Mangle Board with "Sigurd the Dragonslayer" Stave Church portal design.
The Saga of Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer is told in a series of carved roundels on the portals of the twelfth-century stave church at Hylestad, Norway. The Sigurd Saga was known in all of the Old Teutonic world. The Saga is a mix of Frankish, Burgundy, Gothic, Icelandic and Anglo-saxon material from different times. I will relate only the first part of the story because it pertains to the carvings on the Mangle Board shown below. The story begins at the bottom of the Mangle where they are forging the sword.
This is the story of the Volsungs. It is thought that the elements of the story reached Scandinavia by AD 800, and formed the basis for the composition of some of the lays enshrined in the Elder Edda. In Snorri Sturluson's Edda, the seeds are sown with a hoard of gold that has been accursed. It had been plundered by Loki, on Odin's behalf, from a dwarf called Andvari to pay compensation for a man they had slain. The man's brothers, Fafnir and Regin, demanded a share of the gold from their father, but when this was refused, they slew him. The brothers then fell out over the division of the spoils, and Fafnir refused to let his brother have a share of it and drove Regin away. Fafnir then changed himself into a dragon and made himself a lair from which to guard the gold.
Meanwhile the other brother, Regin, became a great smith in exile, and fostered a likely young hero called Sigurd the Volsung to be the instrument of his vengeance on his brother, Fafnir. Regin forged a fine sword for Sigurd.
Sigurd tried this blade on the lump of iron, and it did not break, but split the iron in two. Then he threw a lock of wool into the river, and when it floated down against the sword it was cut into two pieces.
So Sigurd said that sword would do. But before he went against the Dragon he led an army to fight the men who had killed his father, and he slew their King, and took all his wealth, and went home. When he had been at home a few days, he rode out with Regin one morning to the heath where the Dragon used to lie. Then he saw the track which the Dragon made when he went to a cliff to drink, and the track was as if a great river had rolled along and left a deep valley.
Then Sigurd went down into that deep place, and dug many pits in it, and in one of the pits he lay hidden with his sword drawn. There he waited, and presently the earth began to shake with the weight of the Dragon as he crawled to the water. And a cloud of venom flew before him as he snorted and roared, so that it would have been death to stand before him. But Sigurd waited till half of him had crawled over the pit, and then he thrust the sword Gram right into his very heart. Then the Dragon lashed with his tail till stones broke and trees crashed about him. Then he spoke, as he died, and said: "Whoever thou art that hast slain me this gold shall be thy ruin, and the ruin of all who own it." Sigurd said: "I would touch none of it if by losing it I should never die. But all men die, and no brave man lets death frighten him from his desire. Die thou, Fafnir," and then Fafnir died.
And after that Sigurd was called FafnirÕs Bane, and Dragonslayer. Then Sigurd rode back, and met Regin. Regin now told him that it was his brother he had slain, and in compensation for his death he ordered Sigurd to roast the dragon's heart, while he himself drank the dragon's blood (this, it turned out, was to enable him to understand the speech of birds and animals).
Sigurd did as he was bidden, but he burnt his finger on the roasting heart and licked it, thereby tasting the blood from the heart. Thus Sigurd, too, gained the power to understand the speech of birds.
He heard the birds say: "There is Sigurd roasting Fafnir's heart for another, when he should taste of it himself and learn all wisdom."
Another bird said: "There lies Regin, ready to betray Sigurd, who trusts him."
The first bird said: "Let him cut off Regin's head, and keep all the gold to himself."
Another 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 and took the hoard of gold for himself. The Saga continues on from that point, but I have shown only this part of the Sigurd Saga in the carvings on the Mangle Board.