Grane (steed of Brunnhilde the Valkyrie and Siegfried; Eye of Odin stories)

grane-brunnhilde grane-siegfried GRANE

Real Name: Grane

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Asgardian) winged horse (later stripped of wings);
active during presumably the fifth century AD (see comments), and who knows how long before that

Occupation: Steed

Group Membership: Formerly the steeds of the Valkyrior

Affiliations: Brunnhilde the Valkyrie, Siegfried, Sieglinda

Enemies: Odin

Known Relatives: Sleipnir (father);
Svaðilfari (grandfather), Loki Laufeyson (grandmother)

Aliases: Grani

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly an unspecified location in northern Europe;
presumably born in Asgard

First Appearance: (Mythological Grani) Völsunga Saga (13th century) or possibly earlier as Sigurd is use in the Edda and before, dating back to the 11th century;
    (Wagner's Siegfried) Die Walkure (June, 26, 1870);
        (identified) Gotterdammerung (August 17, 1876);
    (Marvel's Grane) Thor I#296 (June, 1980);
       (identified) Thor I#299 (September, 1980)

Powers/Abilities: Winged, Grane could fly, carrying Brunnhilde the Valkyrior in her choosing of valiant, slain warriors to populate Valhalla.

Grane could fly with at least one woman and one man on his back, even if one of the woman was Asgardian (who may or may not have weighed significantly more than human).

Grane was later stripped of his wings, but he remained a noble, loyal, and powerful steed.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'6" to 6' at withers (the ridge between the shoulders of a quadruped; the high point of the thoracic dorsal spinal processes)
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 1000 - 1200 lbs. if not more dense/heavy than a terrestrial horse)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: White grane-sieglinda

History:

(Thor I#296 (fb)) - Grane carried Brunnhilde the Valkyrie as she led the Valkyrior to battlefields where they chose valiant, recently slain warriors to populate Valhalla.

    Ordered by Odin to slay Siegmund due to Siegmund's disruption of marriage vows sacred to Frigga, Brunnhilde rode Grane to Midgard (Earth) to confront Siegmund.

    After Siegmund convinced Brunnhilde to defy Odin's orders, Odin directly aided Hunding in slaying Siegmund. Thereafter, Brunnhilde took Sieglinda with her and fled atop Grane.

(Thor I#297 (fb) - BTS) - Grane delivered Brunnhilde and Sieglinda to Valhalla, after which Brunnhilde transported Sieglinda (pregnant with Siegfried) to Earth; after Brunnhilde's return, Odin arrived and punished her for her betrayal by turning her mortal and trapping her within a flame-covered mountain peak until a man of worth came to her rescue.

(Thor I#299 (fb) - BTS) - Grane lost his wings.

(Thor I#299 (fb) - BTS) - After Siegmund's son, Siegfried, had passed through the flames surrounding Brunnhilde and the two had fallen in love, Brunnhilde gifted Siegfried with Grane as she bade him to return to the outside world and achieve his heroic destiny. She told Siegfried Grane was on the ground below the mountain and that all Siegfried had to do was speak Grane's name and Grane would be his.

(Thor I#299 (fb)) - Siegfried rode Grane for a day until reaching the river Rhine, at which point both Siegfried and Grane boarded a boat and sailed mile downstream to the stronghold of the Gibichung clan.

    Arriving there, Siegfried led Grane off the ship, after which Siegfried was drawn into a meeting with Hagen, Gunther, and Gutruna, during which Hagen's potion erased Siegfried's memory of Brunnhilde and made him fall madly in love with Gutruna.

    Under the potion's influence, Siegfried rode Grane to Brunnhilde's mountain to bring her to marry Gunther so that Gutruna would be free to marry Siegfried without dishonoring her brother. grane-brunnhilde-sword

Leaving Grane at the base of the mountain, Siegfried scaled the mountain, used his mystic Tarnhelm helmet to take Gunther's form, and took Brunnhilde against her will; causing her to swoon.

Still in Gunther's form, Siegfried returned to the Gibichung stronghold.

(Thor I#299 (fb) - BTS) - During the proposed wedding, Brunnhilde revealed her past relationship with Siegfried, leading Gunther to expect betrayal. Unable to slay the powerful Siegfried, Gunther instead negotiated for him to forever leave the Gibichung stronghold.

(Thor I#300 (fb) - BTS?) - Astride a brown horse (see comments), Siegfried encountered the Rhinemaidens, refusing to surrender the Ring of the Nibelung to them despite warnings that it would bring his doom. He subsequently met with Gunther and Hagen, the latter of whom had learned of his weakness of being attacked from behind and slew him.

(Thor I#300 (fb)) - Back at the Gibichung castle, Brunnhilde had Siegfried's corpse placed upon a burning pyre, and she rode Grane, guiding him to leap atop the pyre, which consumed them both.

(Thor I#300(fb) - BTS?) - Brunnhilde was restored to godhood and Siegfried was revived as Thor, but Grane has not been seen again, to the best of my knowledge.

Comments: The original concept of Grani was created by unknown Icelandic parties;
the Ring of the Nibelung character was created by Richard Wagner;
the Marvel character was an adaptation of Wagner's character, adapted by Roy Thomas, Keith Pollard, and Chic Stone.

