In the Valkyrie-brides, Brynhild and Sigrun, with their double
attributes of fighting and wisdom, there is an evident connexion
with the Germanic type of woman preserved in the allusions of Cæsar
and Tacitus, which reaches its highest development in the heroines
of the Edda. Any mythical or ideal conception of womanhood combines
the two primitive instincts, love and fighting, even though the woman
may be only the innocent cause of strife, or its passive prize. The
peculiarity of the Germanic representation is that the woman is never
passive, but is herself the incarnation of both instincts. Even
if she is not a Valkyrie, nor taking part herself in the fight,
she is ready, like the wives of the Cimbri, to drive the men back
to the battle from which they have escaped. Hild and Hervör are at
one extreme: war is their spiritual life. Love is in Hild nothing
more than instinct; in Hervör it is not even that: she would desire
nothing from marriage beyond a son to inherit the sword. At the other
extreme is Sigrun, who has the warlike instinct, but is spiritually a
lover as completely and essentially as Isolde or Juliet. The interest
in Signy lies in the way in which she sacrifices what are usually
considered the strongest feminine instincts, without, however, by
any means abandoning them, to her uncompromising revenge and pride
of race. Her pride in her son seems to include something of both
trains of feeling; and she dies with the husband she detests, simply
because he is her husband. Brynhild, lastly, is a highly modern type,
as independent in love as in war. It is impossible to imagine Sigrun,
or Wagner's Sieglinde, taking her revenge on a faithless lover;
from no lack of spirit, but simply because revenge would have given
no comfort to either. To Brynhild it is not only a distinct relief,
but the only endurable end; she can forgive when she is avenged.

The other motives of these stories may be briefly enumerated. The