The Secret Revealed by a Ring

What secret did the gold ring reveal?

In *Skaldskaparmal*, Brynhild and Gudrun go to the river to lighten their hair. Brynhild wades out from the bank. She says she does not want water from Gudrun's hair to wash over her own head, because her husband is the braver man.

Gudrun follows her into the river. She replies that no one is as brave as her husband: he killed both Fafnir and Regin. Brynhild answers that Gunnar's ride through the flames was a greater deed. Sigurd, she says, did not have the courage for that.

Gudrun laughs. Then she shows her a gold ring. The man who gave her that ring, she says, was the one who came to Brynhild's bed. It was Sigurd who rode through the flames, not Gunnar.

She also draws attention to the ring on Brynhild's own hand. Its name is Andvaranaut. Brynhild goes home without a word.

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