. This often makes their love stronger but sometimes the love affair ends just tragic, as for instance in Brunhild’s and Siegfried’s case where Brunhild commits suicide (at least in the Volsunga saga).
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