m as she had never embraced him before, and standing
there with her ruddy hair about her she told him of the glory of Gram
and of the deeds of his fathers in whose hands the sword had shone.

Then Sigurd went to the smithy, and he wakened Regin out of his sleep,
and he made him look on the shining halves of Sigmund's sword. He
commanded him to make out of these halves a sword for his hand.

Regin worked for days in his smithy and Sigurd never left his side. At
last the blade was forged, and when Sigurd held it in his hand fire ran
along the edge of it.

Again he laid the shield that had the image of the Dragon upon it on the
anvil of the smithy. Again, with his hands on its iron hilt, he raised
the sword for a full stroke. He struck, and the sword cut through the
shield and sheared through the anvil, cutting away its iron horn. Then
did Sigurd know that he had in his hands the Volsungs' sword. He went
without and called to Grani, and like the sweep of the wind rode down to
the River's bank. Shreds of wool were floating down the water. Sigurd
struck at them with his sword, and the fine wool was divided against the
water's edge. Hardness and fineness, Gram could cut through both.

That night Gram, the Volsungs' sword, was under his head when he slept,
but still his dreams were filled with images that he had not regarded in
the day time; the shine of a hoard that he coveted not, and the gleam of
the scales of a Dragon that was too loathly for him to battle with.

[Illustration]

THE DRAGON'S BLOOD

Sigurd went to war: with the men that King Alv gave him he marched into
the country that was ruled over by the slayer of his father. The war
that he waged was short and the battles that he won were not perilous.
Old was King Lygni now, and feeble was his grasp upon his people. Sigurd
slew him and took away his treasure and added his lands to the lands of
King Alv.

But Sigurd was not content with the victory he had gained. He had dreamt
of stark battles and of renown that would be hardily won. What was the
war he had waged to the wars that Sigmund his father, and Volsung his
father's father, had waged in their days? Not content was Sigurd. He led
his men back by the hills from the crests of which he could look upon
the Dragon's haunts. And having come as far as those hills he bade his
men return to King Alv's hall with the spoils he had won.

They went, and Sigurd stayed upon the hills and looked across Gnita
H