But whosoever contrary doth prove
Might not the same about her middle wear
But it would loose, or else asunder tear.”
Faerie Queene (Spenser).
The dwarfs also manufactured the mythical sword Tyrfing, which could cut through iron and stone, and which they gave to Angantyr. This sword, like Frey’s, fought of its own accord, and could not be sheathed, after it was once drawn, until it had tasted blood. Angantyr was so proud of this weapon that he had it buried with him; but his daughter Hervor visited his tomb at midnight, recited magic spells, and forced him to rise from his grave to give her the precious blade. She wielded it bravely, and it eventually became the property of another of the Northern heroes.
Another famous weapon, which according to tradition was forged by the dwarfs in Eastern lands, was the sword Angurvadel which Frithiof received as a portion of his inheritance from his fathers. Its hilt was of hammered gold, and the blade was inscribed with runes which were dull until it was brandished in war, when they flamed red as the comb of the fighting-cock.
“Quick lost was that hero
Meeting in battle’s night that blade high-flaming with runics.
Widely renown’d was this sword, of swords most choice in the Northland.”
Tegnér’s Frithiof (G. Stephens’s tr.).