Gudrun

In the Norse tradition, Atli desires the hoard of the Nibelungen, which the Burgundians had taken after murdering Sigurd, and invites them to his court; intending to kill them.

In the continental tradition, Kriemhild instead desires revenge for her brothers' murder of Siegfried, and invites them to visit Etzel's court intending to kill them.

Ez wuohs in Burgonden ein vil edel magedîn, daz in allen landen niht schoeners mohte sîn, Kriemhilt geheizen.

Fullrœtt er um þetta: ferr engi svá síðan brúðr í brynio brœðr at hefna.

The first is Proto-Germanic *gunþ-, Old Norse gunnr, meaning battle; it shows the typical North Sea Germanic loss of a nasal before a dental spirant (*Gunþrūn to Guðrún).

[8] According to both theories, the form Grim- with a short vowel represents an alteration of the original root to be more similar to the word grim, meaning terrible.

[18] It has even been argued that the epic represents a sort of Bildungsroman for Kriemhild, as she develops from a relatively mild-manner courtly lady into a forceful and ferocious avenger of her dead husband.

Seven years later Grimhild convinces Atli to invite the Burgundians (called Niflungs) to visit her by mentioning the hoard of the Nibelungen which her brothers had stolen from her.

Grimhild attempts to convince Atli's brother Bloedel and Thidrek (Dietrich von Bern) to help her take revenge, but both refuse.

Eventually, all of the Burgundian heroes are defeated, including Siegfried, who flees to Kriemhild's lap in fear when Dietrich starts breathing fire.

As in the A and B versions of the Nibelungenlied, she is called a vâlandinne (fiend) and she derives great joy from watching the knights fight in at times brutal combat.

[43] The Heldenbuch-Prosa, first found in the 1480 Heldenbuch of Diebolt von Hanowe and afterwards contained in printings until 1590, is considered one of the most important attestations of a continued oral tradition outside of the Nibelungenlied, with many details agreeing with the Thidrekssaga.

She arranges for the disaster at Etzel's hall in order to take vengeance on Dietrich von Bern for having killed Siegfried in the rose garden.

[45][46][47] In the late medieval/early modern heroic ballad Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid, Kriemhild is the daughter of king Gybich and sister of Gunther, Gyrnot (Gernot), and Hagen.

The name Gybich agrees with the Rosengarten zu Worms and corresponds to the Old Norse Gjúki, and the fact that Hagen is one of Kriemhild's brothers accords with the Thidrekssaga and the Scandinavian tradition as well.

[49] The ninth-century anonymous Saxon poet known as Poeta Saxo records that Attila's wife killed him to avenge the death of her father.

[58] In a song of the mid-thirteenth-century wandering lyric poet Der Marner, "whom Kriemhild betrayed" (wen Kriemhilt verriet) is mentioned as a popular story that the German courtly public enjoyed hearing, along with tales of Sigurd's death and the hoard of the Nibelungs.

[15] The Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus records a version of the story of Jorumrek (Ermanaric)'s death that includes Gudrun (as Guthruna) in Latin in his Gesta Danorum .

[60] In this version, in which "Jarmericus" is a Danish king, Gudrun appears as a powerful sorceress who casts spells on the weapons of the brothers coming to avenge Svanhild's death that make them invincible.

[56] The so-called Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson is the earliest attestation of the full Scandinavian version of Gudrun's life, dating to around 1220.

This knowledge leads Brunhild to agitate for Sigurd's murder, which is performed by Gudrun's half-brother Guthorm, who also kills the young Sigmund.

[73] In Grípisspá, a prophecy that Sigurd receives about his future life and deeds, it is mentioned that Gudrun will be his wife, and that Brunhild will feel insulted by this.

[77] The Dráp Niflunga is a short prose section connecting the death of Sigurd to the following poems about the Burgundians (Niflungs) and Atli (Attila).

She laments of her fate to Thiodrek (Þjódrekr, i.e. Dietrich von Bern and tells the story of her tribulations leading to her marriage to Atli.

[83] Victor Millet notes that the detail of the potion of forgetting helps explain why Gudrun does not seek to avenge Sigurd; he connects this to a possible attempt to discount the continental version of the story, which the poet appears to have known.

[98] Guðrúnarhvöt is proceeded by a brief prose interlude that explains that tried to drown herself in the sea after killing Atli, but was instead taken to the land of King Jonak, who married her and with whom she had three sons, Hamdir, Sorli, and Erp, and where she also raises Svanhild, her daughter with Sigurd.

[99] The poem proper starts after Gudrun has learned of Svanhild's death: she stirs up her three sons to kill Jormunrek and avenge their sister.

Grimhild gives her daughter a potion to make her forget her anger against her brothers, then convinces a reluctant Gudrun to marry Atli.

[115][114] Jan-Dirk Müller, however, argues that we cannot know for sure which version of Gudrun's role is more original, as neither resembles the actual historical destruction of the Burgundians or the end of Etzel's kingdom.

[118] Other scholars date it to the tenth century, however, on the basis of a version of the story cited in the Skaldic poem Ragnarsdrápa: the narrator there refers to Ermanaric's killers as descendants of Gjúki, Gudrun's father.