Citation: Gramr

Tags: Magic weapon
Named weapon

Description:

A legendary sword wielded by members of the Völsung family, most famously Sigurðr (Sigurd), slayer of the dragon Fáfnir. It is first introduced in the saga at the wedding feast of King Völsung's daughter, Signy, to King Siggeir, where the god Óðinn (Odin) appears in disguise and thrusts the sword into the trunk of a great tree, called Barnstokkr, which Völsung's magnificent hall is built around. He proclaims to the stunned crowd that whoever is able to pull the sword out of the trunk can keep it, and that they will never carry a greater weapon. Each warrior present takes a turn trying to retrieve the sword, and each fails in turn, until Sigmundr, Signy's brother and King Völsung's son, attempts it. On his first pull, as if the sword were not stuck at all, it slides free of the trunk. The sword then plays an important role in the remainder of the saga, first as Sigmund's tool of vengeance against King Siggeir, his sister's husband, who killed King Völsung and all of Sigmund's brothers in order to steal the sword and the Völsung kingdom; after killing Siggeir and reclaiming his kingdom, Sigmundr uses the sword in several battles before Odin reappears and breaks the sword in two during his final battle with King Lyngvi, and Völsung is slain. His wife, Hjördís, collects the two halves of the broken sword to save for her unborn son, Sigurðr, who is then born and raised in high esteem in King Hjálprekr's court. His foster-father is the smith Reginn, who reforges the broken sword which Sigurðr collects from his mother into Gramr, which Sigurðr tests by cleaving an anvil cleanly in half and then by letting a river's current carry a piece of cotton into the edge of the blade, splitting it. After avenging his father and other kinsmen by killing King Lyngvi, he makes good on his promise to Reginn and kills the dragon Fáfnir by digging a pit in his path, and several others for Fáfnir's poisonous blood to divert into on Odin's advice, and then thrusting Gramr up to the hilt when the wyrm slithers over him. The sword is also used as a symbol of chastity by being lain unsheathed between Sigurðr and Brynhildr, and again placed between them on Sigurðr's funeral pyre after Brynhildr has engineered his death and then killed herself, and she is placed alongside him in the flames. In Old Norse-Icelandic, Gramr is both an adjective meaning "wrathful, angry," and a noun which means "king" or "warrior." In the Middle High German version of the story, known as the Nibelungenlied ("the song of the Nibelungs"), the sword is known as Balmung. In Richard Wagners operatic adaptation, Der Ring des Nibelungen, which takes influences from both versions of the story, the sword is called Nothung.