Masamune's Swords

Swords

Honjo Masamune

The Honjo Masamune^[4] represented the Shogunate during most of the Tokugawa era and had been passed down from one Shogun to another. It is one of the best known of the swords created by Masamune and is believed to be one of the finest Japanese swords ever made. It was made a Japanese National Treasure (Kokuhô) in 1939. The name Honjo possibly came about due to this swords connection to the general Honjo Shigenaga 本庄越前守重長 (Honjo "Echizen no kami" Shigenaga) who gained the sword in battle.

Honjo Shigenaga, general of Uesugi Kenshin^[4] in the 16th century, was attacked by Umanosuke who already possessed a number of trophy heads. Shigenaga was attacked with the Honjo Masamune which split his helmet, but he survived and took the sword as a prize. The blade had a number of chips from the great battle but was still usable. The blade was kept by Shigenaga until he was sent to Fushimi Castle, Bunroku around 1592-1595. Shigenaga ran out of funds and was forced to sell the sword to Toyotomi Hidetsugu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's nephew and retainer. It was bought for 13 Mai, 13 O-Ban, which was 13 large gold coins. The blade was later valued in the Kyoho Meibutsu Cho at 1,000 Mai.

It then went to Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣秀吉, Shimazu Hyogo Yoshihiro 島津義弘, again to Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康, Tokugawa Yorinobu 徳川頼宣, and finally Tokugawa Ietsuna 徳川家綱. It remained in the Kii 紀伊 branch of the Tokugawa family, the last known owner being Tokugawa Iemasa 徳川家正 at the end of World War II.

Apparently Tokugawa Iemasa gave the Honjo Masamune and 14 other swords to a police station at Mejiro in December of 1945. Shortly thereafter in January 1946, the Mejiro police gave these swords to Sgt. Coldy Bimore (U.S. 7th Cavalry). The Honjo Masamune is with out a doubt the most important of the missing Nihonto, still today the current location of the sword is unknown.^[8]

Fudo Masamune

As previously mentioned this is one of the few blades signed by Masamune that is not in question. It was bought by Toyotomi Hidetsugu^[4] in 1601 for 500 Kan and was passed to Shogun Ieyasu and from him to Maeda Toshiie. Maeda Toshitsune presented it again to the Shogun, possibly on his retirement. Later, the sword was handed down among the Owari Tokugawa. This blade is a tantō approximately 25 cm (8 sun 6.5 bun) with a carving of roots on the Omote (Front, outer edge) side. It also has chopstick like grooves (Gomabashi 護摩箸) on the back and a Dragon at the ura part of blade (Kurikara 倶利伽羅). The blade features an engraving of Fudo Myo-o, the buddhist deity which gives this blade its name^[9].

Hōchō Masamune

The "Hōchō" Masamune refers to any one of three particular and unusual tantō^[9] attributed to Masamune. These tanto have a wide body, unlike his normal slim and elegant work, making them appear quite similar to a Japanese Chef's knife, or in other words, a kitchen knife (a hōchō or bōchō). One of the three blades has a Gomabashi in cutout (Sukashi). It was restored around 1919 and sold for approximately 10 Hiki which was worth around 14¢ US at the time. Even taking inflation into account the price is still amazingly low. It is presently on display in the Tokugawa Art Museum [1].

Kotegiri Masamune

The Kotegiri (or Kote giri) is a kendo strike to the wrist ^[10], the reason for the choice of name comes from this tachi being used by Asakura Ujikage ^[4] to cut the steel mail off an opposing samurais arm in the battle of Toji in Kyôto. Oda Nobunaga gained possession of this sword and had it shortened to its present length. In 1615 it eventually passed down to the Maeda clan who in 1882 presented it as a gift to Emperor Meiji, a known sword collector.

Helmet Breaker

The Helmet Breaker is a fascinating blade^[2] inscribed by Masamune and is purported to read:

• Made by the Japanese Swordsmith
• Priest Goro Masamune made this
• A lucky day in the first month of the first year of Genko (1331)
• Made for Kusunoki Masanari

Masamune in Harry S Truman Library

• A Masamune was given to President Harry S Truman shortly after World War II. It is currently housed in the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum

Masamune's Student

Students

Masamune is believed to have trained a great number of sword smiths, 15 are known, 10 of which are considered to be the Juttetsu or 'Ten Famous Students' or "10 Great Disciples of Masamune".

