Hindarfjall or Hindafjall ("Hind mountain") is the mountain where

Brynhildr Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( non, Brynhildr , gmh, Brünhilt, german: Brünhild , label=Modern German or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigothic princess Brunhilda o ...

lives in the

Völsung cycle In Norse mythology, Völsung ( non, Vǫlsungr ) was the son of Rerir and the eponymous ancestor of the ill-fated Völsung clan (), which includes the well known Norse hero Sigurð. He was murdered by the Geatish king Siggeir and later avenged b ...

. In

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

's account of the Völsung cycle (''

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Language of Poetry'; c. 50,000 words; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda''. The section consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bragi, the god of poetry, ...

''),

Sigurðr Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovin ...

first meets Brynhildr, whom he finds asleep, in a building on a mountain whose name is not given. Later, Brynhildr is said to live on Hindafjall, in a hall surrounded by wavering flames (''vafrlogi''). Sigurðr rides through them and asks for Brynhildr's hand, having taken the appearance of

Gunnarr Gunnar is a male first name of Nordic origin (''Gunnarr'' in Old Norse). The name Gunnar means fighter, soldier, and attacker, but mostly is referred to by the Viking saying which means Brave and Bold warrior (''gunnr'' "war" and ''arr'' "warrior ...

. In the other sources (''

Sigrdrífumál (also known as ) is the conventional title given to a section of the ''Poetic Edda'' text in . It follows without interruption, and it relates the meeting of Sigurðr with the valkyrie Brynhildr, here identified as ("driver to victory"). Its ...

'', ''

Völsunga saga The ''Völsunga saga'' (often referred to in English as the ''Volsunga Saga'' or ''Saga of the Völsungs'') is a legendary saga, a late 13th-century poetic rendition in Old Norse of the origin and decline of the Völsung clan (including the st ...

''), Hindarfjall is mentioned in relation with the first encounter: after killing

Fáfnir In Nordic and wider Germanic mythology, Fáfnir (Old Norse pronunciation: �fɑːvnər is a mighty dwarf who is the son of Hreidmar, and brother of Regin and Ótr. Once cursed by Andvari's ring and gold, Fafnir slays his father out of greed ...

and Reginn, Sigurðr rides up onto Hindarfjall and goes south toward Frakkland. Then he sees a great light on a mountain. There stands a wall of shield, and behind it Sigrdrífa-

Her name is Sigrdrífa in ''Sigrdrífumál'', Brynhildr in the ''Völsunga saga''. asleep. The name of the place where the second meeting takes place, when Sigurðr rides through the flames after he and Gunnar exchanged forms, is not given. Hindarfjall is also mentioned in ''

Fáfnismál ''Fáfnismál'' (''Fáfnir's sayings'') is an Eddic poem, found in the Codex Regius manuscript. The poem is unnamed in the manuscript, where it follows ''Reginsmál'' and precedes ''Sigrdrífumál'', but modern scholars regard it as a separate poem ...

'', where the birds, which Sigurðr can understand after tasting Fáfnir's blood, talk about a hall on Hindarfjall, surrounded with flames, where Sigrdrífa sleeps. In ''

Helreið Brynhildar ''Helreið Brynhildar'' (Old Norse 'The Hel-ride of Brynhild') is a short Old Norse poem that is found in the ''Poetic Edda''. Most of the poem (except stanza 6) is also quoted in '' Norna-Gests þáttr''. Henry Adams Bellows says in his comment ...

'', it is called ''Skatalundr'', and there is an obscure stanza that Sigurðr first meet Brynhildr in her foster-father's home.

Notes

{{Norse mythology Locations in Norse mythology Mythological mountains