I
born с 534
died 613, Renève, Burgundy
Queen of the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia .
Daughter of a king of the Visigoth s, she married the Austrasian king Sigebert I in 567. One of the most forceful monarchs of the Chilperic I . When her husband was assassinated in 575, Brunhild was imprisoned at Rouen. She later took refuge at Metz, where her son Childebert II had been proclaimed king, and she struggled to establish her authority over her son and the reluctant Austrasian magnates. After Childebert's death she continued to influence affairs and impose her will on her grandsons. After a long career she fell into the hands of her enemies, including the founders of the Carolingian family; she was tortured and then dragged to death by a horse.
II
or Brunhilda or Brynhild
Beautiful Amazon-like heroine of ancient Germanic literature.
She is known from Old Norse sources, notably the Edda poems and the Volsunga saga , and from the German Nibelungenlied . She also appears in the operas of Richard Wagner 's Ring cycle. She vowed to wed only a man of the most outstanding qualities who could surpass her in strength. She was successfully wooed by King Gunther, who defeated her in a contest in which the deeds were actually performed by {{link=Siegfried">Siegfried in cloak of invisibility. When she later discovered that she had been deceived, she exacted vengeance, and Siegfried was killed. Siegfried's widow in turn sought revenge and brought about the destruction of Gunther's people, the Burgundians. In some Norse sources, Brunhild has supernatural qualities and is described as a Valkyrie .