Great Juttetsu

(備州長船住長義作 - Bishu Osafune Ju Chogi Saku) (備前國長船住長義 - Bizen Kuni Osafune Ju Chogi)
Although probably not a direct student of Masamune^[5] due to the dates when he was forging, his works are greatly influenced by Masamune's work and the Soshu tradition as well as the work of the Soden Bizen swordsmiths.

[edit] Kanemitsu

(備前國長船住兼光 - Bizen Kuni Osafune Ju Kanemitsu) (備州長船住兼光 - Bishu Ssafune ju Kanemitsu) (備前國長船住左衛門尉藤原兼光 - Bizen no Kuni Osafune ju Saemonjo Fujiwara Kanemitsu)
Considered to have created some of the sharpest swords ever known^[5], Kanemitsu produced swords for many great men and generals. Another student who most likely wasn't taught by Masamune directly but was influenced by the Soshu and Soden Bizen revolution.

[edit] Shizu Saburo Kaneuji

(兼氏 - Kaneuji)
Lived in Yamato province before going to Mino to study under Masamune where his style radically changed. His swords are most like those of Masamune and quite often confused with his. The Mishina school can trace its history back to Kaneuji and through him back to Masamune.^[6]

[edit] Kinju

(金重)
Kinju along with Kaneuji are founders of the Mino style. He was a monk at the Seisen-ji in Tsuruga, he led to the creation of Echizen sword making like Kuniyuki, moving to Mino around the time of Ryakuo (1338-1342) creating the Seki tradition.^[7]

[edit] Kunishige

(長谷部国重 - Hasebe Kunishige)
Created the Hasebe school producing swords in the style of the second period of Soshu and Yamashiro. His swords are considered by some to be equal to Akihiro and Hiromitsu. He created the Heshikiri Hasebe Image (The Forceful Cutter) listed in the Kyoho Meibutsu Cho, owned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and then Oda Nobunaga. It bears a gold appraisal inlay of Honami Kotoku called a Kinzogan (金象嵌). Today the sword is a family heirloom of the Kuroda Daimyo Ke. The sword takes its name from the story of Oda Nobunaga drawing it to cut through a table to kill Kannai, a tea master who betrayed him.

[edit] Kunitsugu

(来源国次 - Rai Minamoto Kunitsugu)
Also goes by the name Kamakura Rai as he is the grandson of Rai Kuniyuki. The influence of the Soshu and Yamashiro traditions can be observed in his works.

[edit] Saemonzaburo

(左 - Sa) (筑州左 - Chikushu Sa) (筑前國住左 - Chikuzen no Kuni ju Sa)
Believed to go by the name Yasuyoshi but signed his work using the first two letters of his given name. Considered by some to be one of the greatest of Masamune's students. As well as being a Soshu swordsmith he also created the Chikuzen tradition.

[edit] Saeki Norishige

(則重 - Norishige, 佐伯 - Saeki)
Historically considered one of the best of Masamune's students, he is numbered among the Juttetsu. However, current research indicates that he was a senior student to Masamune, junior to Yukimitsu, under the great teacher Shintogo Kunimitsu. He, like Go, hails from Etchu province and is well known as the only smith to have mastered the style of matsukawa-hada (pine tree bark pattern steel), making his work unique.

[edit] Go Yoshihiro

(郷（江）- Go, 義弘 - Yoshihiro)
Very few works exist by this swordsmith due to his death at the young age of 27, No known signed works exist. He is believed to have gone by the names of Go Yoshihiro or simply Go, the name of the town from which he came. As well as being a Soshu sword smith he is a member of the Etchu tradition.

[edit] Naotsuna

(石州出羽直綱作 - Sekishu Izuwa Naotsuna Saku) (直綱作 - Naotsuna Saku)
Many theories exist that he may in fact have been a student of Saemonzaburo among others. His work is considered by many to have been infleunced by Soshu(相州) even if not taught by Masamune directly, he is also influenced by the Soden Bizen(備前) and Iwami province (石州) style.

