According to the surviving Norse sagas, Hreidmar was a dwarf king who was extremely wealthy and lived in a house made from glittering gold and flashing gems.

It was made for him by his son Regin, who was a master smith and craftsman, and guarded for him by his other son Fafnir, who was considered stronger and more aggressive than his other brothers, and therefore best suited to the task.

Fafnir’s other brother Otr was a master fisherman, and often took on the form of an otter to catch his fish.

One day the Norse gods Odin, Loki and Hoenir were travelling and came across Otr in the form of a beautiful otter. Loki killed the otter with a stone and skinned it for its magnificent pelt.

Later that day they arrived at the house of the dwarf king, and Loki could not resist showing off his prize. Hreimdar, Regin and Fafnir immediately knew what had happened, and seized Loki, demanding that he pay recompense for the life he had taken.

Being Norse dwarves, they valued gold, and demanded that Loki give them Otr’s weight in gold.

Loki remembered seeing a great treasure in the same lake that they encountered Otr. In order to gain his ransom, he returned to the lake and peered into its depths.

There he saw a mighty hoard or treasure guarded by a giant pike, which was another shapeshifting dwarf by the name of Andvari.

In order to save his life from Loki, Andvari agreed to hand over his entire treasure, but begged to be able to hold onto a single, magnificent gold ring called Andvaranaut, one of many important rings in Nose mythology.

Considering the ring the finest item in the hoard, Loki refused. As a result, Andvari cursed the ring to bring misfortune and destruction to whoever possessed it.

Loki took the treasure to Hreimdar and used it to pay his debt. He also handed over the ring to the dwarven king, and warned him of the curse, but the ring had already started to work its magic on Hreidmar, who decided that he would keep the ring for himself.

The curse quickly took hold on Heidmar and his family, and Regin and Fafnir killed their father in order to possess it for themselves. Fafnir in turn decided that he did not want to share the treasure with his brother, so he turned himself into a mighty dragon and drove Regin away from their father’s house. He then decided to retain his dragon form in order to guard his treasure day and night.

Done with Sharpies!

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