Regin

“ Thereafter Regin came to Sigurd, and said: ‘Hail, my lord; a great victory hast thou won, as thou hast slain Fafnir, and no one was so bold before as to dare to sit in his way, and this deed of fame will be remembered while the world stands. Regin stood looking on the ground for a long while, and then suddenly said, with great anger: Thou hast slain my brother, and scarcely can I be innocent of this deed.’ Sigurd took his sword Gram and wiped it on the grass, and said to Regin: ‘Thou wast far off when I did this deed, and tried this sharp sword with my hand and my strength. ”

“ Again on the morrow morning doth Sigurd the Volsung ride, And Regin, the Master of Masters, is faring by his side, And they leave the dwelling of kings and ride the summer land, Until at the eve of the day the hills are on either hand: Then they wend up higher and higher, and over the heaths they fare Till the moon shines broad on the midnight, and they sleep 'neath the heavens bare; And they waken and look behind them, and lo, the dawning of day And the little land of the Helper and its valley far away; But the mountains rise before them, a wall exceeding great. ”

“ O Regin, in good sooth, I have hearkened not nor heeded the words of thy fear and thy ruth: Thou hast told thy tale and thy longing, and thereto I hearkened well:— Let it lead thee up to heaven, let it lead thee down to hell, The deed shall be done to-morrow: thou shalt have that measureless Gold, And devour the garnered wisdom that blessed thy realm of old, That hath lain unspent and begrudged in the very heart of hate: With the blood and the might of thy brother thine hunger shalt thou sate ”

“ Then Regin begged Fafnir to share the gold with him. But, "no," Fafnir was stronger, and said he should keep it all himself, and Regin had best be off, unless he wished to fare the same way as Reidmar. So Regin had to fly, but Fafnir took a dragon's shape; "and there," said Regin, "he lies on the 'Glistening Heath,' coiled round his store of gold and precious things, and that's why I wish you to kill him." Sigurd told Regin, who was the best of smiths, to forge him a sword. Two are made, but both snap asunder at the first stroke. "Untrue are they, like you and all your race," cries Sigurd. ”

“ And all save fame departeth. Awake! for the day grows late,
And deeds by the door are passing, nor the Norns will have them wait."
Then Regin groaned and wakened, sad-eyed and heavy-browed,
And weary and worn was he waxen, as a man by a burden bowed:
And he spake: "Hast thou hearkened, Sigurd, wilt thou help a man that is old
To avenge him for his father? Wilt thou win that Treasure of Gold
And be more than the Kings of the earth? Wilt thou rid the earth of a wrong
And heal the woe and the sorrow my heart hath endured o'erlong?" ”

“ Till the lad's heart swelled with longing and lit his sunbright eyes. Then Regin looked upon him: "Thou too shalt one day ride As the Volsung Kings went faring through the noble world and wide. For this land is nought and narrow, and Kings of the carles are these, And their earls are acre-biders, and their hearts are dull with peace." But Sigurd knit his brows, and in wrathful wise he said: "Ill words of those thou speakest that my youth have cherished, And the friends that have made me merry, and the land that is fair and good." ”

“ Said Regin, "Long might this worm have lain in his lair, if the sharp sword I forged with my hand had not been good at need to thee; had that not been, neither thou nor any man would have prevailed against him as at this time."
Sigurd answers, "Whenas men meet foes in fight, better is stout heart than sharp sword." ”

“ There sits Sigurd, Stained with blood. On the fire is roasting Fafner's heart. Wise seemed to me The ring-destroyer, If he the shining Heart would eat. Another eagle sang:
There lies Regin, Contemplating How to deceive the man Who trusts him; Thinks in his wrath Of false accusations. ”

“ Fare, to travel. Sometimes when joined to adverbs it means to prosper, e.g. to fare ill, to fare well, how does he fare?
Fashion, to make, to arrange. Regin hoped to be the world's "fashioning lord," that is, the supreme king and orderer of all things.
Fell-abiding folk, men who worked at home instead of going out to battle.
Flame-blink, the flash of light from the fire round Brynhild's home.
Flaw, defect, fault, e.g. "the hauberk ... clean wrought without a flaw;" "the ring ... that hath ... no flaw for God to mend." ”

