The Guests of Odin (13 page)

Now Borghild arranged her brother’s funeral feast, to which she invited many important people. She served the ale herself, and offered Sinfjotli a large drinking horn, which he rejected, saying, “It is befouled.”

Sigmund took the horn and drank it instead. The queen offered Sinfjotli another drink, taunting him.

He took the horn and said, “
This has been mixed with treachery.”

Sigmund took it from him and drank it all down. Again, the queen offered him a poisoned drink, and Sinfjotli recognised it for what it was. By now, Sigmund was drunk, and when Sinfjotli said the drink was poisoned, he replied by telling his son, “Filter it with your moustache, son!”

Angry, Sinfjotli drained the horn and fell dead to the floor.

Sigmund was struck by grief. He took Sinfjotli’s body in his arms and carried it through the woods until he came to a fjord. Here he saw a man in a small boat who asked him if he wanted to cross the fjord. Sigmund agreed, but since the boat was too small for Sigmund and his burden, he put Sinfjotli’s body in it and walked along the fjord shore. Then the boat vanished.

Sigmund went home and he banished Borghild, who died in exile. Sigmund continued to rule his kingdom. He heard that Hjordis, daughter of King Eylimi, was the fairest and wisest of all women, and decided he would marry her.

He went to visit Eylimi, and the king prepared a great banquet when he learnt that Sigmund came in friendship and not war. Now he found that Lyngvi, son of King Hunding was there, and also wanted to marry Hjordis. Eylimi let Hjordis choose between her two suitors, and she chose Sigmund, although he was old in years by now. They remained in Eylimi’s kingdom for some time before returning to Hunland, and Eylimi came with them.

King Lyngvi was angry and he and his brothers Alf and Hring gathered an army. They sailed to Hunland and sent word to Sigmund, who gathered his own army. He sent Hjordis with a bondmaid to hide in the forest. Battle commenced and the two forces fought, but Lyngvi’s army was much larger than Sigmund’s. Sigmund fought valiantly, and he cut Lyngvi’s men down before him until he was bloody to the shoulders. Then an old man with one eye came against Sigmund bearing a spear. Sigmund cut at the spear and his sword broke in two, and the tide of battle turned. Sigmund and his father-in-law Eylimi fell at the head of their army, with most of their men. King Lyngvi seized Sigmund’s kingdom but he could not find Hjordis.

The night after the battle, Hjordis and the bondmaid went among the slain and found Sigmund dying. She asked, “Can you be healed?”

He said, “I cannot live because Odin wants my death.” He added that she was carrying a son, and asked her to raise him well, and to keep the broken sword. He prophesied that it would be reforged and named Gram, and with it, their son would achieve great deeds. Then he died.

Sigurd the Volsung

Day broke, and Hjordis saw that many ships had landed. Hjordis and her bondmaid exchanged clothes and she told the thrall to use her name. Vikings came ashore from the ships and searched the battlefield. They found the two women and brought them before their leader, Alf the son of King Hjalprek. He asked them who they were. The bondmaid answered for both, telling them what had happened. At Alf’s request, she led them to the king’s treasury, and the Vikings carried all the gold away to their ships. Alf took the two women with him and they sailed back to his father’s kingdom.

After he had been back a short time, his mother asked him, “Why is it that the fairer of the two women you brought back wears less gold and
has poorer clothing?”

Alf said, “I noticed that her manner is not that of a
thrall.”

He tested the two women and established that Hjordis was nobler in her upbringing, and when she saw this, she told him the whole story. Alf ask to marry her. Shortly afterwards she gave birth to Sigmund’s son.

They brought the boy before King Hjalprek, who was pleased by the boy’s piercing eyes, and he was sprinkled with water and named Sigurd. He was raised at King Hjalprek’s court, and his mother married Alf.

Sigurd’s foster father was Regin, son of Hreidmar. He taught Sigurd many skills and accomplishments, and also different languages. One day Regin asked Sigurd, “Do you know how much wealth your father owned and who guards it?”

Sigurd told him, “Alf and Hjalprek watch over it.”

Regin asked him, “Do you trust them?”

Sigurd said, “It is better for them to look after it for the moment since they can guard it better than I.”

