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 grew wroth thereat, but went into the smithy with the pieces of the sword, thinking well meanwhile that Sigurd pushed his head far enow into the matter of smithying. So he made a sword, and as he bore it forth from the forge, it seemed to the smiths as though fire burned along the edges thereof. Now he bade Sigurd take the sword, and said he knew not how to make a sword if this one failed. Then Sigurd smote it into the anvil, and cleft it down to the stock thereof, and neither burst the sword nor brake it. Then he praised the sword much, and thereafter went to the river with a lock of wool, and threw it up against the stream, and it fell asunder when it met the sword. Then was Sigurd glad, and went home.

But Regin said, “Now whereas I have made the sword for thee, belike thou wilt hold to thy troth given, and wilt go meet Fafnir?”

“Surely will I hold thereto,” said Sigurd, “yet first must I avenge my father.”

Now Sigurd the older he grew, the more he grew in the love of all men, so that every child loved him well.