Shield-maiden and female fantasy as well as emblematic of the danger of abandoning gender roles. Brynhildr of the "Vǫlsunga saga", along with her rival in love, Guðrún Gjúkadóttir, provides an example of how a shield-maiden compares to more conventional aristocratic womanhood in the sagas. Brynhildr is chiefly concerned with honor, much like a male warrior. When she ends up married to Gudrun's brother Gunnarr instead of Sigurðr, the man she intended to marry, Brynhildr speaks a verse comparing the courage of the two men: Brynhildr is married to Gunnarr and not Sigurðr because of deceit and trickery, including a potion of
Nine maidens (mythology) Peredur son of Efrawg, and these are the armed witches of Caer Lyow. Also in Welsh mythology, we have nine maidens who tend the fire below the Cauldron of the "Chief of Annwfn"; this cauldron is the target of Arthur’s raid on the Underworld in Taliesin’s famous poem Preiddeu Annwfn. Groups of Nine Maidens crop up in the Icelandic tales of Thidrandi and in Brand’s saga, in the story of Svipdagr, as Valkyries and as the daughters of the sea goddess Rán. In Norse mythology, the watcher god of Valhalla, Heimdallr is said to be born of nine mothers, and