Impatient Thor again threatens the Eye of Odin for not yet
explaining how Odin killed his own son, so the Eye continues...
In Asgard, Odin worries over Alberich's curse and looks down
on Midgard to see Vikings at war and his nine Valkyries to ferry the dead
heroes to Valhalla to start filling it. Meanwhile, a fellow who looks very much
like Thor is fighting his way through a driving storm and comes to a cottage,
seeking shelter. He faints and the lady of the house cares for him; her
husband, the brutish Hunding, arrives and roughly jokes about his wife cheating
with this handsome stranger, offending the hero. The stranger, calling himself
“Woe-King” relates his story: he and his father returned from hunting to find
the wife/mother dead and the hero's twin sister presumed to be dead in the
burning home. Father and son rode off for revenge against the clan of the
Neidings; there followed a massive slaughter in which the father vanished,
leaving only his wolfskin cloak behind. Woe-King became a wanderer and one day
he saw a woman being forced into a marriage against her will and intervened, killing
many of them. He then learned that he was killing the bride's brothers and she
was also slain in the melee. Hunding reveals that he was one of the brothers
and vows to kill Woe-King the following morning as hospitality forbids doing it
now. Later that night the wife comes to Woe-King, having drugged her husband;
she shows him a great sword embedded in the tree at the center of the cottage,
put there by a stranger who passed by as she was being wedded against her will
to Hunding; when the sword “Needful” is pulled out, she shall have her revenge.
The hero pulls it out and reveals his name is Siegmund, Son of Wulf; she
reveals that she is his twin sister Sieglinda, and know that their father was
likely a god, they fall in love as being above human kinship....
Odin is watching from Asgard and he admits to being Siegmund
and Sieglinda's father so he dispatches his favorite Valkyrie, Brunnhilda, to
Midgard to ensure that Sieg wins the duel the next day. But Odin's wife Frigga
has a stake in it: as she is the Goddess of Marriage, she objects to Odin
taking the part of a pair of adulterers over Hunding who has kept his vows and
Frigga demands that Siegmund die. Odin reluctantly agrees even though Siegmund
be his own son by a human mother; he orders Brunnhilda to carry out his fate
but the Valkyrie balks and even Odin worries over the fallout for Ragnarok of
losing this mighty hero. In Midgard, Brunnhilda warns Siegmund of his fate as
Odin has removed the sword's power but because she sympathizes with the young
lovers, she promises that Sieg will kill Hunding. And when the villain arrives,
they battle and Sieg has the upper hand until Frigga reminds Odin of his vow
and the All-Father is forced to go down and protect Hunding, smashing the sword
Needful and allowing Hunding to kill Sieg. Brunnhilda rides off on her winged
horse with Sieglinda, Odin kills Hunding, and vows revenge against the Valkyrie
for forcing him to kill his own son...as Thor watches in shock....