Jonakr's sons (Hamdir, Sörli, Erpr)

Sons of Guðrún by King Jónakr, Hamdir, Sörli, and Erpr belong to the Völsung family line. In the saga tradition Guðrún incites them to avenge the brutal death of their half‑sister Svanhildr by Jörmunrekr/Ermanaric. They set out to carry out this vengeance, kill their half‑brother Erpr after failing to understand his riddles en route, and later assault the king—mutilating him by cutting off his hands and feet—before being themselves killed. Continental versions (e.g., Jordanes) preserve cognate traditions in which the brothers (named in Latin/Gothic forms) wound Ermanaric and cause his death; details vary between saga and chronicle traditions.

Sources provide no consistent literal physical description; they are consistently portrayed as capable warriors of the Völsung lineage and as the last known generation of that house. Poetic passages characterize them in martial terms—stout, battle‑worthy, and able to cut off a king's hands and feet—without specifying height, hair, or costume. Descriptions of their resistance to blade‑weapons appear as saga motifs rather than concrete bodily attributes.

They are depicted as skilled, determined avengers who successfully ambush and mutilate King Jörmunrekr/Ermanaric (cutting off hands and feet in the Norse accounts; Jordanes records piercing the king with spears). Saga motifs state that ordinary sharp weapons failed to kill them and that an 'old one‑eyed man' (identified in the sources as Odin) advises that they be killed with stones; in the narrative their deaths by stoning follow. Their principal behaviors are filial obedience to Guðrún's exhortation, participation in the culturally valorized act of blood‑vengeance, and tragic error (killing Erpr and breaching Guðrún's injunction about the stones).