CHAP. VI
he had hoarded in the stony caves, whose ice-like walls answer to the
dismal den of the Vedic Panis. One ring alone Andvari seeks to -
keep. It is the source of all his wealth, and ring after ring drops
from it. He wishes, in other words, to keep his hold of the summer
itself as represented by the symbol of the reproductive power in
nature. The ring is the magic necklace of Harmonia and Eriphyle,
the kestos of Aphrodite, the ship of Isis and Athene, the Yoni of
Vishnu, the Argo which bears within itself all the chieftams of the
Achaian lands. Andvari prays in vain, but before he surrenders the
ring, he lays on it a curse, which is to make it the bane of every man
who owns it. It is, in short, to be the cause of more than one
Trojan war,^ the Helen who is to bring ruin to the hosts who seek to
rescue her from thraldom. The beauty of the ring tempts Odin to
keep it, but the gold he yields to Reidmar. It is, however, not
enough to hide all the white hairs of the otter's skin. One yet
remains visible, and this can be hidden only by the ring which Odin
is thus compelled to lay upon it, as the ice cannot be wholly melted
till the full warmth of summer has come back to the earth. Thus the
three ALsir go free, but Loki lays again on the ring the curse of the
dwarf Andvari. The working of this curse is seen first in the death
of Reidmar, who is slain by Regin and Fafnir, because he refuses to
share with them the gold which he had received from the ^sir. The
same cause makes Regin and Fafnir enemies. Fafnir will not yield
up the treasure, and taking a dragon's form he folds his coils around
the golden heaps upon the glistening heath, as the Python imprisons
the fertilising streams at Delphoi. Thus foiled, Regin beseeches
Sigurd to smite the dragon ; but even Sigurd cannot do this without
a. sword of sufficient temper. Regin forges two, but the blades of
both are shivered at the first stroke. Sigurd exclaims bitterly that
the weapons are untrue, like Regin and all his race, — a phrase which
points with singular clearness to the difference between the subter-
ranean fires and the life-giving rays of the sun, which alone can
scatter the shades of night or conquer the winter's cold. It is clear
that the victory cannot be won without the sword which Odin drove
into the oak trunk, and which had been broken in the hands of
Sigmund. But the pieces remain in the keeping of Hjordis, the
mother of Sigurd, and thus the wife of Sigmund plays here precisely
the part of Thetis. In each case the weapons with which the hero is
to win his victory come through the mother, and in each case they
' This ring reappears with precisely and it is absurd to suppose that such a the same qualities and consequences in series of incidents was constantly recur- inany of the sagas of Northern Europe ; ring in actual history.