Introduction
Gudrun was the daughter of Gjuki and Grimhild, and — through her mother's potion of forgetfulness — became Sigurd's wife after he lost all memory of his earlier pledge to Brynhild.
Family
From Widow to Avenger
Gudrun's marriage to Sigurd ended with his murder, orchestrated by her own brothers at Brynhild's demand. Grief-stricken but pressured again by her mother Grimhild, she later remarried, unwillingly, to Atli, king of the Huns. When Atli lured her brothers Gunnar and Hogni to his court and killed them both to seize the cursed Nibelung gold, Gudrun took a revenge of extraordinary severity: she killed the sons she had borne to Atli and served him their flesh and blood unknowingly at a feast, revealing the truth only afterward, then killed Atli himself and burned down his hall.
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.