“ Of the forging of the Sword that is called The Wrath of Sigurd.
Now again came Sigurd to Regin, and said: "Thou hast taught me a task Whereof none knoweth the ending: and a gift at thine hands I ask." Then answered Regin the Master: "The world must be wide indeed If my hand may not reach across it for aught thine heart may need." "Yea wide is the world," said Sigurd, "and soon spoken is thy word; But this gift thou shalt nought gainsay me: for I bid thee forge me a sword." ”

“ By the fortune of war, Hjordis, bearing a babe under her girdle, came into the hands of King Hialprek of Denmark, there she bore a son to Sigmund, Sigurd, the darling of Teutonic song and story. Regin, the king’s smith, was his foster-father, and as the boy grew up the fairest and stoutest of all the Volsungs, Regin, who was of the dwarf race, urged him day by day to do a doughty deed, and slay Fafnir the Dragon. For Fafnir, Regin, and Otter had been brothers, sons of Reidmar. In one of their many wanderings, Odin, Loki, and Haenir came to a river and a forge. ”

“ Twice Regin fashioned a marvelous weapon,244 but twice Sigurd broke it to pieces on the anvil. Then, declaring that he must have a sword which would not fail him in time of need, he begged the broken fragments of Sigmund’s weapon from his mother Hiordis, and either forged himself or made Regin forge a matchless blade, whose temper was such that it neatly severed some wool floating gently down the stream, and divided the great anvil in two without being even dinted. ”

“ He is all horrible to me," Sigurd said.
"With a good sword thou mightst slay him and win for thyself more renown than ever thy fathers had," Regin whispered. [Pg 210]
"I shall win renown as my fathers won renown, in battle with men and in conquest of kingdoms," Sigurd said.
"Thou art not a true Volsung or thou wouldst gladly go where most danger and dread is," said Regin. "Thou hast heard of Fafnir the Dragon, whose image I have wrought here. If thou dost ride to the crest of the hills thou mayst look across to the desolate land where Fafnir has his haunt. ”

“ Thou of thy brother shalt mildly demand thy patrimony and a better spirit. It is not seemly, that with the sword thou shouldst demand thy property of Fafnir.
The foregoing is what Regin related to Sigurd. One day, when he came to Regin's dwelling, he was kindly received, and Regin said:
13. Hither is come the son of Sigmund to our Hall, that man of energy: courage he has greater than I aged man: now of a conflict have I hope from the fierce wolf. [61]
14. I will nurture the bold-hearted prince: now Yngvi's kinsman is to us come; he will be a king under the sun most powerful ”

“ Thus died Lyngvi with great courage.
Then Regin said:
Full seldom has a bolder warrior
Reddened the earth than Sigmund's murderer.
Hugin he feasted. Now with biting sword
The 'bloody eagle' on his back is scored.
Great spoil was taken there. Sigurth's sailors got the whole of it because he would not take any himself. The clothes and weapons taken were worth much gold.
Afterwards Sigurth slew Fafnir, and Regin also, because Regin had intended to deal treacherously with him. Sigurth took Fafnir's gold and rode away with it, and from that time on he was called Fafnisbani. ”

“ Sigurd went to Hialprek's stud and chose himself a horse, which was afterwards named Grani. Regin, Hreidmar's son, was then come to Hialprek; he was the most skilful of men, and a dwarf in stature; he was wise, cruel, and versed in magic. Regin undertook the rearing and instruction of Sigurd, and bore him great affection. He informed Sigurd of his parentage, and how it befell that Odin, and Honir, and Loki came to Andvarafors. In the fall there was an abundance of fish. ”

“ Regin betrayed me, he will thee betray, he of us both will be the bane. Fafnir must, I trow, let forth his life: thine was the greater might!
Regin had gone away while Sigurd slew Fafnir, but came back as Sigurd was wiping the blood from his sword. He said:
23. Hail to thee now, Sigurd! Now hast thou victory won and Fafnir slain: of all the men who tread the earth, thou art, I say, the bravest born.
Sigurd.
24. Uncertain 'tis to know, when we all come to [Pg 176] gether, sons of victorious heroes, which is the bravest born. Many a one is bold, who sword has never broken in another's breast. ”

“ There sits Sigurd sprinkled with blood; Fafnir's heart at the fire he roasts. Wise methinks were the ring-dispenser, if he the glistening life-pulp ate.
Second eagle.
33. There lies Regin communing with himself; he will beguile the youth, who in him trusts: in rage he brings malicious words together, the framer of evil will avenge his brother. ”

