Regin

Regin is a legendary smith, counsellor and foster father in the Norse story of Sigurd and the dragon Fafnir. He belongs to the heroic tradition surrounding the Völsung family rather than to the group of worshipped Norse gods. Regin is best known for revealing the history of Andvari’s cursed treasure, preparing Sigurd to face Fafnir, and reforging the sword Gram. His intelligence and technical skill are matched by resentment, manipulation and greed, making him one of the most morally complicated figures in the Völsung legends.

Origins and cultural setting

Regin appears chiefly in the medieval literary tradition of the Völsunga saga and in the Old Norse poems associated with the Poetic Edda, especially Reginsmál and Fáfnismál. These works preserve stories that are older than the manuscripts in which they survive. The precise age and original form of the tales are uncertain, because the narratives circulated orally and were reshaped over time.

The Völsunga saga was written in Iceland in the thirteenth century. It gathers several heroic legends into a continuous account of the Völsung dynasty, beginning with the god-descended hero Sigi and eventually reaching Sigurd, Brynhild and the downfall of the Völsungs. The poems of the Poetic Edda are preserved mainly in the thirteenth-century manuscript known as the Codex Regius, although many of their subjects and poetic techniques are earlier.

Regin’s story belongs to a wider northern European cycle about a hoard of gold, a dragon, a heroic slayer and the destructive power of a curse. Related versions appear in German heroic tradition, particularly in the story of Siegfried and the dragon. The details are not identical across the Norse and German traditions, and Regin does not have a direct one-to-one equivalent in every version. In the Norse material, however, his role is central: he is both the maker of the hero’s weapon and the person whose treachery leads to his own death.

Name and identity

The Old Norse name is Reginn, commonly written as Regin in English. The name is related in form to Old Norse regin, a word associated with ruling powers or divine powers, but the exact significance of the personal name in the legend is not certain. It should not automatically be treated as evidence that Regin was a god. In the surviving stories he is presented as a heroic or supernatural craftsman, not as an object of religious worship.

Regin’s classification varies somewhat between sources and modern translations. He is commonly described as a dwarf in the Eddic and saga tradition. In Old Norse legendary literature, however, “dwarf” does not always correspond exactly to the small, underground fantasy creature familiar from modern fiction. Dwarfs are often associated with extraordinary craftsmanship, wisdom, treasure and dangerous knowledge. The texts do not provide a single detailed physical description of Regin, and the importance of his character lies more in his skill and intelligence than in a fixed appearance.

Regin is also a member of a family whose nature is not entirely ordinary. His father is Hreiðmarr, a wealthy and powerful figure who possesses a hall or household connected with supernatural beings. Regin’s brothers are Fafnir and Otr. The family is sometimes treated as dwarf-like, but the terminology and narrative presentation are not perfectly consistent. It is safest to identify Regin as a legendary smith associated with the dwarf tradition rather than to impose a rigid modern species category on him.

Family and the origin of the cursed treasure

The central conflict begins with Regin’s family. Otr is an accomplished shape-shifter who often takes the form of an otter. While Otr is in otter form, Loki kills him. Depending on the version, Loki, Odin and Hœnir have encountered Otr while travelling, and Loki’s act creates a debt to Hreiðmarr. The gods or travellers are compelled to pay compensation for Otr’s death.

The required ransom is a great quantity of gold, enough to cover Otr’s skin and fill its remaining visible opening. Loki obtains the treasure from the dwarf Andvari, who is guarding gold beneath a waterfall or in a hidden place. Loki also takes a remarkable ring. Andvari curses the hoard, declaring that the gold will bring death to whoever possesses it. The ring and treasure are then given to Hreiðmarr as compensation for Otr.

The curse becomes a destructive force within the family. Fafnir, the eldest or most powerful of the brothers in the usual sequence of the story, desires the hoard. He kills Hreiðmarr and takes the treasure for himself. Fafnir then becomes a dragon, or a great serpent-like monster, and lies upon the gold in the wilderness. The transformation is not simply a biological change. It expresses the way greed has altered Fafnir’s character and has made him a guardian of wealth that he can neither use nor willingly surrender.

