All about history book of myths and legends. ( PDFDrive )

Hoard of gold

The hoard guarded

by Andvari included

gold rings, brooches,

torcs, necklaces, and

other jewellery, all

objects highly prized

by the Vikings.

the gods were freed.

Later, Fafnir slew his

father, Hreidmar, to

obtain the treasure.

THE RING

Regin asked Sigurd

to challenge Fafnir

for the treasure. The

blacksmith used the

fragments of Sigmund’s weapon and forged them into a

new sword, which Sigurd used to kill Fafnir. Regin then

instructed Sigurd to bathe in the dragon’s blood and cook

its heart for him. While doing so, Sigurd burned his finger

and put it in his mouth. The moment Fafnir’s blood touched

his tongue, Sigurd was magically able to understand the

language of the birds, who warned him that Regin intended

to kill him. Sigurd cut of Regin’s head and collected the

treasure for himself – this included Andvari’s cursed ring,

which later brought grief and misery to Sigurd. He fell in

love with a Valkyrie named Brynhild and gave her

the ring. Later, Grimhild, a sorceress, gave Sigurd a

potion that made him forget about his betrothal and fall in

love with Gudrun, her daughter. Discovering the betrayal,

Brynhild had Sigurd killed, but afterwards she repented

and threw herself onto Sigurd’s funeral pyre.

The stories of the Scandinavian hero Sigurd

(“Siegfried” in later German versions) involve

adventure, warfare, and love, and characters as

diverse as heroes, dwarfs, and shape-changers.

Sigurd was a part of the Volsung family, whose

members, although related to the god Odin,

were mortals. The rich series of

narratives about the heroic deeds of Sigurd

and the tales of a magical ring

caught the imagination of many

later artists, writers,

and composers.

THE MYTH

Sigurd was the son of Sigmund, a heroic follower and

descendant of Odin. When Sigmund was killed in battle,

Odin smashed the dead hero’s sword into fragments, but

these were saved by Sigmund’s wife, Hjordis, for her son.

Hjordis remarried, and Sigurd was brought up by Regin,

a skilled but devious blacksmith, who was the brother

of the dragon Fafnir and of a shape-changer called Otr.

ANDVARI’S TREASURE

One day, Otr took the form of an otter to fish for salmon. Loki,

the trickster god, killed the otter and skinned it because

he admired its sleek skin. Otr’s father, Hreidmar, was

upset and outraged at his son’s death, and when Loki, Odin,

and Hoenir came to stay with him while travelling, he trapped

them in his hall and demanded enough gold to fully cover the

otter skin as compensation. Loki went in search of the gold

and found it in the hoard of Andvari, a rich dwarf. Andvari’s

treasure included a ring that

had the power to multiply

the wealth of its wearer.

But the dwarf put a

curse on the ring

before parting with

it. Loki returned

with the gold and

Legends of the Ring

Sigurd

Sigurd became all but

invulnerable when he

bathed in Fafnir’s blood.

Only one weak spot

remained on Sigurd’s

shoulder, where a leaf

had stuck as he bathed.

NORTHERN EUROPE

SIGURD AND

66