EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE

Brunhilda of Austrasia (c543–613) POWER-HUNGRY VISIGOTHIC PRINCESS Germanic legends of valkyries may have been based on a strong-willed medieval ruler of northern Europe. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough introduces the real Brunhild

he name Brunhild con- Sigebert spent much of his time warring Brunhilda’s final regency came as she jures up images of shield- against his half-brother, King Chilperic, approached her seventies, this time for maidens and valkyries. who ruled in the west. her great-grandson. Her nemesis Frede- The legendary figure of Brunhilda, meanwhile, was busy with gund had died several years earlier, but Brunhild has a starring her own battle against Chilperic’s wife, the queenly feud outlived her, and would roleT in medieval Norse legends and the equally powerful and headstrong eventually lead to Brunhilda’s demise. continental Germanic tradition, later Fredegund. Brunhilda had a personal In 613, Clotaire II, son of Fredegund, immortalised in Wagner’s Ring cycle. reason to hate Fredegund, who had been accused Brunhilda of responsibility for According to prose and poetic texts Chilperic’s mistress while the western the deaths of no fewer than 10 Frankish from 13th-century Iceland, Brunhild king was married to Brunhilda’s own kings – including her own husband, is a valkyrie who might be won only by sister, Galswintha; when Galswintha Sigebert, and brother-in-law, Chilper- a man who can pass through a wall of died in mysterious circumstances, it was ic – and had her sentenced to death. flame – or, in another version, enchanted rumoured that Chilperic or Fredegund According to the eighth-century Liber shields – to reach her. The hero capable of had killed her, leaving the top job vacant Historiae Francorum (The History Book such a feat is Sigurd the Dragon- for his ambitious mistress. of the Franks), she was mounted on the Slayer; their love story becomes tangled Brunhilda gained real power only back of a camel, paraded through the in treachery, and by the end of the narra- after Sigebert was assassinated in 575 army, then torn apart by wild horses. The tive, Brunhild has Sigurd murdered. (and following a brief and inglorious account ends: “Her final grave was the It is likely that the origins of this leg- marriage to her nephew, which was fire. Her bones were burnt.” endary Brunhild lie in a historical figure. swiftly declared uncanonical due to their The manner of Brunhilda’s death Brunhilda of Austrasia was a Visigothic close kinship). She became regent in the echoes that of her legendary counter- princess born around AD 543, probably name of her young son, Childebert, at part, who burned herself on the pyre in what is now central Spain. She may which point she set about tackling the of her slain lover Sigurd. Likewise, the never have collected the dead from the administrative mess that was post-Ro- tangled web of family tragedies and battlefield for the All-Father, nor sung a man northern Europe. *1 jealousies that is the defining feature of stirring solo from her funeral pyre, but Under Brunhilda’s regency, old roads the German epic poem Niebelungenlied Brunhilda was a remarkable figure who were repaired, churches and abbeys (Song of the Niebelungs) and the Norse played an active, often ruthless role in commissioned, defensive fortifications legendary tradition bear a striking the cut-throat world of sixth-century erected, and the army and tax system resemblance to the bloody feuds and politics. Hers was a life entangled in the restructured. Brunhilda’s regency lasted treacheries of sixth-century Merovin- plots and intrigues of the Merovingian until Childebert came of age as a teenag- gian history. If the historical Brunhilda dynasty, rulers of the Franks after the er, and when he died, aged only 26, she was indeed the inspiration for the shield- collapse of the Western Roman Empire once again assumed control, this time maiden-cum-valkyrie, then she was a in the fifth century. in the name of her grandsons. By now in fitting role model, with a life as colourful Brunhilda was married to Sigebert, late middle age, Brunhilda had honed and dramatic as any Wagnerian opera or grandson of the powerful Clovis I, the her political ruthlessness, and soon the Norse saga. first king to unite all the Frankish tribes grandsons were at war with each other.*2 under one leader. King Sigebert ruled the Desperate to keep power, she supplied Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is Ruthless regent eastern portion of the Frankish realm, her favoured grandson with an endless associate professor of history at Durham Brunhilda of Austrasia rose to power by marrying a king, and fought to hold onto power after his death, ruling as regent for University, and author of Beyond the encompassing parts of what is now supply of concubines to dissuade him her son then grandsons. Eventually battles with her sister-in- northern Germany and France, Belgium, from acquiring a wife who might chal- Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old law led to her demise – but not before she had controlled the the Netherlands and Luxembourg. lenge her power. Norse Sagas (OUP, 2016) kingdom intermittently over a period of nearly 40 years 28 ILLUSTRATION BY LYNN HATZIUS 29