Atli

views updated Jun 27 2018

Atli in Norse legend, the king of the Huns, who marries the Niblung princess Gudrun. She allows him to kill her brothers, Gunnar and Hogni, in revenge for their murder of her husband Sigurd, but finally kills Atli herself. Atli represents the historical Attila; his Germanic equivalent in the Nibelungenlied is Etzel.