1. Brunhild (Germanic mythology) A shieldmaiden and valkyrie in Germanic mythology, a main character in the Nibelungenlied, Völsunga saga, and some poems of the Poetic Edda

2. Brunhild (bro͞on`hĭld), Brünnehilde (brün'əhĭld`ə), or Brynhild (brĭn`hĭld), mighty female warrior of Germanic mythology and literature.In the Nibelungenlied, a medieval German epic poem (see under Nibelungen Nibelungen or Nibelungs, in Germanic myth and literature, an …

3. Brunhild in the Nibelungenlied, the wife of Gunther, who instigated the murder of Siegfried.In the Norse versions she is Brynhild, a Valkyrie whom Sigurd (the counterpart of Siegfried) wins by penetrating the wall of fire behind which she lies in an enchanted sleep; his death comes about because he is later tricked into forgetting her and marrying the Nibelung princess Gudrun.

4. Brunhild, also spelled Brynhild, Brunhilda, Brunhilde, or Brünhild, a beautiful Amazon-like princess in ancient Germanic heroic literature, known originally from Old Norse sources (the Edda poems and the Vǫlsunga saga) and from the Nibelungenlied in German and more recently from Richard Wagner’s late 19th-century opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (“The Ring of the Nibelung”), adapted