Regin
told Sigurd he acted like a stable boy or a vagrant. Sigurd said, “This is not true, since I can have anything I want.”

Regin told him to ask for a horse, and Sigurd said, “I will do it when I please.”

He went to Hjalprek and Alf and asked for a horse, and Hjalprek told him to take the one he wanted most.

The next day he went to choose his horse. On the way, he met an old man with a long beard who asked him where he was going. Sigurd
told him, and asked the man to advise him. They drove the horses into the River Busiltjorn and all but one swam ashore. Sigurd chose the one that remained, who was a grey, young and big. The bearded man told him, “The horse is of the lineage of Sleipnir,” and then vanished. Sigurd named the horse Grani.

Regin criticised Sigurd for his poverty, but he told the boy that he knew where he could gain unparalleled riches. Sigurd asked where this wealth was and who its guardian was. Regin told him that the guardian was Fafnir the Dragon and that he lay upon Gnitaheath. Sigurd had heard of this serpent, and knew that no one dared fight him because he was so huge and fierce.

Regin told him, “He is no bigger than other snakes, or so it would have seemed to your Volsung forefathers.” He scorned Sigurd for showing little of their courage.

Sigurd said, “I have yet to prove myself. Why do you urge me so strongly to fight the
dragon?”

Regin replied with the story of the Otter’s Ransom:

There was a man named Hreidmar who had three sons, one named Fafnir, who was big and ferocious, another called Otr, who was a fisherman and took on the shape of an otter during the day, and the third Regin himself, who was a smith.

A dwarf named Andvari lived in a waterfall called Andvari’s Fall where he took on the shape of a pike and caught his food that way. Otr often caught fish in the same waterfall, laying them one by one on the bank. One day, Odin, Loki, and Hoenir were travelling through the world when they came to Andvari’s Falls. Otr had caught himself a salmon and he was lazing on the bank, eating his catch. Loki flung a stone at him and slew the otter. The gods skinned the otter and took the salmon and went on their way.

At dusk, they came to Hreidmar’s house and were received hospitably. They showed Hreidmar and his sons their catch but immediately their hosts seized hold of them, and Hreidmar declared that they would have to fill the whole otter skin with gold to pay compensation for the killing. Odin and Hoenir sent Loki to get the gold.

Loki went to Ran, the sea giantess, and borrowed her net. Then he went upstream to Andvari’s Falls and cast the net to catch the pike. Loki demanded the pike ransom itself with gold. Andvari handed over his entire hoard of gold, except one ring, which he tried to hold back. But Loki seized even this. Angry, the dwarf went into his rock and said that the ring would be the death of its owner, and laid the same curse on the rest of the gold.

The three gods gave the gold to Hreidmar, covering the skin with it, but Odin kept back the ring. Hreidmar inspected the otter skin and said that one whisker was still uncovered. Odin took the ring from his finger and covered the whisker with it. Loki taunted Hreidmar with the curse on the gold and the gods departed.

Fafnir killed his father and concealed the body, then took all the gold and went out into the wilderness where he transformed into a dragon and lay upon the gold. Regin journeyed through the world for many years until he became smith to King Hjalprek.

Sigurd demanded Regin make a sword for him so he could do great deeds and kill the dragon. Regin forged a sword and gave it to Sigurd, who tested it by striking the anvil with the blade, which broke. He flung down the remaining shards and told Regin to make a better sword.

Regin made another sword and gave it to Sigurd, who tested it like the first, with the same result. Sigurd told Regin, “You are as deceitful as yours ancestors.”

He went to his mother, who greeted him, and they drank together. Sigurd asked her to give him the broken sword of his father. She did so; he took it to Regin and told him to make a sword worthy of the shards. Regin grew angry and went to his forge. He made a sword from the fragments of Gram, and drew it from the forge where it seemed that flames leapt on its edges. He took it to Sigurd and dared the boy to break it. Sigurd took the sword and hacked at the anvil with it, cutting the metal block straight through. Then he went to the river and dropped a tuft of wool into it, and placed the sword in the water downstream from the tuft. The sword cut the wool in two. Sigurd went home thinking he had a good blade.

Regin told him, “You must go and fight Fafnir now.”

Sigurd told him, “First, I will seek vengeance for my father’s death.”