“ Regin welds together the pieces of the broken sword Gram, so sharp and strong that with it Sigurd cleaves Regin's anvil in twain. With men and ships that he has received from King Hjalprek Sigurd goes against the sons of Hunding, whom he slays, thereby avenging the death of his father. Regin has urged him to kill Fafnir and take possession of the hoard. On the Gnita Heath he digs a ditch from which, as the dragon Fafnir passes over it, he plunges the sword into his heart. The dying Fafnir warns him of the curse attached to the possession of the gold ”

“ Prompted by Regin, Sigurd slew the Dragon at Glistenheath, and, after tasting the blood by accident, was able to understand the language of birds, and was told by two of Odin’s ravens that Regin was treacherous. After slaying Regin, Sigurd rode away with two bundles of the treasures slung across his horse’s back. He found and awakened Brynhildr, a beautiful woman asleep in a house on a hill. (She is known in the different tales in which she has figured as Brynhildr, Brunhild, Brunehault, and Brünnhilde.) ”

“ Regin cried. "I will tell thee what no one else knows of Fafnir the Dragon. He guards a hoard of gold and jewels the like of which was never seen in the world. All this hoard you can make yours by slaying him."
"I do not covet riches," Sigurd said.
"No riches is like to the riches that Fafnir guards. His hoard is the hoard that the Dwarf Andvari had from the world's early days. Once the Gods themselves paid it over [Pg 211] as a ransom. And if thou wilt win this hoard thou wilt be as one of the Gods." ”

“ And no blossom slain by the sunshine while the leaves with dew are wet."
Then Regin turned and beheld him: "Thou shalt deem it hard and strange,
When the hand hath encompassed it all, and yet thy life must change.
Ah, long were the lives of men-folk, if betwixt the Gods and them
Were mighty warders watching mid the earth's and the heaven's hem!
Is there any man so mighty he would cast this gift away,—
The heart's desire accomplished, and life so long a day,
That the dawn should be forgotten ere the even was begun?"
Then Sigurd laughed and answered: "Fare forth, O glorious sun ”

“ Combed and washed
let every brave man be,
and at morning fed;
for 'tis uncertain
whither he at eve may come.
'Tis bad to succumb to fate.»
Sigurd fought a great battle with Lyngva, Hunding's son, and his brothers, in which Lyngva and his three brothers fell. After the battle Regin said:
26. «Now is the bloody eagle,
with the trenchant blade,
graven on the back
of Sigmund's slayer.
No son of king,
who the earth reddens,
and the raven gladdens,
is more excellent.»
Sigurd returned home to Hialprek, when Regin instigated him to slay Fafnir. ”

“ Sigurd was thence forward constantly with Regin, who related to him how Fafnir lay on Gnitaheid in the likeness of a serpent. He had an eye-helmet at which all living beings were terror-stricken. Regin forged a sword for Sigurd, that was named Gram, and was so sharp that immersing it in the Rin, he let a piece of wool down the stream, when it clove' the fleece asunder as water. With that sword Sigurd clove in two Regin's anvil. After that Regin instigated Sigurd to slay Fafnir. He said:
15. ”

“ So it came to pass that Sigurd and Regin rode together to the heath where Fafnir dwelt; and they passed along the way by which the dragon was wont to creep down to the water to drink. So long was this terrible creature that he would lie crouched on a cliff sixty feet high when he drank of the water below. When Sigurd saw the huge tracks that he had made he said to Regin: "Sayest thou that this dragon is no greater than other such beasts? Methinks he leaves tracks behind him that are strangely well marked."
"There is naught to fear," said Regin. ”

“ Regin's enjoyment of the hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins when one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to the sleeping Valkyrie:
"Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear. I know a maid, fairest of all, decked with gold, if thou couldst get her. Green roads lead to Giuki's, fate guides the wanderer forward. There a mighty king has a daughter; Sigurd will buy her with a dowry. There is a hall high on Hindarfell; all without it is swept with fire.... I know a battle-maid who sleeps on the fell, and the flame plays over her ”

“ Reginald is utterly incapable of such an action, even granting that he possessed the terrible power of which you speak. A man of his splendid resources, a literary Midas at whose very touch every word turns into gold, is under no necessity to prey on the thoughts of others. ”