The Nordic world has many treasures of culture history to offer. Stories, the origin of which are lost in the mists of time, have put their mark on and shaped Nordic identity and solidarity over the centuries.

One of the flagships in the Nordic cultural solidarity are the Faeroese Sigurd poems, an independent cycle of poems and poem fragments of approximately 1,482 stanzas taken from 15 poems. The poems distinguish themselves clearly from other similar stories, such as the Icelandic Eddic poems or the North German Nibelungen cycle. The oldest poems are probably reproductions from the 14th century (when the chain dance was introduced), which in turn came from even older poems that were brought to the Faeroes in the early 9th century.

The bulk of the Faeroese cycle consists of the three so-called large Sigurd’s poems. They are ‘Regin Smith’, 131 stanzas, ‘Brynhild’s Ballad’, 238 stanzas and finally ‘Høgne’s Ballad’ of 254 stanzas.

This series is an extract from interpretations of the middle one of the three major poems, ‘Brynhild’s Ballad’. The interpretations conclude that the poems are mythical, i.e. mental pictures of indefinable concepts such as the universal order (Regin Smith) or our ancestors’ description of the cyclical concept of time (Brynhild’s and Høgne’s Ballads).

Classic representation of Brynhild

The ballad

King Buðle’s daughter Brynhild is shy of suitors. She convinces her father to let the dwarf smiths build a wall of fire around her hall. The protecting fire is so high that only the greatest of all heroes can penetrate it, and therefore Brynhild Buðledatter now sits down behind it in order to ‘lure Sigurd from other lands’.

In the eastern countries Sigurd wakes up from a nightmare, in which his horse Grane wades in rivers of blood. He walks into his garden where ‘íðgurnar’ tell him that the divinely beautiful Brynhild Buðledatter longs to meet him. Sigurd does not need to be told twice. He immediately rides towards the burning mountain and goes so far on his way that he passes the Juke farm. Here the mistress of the Juke farm, Grimhild, stands and asks him where he is going. When Sigurd tells her about his business, Grimhild invites him inside to meet her own daughter, but Sigurd rejects the offer and rides on.

Upon his arrival to the Hildar Mountain, Sigurd makes Grane jump over the protecting fire. He breaks down the doors of the hall with his sword, and inside he finds Brynhild sleeping fully dressed in a coat of mail. Sigurd swings his sword again and slits the coat of mail off Brynhild’s body, whereupon she wakes up and welcomes him. Ásla Sigurdsdatter (Kraka in the legend of Ragnar Lodbrok) is conceived from their love. Sigurd confirms their love by placing twelve golden rings in Brynhild’s lap, and on top of them, the large queen’s ring. After seven months on the Hildar Mountain Sigurd prepares to ride home in spite of Brynhild’s protests. She warns him against going too close to the Juke farm, where the beautiful Guðrun Jukesdatter lives. Sigurd comforts her by saying that he will never be unfaithful and sets out. On his journey his way is blocked by a terrible monster and no matter where he turns the horse, the monster is still in front of him. At last he gives up and rides down towards the Juke farm. Then the horrible monster disappears, leaving Grimhild tied up with two ropes.

Modern representation of Brynhild

When Sigurd arrives at the Juke farm, Guðrun, urged on by Grimhild, offers him a welcoming cup in which a draught of forgetfulness is mixed. As soon as Sigurd has drunk from the horn, he forgets everything about Brynhild Buðledatter, and shortly afterwards he marries Guðrun Jukesdatter. Brynhild despairs when she hears about Sigurd’s deceit. One day when she has gone to the river to bathe, Guðrun arrives and tells her that, as it is now she who is married to the most outstanding man in this world, she has the right to bathe upstream. She does not want to be touched by Brynhild’s dirty bathing water. The young women fight a little, but when Guðrun blames Brynhild for having wasted her virginity and shamed her father, she becomes so enraged that she decides to kill Sigurd.

As Brynhild comes home she gives birth to a daughter. It is Ásla Sigurdsdatter, but Brynhild would have nothing to do with her and orders that she be put into the river.

Brynhild Buðledatter now allies herself with Guðrun’s brothers, Gunnar and Høgne. On her advice, the Juke brothers invite Sigurd on a riding trip. Before they gave Sigurd salty food, but nothing to drink. When they reach a river, Sigurd gets off his horse to quench his thirst, and then the brothers jump him from behind. Høgne stabs and Gunnar slashes, and thus dies Sigurd Sigmundssøn, the most outstanding of all heroes, at the hands of his friends. At the same moment as Sigurd loses his life, Brynhild’s heart breaks, and she dies at the same time as the man who deceived her so rudely.

The Juke brothers take Sigurd’s body home with them to the Juke farm. They place him in the bed where Guðrun is sleeping. When she wakes up she is covered in her husband’s blood.

Guðrun mourned all her life over Sigurd and swore revenge on her brothers. The third of the major Sigurd poems, ‘Høgne’s Ballad’, describes how Guðrun kills off the Juke brothers systematically and unrelentingly.

Sigurd has been killed, Brynhild is dead and Guðrun is left with her sorrow. One of the last stanzas of Brynhild’s Ballad says, loosely translated: “It is quite true/ that a woman’s feelings are tender/ Guðrun crosses the entire world/ she holds Grane’s reins.”

The sun has set, the day is over and the night passes quietly and sadly over the entire world. Following in its path is the giant horse (the constellation Pegasus), and together they wander from east to west until the new day breaks and Ásla resumes her mother’s journey across the sky.