fatality which shapes and controls
every man's life. These ideas are embodied in more than one ancient
legend. We find them in the old Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf. "To
us," cries Beowulf in his last fight, "to us it shall be as our Weird
betides,--that Weird that is every man's lord!" "Each man of us shall
abide the end of his life-work; let him that may work, work his doomed
deeds ere death comes!" Similar ideas prevailed among the Greeks. Read,
for example, that passage in the Iliad describing the parting of Hector
and Andromache, and notice the deeper meaning of Hector's words.

[EN#8]--Regin.

As we have already observed (EN#1), the older versions of this myth
called Siegfried's master and teacher Regin, while the more recent
versions call him Mimer. We have here endeavored to harmonize the two
versions by representing Mimer as being merely Regin in disguise.

[EN#9]--Gripir.

"A man of few words was Gripir; but he knew of all deeds that had been;
And times there came upon him, when the deeds to be were seen: No sword
had he held in his hand since his father fell to field, And against the
life of the slayer he bore undinted shield: Yet no fear in his heart
abided, nor desired he aught at all: But he noted the deeds that had
been, and looked for what should befall." Morris's Sigurd the Volsung,
Bk. II.

[EN#10]--The Hoard.

This story is found in both the Elder and the Younger Eddas, and is
really the basis upon which the entire plot of the legend of Sigurd, or
Siegfried, is constructed. See also EN#18.

[EN#11]--The Dragon.

The oldest form of this story is the Song of Sigurd Fafnisbane, in the
Elder Edda. The English legend of St. George and the Dragon was probably
derived from the same original sources. A similar myth may be found
among all Aryan peoples. Sometimes it is a treasure, sometimes a
beautiful maiden, that the monster guards, or attempts to destroy. Its
first meaning was probably this: The maiden, or the treasure, is the
earth in its beauty and fertility. "The monster is the storm-cloud.
The hero who fights it is the sun, with his glorious sword, the
lightning-flash. By his victory the earth is relieved from her peril.
The fable has been varied to suit the atmospheric peculiarities of
different climes in which the Aryans found themselves.... In Northern
mythology the serpent is probably the winter cloud, which broods over
and keeps from mortals the gold of the sun's light an