Character Name
Brynhildr
Brynhildr Brynhildr is perhaps the greatest female character in the entire Norse literary tradition — a goddess-warrior whose love, pride, and grief drive the destruction of heroes and kingdoms. Characters named Brynhildr carry an almost overwhelming charge of tragic magnificence: they are supreme, they are betrayed, and they burn everything down. The name suits the most powerful female figures in epic fantasy, characters whose emotional life is indistinguishable from fate itself.
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Famous characters named Brynhildr
Brynhildr
Völsunga saga — Anonymous (Old Norse)
The greatest of the Valkyries, imprisoned in fire and awakened by Sigurd — her love for him, his forgetting of her due to a magic potion, and the catastrophic consequences of that betrayal drive the central tragedy of the Völsunga cycle and the Nibelungenlied.
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Related names
Sigrun
Old Norse · “An Old Norse feminine name composed of "sigr" meaning "victory" and "rún" meaning "secret" or "rune" — thus "victory-rune" or "secret of victory". In Norse mythology Sigrún is a valkyrie, the beloved of the hero Helgi Hundingsbane, whose tragic love story is told in the Poetic Edda. The association with runes gives the name a mystical dimension beyond simple martial victory.”
Gudrun
Old Norse · “An Old Norse feminine name composed of "guðr" meaning "god" or "battle" and "rún" meaning "secret" or "rune" — thus "divine secret", "battle-rune", or "god's mystery". Gudrun is one of the great names of Norse heroic legend — she is the sister of Gunnar and wife of Sigurd in the Volsunga Saga, and her fate forms the emotional core of the entire cycle as she witnesses the murder of her husband and the destruction of her family.”
Kriemhild
Germanic · “A Middle High German feminine name, possibly composed of "grîman" meaning "mask" or "helmet" and "hild" meaning "battle" — though the etymology is debated, with some scholars connecting the first element to a word meaning "violence" or "grief". Kriemhild is the central heroine-avenger of the Nibelungenlied, whose grief at the murder of her husband Siegfried transforms her into an unstoppable instrument of vengeance.”
Svanhild
Old Norse · “An Old Norse feminine name composed of "svan" meaning "swan" and "hildr" meaning "battle" — thus "swan-battle" or "the battle-swan". In Norse mythology and the Völsunga saga, Svanhild is the daughter of Sigurd (Siegfried) and Gudrun, renowned as the most beautiful woman in the world; she is trampled to death by horses on the order of King Jörmunrekr, and her death provokes the final vengeance of the Gjukungs.”
More Old Norse names
Tryggve
“An Old Norse masculine name derived from "tryggr" meaning "trusty", "faithful", or "true". The name was common among Norwegian and Icelandic royalty in the Viking Age — most notably borne by Tryggve Olafsson, king of Viken (Norway) and father of King Olaf Tryggvason, whose saga is one of the great narratives of the Christianisation of Norway.”
Vigdis
“An Old Norse feminine name composed of "víg" meaning "battle" or "war" and "dís" meaning "divine woman", "female spirit", or a category of female supernatural beings in Norse religion — thus "battle-dís" or "divine woman of war". The dísir were protective female spirits associated with fate, fertility, and the dead; a woman named Vigdís was therefore a woman with the divine-warrior protective spirit of the dísir.”
Freydis
“An Old Norse feminine name composed of "Freyr" (the fertility god) or "freyja" (lady) and "dís" meaning "divine woman" or female protective spirit — thus "divine lady" or "Freyr's dís". The most famous bearer is Freydís Eiríksdóttir, daughter of Erik the Red and sister of Leif Eriksson, who appears in the Vinland sagas as one of the most startlingly violent and morally ambiguous women in the Norse literary record.”
Gerd
“Gerd is a Germanic name derived from Proto-Germanic "*gardaz" meaning "enclosure" or "stronghold", related to Old Norse "garðr". As a feminine name it derives from Old Norse Gerðr, the name of a beautiful jötunn giantess in Norse mythology who becomes the wife of the god Freyr in the Poetic Edda. As a masculine name it functions as a short form of Gerhard, from Germanic "ger" (spear) and "hard" (strong, brave).”
Solveig
“An Old Norse feminine name composed of "sol" meaning "sun" and "veig" meaning "strength", "power", or "a strong drink" — thus "sun-strength" or "power of the sun". The name gained international fame through Henrik Ibsen's drama "Peer Gynt" (1867), in which Solveig is the faithful, luminous heroine who waits decades for the return of the errant hero.”
Astrid
“An Old Norse feminine name composed of "áss" meaning "god" (specifically the Aesir gods) and "fríðr" meaning "beautiful" or "beloved" — thus "divinely beautiful" or "beloved of the gods". The name was borne by several Scandinavian queens including Astrid of Sweden, mother of Saint Olaf, and remains one of the most enduringly popular feminine names across the Nordic countries.”
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