he death agony, he gathered up the hoard, and fled with it beyond the
hills of Hunaland, until on the seventh day he came to a barren heath
far from the homes or men. There he placed the treasures in one
glittering heap; and he clothed himself in a wondrous mail-coat of gold
that was found among them, and he put on the Helmet of Dread, which had
once been the terror of the mid-world, and the like of which no man had
ever seen; and then he gazed with greedy eyes upon the fateful ring,
until he, too, was changed into a cold and slimy reptile,--a monster
dragon. He coiled himself about the hoard; and, with his restless eyes
forever open, he gloated day after day upon his loved gold, and watched
with ceaseless care that no one should come near to despoil him of it.
This was ages and ages ago; and still he wallows among his treasures on
the Glittering Heath, and guards as of yore the garnered wealth of
Andvari.

[1]Regin, one of the last of the race of Dwarfs, was a master smith and
by some said to be the teacher of Siegfried. The story is supposed to
have been related to Siegfried in the dusky smithy of the dwarf.

THE FORGING OF BALMUNG

While Siegfried was still a young lad, his father sent him to live with
a smith called Mimer, whose smithy was among the hills not far from the
great forest. For in those early times the work of the smith was
looked upon as the most worthy of all trades,--a trade which the gods
themselves were not ashamed to follow. And this smith Mimer was a
wonderful master,--the wisest and most cunning that the world had ever
seen. Men said that he was akin to the dwarf-folk who had ruled the
earth in the early days, and who were learned in every lore, and
skilled in every craft; and they said that he was so exceeding old that
no one could remember the day when he came to dwell in the land of
Siegfried's people. Some said, too, that he was the keeper of a
wonderful well, or flowing spring, the waters of which imparted wisdom
and far-seeing knowledge to all who drank of them.

To Mimer's school, then, where he would be taught to work skilfully and
to think wisely, Siegfried was sent, to be in all respects like the
other pupils there. A coarse blue blouse and heavy leggings and a
leathern apron took the place of the costly clothing which he had worn
in his father's dwelling. On his feet were awkward wooden sandals, and
his head was covered with a wolfskin cap. The dainty bed, with its