Svanhild
Norse · scion · mythic prehistoric · scion
Daughter of Sigurd and Gudrún. Her death — trampled by horses on the false charge of adultery with the Gothic king Jǫrmunrekkr's son — provokes her half-brothers Hamðir and Sǫrli to the doomed final revenge that closes the Vǫlsung-Niflung cycle. A rare case with a historical kernel: Jordanes records the Gothic queen Sunilda torn apart by horses under Ermanaric.
Parentage
Powers
- is the fairest of all women, her beauty the spark of the final feud
Relations
- father: Sigurd
- sibling: Áslaug
- half sibling: Hamðir
- spouse: Jǫrmunrekkr
- half sibling: Sǫrli
Sources
- Hamðismál; Guðrúnarhvǫt (Poetic Edda)
- Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál
- Jordanes, Getica 24 (the Gothic Sunilda, historical kernel)