 In Wagner's "Ring", the character , named after the Old High German word for "Earth", is the goddess of wisdom, fate and Earth.She is the world's wisest woman, the mother of the three Norns and of the valkyrie (shieldmaid) Brunhild, whose father is the norse chief god Odin (Wotan).Wagner, in turn, adopted the name from the treatise "Deutsche Mythologie" by Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and other sources.