father guarding the treasure, as he had left him in the
morning; but instead he saw a glittering snake, fast asleep,
encircling the hoard like a huge scaly ring of gold. His
first thought was that the monster had devoured his father;
and, hastily drawing his sword, with one blow he severed the
serpent's head from its body. And, while yet the creature
writhed in the death-agony, he gathered up the hoard, and
fled with it beyond the hills of Hunaland, until on the
seventh day he came to a barren heath far from the homes of
men. There he placed the treasures in one glittering heap;
and he clothed himself in a wondrous mail-coat of gold that
was found among them, and he put on the Helmet of Dread,
which had once been the terror of the mid-world, and the
like of which no man had ever seen; and then he gazed with
greedy eyes upon the fateful ring, until he, too, was
changed into a cold and slimy reptile,--a monster dragon.
And he coiled himself about the hoard; and, with his
restless eyes forever open, he gloated day after day upon
his loved gold, and watched with ceaseless care that no one
should come near to despoil him of it. This was ages and
ages ago; and still he wallows among his treasures on the
Glittering Heath, and guards as of yore the garnered wealth
of Andvari.[EN#10]

When I, Regin, the younger brother, came back in the late
evening to my father's dwelling, I saw that the treasure had
been carried away; and, when I beheld the dead serpent lying
in its place, I knew that a part of Andvari's curse had been
fulfilled. And a strange fear came over me; and I left every
thing behind me, and fled from that dwelling, never more to