[edit] Other Students

• Fuji
• Hiroki
• Tomishi
• Hiromitsu (相模國住人廣光 - Sagami Kuni Junin Hiromitsu) - Along with Akihiro brought about the second period of the Soshu style.
• Sadamune - A student and possibly son or adopted son of Masamune. Like his father he left no signed work, but is considered peerless in the Soshu tradition after Masamune.
• Akihiro (相州住秋廣 - Soshu Ju Akihiro) (相模國住人秋廣 - Sagami Kuni Junin Akihiro) - A direct student of Masamune, along with Hiromitsu was responsible for refineing the Soshu style to create the Soshu second period.

Masamune

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Masamune Portrait

This article is about the swordsmith. For the Daimyo of Oshu, see Date Masamune. For the manga artist, see Masamune Shirow.

Masamune Okazaki^[1] (岡崎 正宗 Okazaki Masamune), also known as Goro Nyudo Masamune (Priest Goro Masamune)^[2], is widely recognized as Japan's greatest swordsmith. As no exact dates are known for Masamune's life, he has reached an almost legendary status. It is generally agreed that he made most of his swords in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, 1288 - 1328. He created swords, known as tachi in Japanese and daggers called tantō, in the Soshu tradition. He is believed to have lived and worked in the Sagami Province. An award for swordsmiths exists called the Masamune prize which is awarded at the Japanese Sword Making Competition. Although not awarded every year it is presented to a swordsmith who has created an exceptional work.^[3]

Masamune is believed to have worked in Sagami Province during the last part of the Kamakura Era (1288 - 1328), and it is thought that he was trained by swordsmiths from Bizen and Yamashiro provinces, such as Kunitsuna and Kunimitsu.

Style

The swords of Masamune have a reputation for superior beauty and quality, remarkable in a period where the steel necessary for swords was often impure. He is considered to have brought the art of 'nie' (martensitic crystals embedded in pearlite matrix, thought to resemble stars in the night sky) to its perfection.

Masamune studied under Shintogo Kunimitsu and made blades in suguha (straight temper line) but he made magnificent notare hamon, where the leading edge of blade slowly undulates where it was quenched. There are also some blades with ko-midare (small irregularities) which appears to have been copied from the Old Bizen and Hoki Province styles. His works are well characterized by rich chikei (clear grey lines on the leading edge) and kinsuji (lines like lightning streaking across the blade), and beautiful nie (a grey shadow on the front of the blade caused by quenching).

Swords created by Masamune often are referred to with the smith's name (much the same way that other pieces of artwork are), often with a name for the individual sword as well. The Honjo Masamune, a symbol of the Tokugawa shogunate and passed down from one shogun to another, is perhaps the best known Masamune sword.

Signed works of Masamune are rare. The examples "Fudo Masamune", "Kyogoku Masamune", and "Daikoku Masamune" are accepted as his genuine works. Judging from his style, he was active from the late Kamakura period to the Nanboku-cho era.

His swords are the most frequently cited among those listed in the Kyôho Meibutsu Cho^[4], a catalogue of excellent swords in the collections of daimyos edited during the Kyoho era by the Hon'ami family of sword appraisers and polishers. The catalogue was created on the orders of the Tokugawa Yoshimune of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1714 and consists of three books. The first book known as the Nihon Sansaku is a list of the three greatest sword smiths in the eyes of Toyotomi Hideyoshi including Etchu Matsukura Go Umanosuke Yoshihiro, Awataguchi Toshiro Yoshimitsu, and lists 41 blades by Goro Nyudo Masamune. The three books together list 61 blades by Masamune. There are far more blades listed for Masamune than the next two sword smiths combined. It is known that Hideyoshi had a passion for Soshu sword smiths which may explain this. A third of all swords listed are Soshu blades by many of the greatest Soshu masters including Masamune's students.

[edit] Comparison with Muramasa

The swords of Masamune are often contrasted with those of Muramasa, another Japanese swordsmith. Muramasa has alternatively been described (incorrectly) as a full contemporary of Masamune, or as Masamune's student. Since Muramasa dated his work, it is known he worked right around 1500 AD, and as such he lived too late to have met Masamune. In legend and fantasy, Muramasa's blades are described as bloodthirsty or evil while Masamune's are considered the mark of an internally peaceful and calm warrior.

