Norse mythology · 3 chapters

Otter's Gold and the Curse of Andvari

One careless killing. One cursed treasure. A thousand years of ruin.

Odin, Loki, and Hœnir are traveling when Loki kills an otter by the riverside, not knowing it is the dwarf Hreiðmarr's son Ótr in animal form. The family demands wergild: the otter's skin filled with gold, and covered over with more gold. Loki is sent to get it. He captures the dwarf Andvari from a waterfall, takes his entire hoard, and forces him to surrender the last piece, a cursed ring, Andvaranaut. Andvari curses all the gold to bring death and ruin to every owner. Hreiðmarr receives the hoard and is killed by his own son Fáfnir. Fáfnir keeps all the gold and transforms, through greed, into a dragon. Regin, the surviving brother, swears revenge, and engineers Sigurd to do it.