When his brothers Fafner and Reginn saw what had been done, they reproved Loki severely, and demanded of him that he should fill the otter’s skin with gold, and give it to them as an atonement for his great misdeed.
“I return the otter skin and give you the treasure you ask,” said Loki; “but the gift shall bring you evil.”
Their father took the treasure, and Fafner murdered his father to secure it to himself, and then turned into a dragon or serpent to guard it, and to keep his brother from finding it.
Reginn had a wonderful pupil, named Siegfried, a Samson among the inhabitants of the land. He was so strong that he could catch wild lions and hang them by the tail over the walls of the castle. Reginn persuaded this pupil to attack the serpent and to slay him.
Now Siegfried could understand the songs of birds; and the birds told him that Reginn intended to kill him; so he slew Reginn and himself possessed the treasure.
Serpents and dragons were called worms in Old Deutsch, and the Germans called the town where Siegfried lived Worms.
Siegfried had bathed himself in the dragon’s blood, and the bath made his skin so hard that nothing could hurt him except in one spot. A leaf had fallen on this spot as he was bathing. It was between his shoulders.
Siegfried, like Samson, had a curious wife. His romances growing out of his love for this woman would fill a volume. She had learned where his one vulnerable spot lay. But she was a lovely lady, and the wedded pair lived very happily together at Worms.
At last a dispute arose between them and their relatives, and the latter sought to destroy Siegfried’s life. His wife went for counsel to a supposed friend, but real enemy, named Hagen.
“Your husband is invulnerable,” said Hagen.