Fáfnir

Loki killed Hreiðmarr’s son Ótr, who had taken the form of an otter while catching fish. Reginsmál and Völsunga saga tell how Hreiðmarr demanded compensation. Loki obtained an otter skin and covered it with gold at the house of the dwarf Andvari. Andvari cursed the treasure and its owner, declaring that the gold and the ring would bring ruin. Hreiðmarr accepted the hoard as payment for Ótr’s death.

Fáfnir and Regin demanded their share of the compensation. Hreiðmarr refused to give them anything. He said that the red gold would remain at his disposal for as long as he lived, and ordered them to leave. Fáfnir and Regin then agreed to kill their father for the hoard.

While Hreiðmarr slept, Fáfnir stabbed him with a sword. Hreiðmarr called to his daughters, Lyngheiðr and Lofnheiðr, and said that his life was ending. Lyngheiðr replied that a sister could do little to avenge a father against her brother. Hreiðmarr told her to have a daughter and give her to a prince, so that her son might avenge the wrong.

Hreiðmarr died, and Fáfnir took all the gold. Regin then demanded his inheritance, but Fáfnir refused to share it. He said that there was little hope of receiving any part of the hoard from a man who had killed his own father to obtain it. Fáfnir ordered Regin to leave, warning that the same fate would otherwise overtake him. Fáfnir also took Hrotte, the sword that had belonged to Hreiðmarr, and his helmet. He drove Regin away and later became a monstrous dragon. He lay over the treasure on Gnita Heath.

Fáfnir and Regin demanded their share of the gold that Hreiðmarr had accepted as payment for Ótr’s death. Reginsmál and Völsunga saga tell how Hreiðmarr refused to give them even a small part of it. The brothers therefore agreed to kill their father for the treasure. After Fáfnir had slain Hreiðmarr, Regin asked for half the gold. Fáfnir refused. He said that Regin could not expect a share from the man who had killed their father, and ordered him to leave or suffer the same fate as Hreiðmarr.

Fáfnir took possession of the treasure. The gold had come from Andvari, who had cursed both the hoard and its owner. The curse declared that the ring and the gold would bring ruin to whoever possessed them. Fáfnir, driven by greed, changed into a monstrous dragon and carried the hoard to Gnitaheiðr. There he lay over it and guarded it.

Regin entered the service of King Hjalprek as a smith and became Sigurðr’s foster-father. He told Sigurðr the history of his family and urged him to kill Fáfnir. Regin joined him on the journey to Gnitaheiðr, then concealed himself in the heather. Sigurðr dug channels in the earth so that the dragon’s poisonous blood would run away from him. In Völsunga saga, he instead hid in a pit and stabbed Fáfnir from below. The wounded dragon spoke with Sigurðr before dying. Fáfnir warned him that Regin had betrayed him and would bring about his death, but admitted that Sigurðr had been the stronger.

Regin returned after Fáfnir’s death and ordered Sigurðr to roast the dragon’s heart. While cooking it, Sigurðr touched the heart and put his finger in his mouth. After tasting Fáfnir’s blood, he understood the speech of the nuthatches. Their warnings made him distrust Regin. Sigurðr cut off Regin’s head, then ate Fáfnir’s heart and drank the blood of both brothers.