Brunhilda was a valkyrie of great integrity, valued by Odin for her paradoxical combination of loyalty and independence. She had been given orders to betray Xena and Gabrielle, but fell in love with Gabrielle. When the valkyrie sought to capture Gabrielle for exchange for the Ring she rode in on a horse and took Gabrielle. She turned herself into an eternal flame that kept a sleeping Gabrielle and the Ring safe from getting into the wrong hands, until Xena returned with Beowulf. Only Xena, her soul-mate, could pass through the flame.
In Norse mythology, Brynhildr or Brunilda was a skjaldmö (squire maiden) and a valkyrie.
It appears as one of the characters in the Saga of the volsungos and also in the poetic Edda, for example in the Helreið Brynhildar (The Hellish Journey of Brynhild).
Under the name of Brünnhilde appears in the Song of the Nibelungs and in the operatic saga of Richard Wagner (the tetralogy) The Ring of the Nibelung.
Probably, Brunhilda is inspired by the Visigothic princess and later Queen Brunegilda of Austrasia.
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