Engraved horn, Saga of Sigurd | Nordlys Viking

A beautiful natural cow horn featuring an engraving depicting the mythological saga of Sigurd Fafnirslayer. The pattern is taken from a runestone outside Eskilstuna in Sweden, where the entire saga is recorded with accompanying graphical descriptions. 

The horn has a suitable volume of approx. 500ml.

Sigurd grew up with King Hjalprek in Denmark. His father had been murdered, and his mother then remarried Hjalprek's son Alf. Sigurd was raised to manhood by the king's smith, a dwarf named Regin. As the years passed, Sigurd grew into a stately young man whom few could match, and his strength and bravery were widely known. One day, Regin called Sigurd to him and told him the story of his life.

Regin's father was Reidmar, and he was one of the wealthiest dwarves. Regin's brothers were Fafner and Otter. Otter could assume animal form and used to hunt and fish transformed into an otter. One afternoon, Otter lay on the shore in his animal shape eating salmon. Then the Æsir Odin, Hænir, and Loki passed by, not knowing who the otter really was. They wanted to stay overnight with the wealthy Reidmar, but they could not get there without gifts, so Loki hurled a stone at Otter, who died. The animal was then skinned and presented to Reidmar. He naturally saw who they had killed and became beside himself with grief and anger. Therefore, he demanded a heavy weregild – the skin was first to be filled with gold, and then it was to be covered entirely on the outside.

Nearby lived the immensely wealthy dwarf Andvari, who could also transform into an animal. Loki set off and managed to catch Andvari when he was a pike. He took the dwarf's gold as payment to set him free. But Andvari tried to smuggle away a magical gold ring. Loki saw this and demanded it as well. Then Andvari uttered a curse over the entire treasure, and especially the ring. Whoever owned Andvari's gold would always be struck by death and misfortune.

With the treasure, Loki could pay the weregild, but he kept the ring. When Reidmar examined the otter skin, he saw that it was not completely covered in gold – a whisker was sticking out. Then Loki placed Andvari's precious ring there, and they were free.

The treasure was cursed, however, and Reidmar was murdered by his son Fafner, who wanted all the gold for himself. Afterwards, Fafner transformed into a dragon, took the treasure with him out to the dreadful Gnitaheath, and lay down to guard the gold.

All this Regin told Sigurd. Regin wanted revenge, but he could not do it himself. Therefore, he now asked for Sigurd's help. As a reward, Sigurd would receive the horse Grani and the magical sword Gram. With these gifts, Sigurd could then ride off and avenge his father's murderer. Once that was done, Sigurd was to help Regin and slay Fafner.

No sooner said than done. When Sigurd had finished his task, he headed to Gnitaheath to find the dragon. Fafner used to drag himself down to a small lake every day to drink, and where the dragon's body was dragged along, a path had formed. Sigurd dug a pit in the path and lay in it to wait for the dragon with his sword raised high. Then came a bearded man in grey clothes with a walking staff and a pointy hat – Odin. He wanted to help Sigurd and advised him to dig more pits where the blood could drain out, otherwise Sigurd could drown in all the dragon blood.

Soon the dragon arrived, and Sigurd drove the sword Gram all the way to the hilt when the heart was directly above him. In the dragon's death throes, Fafner reminded him of the curse that rested upon the treasure. When the dragon was dead, Regin suddenly leaped out from a hiding place. He praised Sigurd and asked him to roast the dragon's heart. Sigurd did as he was asked while Regin went to rest for a while. To check if the heart was done, Sigurd touched it with his finger, but burned himself. Instinctively, he put his finger in his mouth and thus got to taste dragon blood. This caused him to suddenly understand what the birds were singing.

The small birds in the trees whispered that Regin had treachery in mind, so Sigurd simply went and chopped the head off the dwarf. Once again, Andvari's ring had brought about that friends and kin slew one another. The treasure thus became Sigurd's, but he too was struck by the curse. But that is another story...