    For this and all profiles related to the Ring of the Nibelung, you should open up another page in your browser and load Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyrie"
    Something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRU1AJsXN1g (if/when this link becomes defective, just search for it)
    Yes, this is Elmer Fudd's "Kill the Wabbit" song...

These stories were among those told to Thor by the Eye of Odin, and the events therein, particularly the origins of the current Odin incarnation, have been called into question.

Nonetheless, Fafnir the Jotun appeared in Thor I#486-488, wherein Thor recognized him from their previous encounters.
An earlier issue (#288 per my notes) described how Fafnir of Nastrond was named after Fafnir the Storm Giant, and both Fafnir and Fasolt appeared in a Giants of Jotunheim Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry.
Further, the Oversword, which exists in the modern era, awas formed from the Rhinegold from which the Ring of Power had been composed.
Around Marvel Team-Up I#116, Thor and Brunnhilde the Valkyrie regarded their past lives when her mortal incarnation loved Siegfried (Thor's mortal incarnation).
I think the simplest explanation is that the events happened, but they may have been distorted somewhat by Eye of Odin. Perhaps some of it represents events from an even earlier cycle of Asgardians.

As the stories largely followed Wagner's Ring Trilogy, Brunnhilde was pretty consistently called Brunnhilda throughout this story arc. But that doesn't make it the correct spelling. Don't be the wrong-spelling bandwagon people, like those who use "Galen" as Galactus' real name. It's just plain wrong, no matter how you slice it.

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

In Norse mythology, Grani is a horse owned by the hero Sigurd. He is the horse that Sigurd receives through advice from the Norse god (Odin). Grani is a descendant of Odin's own steed, Sleipnir.

In chapter 13 of Völsunga saga, the hero Sigurðr is on his way to a wood when he meets a long-bearded old man he had never seen before. Sigurd tells the old man that he is going to choose a horse, and asks the old man to come with him to help him decide. The old man says that they should drive the horses down to the river Busiltjörn. The two drive the horses down into the deeps of Busiltjörn, and all of the horses swim back to land but a large, young, and handsome gray horse that no one had ever mounted. The grey-bearded old man says that the horse is from "Sleipnir's kin" and that "he must be nourished heedfully, for it will be the best of all horses". The old man vanishes. Sigurd names the horse Grani, and the narrative adds that the old man was none other than Odin.^[

Grani is believed to be depicted on several of the Sigurd stones, which depict imagery from the legend of Sigurd the dragon slayer, including the inscription on Sö 327 in Gök, Södermanland County, Sweden.^[2] In Norse iconography, the depiction of a horse carrying a chest was sufficient to represent Grani carrying the treasure after Sigurd had slain the dragon Fafnir.^[3] This is supported by a kenning in a Norse poem that refers to "Grani's beauteous burden,"^[4] indicating a common understanding of the motif.

Other versions

In Wagner's Ring cycle of operas the name (as "Grane") is given to Brünnhilde's horse.

In Digimon Tamers, Grani was the name of the refitted 'Ark', which was used as a steed by Gallantmon late in the series. It was directly stated in episode 47 that it was named by its creators after Siegfried's horse, Grani. Grani would later be used to upgrade Gallantmon into his Crimson Mode during the finale of the series and in one of the theatrical movies.

Grani also forms the theoretical Old Norse root of the etymology of the island of Guernsey via Anglo-Norman, from "Granis" (Grani's) + "ey" (dialectical term for "little island"); although it is probable that this was from a Viking's personal name rather than a direct appellation to the divine horse.

In Fire Emblem Heroes, Grani's Shield is a skill that protects cavalry units against bonus damage from enemies who have anti-cavalry weapons.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Grane should be distinguished from:

other Grane characters...and other white, winged steeds...

images: (without ads)
Thor I#296, pg. 3, panel 4 (choosing the slain) - notscanned; extra if needed;
       pg. 13, panel 7 (Brunnhilde, spear);
       pg. 19, panel 2 (Brunnhilde fleeing with Sieglinda);
    #299, pg. 2, panel 9 (Siegfried astride);
       pg. 3, panel 8 (disembarking);
    #300, pg. 5, panel 5 (Brunnhilde, sword);
          panel 6 (w/ Brunnhilde, leaping into pyre)

Appearances:
Thor I#296 (June, 1980) - Roy Thomas (writer/editor), Keith Pollard (penciler), Chic Stone (inker), Jim Shooter (consulting editor)
Thor I#297 (July, 1980) - Roy Thomas (writer/editor), Keith Pollard (penciler), Chic Stone (inker), Mark Gruenwald (assistant editor)
Thor I#298 (August, 1980) - Ralph Macchio (writer), Keith Pollard (penciler), Chic Stone (inker), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Thor I#299 (September, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Keith Pollard (penciler), Chic Stone (inker), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Thor I#300 (October, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio (writers), Keith Pollard (penciler), Chic Stone (inker), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Marvel Pets Handbook: Sleipnir entry (2009) - Michael Hoskin, Jeff Christiansen, et. al. (writer), Victor Olazaba (artist), Jeff Youngquist (editor)

First posted: 06/19/2019
Last updated: 06/19/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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