Fosterer of Sigurd
Reginn enters the prose of Reginsmál as a craftsman and a teacher. He has come to Hjálprekr’s household, where Sigurd is living, and the narrator gives him an unusual combination of qualities: extraordinary skill, small stature, wisdom, fierceness and knowledge of magic. Before he supplies a sword or proposes a killing, he takes responsibility for the young man’s upbringing.
Þá var kominn Reginn til Hjálpreks, sonr Hreiðmars. Hann var hverjum manni hagari ok dvergr of vöxt. Hann var vitr, grimmr ok fjölkunnigr. Reginn veitti Sigurði fóstr ok kennslu ok elskaði hann mjök.
“At that time Regin , the son of Hreithmar , was come to Hjalprek’s home; he was more ingenious than all other men, and a dwarf in stature; he was wise, fierce and skilled in magic. Regin undertook Sigurth’s bringing up and teaching, and loved him much.” — Reginsmál, opening prose, tr. H. A. Bellows
The last clause matters to the story that follows. Reginn teaches Sigurd and loves him greatly; the relationship begins with affection, rather than with the warning that will end it. The poem establishes both his ability and his closeness to his pupil. When he later urges Sigurd to kill Fáfnir, the advice comes from the person who has been raising and instructing him.
His father is Hreiðmarr. Fáfnir and Otr are his brothers, and Lyngheiðr and Lofnheiðr are Hreiðmarr’s daughters. This family gives the expedition its second meaning: the creature whom Reginn wants Sigurd to kill is Reginn’s own brother. His roles as teacher and brother meet in the task he sets for his pupil.
The poems also describe Reginn in different terms. Reginsmál makes him a dwarf in stature; the seventh bird in Fáfnismál calls the person whose head Sigurd should cut off a frost-cold giant. The descriptions occur at opposite ends of the relationship, in the opening account of the fosterer and in the birds’ counsel against him. They belong to the texts as they stand, without an account of a change from one body into another.
Maker of Gramr
Reginn makes the sword Gramr for Sigurd. Reginsmál demonstrates its sharpness twice, first against wool and then against the material of the smith’s own work.
Reginn gerði Sigurði sverð, er Gramr hét. Þat var svá hvasst, at hann brá því ofan í Rín ok lét reka ullarlagð fyrir straumi ok tók í sundr lagðinn sem vatnit. Því sverði klauf Sigurðr í sundr steðja Regins. Eftir þat eggjaði Reginn Sigurð at vega Fáfni.
“Regin made Sigurth the sword which was called Gram ; it was so sharp that when he thrust it down into the Rhine, and let a strand of wool drift against it with the stream, it cleft the strand asunder as if it were water. With this sword Sigurth cleft asunder Regin’s anvil. After that Regin egged Sigurth on to slay Fafnir” — Reginsmál, prose after st. 14, tr. H. A. Bellows
For the first test, Sigurd holds the blade down into the Rhine and lets a strand of wool drift against it with the current. The strand is cut apart. For the second, he splits Reginn’s anvil. The sword’s quality becomes something his pupil can test: wool carried by water meets the edge, and then the anvil itself gives way to it. The forge has produced a weapon that can cut the object on which a smith works.
The incitement immediately follows the tests. Reginn has supplied the means, and now he urges Sigurd to use it against Fáfnir. The sequence ties his craft to the coming death. Making Gramr is an act of service to Sigurd, but it also equips him for the task Reginn wants done. The smith’s skill and the brother’s purpose enter the story together.
This is the practical authority behind Reginn’s advice. He has taught Sigurd, and the sword he makes proves its quality in Sigurd’s hands. The later warning about deceit does not undo the sword’s effectiveness. Reginn’s work succeeds even though the trust between maker and wielder will fail.
The heart and the blood
After Fáfnir has been killed, Reginn cuts the heart out of his brother’s body with a sword called Riðill. He drinks blood from the wound. Gramr and Riðill have separate places in the episode: the sword made for Sigurd leads to Fáfnir’s death, while the sword Reginn uses afterward opens the dead body and removes the heart.
Sigurd takes the heart and roasts it on a spit. When he thinks it is cooked and sees blood foaming out of it, he tests it with his finger. The heat burns him, and he puts the finger into his mouth. As the heart’s blood reaches his tongue, he understands the speech of birds. He hears nuthatches chattering in the thicket.
The heart therefore changes the course of Reginn’s plan. The smith has given Sigurd a weapon; the blood now gives Sigurd access to counsel that the smith does not control. The warning comes while the heart is being prepared, through the burned finger and the new understanding of the birds. Reginn has drunk from Fáfnir’s wound, but the poem’s account of hearing the birds belongs to Sigurd.
The birds disclose the betrayal
The first bird sees Sigurd blood-spattered at the fire, cooking Fáfnir’s heart, and says he would be wise to eat it himself. The second turns to Reginn, who lies nearby, and names the danger inside the relationship the opening prose established.
Þar liggr Reginn, ræðr um við sik, vill tæla mög, þann er trúir hánum, berr af reiði röng orð saman, vill bölvasmiðr bróður hefna.
“There Regin lies, and plans he lays The youth to betray who trusts him well; Lying words with wiles will he speak, Till his brother the maker of mischief avenges.” — Fáfnismál 33, tr. H. A. Bellows
The youth still trusts him. The bird’s warning makes that trust the means by which the betrayal could work: Reginn is planning deceit, and his words will conceal the plan. It also gives the motive as revenge for his brother. The brother whom he urged Sigurd to kill is now the brother he means to avenge. The same family bond that lay behind the expedition has become a threat to the pupil who carried it out.
Other birds advise Sigurd to take Reginn’s head and keep the wealth for himself. One says that he should not let one brother escape after killing the other; another calls Reginn his enemy. The seventh urges him to shorten the frost-cold giant by a head and take the rings. Their counsel joins the danger of leaving Reginn alive to the possession of Fáfnir’s gold.
Sigurd answers that Reginn will not have the fortune to tell the tale of his death. Both brothers will soon go to the realm of the dead. The prose then records his action: he cuts off Reginn’s head, eats Fáfnir’s heart and drinks the blood of both brothers. Reginn’s planned vengeance never reaches its intended victim.
The closing act reverses the opening relationship. The man who undertook Sigurd’s teaching and loved him greatly dies by his pupil’s hand, after another set of voices exposes the purpose hidden in his counsel. His sword remains a successful piece of craft. His claim on Sigurd’s trust ends when Sigurd can hear what the birds are saying.