The Legend
Andvaranaut is a golden ring with the power to breed more gold, belonging to the dwarf Andvari, who hoarded a great treasure in the shape of a pike beneath a waterfall. When the gods needed gold to pay a ransom, Loki caught the dwarf in a net and stripped him of his entire hoard.
Andvari tried to keep back this one ring, but Loki took it too. In his fury, the dwarf laid a curse upon the ring and all the gold: it would destroy every owner who possessed it. The gods used the treasure to pay their debt, and the curse passed out of their hands into the world of mortals.
From there the doom unfolded exactly as promised. The ring drove Fáfnir to murder his own father and become a dragon, then passed to the hero Sigurd, and on to the valkyrie Brynhild, sowing betrayal and death through the whole tragic saga of the Völsungs.
Powers and Curse
Breeds Gold
The ring can generate more gold, the very power that made Andvari so wealthy
The Dwarf's Curse
Dooms every owner to death and ruin, dragging kin against kin down the generations
Quick Facts
The Chain of Owners
Andvari to the Gods
Taken by Loki to pay the ransom for the otter Otr
Hreidmar to Fáfnir
Greed turns son against father, and Fáfnir becomes a dragon
Sigurd and Brynhild
The curse follows the ring into the tragedy of the Völsungs
Legacy
A Ring of Doom
Andvaranaut helped inspire the cursed rings of later legend and modern fantasy