[edit] Legends of Masamune and Muramasa

A legend tells of a test where Muramasa challenged his master, Masamune, to see who could make a finer sword. They both worked tirelessly and eventually, when both swords were finished, they decided to test the results. The contest was for each to suspend the blades in a small creek with the cutting edge facing the current. Muramasa's sword, the Juuchi Fuyu (10,000 Winters) cut everything that passed its way; fish, leaves floating down the river, the very air which blew on it. Highly impressed with his pupil's work, Masamune lowered his sword, the Yawaraka-Te (Tender Hands), into the current and waited patiently. Not a leaf was cut, the fish swam right up to it, and the air hissed as it gently blew by the blade. After a while, Muramasa began to scoff at his master for his apparent lack of skill in the making of his sword. Smiling to himself, Masamune pulled up his sword, dried it, and sheathed it. All the while, Muramasa was heckling him for his sword's inability to cut anything. A monk, who had been watching the whole ordeal, walked over and bowed low to the two sword masters. He then began to explain what he had seen.

"The first of the swords was by all accounts a fine sword, however it is a blood thirsty, evil blade as it doesn't discriminate as to who or what it will cut. It may just as well be cutting down butterflies as severing heads. The second was by far the finer of the two, as it doesn't needlessly cut that which is innocent and undeserving."

In another account of the story, both blades cut the leaves that went down on the river's current equally well, but the leaves would stick to the blade of Muramasa whereas they would slip on past Masamune's after being sliced. Or alternatively both leaves were cut, but those cut by Masamune's blade would reform as it traveled down the stream. Yet another version has leaves being sliced by Muramasa's blade while the leaves were repelled by Masamune's, and another again has leaves being sliced by Muramasa's blade and healed by Masamune's.

In yet another story Muramasa and Masamune were summoned to make swords for the Shogun or Emperor and the finished swords were held in a waterfall. The result is the same as the other stories, and Masamune's swords are deemed holy swords. In one version of the story Muramasa is killed for creating evil swords.

While all known legends of the two ever having met are historically impossible, both smiths are widely regarded as symbols for their respective eras.

Amakuni

Amakuni (天國, Amakuni^?) is the legendary swordsmith who created the first single-edged longsword (tachi) with curvature along the edge in the Yamato Province around 700 AD. He was the head of a group of swordsmiths employed by the Emperor of Japan to make weapons for his warriors. His son, Amakura, was the successor to his work. Although there are almost no modern examples of signed works by Amakuni, legend has it that the double-edged katana, Kogarasu Maru, was forged by this man. The true author of this work is not known, though the work bears similarities to works of the various Yamato schools so it is thought to be an early example of work from this province.

[edit] The legend

One day, Amakuni and his son, Amakura, were standing in the doorway of their shop, watching the Emperor's warriors return from battle. Although having done so on previous occasions, the Emperor did not give Amakuni any sign of recognition. Having always looked upon these gestures as a sign of appreciation for his efforts and hard work, Amakuni suddenly noticed that nearly half of the returning warriors were carrying broken swords.

Determined to make things right, Amakuni and Amakura went about gathering remnants of the swords and examined them. It appeared that the chief reasons for breakage were that the swords had been improperly forged and that the soldiers had struck hard objects, probably armor or other weapons, with them. Once again, the Emperor's subtle yet audible rebuff ran through his mind. Tears filled Amakuni's eyes, and he said to himself, "If they are going to use our swords for such slashing, I shall make one that will not break."

With this vow, Amakuni and his son sealed themselves away in the forge and prayed for seven days and seven nights to the Shinto gods. Amakuni then selected the best iron sand ore he could obtain and refined it into steel. Working without rest, the two worked at their apparently impossible task. Thirty days later, Amakuni and his son emerged gaunt and weary from the forge with a single-edged sword with curvature. Undaunted by the other swordsmiths, who believed them to be insane, Amakuni and Amakura ground and polished the new sword.

During the following months, Amakuni and his son continued with their work, forging many types of improved swords. In the following spring, there was another war. Again the samurai returned, and as they passed by, he counted over thirty-one swords with perfect, intact blades. As the Emperor passed, he smiled and said, "You are an expert swordmaker. None of the swords you have made failed in this battle." Amakuni rejoiced and once more felt that life was full and joyous.

