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My cart stands ready outside; and I pray you to have it filled at once, for the way is long, and I must be back betimes." Then a strange smile stole over Regin's wrinkled face, and he said, "Does Siegfried the prince come on such a lowly errand? Does he come to me through the forest, driving a donkey, and riding in a sooty coal-cart?
But over the anvil, in the smoke of the smithy fire, there was a work of Regin's hands. Sigurd looked upon it, and a hatred for the thing that was shown rose up in him. The work of Regin's hands was a shield, a great shield of iron. Hammered out on that shield and colored with red and brown colors was the image of a Dragon, a Dragon lengthening himself out of a cave.
The third bird said: 'Let him cut off Regin's head, and keep all the gold to himself. The fourth bird said: 'That let him do, and then ride over Hindfell, to the place where Brynhild sleeps. When Sigurd heard all this, and how Regin was plotting to betray him, he cut off Regin's head with one blow of the sword Gram.
They also betray Regin's evil designs, and counsel the lad to kill his tutor. This Sigurd then does, cutting off Regin's head, drinking the blood of both brothers, and eating Fafnir's heart. With the help of his steed Grani, Sigurd succeeds in penetrating through the fire to the castle.
The sun at last went down, and one by one the stars came out; and the moon was rising, round and red, when Siegfried stood by Regin's side, and gazed from the mountain-top down upon the Glittering Heath which lay beyond. And a strange, weird scene it was that met his sight.
As they drew near, they heard the sound of a harp, and strange, wild music within; and Siegfried's heart was stirred with wonder as he listened. The man knocked softly at the door, and the music ceased. "Who comes to break into Regin's rest at such a time as this?" said a rough voice within. "A youth who calls himself Siegfried," answered the man.
Then said Sigurd, "The time is unborn wherein Regin shall be my bane; nay, rather one road shall both these brothers fare." And therewith he drew his sword Gram and struck off Regin's head. Then heard Sigurd the wood-peckers a-singing, even as the song says. For the first sang: "Bind thou, Sigurd, The bright red rings! Not meet it is Many things to fear.
Sigurd takes advantage of the warning: "Fate shall not be so strong that Regin shall give my death-sentence: both brothers shall go quickly hence to Hel." Regin's enjoyment of the hoard is therefore short. The second half of the story begins when one of the birds, after a reference to Gudrun, guides Sigurd to the sleeping Valkyrie: "Bind up the red rings, Sigurd; it is not kingly to fear.
Occasionally this gift seems to have been acquired by eating or tasting the flesh of a snake or dragon, as Sigurd, in the Volsung tale, first became aware of Regin's designs against his life, when he accidentally tasted the heart-blood of Fafnir, whom he had slain in dragon shape, and then all at once the swallow's song, perched above him, became as intelligible as human speech.
He left the barren moorlands behind him, and the pleasant farms and villages of the fruitful countryside, and after many days came once more to Regin's woodland dwelling. For he said to himself, "My old master is very wise; and he knows of the deeds that were done when yet the world was young, and my kin were the mightiest of men.
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