Regin survives the murder of his father but is deprived of the treasure. His resentment toward Fafnir is genuine, yet his motives are not selfless. He wants revenge and hopes to recover the hoard. This mixture of legitimate grievance and personal greed drives his relationship with Sigurd.

Regin as smith and foster father

Regin later becomes associated with the court of King Hjalprek, where he serves as a skilled craftsman. He takes responsibility for the upbringing of Sigurd, the posthumous son of Sigmund and Hjordis. In the Völsunga saga, Regin acts as Sigurd’s foster father and tutor. He teaches him practical knowledge and tells him the story of his family and the treasure guarded by Fafnir.

His instruction is part education and part persuasion. Regin presents Fafnir as a monster who must be killed and encourages Sigurd to undertake the deed. He emphasizes the wrong done to their family, but he does not openly state that he intends to benefit from the treasure himself. The relationship therefore has a double character: Regin genuinely helps shape Sigurd into a great hero, while also attempting to use him as an instrument of revenge.

Regin’s most important craft is sword-making. Sigurd needs a weapon capable of defeating Fafnir, and Regin forges swords for him. In the saga, the first swords break when Sigurd tests them. The episode demonstrates both the limitations of Regin’s work and the unusual strength expected of the hero. Sigurd eventually obtains the broken pieces of his father Sigmund’s sword, and Regin reforges them into the famous weapon Gram.

Gram is not merely a strong sword. It is a sign of Sigurd’s inheritance and heroic identity. The restored weapon connects him with Sigmund and the earlier generation of the Völsung family. When Sigurd tests the completed sword, it cuts through an anvil or displays extraordinary sharpness, confirming that it is suited to the dragon-slaying task. The precise sequence of events and the roles of Regin, Sigurd’s family and divine intervention vary between retellings, but the reforging of Gram is a defining episode in Regin’s legend.

The slaying of Fafnir

Regin advises Sigurd on how to kill Fafnir. Because the dragon is too powerful to confront directly, Sigurd digs a pit in the path where Fafnir travels to drink. He hides inside it and thrusts Gram upward into the monster’s vulnerable underside as Fafnir passes over him. In some versions, Regin gives practical advice about the location and method of the attack.

After Fafnir is mortally wounded, he questions Sigurd and warns him that the treasure is cursed. This warning does not turn Sigurd back. Fafnir also asks who has encouraged the young hero to undertake the attack, and Sigurd initially avoids giving a direct answer. The dying dragon’s conversation with Sigurd is an important feature of the Eddic material, where the exchange becomes an opportunity for reflection on fate, identity and the dangers of wealth.

Once Fafnir is dead, Regin asks Sigurd to prepare the dragon’s heart. In the saga tradition, Regin intends to eat it and gain greater knowledge or power. Sigurd roasts the heart, but while testing whether it is cooked, he burns his finger and puts it in his mouth. After tasting the dragon’s blood, he gains the ability to understand the speech of birds.

The birds reveal Regin’s treachery. They tell Sigurd that Regin plans to kill him after the dragon’s death and take the treasure for himself. Their warning gives Sigurd knowledge that Regin assumes he does not possess. Sigurd then kills Regin with Gram. In this final scene, Regin is destroyed by the same heroic weapon that he helped create, while his own plot is exposed through the supernatural knowledge gained from Fafnir’s blood.

Relationship with Sigurd

Regin’s relationship with Sigurd is one of the most significant examples of divided loyalty in Norse heroic legend. He is a foster father, teacher and master smith, and without his assistance Sigurd might not become the dragon-slayer celebrated in the poems. At the same time, Regin’s care is compromised by his desire for revenge and wealth.

The story does not portray Regin as a simple villain who has no affection for Sigurd. He invests effort in educating the young man and creating the weapon that makes victory possible. Yet the narrative also makes clear that Regin’s plans ultimately place Sigurd in danger. He wants Sigurd’s courage and strength, but he does not intend to share the consequences of the deed honestly.

