ANDVARI’S HARMFUL ANDVARANAUT RING

Gift of Andvari 

Andvaranaut (“Gift of Andvari”) is the name of a cursed ring in Norse mythology. The story of the ring is told in the Volsung epic, and is an endless inspiration for author JRR Tolkien to create the image of the Lord’s Ring. 

Once, when the three gods Odin, Loki and Hoenir were traveling, they came across an otter sleeping by the river. Seeing that the tattoo sleeve shirt otter had beautiful skin, Loki beat it to death and then peeled the skin and put it on. Little did he know that the otter was Prince Otr, the son of the dwarf king Hreidmarr. Ironically, that same evening the three gods visited Hreidmarr’s palace again. The Dwarf King recognized the skin of his son, and angrily ordered people to imprison all three gods. They are only released if Loki can pay the ransom in gold large enough to fill Otr’s ​​skin, and enough to cover its outer skin. 

Odin and Hoenir are held hostage, while Loki is released to manage atonement. Using a magic net borrowed from the storm goddess Fried, Loki caught the dwarf Andvari when he transformed into a trout swimming under the waterfall. Originally Andvari was a talented dwarf living under the waterfall, possessing a huge gold store, especially a magic ring capable of helping its wearer find more gold. Loki forces Andvari to spit out all the gold in exchange for his life, and then forces him to hand over the ring as well. Andvari angrily cursed both the treasure and the ring, that they would bring misfortune and death to whoever possessed them.

Loki brought in the gold, filled it with the otter’s skin, and then covered it all over. With a hair still sticking out, Odin put the Andravanaut ring on again, and that was enough atonement. Cleverly for Loki, passing the debt to Andvari, then pushing Andvari’s curse to the Hreidmarr family. King Hreidmarr had two other sons, Fafnir and Regin. Fafnir, blinded by greed, killed Hreidmarr and took the treasure and the ring. He was always afraid of being robbed of his gold treasure. Blind greed and malice have turned him into a hideous dragon that embraces cursed gold every day (cough cough, Smaug!!!). And Regin had to leave his homeland to become a blacksmith and mentor to the hero Sigurd. 

Gram and the god horse Grani 

The curse of the ring did not stop there. Regin asks Sigurd to kill Fafnir to avenge his father. With the sword Gram and the god horse Grani (son of the eight-legged horse Sleipnir), Sigurd slayed the dragon Fafnir, eating its heart, thereby understanding the animal’s language. He heard the animals whispering warnings that Regin was about to stab him in the back to monopolize the vault of gold. Sigurd turned around and stabbed Regin, finishing off the master of intrigue. Sigurd has since taken possession of the gold mine, and used the ring itself to propose to the beautiful Brynhild. The witch Grimhild, intent on taking the treasure for her family, used sorcery to modern viking clothing sink Sigurd and Brynhild’s feelings for each other, and in turn gave the two to her daughter Gudrun and her son Gunnar. Also under the influence of the ring, Brynhild was filled with jealousy and hatred. She didn’t even recognize the person she once loved. Brynhild conspired with the Gunnar brothers to kill Sigurd himself and then committed suicide. 

After the deaths of Sigurd and Brynhild, Gunnar took all the gold hidden in a cave. Years later, the dwarf Andvari accidentally found his gold treasure, but the Andvaranaut ring was nowhere to be found. The ring later continued to cause grief to the descendants of Grimhild. But what about after that… Who knows where it is wandering in the world, continuing to cause pain and unhappiness?