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Borghild then arranged a funeral feast for her brother, and she served the drink.
Serving the drink was characteristic of the shieldmaiden in the stories about Valhalla. She tells Sinfjötli to drink, but he says it is poisoned, and Sigmund takes it instead. Borghild makes fun of Sinfjötli saying, "Why should other men drink ale for you?". She then orders him to drink a second time, but Sinfjötli won't and Sigmund drinks it again. Borghild dares him a third time, saying that he should "drain it, if he had the heart of a Volsung.". Sigmund is drunk at this point and isn't thinking clearly, so he also bids Sinfjötli to drink. Sinfjötli drank it and died. Sigmund was furious that his wife killed his son, so he drove Borghild out of the kingdom. Borghild died shortly after that.
Borghild's poison worked on Sinfjötli and not Sigmund because of the Volsung blood. According to legend, the Volsung family descended from Odin,Saga of the Volsungs "The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer" with introduction and translation by Jesse Byock and were therefore part god. Sigmund had more god-like blood in him than Sinfjötli, so Sigmund could withstand the poison, and Sinfjötli could not.
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
, Borghild was the first wife of Sigmund. They had two sons, Hamund and Helgi.
''Völsunga saga''
Sinfjötli (Borghild's step-son) "saw a lovely woman and strongly desired to have her. The brother of Borghild, the wife of King Sigmund, had also asked for her hand.". Sinfjötli killed the brother in a contest to win the maiden's hand, and Sinfjötli won. He became very famous. When he came home, he told his father Sigmund what had happened. Sigmund then told Borghild, and Borghild wanted Sinfjötli to leave the kingdom for killing her brother. Sigmund defended Sinfjötli, but offered to pay Borghild compensation. This was a generous offer, similar to Hrafnkel's offer to Thorbjorn for the death of Einar in ''Hrafnkels saga
''Hrafnkels saga'' (; ) or ''Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða'' (O.N.: ; Ice.: ) is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It tells of struggles between chieftains and farmers in the east of Iceland in the 10th century. The eponymous main character, Hrafnkell, st ...
''. Borghild, however, was not placated by this and said "You shall decide, sir, as is fitting.".
Borghild then arranged a funeral feast for her brother, and she served the drink.
Serving the drink was characteristic of the shieldmaiden in the stories about Valhalla. She tells Sinfjötli to drink, but he says it is poisoned, and Sigmund takes it instead. Borghild makes fun of Sinfjötli saying, "Why should other men drink ale for you?". She then orders him to drink a second time, but Sinfjötli won't and Sigmund drinks it again. Borghild dares him a third time, saying that he should "drain it, if he had the heart of a Volsung.". Sigmund is drunk at this point and isn't thinking clearly, so he also bids Sinfjötli to drink. Sinfjötli drank it and died. Sigmund was furious that his wife killed his son, so he drove Borghild out of the kingdom. Borghild died shortly after that.
Borghild's poison worked on Sinfjötli and not Sigmund because of the Volsung blood. According to legend, the Volsung family descended from Odin,Saga of the Volsungs "The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer" with introduction and translation by Jesse Byock and were therefore part god. Sigmund had more god-like blood in him than Sinfjötli, so Sigmund could withstand the poison, and Sinfjötli could not.
See also
*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 stor ...
*Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
*Saga
is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...
*Sigurd
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 Meroving ...
* Sinfjötli
* Sigmund
References