No one knows when Amakuni died.

Kogarasu Maru

The Kogarasu Maru is sometimes referred to as a Kogarasu Zukuri as the blade of the Kogarasu Maru was forged in the Kissaki Moro Ha Zukuri design. The Kogarasu Maru is unique as a bridge between the old double-edged Japanese Ken (based on the traditional Chinese straight sword) and the traditional Japanese tachi and eventual katana.

The Kogarasu Maru was designed with a curved double-edged blade approximately 62.8 cm long. One edge of the blade is sharped in normal tachi fashion, but as the edge comes to a point the blade continues in the reverse direction back towards the hilt of the sword, similar to a European sword or a Japanese yari spear, but stopping midway. A single bo-hi style groove runs down both sides of the blade to the hilt. The forging process yielded a sugaha "straight" style temper line on both sides of the blade.

The Kogarasu Maru "Little Crow" is the most famous of the known Kogarasu Zukuri blades and currently in the Japanese Imperial Collection. The tang of the Kogarasu Maru is not signed but the blade is believed to have been made during the either the early Heian period or late Nara period, by the famous Japanese swordsmith Amakuni, who is said to have created the first curved Japanese sword and is believed to have lived during this period. Two other Kogarasu Zukuri blades exist from this era, but many other blades of this type have been created throughout Japanese history.

kusanagi no tsurugi

Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (草薙の剣, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi^?) is a legendary Japanese sword as important to Japan's history as Excalibur is to Britain's, and is one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (天叢雲剣, "Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven") but its name was late changed to the more popular Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi. It is also called Tsumugari-no-Tachi (都牟刈の太刀)

Legends

The history of the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi extends into legend. According to Kojiki, the Japanese god Susa-no-o encountered a grieving family of kunitsukami ("gods of the land") headed by Ashinazuchi (足名椎, Ashinazuchi^?) in Izumo province. When Susa-no-o inquired of Ashinazuchi, he told him that his family was being ravaged by the fearsome Yamata-no-Orochi, an eight-headed serpent of Koshi, who consumed seven of the family's eight daughters and that the creature was coming for his final daughter, Kushinada-hime (奇稲田姫, Kushinada-hime^?). Susa-no-o investigated the creature, and after an abortive encounter he returned with a plan to defeat it. In return, he asked for Kushinada-hime's hand in marriage, which was agreed. Transforming her temporarily into a comb (one interpreter reads this section as "using a comb he turns into [masquerades as] Kushinada-hime") to have her company during battle, he detailed his plan into steps.

He instructed the preparation of eight vats of sake (rice wine) to be put on individual platforms positioned behind a fence with eight gates. The monster took the bait and put each of its heads through each gate. With this distraction, Susa-no-o attacked and slew the beast. He chopped off each head and then proceeded to the tails. In the fourth tail, he discovered a great sword inside the body of the serpent which he called Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, which he presented to the goddess, Amaterasu to settle an old grievance.

Generations later, in the reign of the Twelfth Emperor, Keikō, the sword was given to the great warrior, Yamato Takeru as part of a pair of gifts given by his aunt, Yamatohime the Shrine Maiden of Ise Shrine, to protect her nephew in times of peril.

These gifts came in handy when Yamato Takeru was lured onto an open grassland during a hunting expedition by a treacherous warlord. The lord had fiery arrows to ignite the grass and trap Yamato Takeru in the field so that he would burn to death. He also killed the warrior's horse to prevent his escape. Desperately, Yamato Takeru used the Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi to cut back the grass and remove fuel from the fire, but in doing so, he discovered that the sword enabled him to control the wind and cause it to move in the direction of his swing. Taking advantage of this magic, Yamato Takeru used his other gift, fire strikers, to enlarge the fire in the direction of the lord and his men, and he used the winds controlled by the sword to sweep the blaze toward them. In triumph, Yamato Takeru renamed the sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (lit. "Grasscutter Sword") to commemorate his narrow escape and victory. Eventually, Yamato Takeru married and later fell in battle with a monster, after ignoring his wife's advice to take the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi with him.

