Sigrun

Sigrun is a valkyrie and a king's daughter in the Poetic Edda, the lover and later the wife of the hero Helgi Hundingsbane. Her love costs her father, her brother and finally Helgi their lives, and her story ends with one night beside the dead hero inside his burial mound.

Two poems tell it, Helgakvida Hundingsbana I and II, and Volsunga saga retells the first half. Sigrun, whose name means “victory rune”, is the daughter of King Hogni (not Hogni the brother of Gunnar) and rides with the valkyries over sky and sea. Promised by her father to Hodbrodd, son of King Granmar, a man she scorns, she warns Helgi that unless he fights, Hodbrodd will claim her within a few nights. Helgi sails to war, she shields his fleet from a storm, and at Frekastein all of Granmar's sons fall, Hodbrodd among them. But Helgi has also killed her father and her brother Bragi; only her brother Dagr is spared, after swearing loyalty to the Volsungs. Sigrun weeps, then marries Helgi and bears him sons.

Dagr later sacrifices to Odin for vengeance, and with a spear lent by the god he kills Helgi at Fjoturlund. Sigrun curses him: may his ship never sail, his horse never run and his sword never bite. Dagr blames Odin for setting kin against kin and offers compensation, but she says she will never be glad again. One evening a maid sees the dead Helgi riding to his mound with his men. Sigrun goes in, kisses him though his hair is thick with frost and his hands are ice-cold, makes a bed and sleeps in his arms, until he must ride back to Valhalla before the cock crows. He never returns, and she soon dies of sorrow and grief.

The compiler adds that people once believed in rebirth, which he calls an old wives' tale: Helgi and Sigrun were said to be reborn as Helgi Haddingjaskati and the valkyrie Kara, as told in the lost Karuljod. Another note calls Sigrun herself the reborn Svava, beloved of Helgi Hjorvardsson.