Reclaiming Myth: A Deeper Reading of Brynhildr in the Darkness
(Spoilers ahead for the full manga)
Brynhildr in the Darkness stands out to me as a thematically rich and symbolically layered story — even though it's flawed in execution. On the surface, it can feel like a strange mix of harem tropes, ecchi fanservice, and sci-fi madness. But beneath that lies something more profound: a tragic, mythologically infused narrative that reimagines Old Norse cosmology in a surprisingly coherent way.
This isn’t just a story about magic and alien technology — it’s a retelling of ancient myth through the lens of science fiction. And I’d like to offer an interpretation of its deeper themes, particularly the ending and the mythological framework that gives it weight.
Norse Mythology in Brynhildr:
At its heart, Brynhildr reimagines the ancient conflict between two pantheons of Norse gods: the Vanir and the Aesir.
Historically, this war is said by many historians to reflect a historical shift from an older earth-based spirituality (Vanir: love, nature, fertility) to a newer, more hierarchical and militaristic one (Aesir: order, power, control).
In the manga, that divide is translated into the clash between our main characters(Vanir): self-sacrificing and emotionally driven, and Vingulf (Aesir) manipulative, power-hungry, and artificial.
This isn’t accidental. The deeper mythic identities of the characters make that very clear.
The ancient Vanir Gods: Nature, Love, and Sacrifice
Kazumi → Freyja
Mythic Role: Goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, often targeted in the myths and misunderstood as being promiscuous.
In Manga: Brash, sexual, but deeply loyal and selfless. She is often exploited but chooses love and sacrifice. Her refusal to follow the test to get the codename system reflects Freyja’s dignity and resistance in myth.
Even the “fake Freyja” introduced earlier in the manga only highlights how Kazumi is the real embodiment as she gets beaten by her in the end.
Like the mythic Freyja, Kazumi suffers repeated attempts to be used or killed, yet remains devoted — helplessly in love, just as Freyja was with her lost husband Óðr in the myths.
Hatsuna → Nerthus
Mythic Role: Ancient Earth goddess whose presence halts conflict. Associated with peace, rebirth, and spring.
In Manga: Her name (初菜 – “first sprout”) and regenerative powers symbolize life’s endurance. She survives the manga’s Ragnarök and returns from hatching via her "Drasil" powers This is an interesting point as it highlights that Nerthus is an older god than Odin, free from his control (more on the Drasill and “YggDrasill” difference and why it matters).
Hatsuna is symbolically like the soul of the earth, the one who keeps going, not by fighting, but by healing and surviving Ragnarök, and in a relationship with a human to symbolize rebirth.
Kana → The Völva (Seer) (The one who Tells the story / not a vanir god)
Mythic Role: The prophetess of Völuspá who foretells and survives Ragnarök.
In Manga: Immobile yet all-seeing, Kana constantly warns the others. Like the Völva, she bears witness and endures — the silent keeper of memory.
In the end, Kana lives on as a witness and symbol of the truth that survives destruction.
Neko (Kuroha) → Brynhildr
Mythic Role: A cursed Valkyrie torn between love and duty, often associated with the Nibelungenlied.
In Manga: Her memory loss and rediscovery of her powers mirror the Norse myth in which she is saved by Siegfried and slowly recovers her powers. Her protective instincts mark her as a true Valkyrie. She is caught between two “brothers” — Ryouta and Makina — just as Brynhildr is caught between Siegfried and Gunther in the myth.
Even her powers — draining the energy of Kurofuku mysteriously in Vol. 16 — reflect the Valkyrie’s mythic role in determining who lives and who dies on the battlefield (Which by the way Onodera also a Valkyrie also do to knock out Neko in Volume 17 after Makinas death)
Kotori → Grani / Idunn
Mythic Roles:
Grani: Sigurd’s loyal horse, descended from Sleipnir (Odin’s steed) and given to Siegfried
Idunn: Keeper of the apples of immortality.
In Manga: Kotori as Grani is an experiment of Ryouta's father and she is indirectly therefore given to him too.
Kotori’s transformation during the Ain Soph Aur shows her sprouting 8 legs in reference to Sleipnir and Grani.
Her capture leads Ryouta to reunite with the True Neko (like Siegfried who, with Grani that Odin gave him, saves Brynhildr in the Nibelunglied).
Her self-sacrifice to defeat Valkyria (Hel) aligns her with Idunn — a symbol of eternal life and innocence winning over death and destruction.
Ryouta → Siegfried & Mimir
Mythic Roles:
Siegfried: The dragon-slaying hero of the Nibelunglied (linked to Norse Sigurd), famed for awakening Brynhildr He is the slayer of Fafnir( bearer of cursed knowledge = symbolically his family knowledge about the aliens in the manga)
Mimir: The wise being whose head Odin consults for knowledge of fate and Ragnarök. Keeper of memory, sacrificed for divine insight.