[edit] History

Although the sword is mentioned in the Kojiki, this book is a collection of Japanese myths and is not considered a historical document. The first reliable historical mention of the sword is in the Nihonshoki. Although the Nihonshiki also contains mythological stories that are not considered reliable history, it records some events that were contemporary or nearly contemporary to its writing, and these sections of the book are considered historical. In the Nihonshoki, the Kusanagi was removed from the Imperial palace in 688, and moved to Atsuta Shrine after the sword was blamed for causing Emperor Temmu to fall ill. Along with the jewel and the mirror, it is one of the three imperial regalia of Japan, the sword representing the virtue of valor.

Kusanagi is allegedly kept at Atsuta Shrine to this day, although it is not available for public display, and its existence cannot be confirmed. It is recorded that during the Edo period, a Shinto priest^[who?] claimed to have seen the sword. According to him, the sword was about 84 cm long, shaped like calamus, fashioned in a white metallic color, and well maintained. Another record claims that this priest died from the curse and the power of the sword, but this is most likely a story that was spread to emphasize its power.

In recent times, Japan's nationally run broadcasting station, NHK, went to Atsuta Shrine to videotape the sword but were turned away.^{[citation needed]}

Although some sword may be held by the Atsuta shrine, it is somewhat unlikely to be the legendary Kusanagi. In The Tale of the Heike, a collection of oral stories transcribed in 1371, the sword is lost at sea after the defeat of the Heike clan in the Battle of Dan-no-ura, a naval battle that ended in the defeat of the Heike clan forces and the child Emperor Antoku at the hands of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. In the tale, upon hearing of the Navy's defeat, the Emperor's grandmother led the Emperor and his entourage to commit suicide by drowning in the waters of the strait along with the three imperal regalia, including Kusanagi. Although the Minamoto troops managed to stop a handful of them and recovered two of the three regalia, Kusanagi was said to have been lost forever. Although written about historical events, The Tale of the Heike is a collection of epic poetry passed down orally and written down nearly 200 years after the actual events, so its reliability as a historical document is questionable.

According to some records, the Tenth Emperor, Emperor Sujin, is reported to have ordered the fashioning of a replica of Kusanagi. However, this information was reportedly only made public after it was known that the sword had been stolen. The imperial household claimed that it was the replica which was stolen, but it is just as likely that the replica was made after the fact to replace the irrecoverable sword. It should be noted that Emperor Sujin is considered a "legendary Emperor" by historians, because of a lack of sufficient evidence to assign him to a historical period.

Another story^{[citation needed]} holds that the sword was reportedly stolen again in the sixth century by a Chinese monk. However, his ship allegedly sank at sea, allowing the sword to wash ashore at Ise, where it was recovered by Shinto priests. Given the somewhat fantastic nature of this story, its historical accuracy is questionable.

Due to the refusal of Shinto priests to show the sword, and the rather sketchy nature of its historical references, the current state of or even the existence at all of the sword as a historical artifact cannot be confirmed. The last appearance of the sword was in 1989 when Emperor Akihito ascended to the throne, the sword (including the jewel and the Emperor's two seals) were shrouded in packages.

The Völsunga saga

In the Völsunga saga, Sigurd is the posthumous son of Sigmund and his second wife, Hiordis. Sigmund dies in battle when he attacks Odin (who is in disguise), and Odin shatters Sigmund's sword. Dying, Sigmund tells Hiordis of her pregnancy and bequeaths the fragments of his sword to his unborn son.

Hiordis marries King Alf, and then Alf decided to send Sigurd to Regin as a foster. Regin tempts Sigurd to greed and violence by first asking Sigurd if he has control over Sigmund's gold. When Sigurd says that Alf and his family control the gold and will give him anything he desires, Regin asks Sigurd why he consents to a lowly position at court. Sigurd replies that he is treated as an equal by the kings and can get anything he desires. Then Regin asks Sigurd why he acts as stableboy to the kings and has no horse of his own. Sigurd then goes to get a horse. An old man (Odin in disguise) advises Sigurd on choice of horse, and in this way Sigurd gets Grani, a horse derived from Odin's own Sleipnir.

