The Death of Brynhild

What future did Brynhild foretell?

In *The Short Lay of Sigurd*, Brynhild hears Gudrun weeping. Then, just once, she laughs with all her heart. She tells Gunnar that she has loved only one man.

Brynhild puts on golden armor. Then she stabs herself with a sword. Wounded, she lies back on a pillow and tells Gunnar what the future holds. Gudrun, she says, will marry Atli.

She foretells that Atli will have Gunnar thrown into an enclosure full of snakes. Later, she says, Gudrun will kill Atli in his bed.

Finally, Brynhild asks for a wide funeral pyre to be built out in the fields. She wishes to be burned beside Sigurd. Between them, she says, they must once again lay the sword that once lay in their bed. Her voice grows faint, and her wound begins to swell. Saying that she has spoken only the truth, she dies.

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