Brynhild's Ring of Fire

They prepared their journey carefully, and then rode over the moun-
tains and valleys to King Buđli, where Gunnar made his proposal. Buđli
said he would be in favor of the marriage, if Brynhild were not against
it, because he said she was so proud that she would only be married to
a man she wanted.

They rode now to Hlymdalir, and they were greeted well there by
Heimir. Gunnar told him his errand, and Heimir said it would be
Brynhild’s choice about whether she would marry him or not. He added
that her hall was not very far from his, and that she would only willingly
marry a man who dared to ride through the burning ring of fire that
rose in flames around her hall.

They found the hall and the fire around it, and they saw that the hall
was roofed with gold and surrounded on all sides by fire. Gunnar was
riding the horse Goti, and Hogni rode Holkvir. Gunnar rode toward
the fire, but his horse balked.

Sigurđ said, “Why do you balk, Gunnar?”

Gunnar said, “My horse won’t leap over the fire,” and then he asked
if Sigurđ would loan him Grani to ride.

“Of course,” said Sigurđ. And now Gunnar rode a second time at the
flame, but Grani would not make the leap. And since Gunnar could not
make his way through the fire, he exchanged appearances with Sigurđ,
as Grímhild had taught them to do. Then Sigurđ rode Grani with the
sword Gram in his hand and golden spurs on his feet. Grani leapt the
flame when he felt the spurs.

There was a great roar as the fire surged, and the earth around them
shook and the flames reached to the heavens. No one had dared to do
this before, and it seemed as though he rode into darkness. Then the fire
died down and he stepped off his horse into the hall. As the poem tells it,

The fire surged,
the earth shook,
and the high flames
sawed at the heavens.
Not many kings
were willing
to ride that fire,
nor step over it.

Sigurđ drove Grani
with a drawn sword,
and the flames
withdrew before him;
the fire withered
for that man eager for honor.
Grani’s harness, which once
had been Regin’s, glowed.

And when Sigurđ entered the flame, he found a lovely room and
Brynhild sitting within. She asked who this man was, and he answered
that he was Gunnar, the son of Gjúki. “And you are going to be my
wife, with the consent of your father and your foster-father, provided
you also agree, now that I have ridden through the burning ring of fire.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to answer this,” she said.

Sigurđ stood tall and leaned on his sword-hilt and said to Brynhild,
“I will reward you with a great deal of gold and good treasures.”

She answered with sadness, sitting in her seat like a swan on a wave,
dressed in chainmail with a sword in her hand and a helmet on her
head. “Gunnar,” she said, “do not talk to me like this unless you are
better than all other men and will agree to kill every other man who
has ever asked to marry me, if you can be relied upon to do that. I have
been in battle with the king of the Rus, and my weapons were red with
blood, and I still long for such things.”

He said, “You have done many great deeds, but now remember your
oath that you would marry the man who rode over this flame.”

She knew that this was a true reply, and she realized the importance
of what he had said. She stood up and greeted him well, and he stayed
there for three nights, sharing one bed with her, though he took the
sword Gram and drew it from its sheath and placed it between them.
She asked why he did this, and he answered that it had been foretold
that this was how he would be married to his wife, or else he would die.
Then he took the ring Andvaranaut, which he had given her earlier, off
her finger, and gave her a new ring from Fáfnir’s treasure. Then he rode
out through the same fire back to his companions, and he and Gunnar
exchanged appearances again and then they rode back to Hlymdalir and
told what had happened.

That same day Brynhild went home to her foster-father Heimir and
told him privately that a great king had come to her. “He rode through
my burning ring of fire, and he said he had come to propose to me and
that his name was Gunnar. And I said that Sigurđ alone would do this,
and that I swore oaths to him on the mountain, and he was my first lover.”

But Heimir said that everything would be done as agreed.


- Volsunga Saga, Chapter 27