Sigrdrífomál

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Sigrdrífomál ( Old Norse for "Sigrdrífas Rede (n)") is a hero song of the Liederedda in the Codex Regius . The Sigrdrífomál, together with the Fáfnismál and the Reginsmál, tells of the youthful deeds of the hero Sigurðr.

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After Sigurðr has killed the dragon Fáfnir , he rides off to find the Valkyrie Sigrdrífa. On a mountain he sees a big fire and finds a sleeping man in armor surrounded by a shield castle . Sigurðr takes the helmet off the sleeping man's head and realizes that it is a woman. When he made her breastplate has cut, she wakes up and gives Sigurðr a memory potion. He recognizes Sigrdrífa and she tells him that Óðinn chose the former to win a battle between kings Hjalmgunnar and Agnarr. However, Sigrdrífa disagreed and killed Hjalmgunnar himself. Óðinn punished her for this by stabbing her with a sleeping thorn and cursing her never to fight again and never have to marry again. Sigurðr asks the Valkyrie to share some of her wisdom with him. So she teaches him in runology and morality.

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Neither the age nor the origin of the motif for delivering a virgin from a sleep spell can be accurately determined. Most noticeable are the parallels to the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty . Whether the Sigrdrífomál is an older model or another, more mythical version of the fairy tale, it is definitely a peculiar, perhaps even specifically Nordic adaptation. With regard to the Nibelungen saga, Sigrdrífa was mostly equated with Brynhild .

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Individual evidence

  1. a b The Sugrdrifalied . In: Arnulf Krause (Ed.): The Heldenlieder der Älteren Edda. Translated, commented on and edited by Arnulf Krause. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2001, p. 115-126 .