Study › Runes & Norse › Sigrún and Helgi
The valkyrie Sigrún chose her own hero, Helgi Hundingsbane. After his death she spent a night with him in his burial mound, and the poem says they were born again.
Who is Sigrún?
Sigrún is a valkyrie who chose her own hero. In the lays of Helgi Hundingsbane in the Poetic Edda she rides to the young Helgi, son of Sigmund, and asks him to save her from a marriage she will not have. He wins her in battle, though it costs the lives of her father and brother. When Helgi in turn is killed, he goes to Valhalla, but on one night he rides back to his burial mound, and Sigrún goes down into the mound to spend the night with the dead man in her arms. At dawn he must return, and she waits the rest of her life for him to come again. The poem's editor adds that the two had lived before, as Helgi Hjörvarðsson and the valkyrie Sváva, and would live again, as Helgi Haddingjaskati and the valkyrie Kára — the clearest trace of rebirth in Norse legend.
Read Helgi Hundingsbane and the valkyries.
Questions
Who did Sigrún love?
Helgi Hundingsbane, son of Sigmund.
Were Sigrún and Helgi reborn?
The poem's editor says they had lived before and would live again: the clearest trace of rebirth in Norse legend.