ited the magic ring, loudly proclaiming her
husband had wooed and won Gunnar's bride! Two distinct parties now
defined themselves at court, where Hoegni, a kinsman of the Niblungs,
vehemently espoused Brynhild's cause. By some secret means--for his
was a dark and tortuous mind, ever plotting evil--Hoegni discovered the
trick of the magic potion, as well as Brynhild's previous wooing by
Sigurd, and proposed to her to avenge by blood the insult she had
received.

According to one version of the tale, Hoegni, who discovers in what
spot Sigurd is vulnerable, attacks him while he is asleep in bed and
runs his lance through the fatal spot. The dying Sigurd therefore has
only time to bid his wife watch over their children ere he expires. By
order of Gudrun, his corpse is placed on a pyre, where it is to be
consumed with his wonderful weapons and horse. Just as the flames are
rising, Brynhild, who does not wish to survive the man she loves,
either plunges into the flames and is consumed too, or stabs herself
and asks that her corpse be burned beside Sigurd's, his naked sword
lying between them, and the magic ring on her finger.

"I pray thee a prayer, the last word in the world I speak,
That ye bear me forth to Sigurd and the hand my hand would seek;
The bale for the dead is builded, it is wrought full wide on the plain,
It is raised for Earth's best Helper, and thereon is room for twain:
Ye have hung the shields about it, and the Southland hangings spread,
There lay me adown by Sigurd and my head beside his head:
But ere ye leave us sleeping, draw his Wrath from out the sheath,
And lay that Light of the Branstock and the blade that frighted Death
Betwixt my side and Sigurd's, as it lay that while agone,
When once in one bed together we twain were laid alone:
How then when the flames flare upward may I be left behind?
How then may the road he wendeth be hard for my feet to find?
How then in the gates of Valhall may the door of the gleaming ring
Clash to on the heel of Sigurd, as I follow on my king?"

Another version of the tale relates that Sigurd was slain by Hoegni
while hunting in the forest, as the story runs in the Nibelungenlied.
Next we are informed that the king of the Huns demanded satisfaction
from Gunnar for his sister Brynhild's death, and was promised Gudrun's
hand in marriage. By means of another magic potion, Sigurd's widow was
induced to marry the king of the Huns, to whom she bor