Sigurd went to Alf and Hjalprek and asked them, “Give me ships and crews to search out the sons of Hunding and let them know that not all the Volsungs were dead.” Hjalprek provided a large fleet with a great dragonship for Sigurd.

2.
Sigurd’s Revenge

They set sail. After a few days met a storm, which some said had been stirred up by the witchcraft of Hunding’s sons. As they passed a craggy headland, a man called out to the ships and asked the name of their leader. A crewman told him it was Sigurd the Volsung, and the man said, “His renown had spread far.” He asked to join them and told them he was called Fjolnir.

After they took him on board the storm subsided and they sailed on to Hundland, the kingdom of Hunding’s sons. They harried and pillaged far and wide, and soon King Lyngvi got word of the coming of Sigurd the Volsung.

Lyngvi gathered an army and went out to fight Sigurd. The battle was fierce and many men died. It went on a long time. Then Sigurd charged past the banners, holding Gram in his hand. Warriors fled before him, and no one could withstand him. Then he met the sons of Hunding and Sigurd cut Lyngvi in half, and then slew his brother Hjorvard, then the rest of the sons of Hunding, and the greater part of the army was slaughtered. Then they found that Fjolnir had vanished, and many believed him to be Odin.

Sigurd returned home with glory and plunder, and the kings prepared a banquet to welcome him. Regin came to Sigurd and reminded him of Fafnir. Sigurd said he would fulfil his promise.

3.
Sigurd and Fafnir

Sigurd and Regin rode to Gnitaheath and they came to the track along which Fafnir would crawl to drink from the river.

Sigurd complained, “You said that Fafnir is no
thing more than a snake, but it is now clear that he is much larger.”

Regin advised Sigurd to dig a ditch in the middle of the path and sit in it, and when the serpent crawled to drink, to stab him in the heart through the soft underbelly. Sigurd asked, “What will happen if the dragon’s blood falls on me?” Regin evaded the question and accused him of cowardice.

Regin departed hastily. Sigurd rode on to the heath. He dug a ditch in the middle of Fafnir’s path, but as he was doing so, an old man came up to him and asked him what he was doing. Sigurd explained but the old man told him to dig several ditches for the dragon’s blood to run into, then sit in one and stab up at the serpent’s heart. The man disappeared and Sigurd did as he had suggested.

Fafnir went to drink, and the earth shook all around. The dragon blew poison across his path, but Sigurd sat calmly in his ditch. When the dragon crawled over the pit, Sigurd thrust his sword Gram in under the dragon’s left shoulder so it sank in up to its hilt. Sigurd jumped out of the ditch and plucked the sword from the dragon, bloodying his arms to the shoulders. The dragon thrashed his head and tail about, destroying everything in his way.

Knowing the wound was mortal, Fafnir asked Sigurd, “Who are you and who are your kindred?” but Sigurd replied with riddles. Finally, Fafnir wheedled out of him his name and his father’s name. The dragon asked him many other questions, and told him that his gold would be Sigurd’s death. Fafnir died and Sigurd went to take his treasure.

Regin came to Sigurd and congratulated him for his deed, but
then he said that Sigurd had killed his brother, so there was bad blood between them, although he was far from blameless himself. Sigurd cut out the dragon’s heart. Regin drank Fafnir’s blood and asked Sigurd to roast the heart and give it to him to eat. Sigurd did so, and when he thought it was done, Sigurd tested it with his finger, and put his finger in his mouth. When he did this, he immediately knew the language of birds, and heard the nuthatches talking in a nearby bush. They said that it would be better for Sigurd to eat the dragon’s heart and to kill the treacherous Regin, then take Fafnir’s gold and ride to Hindarfjoll, where Brynhild slept.

At this, Sigurd turned and cut off Regin’s head with Gram. He ate some of the dragon’s hea
rt and kept the rest. Then he rode up Fafnir’s trail and came to the dragon’s lair where he found much gold, a sword named Hrotti, Fafnir’s helm of awe, a golden mail coat, and much besides. So much gold was there he thought it would have been too much for three normal horses to carry. He put it into two big chests and put them on Grani’s back, then took Grani by the bridle, but the horse stood stock still until Sigurd leapt astride him.