BRUNHILD, the name of a mythical heroine of various ver sions of the legend of the Nibelungs. The name means "the war rior woman in armour," and in the Norse versions of the Nibelung myth, which preserve more of the primitive traditions than the Nibelungenlied, Brunhild is a valkyrie, the daughter of Odin, by whom, as a punishment, she has been cast under a spell of sleep on Hindarfjell, a lonely rock, until the destined hero shall penetrate the wall of fire by which she is surrounded, and wake her. This is a variant of the widespread myth which survives in the popular fairy-story of "the sleeping beauty." In the Volsungasaga Brun hild is the heroine of a tragedy of passion and wounded pride; it is she who compasses the death of Sigurd, who has broken his troth plighted to her, and then immolates herself on his funeral pyre in order that in the world of the dead he may be wholly hers.
In the Nibelungenlied, on the other hand, She plays a compara tively colourless role. She still possesses superhuman attributes: like Atalanta, she can only be won by the man who is able to overcome her in trials of speed and strength ; but, instead of a valkyrie sleeping on a lonely rock, she is (when „Sigf rid goes to woo her on behalf of Gunther) queen of Islant (Isenlant), living in a castle called the Isenstein. The poet of the Nibelungenlied evidently knew nothing of the tale of her self-immolation ; for, though he has nothing definite to say about her after Sigf rid's death, he keeps her alive in a sort of dignified retirement. (See further under NIBELUNGENLIED.)