Introduction
Grimhild was the sorceress wife of King Gjuki and mother of Gunnar, Hogni, and Gudrun, renowned for her skill in magic and her ruthless determination to advance her family's fortunes.
Family
The Potion of Forgetfulness
When Sigurd arrived at the Gjukung court already pledged to Brynhild, Grimhild brewed him a potion that erased all memory of that promise. With his memory wiped, Sigurd married Gudrun and helped Gunnar win Brynhild for himself by riding through her wall of flame in Gunnar's disguised shape — a deception whose eventual discovery leads directly to Sigurd's murder and the destruction of both families. Grimhild's manipulations continue afterward, including pressuring her widowed daughter Gudrun into a second, equally disastrous marriage to Atli.
The Volsunga Saga and the Poetic Edda preserve the Norse-Icelandic form of this legend; the German Nibelungenlied recounts substantially the same events under different names (Sigurd as Siegfried, Brynhild as Brünnhilde, Atli as Etzel/Attila), reflecting a shared Germanic legendary tradition rather than a single fixed text.