In Manga: Ryouta is a clear Siegfried / Mimir parallel — the “hero” who revives Brynhildr (Kuroha) from her amnesiac, dormant state, and who becomes entangled in a tragic love he cannot fully control. He walks the path of doomed knowledge and his capacity to never forget dooms him to die an early death. In a way he is just like Sigurd who inherits a cursed treasure that spells the downfall of his line as his father gives ryouta the cursed renmants of Mimir's head ( and knowledge)
Fun Fact Volume 16 Chapter 154 :
When Ryouta says, "This is already the 3rd or 4th time I’ve died," it sounds like a throwaway line but it’s actually a hidden lore bomb.
In the manga, we see him die three times:
Killed by Saori during the flashback.
Killed by Valkyria.
Decapitated by Makina
But here’s the twist:
The "fourth" death isn’t shown until the very end of the story, when it’s revealed that Ryouta actually died back when he fell off the dam with Neko — the supposed "accident" from their childhood.
That’s when his father resurrected him using a Drasill : Mimir's Drasill turning Ryouta into a living container of forbidden knowledge and linking him to the Norse myth of Siegfried, the bearer of the cursed truth.
The Aesir: Control, Ego, and Collapse
Takachiho → False Odin
Mythic Role: Odin, who sacrificed himself for wisdom — and who feared Ragnarök.
In Manga: Takachiho wears glasses but one eye is always greyed out, symbolizing his sacrifice of an eye like Odin in the myth for knowledge of the Edda. But unlike Odin, he sacrifices others, not himself. He gives Ryouta the “forbidden knowledge” (Mimir’s head), just like Odin uses it during the Norse myth of Ragnarök to avert it - only inverted in Brynhildr.
He is a false Odin — all knowledge, no sacrifice, trying to save his sons from death by resisting fate.
Makina → Gunther / Deus ex Machina
Mythic Role: Gunther, the cowardly king who tricks Brynhildr and causes Siegfried’s downfall.
In Manga: Obsessed with control, Makina represents false strength. Like Gunther, he is a pawn of others — manipulated into conflict, undone by his pride.
Makina in the manga is praised by his father to be the chosen hero when he's actually weak and unstable.
The name "Deus ex Machina" is no accident — he’s the embodiment of the plot twist in this manga, leading the story to its conclusion, but it also makes symbolic sense as Gunther is a pawn in the story of the Nibelunglied.
Valkyria → False Hel
Mythic Role: Goddess of the dead.
In Manga: Created artificially, Valkyria is a science-born avatar of death. She is defeated not by force, but by Kotori’s self-sacrifice — the final triumph of nature over constructed death.
Her battle at Ichijiku's villa, deep underground, recalls Helheim — the underworld.
Yggdrasill vs. Drasil: Faith vs. Control
Yggdrasill (Myth): The World Tree, source of the Norse Universe and all it's beings
Drasil (Manga): An artificial “tree” designed to control and replicate life.
This contrast is the manga’s central philosophical question:
Will you try to control life because of fear, or love it enough to sacrifice?
Odin’s myth involves hanging himself on Yggdrasill to learn fate’s wisdom. But the scientists in Brynhildr build their Drasil by sacrificing others. That’s why their system collapses — it has no soul.
(Ygg=Odin in Old Norse so it makes thematic sense to call an alternated crooked version of the tree only "Drasill")
The Murakami Lineage and the Cursed Treasure of the Nibelungen
Ryouta, like Siegfried, inherits a cursed legacy — the alien remains, a metaphor for forbidden knowledge. In myth, gold and power doom Sigurd’s line. In the manga, it's Ryouta's family who want to outsmart god who dooms him.
Ryouta doesn’t want to become powerful like a god, he fights for love like Siegfried
Final Reflection: The True Ending
The final volume of Brynhildr don’t restore the world. They give us Ragnarok scenario that is avoided by our main characters sacrifice :
Kazumi / Neko / Ryouta / Kotori / Nanami in the Edda : apart from all the parallels, all of the characters sacrificed their ego to attain godhood ( which justifies them rising to their mythic counterparts and so end up in the EDDA at the end)
On earth we have :
Kana (memory of the ragnarok)
Hatsuna (rebirth)
These are the survivors of the "Aesir Vanir War". While in the myth Aesir defeats Vanir and the ragnarok is unavoidable, in this manga Vanir wins and ragnarok is halted. Nerthus(Hatsuna) survives as a symbol of life regenerating on earth.
And that, to me, that's a real message:
Real power is paid in pain. And it’s only real when it’s not for yourself.
Personal Thoughts
Yes, this manga has flaws. The pacing breaks down. The ecchi and harem tropes can feel gratuitous. Some characters deserved more development.
But despite that — Brynhildr in the Darkness left a lasting impression on me.
It’s a mythic tragedy disguised as sci-fi drama, a story of fading gods, science as the new religion , and the power of love over knowledge
And if you read it through the lens of Norse myth, you might just see a different story entirely. |
