Balmung
/ˈbɑːl.mʊŋ/noun
The name of the sword carried by the hero Siegfried in Germanic legend.
Did you know?Balmung is the sword Siegfried uses in the Nibelungen tradition, but its exact name origin is unclear, with scholars often linking it to older Germanic legendary naming rather than a securely recoverable literal meaning.
Etymological Timeline
Medieval German
Middle High German
Balmung
“The name of a legendary sword in heroic poetry”
Old High German
OHG
balmunga?
“A proposed but not securely attested ancestral form sometimes discussed in scholarship”
Germanic Legendary Tradition
Germanic
*Balmungaz?
“A reconstructed legendary sword-name of uncertain origin”
Modern English
English
Balmung
“The proper name of Siegfried's sword in modern retellings and translations”