Sigrún: the Valkyrie Queen

Sigrún was the Valkyrie Queen, the leader of the nine Valkyries and the most lethal among them. Cursed by Odin into madness alongside her sisters, she was freed by Kratos and Atreus after one of the hardest battles of their journey, then restored by Freya to fight beside them in the final assault on Asgard.

Princess of Fjöturlund#

Before she became a Valkyrie, Sigrún was a princess of the Midgardian kingdom of Fjöturlund, born and raised by her father, King Högni, and his queen. A king named Helgi sought her hand, but Högni, who knew Helgi's true nature, refused him. Taking this as an insult, Helgi invaded Fjöturlund to claim Sigrún by force, and his soldiers sacked the kingdom and killed all who opposed him, among them most of her family. Only her brother, Prince Dagr, survived. When Dagr avenged their kin by impaling Helgi with a spear, Sigrún, who loved the mad king and did not yet know what he had done, laid a powerful curse upon her own brother. By the time she learned the truth, it was too late.

The Valkyrie Queen#

Bitterly regretting the curse she had placed on Dagr, Sigrún joined the Valkyries to atone. She served under the previous queen, Freya, whom she revered like her sisters. When Freya's marriage to Odin ended and the All-Father severed her wings and banished her to Midgard, Sigrún was named the new Valkyrie Queen. Yet without Freya the Valkyries had no true freedom, for Odin treated them as mere servants. The one comfort of her service was Mimir, Odin's advisor, with whom she fell in love during her tenure. Sigrún herself maintained that she only ruled in the absence of the true queen, making her a regent rather than a monarch.

The curse and the imprisonment#

Displeased with the Valkyries, Odin cursed Sigrún and her sisters of the high council to remain in physical forms that would corrupt them and drive them to insanity. Her great power let her resist far longer than her sisters, but in time she too began to lose herself. To protect the realms, Sigrún imprisoned each councilmember where they could cause no harm, then visited Mimir, who later recalled that she was already volatile and prone to fits of aggression. Finally she sealed herself away between the realms. Without the Valkyries to carry the worthy dead, the realm of Helheim began to overflow with the dead.

The battle and the freeing#

Kratos, Atreus, and Mimir fought each of the cursed Valkyries in turn, piecing together what had befallen them. After defeating the other eight and reaching the Throne of Eight, they forced Sigrún to appear and faced her in a tremendous struggle that proved one of their most difficult. Her might easily tested the former God of War, but at last they overcame her and freed her spirit. Released from the curse, she revealed Odin's role in the Valkyries' suffering, thanked her liberators, and reunited briefly with Mimir before departing to lead her sisters once more.

Ragnarok and after#

After being freed, Sigrún and her sisters went into hiding in Vanaheim rather than continue serving Odin, and she was succeeded as queen by Gná. She later helped Freya regain her Valkyrie wings and her warrior spirit. Found again by Freya and reincarnated in a new physical form through Vanir magic, which spared her from corruption, Sigrún joined the war effort. On the eve of the invasion of Asgard she asked to spend her last hours before battle alone with Mimir, in case she should fall. During the final assault she and her sisters worked to sever the Einherjar from Valhalla so that Odin's army could not revive itself. She survived Ragnarok and was among the survivors in Midgard, and in time she departed the realms on a journey of self-discovery, promising to return.

As the Queen of the Valkyries, Sigrún was an immensely powerful warrior, in Kratos' own judgment the most lethal opponent he and Atreus had yet faced. She wielded great strength and durability, fought with metallic wings whose feathers served as blades and projectiles, and commanded fire, ice, and smoke in battle. She was loyal and honorable above all, devoted to her family, her sisters, and especially to Freya, and she showed a gentle warmth toward Mimir even after he was reduced to a severed head.