Introduction
Hogni was a son of Gjuki and Grimhild, brother to Gunnar and Gudrun, and a loyal participant in his family's affairs, including the plot against Sigurd and the later disastrous visit to Atli's court.
Family
Loyalty to the End
When Atli invited Gunnar and Hogni to his court intending to seize the cursed gold Sigurd had left to the Gjukungs, Hogni went knowingly into danger alongside his brother rather than abandon him. Captured along with Gunnar, Hogni was killed by having his heart cut out while still alive, a scene the saga renders with particular grimness — Atli demanded it specifically to learn from Gunnar where the gold was hidden, a secret Gunnar, once Hogni alone knew it too, refused to reveal even under torture.
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.