Finally, Regin tries to tempt Sigurd by telling him the story of the Otter's Gold. Regin's father was Hreidmar, and his two brothers were Ótr and Fafnir. Regin was a natural at smithing, and Otr was natural at swimming. Otr used to swim at Andvari's waterfall, where the dwarf Andvari lived. Andvari often assumed the form of a pike and swam in the pool.

One day, the Æsir saw Otr with a fish on the banks, thought him an otter, and Loki killed him. They took the carcass to the nearby home of Hreidmar to display their catch. Hreidmar, Fafnir, and Regin seized the Æsir and demanded compensation for the death of Otr. The compensation was to stuff the body with gold and cover the skin with fine treasures. Loki got the net from the sea giantess Rán, caught Andvari (as a pike), and demanded all of the dwarf's gold. Andvari gave the gold, except for a ring. Loki took this ring, too, although it carried a curse of death on its bearer. The Æsir used this gold and stuffed Otr's body with gold and covered its skin in gold and covered the last exposed place (a whisker) with the ring of Andvari. Afterward, Fafnir killed Hreidmar and took the gold.

Siegfried Tasting the Dragon's Blood by Arthur Rackham

Sigurd agrees to kill Fafnir, who has turned himself into a dragon in order to be better able to guard the gold. Sigurd has Regin make him a sword, which he tests by striking the anvil. The sword shatters, so he has Regin make another. This also shatters. Finally, Sigurd has Regin make a sword out of the fragments that had been left to him by Sigmund. The resulting sword, Gram, cuts through the anvil. To kill Fafnir the dragon, Regin advises him to dig a pit, wait for Fafnir to walk over it, and then stab the dragon. Odin, posing as an old man, advises Sigurd to dig trenches also to drain the blood, and to bathe in it after killing the dragon; bathing in Fafnir's blood confers invulnerability. Sigurd does so and kills Fafnir; Sigurd then bathes in the dragon's blood, which touches all of his body except for one of his shoulders where a leaf was stuck. Regin then asked Sigurd to give him Fafnir's heart for himself. Sigurd drinks some of Fafnir's blood and gains the ability to understand the language of birds. Birds advise him to kill Regin, since Regin is plotting Sigurd's death. Sigurd beheads Regin, roasts Fafnir's heart and consumes part of it. This gives him the gift of "wisdom" (prophecy).

Sigurd met Brynhildr, a "shieldmaiden," after killing Fafnir. She pledges herself to him but also prophesies his doom and marriage to another. (In Völsunga saga, it is not clear that Brynhild is a Valkyrie or in any way supernatural.)

Sigurd went to the court of Heimar, who was married to Bekkhild, sister of Brynhild, and then to the court of Gjúki, where he came to live. Gjuki had three sons and one daughter by his wife, Grimhild. The sons were Gunnar, Hogni and Guttorm, and the daughter was Gudrun. Grimhild made an "Ale of Forgetfulness" to force Sigurd to forget Brynhild, so he could marry Gudrun. Later, Gunnar wanted to court Brynhild. Brynhild's bower was surrounded by flames, and she promised herself only to the man daring enough to go through them. Only Grani, Sigurd's horse, would do it, and only with Sigurd on it. Sigurd exchanged shapes with Gunnar, rode through the flames, and won Brynhild for Gunnar.

Some time later, Brynhild taunted Gudrun for having a better husband, and Gudrun explained all that had passed to Brynhild and explained the deception. For having been deceived and cheated of the husband she had desired, Brynhild plots revenge. First, she refuses to speak to anyone and withdraws. Eventually, Sigurd was sent by Gunnar to see what was wrong, and Brynhild accuses Sigurd of taking liberties with her. Gunnar and Hogni plot Sigurd's death and enchant their brother, Guttorm, to a frenzy to accomplish the deed. Guttorm kills Sigurd in bed, and Brynhild kills Sigurd's three year old son Sigmund (named for Sigurd's father). Brynhild then wills herself to die, and builds a funeral pyre for Sigurd, Sigurd's son, Guttorm (killed by Sigurd) and herself. Sigurd and Brynhild had the daughter Aslaug who married Ragnar Lodbrok.

Sigurd and Gudrun are parents to the twins Sigmund (named after Sigurd's father) and Svanhild.