This tension gives Regin a distinctive place among legendary advisers. He resembles the wise counsellor or master craftsman, but he also resembles the deceptive instigator who sends a hero toward a dangerous task for personal gain. His intelligence helps create Sigurd’s greatness, while his treachery ensures that he cannot remain beside the hero once the truth is known.

Attributes and symbolic significance

Craftsmanship is Regin’s defining attribute. His association with sword-making reflects the high status given to smiths in Germanic heroic tradition. The smith does not merely produce an ordinary tool: he shapes an object connected with ancestry, destiny and royal legitimacy. Through Gram, Regin contributes to the restoration of Sigurd’s inherited power.

Knowledge is another important aspect of his character. Regin knows the history of the hoard and understands how it can be reached. His knowledge is valuable, but it is ethically unstable because he uses it to influence Sigurd. In the legend, intelligence alone does not make someone trustworthy. Regin knows how to guide a hero, yet he cannot master his own greed.

Treasure and curse form the broader symbolic background. The gold obtained from Andvari passes from one possessor to another, bringing violence at every stage. Regin is not the original creator of the curse, but he becomes one of its agents. His desire to recover the hoard shows how the curse works: even those who oppose its current guardian may still be drawn into the same cycle of possession and murder.

Regin can also be understood as a figure of failed fosterage. He helps shape Sigurd but does not guide him toward a stable moral community. His education produces a hero capable of independent judgment, and that judgment turns against him. The teacher’s skill therefore contributes to his own defeat.

Regin in the surviving traditions

The Eddic poems and the Völsunga saga share the main outline of Regin’s story, but they differ in emphasis and detail. Reginsmál presents the history of the treasure, Regin’s account of his family and the beginning of Sigurd’s preparation. Fáfnismál focuses more strongly on the encounter with Fafnir and the wisdom exchanged before and after the dragon’s death. The saga arranges these materials within a longer prose narrative and adds connective episodes.

Some aspects of the story also reflect broader Germanic heroic traditions. The cursed treasure, the dragon-slayer and the exceptional sword appear in related forms in accounts of Siegfried, Sigurd and other legendary heroes. However, the names, relationships and events should not be treated as interchangeable. Regin is specifically the Norse smith and foster father in the Sigurd tradition. He is not simply another name for Fafnir, Andvari or the German figure associated with Siegfried’s upbringing.

Distinction from similar figures

• Fafnir: Regin’s brother, who kills their father and becomes the dragon guarding the cursed hoard. Regin is the smith and plotter; Fafnir is the transformed treasure guardian.
• Andvari: The dwarf connected with the original gold and its curse. Andvari provides the treasure’s immediate supernatural background but is not Regin’s father or foster son.
• Sigurd: The hero fostered by Regin, wielder of Gram and slayer of Fafnir. Regin prepares him for the quest but is eventually killed by him.
• Volund: A different legendary smith, known from the Poetic Edda as Völundr and from Germanic tradition as Wayland. Both are associated with exceptional metalworking, but they are separate figures with different stories.

Later reception

Regin has remained important wherever the Sigurd legend has been retold, although later adaptations often simplify his motives or combine episodes from different traditions. Modern fantasy may present him as a conventional dwarf smith, but that image is shaped partly by later fantasy conventions. The medieval Norse sources give him a more ambiguous identity: a supernatural or dwarf-associated craftsman whose importance comes from skill, knowledge and manipulation rather than from a fully described fantasy race.

He also appears in modern retellings of the Völsung material, including literary adaptations, illustrated works, games and other forms of popular culture. Such versions may alter his relationship with Sigurd, make him more openly villainous, or give him a larger role in the forging of Gram. These changes belong to modern interpretation rather than to the surviving medieval accounts. In the traditional legend, Regin remains a tragic and dangerous mentor whose greatest gifts—his knowledge and craftsmanship—help create the hero who ultimately exposes and kills him.