Tonight I read "Regin," one of the longer sections; it's 54 stanzas in 18 pages--with 13 pages of notes. I've only read it once; I usually read the poem, then the notes, and then the poem again. But this section is quite straightforward and has a retelling of an earlier section, so, while I wish I'd had time to re-read, I think I understand most of the stanza--though as usual there are passages so tightly constructed, containing a lot of information and unusual (to me) names that they merit several readings.
We met Regin in section 1, "Andvara-Gull," where he was one of three brothers; Otr was slain by Loki, and Odin gave a trove of weregeld to the father in payment for his son's life. In this section Regin has become a smithy to the king of the "far land," to whom Sigurd's mother is now married. Regin, now the foster-father of Sigurd, re-tells the story to him--with a few changes to cloak the truth of what happened after Odin and his band had left the bereaved father.
In this telling, Regin says that his brother, Fafnir, wanted some of the gold, but their father refused, so Fafnir killed him and threatened Regin, who left to join the king's followers. Fafnir built an underground hall to house his gold; then he turned into a dragon to guard it. Regin tells Sigurd that he wants revenge for his father's death and that, if Sigurd will kill Fafnir, he can have all the "gold and glory." Sigurd is a bit wary but agrees to kill the dragon if Regin will reforge the broken sword of his father, Sigmund.
All goes according to plan--and Tolkien doesn't disappoint in relating the dragon fight. I can tell he really likes this section; he did, after all, once say that when he read the Northern tales as a child, he desired dragons with a "profound desire." (This is somewhere in "On Fairie Stories" but I don't have my copy here.)
However, once the dragon is slain, Regin begins to act a bit strangely; he keeps muttering that he will have revenge for his brother's death. He drinks the blood of the dragon and asks Sigurd to cook the heart for him! Yikes. Luckily (or as fate would have it) when Sigurd does so, he touches the cooking meat and licks his finger--and now the real magic begins! Immediately he can understand the language of the beasts, and he hears two birds talking! They say to each other that a wise man would kill the brother who wants to kill him and have the gold all for himself.
"Who a foe lets free
is fool indeed,
when he was bane of brother!
I alone would be lord
of linked gold,
if my wielded sword had won it." (114)
Sigurd is no fool, so he heeds their advice and kills Regin. He then loads the gold onto his horse (there's also a series of stanzas on the getting of this horse); before he leaves he hears the birds talking about a Hall on Hindarfell, where a beautiful maiden, Gudrun, lives:
"A maid have I seen
as morning fair;
golden-girdled,
garland-crowned" (116)
The section ends with the birds talking about Gudrun and her kin; I'm assuming our hero will set out with his new-found wealth to win the "fair maid." We'll see.
As a side note, the conversations of the birds reminded me of a book I read ages ago, Greenlanders, by Jane Smiley. I was impressed then with the "story-telling" techniques of the Inuit characters; when they wanted to give advice to a young person who was making poor choices, they would sit around the fire in the evening--the whole group--and tell stories. They never pointed out the young person or commented on his or her behavior, but the stories contained a message--and the youngster knew it and, more often than not, heeded the warning or advice. I wonder if Tolkien recognized this mode of communication from his reading of ON and OE texts. Maybe it's a "Northern" thing. Quite effective.
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