Grimhild

In Norse mythology, Grimhild (masked battle^[1][2]) was a beautiful but evil woman. She was married to king Gjúki, of southern Rhine, Burgundy. She had three sons, Gunnar, Hogni and Guttorm, and a daughter, Gudrun. She is the sorceress who gave Sigurd a magic potion that makes him forget that he ever married his wife Brünnehilde, so that he will marry Gudrun, her daughter. But she did not stop there. She wanted her son Gunnar to marry Brünnehilde, but she refused to marry him, and she would only marry the man who could cross the ring of flames she put up around herself. So Grimhild talks Sigurd into helping Gunnar marry Brünnehilde. Since Sigurd was the only one who could cross the flames him and Gunnar switched bodies, so Gunnar's body could cross the flames. Brünnehilde then married Gunnar, because she made a promise. When Brünnehilde learned that Sigurd had betrayed her with another woman (Gudrun), not knowing he had been bewitched into doing so by Grimhild, she was out to get revenge. She ended up killing Sigurd and herself by the end of the saga. Grimhild then made Gudrun marry Brünnehilde's brother Alti. Gudrun didn't want to marry him because she knew he would end up killing her brothers. This was the last that we hear of Grimhild in the Völsunga saga; it is probable that the ring's curse also brings misfortune and even death upon Grimhild herself.^[3]

The name was also given to another beautiful, evil sorceress woman who married king Áli of Alfheim (modern Bohuslän) in Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra. King Ali had a daughter before he married Grimhild, named Signy. Signy had a daughter with a king she had married but he died in battle, so she returned home to her father, with her daughter. Grimhild poisoned the king and then had ruled the kingdom in such an evil manner that it was laid waste. She then banned Signy and Hildr, her daughter, from the kingdom and put a curse on them, that Hildr would turn into a troll woman and they would have to live in a cave. Every man that came would fall in love with Hildr, and then Signy would have to kill them, until one man is not afraid. In turn, Hildr had put a curse on Grimhild, that she would stand over a fire between her legs, burning her from below while she was freezing from the other side, into which Grimhild would drop when their own curse was broken. Grimhild attempted to reason with Hildr, as she would rather that neither of their curses hold, but to no avail as Hildr desired revenge.^[4] Eleven years and sixteen men later, a young Dane IIlugi came along and broke Grimhild's curse, thus also causing her to die at last.^[5][6] (This Grimhild was an inspiration for Queen Grimhilde from Disney's Snow White.)

References

• Byock, Jesse L. The Saga of the Volsungs: the Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1990. Print.