Högni

Hogni is the fiercest and most unbreakable of the Niflungs — Gunnar's brother, and the embodiment of grim Germanic courage at its starkest. When the brothers are lured to the hall of Atli, who covets the cursed gold, and the truce turns to slaughter, Hogni fights to the last with a ferocity that terrifies even the Huns. Captured at last, he meets the legend's most famous test of nerve: Atli's men cut the living heart from his breast to break Gunnar's resolve — and Hogni laughs as they do it, showing no flinch of pain, so that even his enemies marvel. His laughing death is one of the great images of the heroic code: the warrior who will give his enemies the satisfaction of his blood but never of his fear. Hogni is courage stripped to its absolute — a man who could be killed but, to the very cutting-out of his heart, could not be made to show that he minded.