---
title: Then Brynhild’s father told Gunnar that she would marry none but him… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: Then Brynhild’s father told Gunnar that she would marry none but him who could ride the flame in front of her enchanted tower, and thither they rode, and Gunnar set his horse at the flame, but he would not face it. Who acts: father, Brynhild, poppy, Gunnar. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andr
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Story of Sigurd, sentence 107

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Then Brynhild’s father told Gunnar that she would marry none but him who could ride the flame in front of her enchanted tower, and thither they rode, and Gunnar set his horse at the flame, but he would not face it.

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**Who acts:** father, Brynhild, poppy, Gunnar · **What happens:** tell, marry, ride, enchant, set, not face · **To what, where:** Gunnar, none, flame, front, horse · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Sigurd. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (father, Brynhild, poppy, Gunnar), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg540:51:107
# text = Then Brynhild’s father told Gunnar that she would marry none but him who could ride the flame in front of her enchanted tower, and thither they rode, and Gunnar set his horse at the flame, but he would not face it.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
2	Brynhild	Brynhild	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	Gunnar	Gunnar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	iobj	_	_
7	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	marry	marry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
11	none	none	PRON	NN	PronType=Neg	10	obj	_	_
12	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	conj	_	_
14	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	16	nsubj	_	_
15	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	ride	ride	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	acl:relcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	flame	flame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
23	enchanted	enchant	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	amod	_	_
24	tower	tower	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	thither	thither	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	rode	ride	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
32	Gunnar	Gunnar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
33	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
34	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
35	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obj	_	_
36	at	at	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	flame	flame	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	44	punct	_	_
40	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
41	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	nsubj	_	_
42	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	44	aux	_	_
43	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	44	advmod	_	_
44	face	face	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	conj	_	_
45	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Brynhild's father |  | Gunnar |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent gunnar=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **marry** *not said to happen* | would | Brynhild | none |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent none=Patient |
| 3 | **ride** | could |  | the flame |  | front of Brynhild's enchanted tower |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flame=Theme |
| 4 | **enchant** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 5 | **ride** | past | poppy |  |  |  |  | thither *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP.agent V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **set** | past | Gunnar | father's horse |  | the flame |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent horse=Theme at flame=Destination |
| 7 | **not** **face** | would | father | flame |  |  |  |  | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Destination |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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