Paper short abstract:

In Wagner’s opera Der Ring des Nibelungen, Brünnhilde is the ultimate heroine. In the Volsunga Saga, she dies in a metaphorical battle, yet she is not permitted into Valhalla because it is destroyed, and because her status as a woman would not allow it. Brunnhilde deserves it, regardless of gender.

Paper long abstract:

In Wagner’s opera Der Ring des Nibelungen, Brünnhilde is the ultimate heroine—she delivers the ring back to the Rhinemaidens; she overcomes her fall from Valkyrie-hood; she survives rape and cheating and dishonesty; she guides the male characters. Yet, in Volsunga Saga, she is demonized and punished, and even though she dies in a metaphorical battle, she is not permitted into Valhalla partly because it is destroyed, and partly because her status as a woman would not allow it. After she awakens from her sleep, she quickly regains her power as the strong woman in the story, even as she is stripped of her title of Valkyrie. Out of defeat she fashions a heroinism that looks different from male heroic achievement and ultimately prevails over authority. Brünnhilde is the heroine.

While she is the idealization of the 19th century woman, she is also the Norse depiction of a severely infuriated stereotypical woman. Wagner chose to reflect his own societal expectations on Brünnhilde to expand her character, to redeem her—yet she still does not make to Valhalla, its destruction aside. Based on her heroinism, Brünnhilde should have entered Valhalla. What then prevents her from ascending to the resting place of the blessed? Wagner’s attempt at redeeming her places her in the Valhalla created by him, not the one standardly referred to in Norse mythology. This paper dismantles the master narrative set forth by the Norse tradition and instead argues that Brünnhilde should be exalted, her apparent gender and Valhalla’s destruction aside.