t was taken
from him.

Then the poor Dwarf was very angry, and he prayed that the gold might
never bring any but bad luck to all the men who might own it, for ever.

Then the otter skin was filled with gold and covered with gold, all but
one hair, and that was covered with the poor Dwarf's last ring.

But it brought good luck to nobody. First Fafnir, the Dragon, killed his
own father, and then he went and wallowed on the gold, and would let his
brother have none, and no man dared go near it.

When Sigurd heard the story he said to Regin:

'Make me a good sword that I may kill this Dragon.'

So Regin made a sword, and Sigurd tried it with a blow on a lump of
iron, and the sword broke.

Another sword he made, and Sigurd broke that too.

Then Sigurd went to his mother, and asked for the broken pieces of his
father's blade, and gave them to Regin. And he hammered and wrought them
into a new sword, so sharp that fire seemed to burn along its edges.

Sigurd tried this blade on the lump of iron, and it did not break, but
split the iron in two. Then he threw a lock of wool into the river, and
when it floated down against the sword it was cut into two pieces. So
Sigurd said that sword would do. But before he went against the Dragon
he led an army to fight the men who had killed his father, and he slew
their King, and took all his wealth, and went home.

When he had been at home a few days, he rode out with Regin one morning
to the heath where the Dragon used to lie. Then he saw the track which
the Dragon made when he went to a cliff to drink, and the track was as
if a great river had rolled along and left a deep valley.

Then Sigurd went down into that deep place, and dug many pits in it, and
in one of the pits he lay hidden with his sword drawn. There he waited,
and presently the earth began to shake with the weight of the Dragon
as he crawled to the water. And a cloud of venom flew before him as he
snorted and roared, so that it would have been death to stand before
him.

But Sigurd waited till half of him had crawled over the pit, and then he
thrust the sword Gram right into his very heart.

Then the Dragon lashed with his tail till stones broke and trees crashed
about him.

Then he spoke, as he died, and said:

'Whoever thou art that hast slain me this gold shall be thy ruin, and
the ruin of all who own it.'

Sigurd said:

'I would touch none of it if by losing it I should never die. But all
men die, an