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Gram (mythology)

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sigurd with Gram circa 1030

In Norse mythology, Gram (Old Norse Gramr, meaning "Wrath"),[1] is the name of the sword of Sigurd (Siegfried). He used it to kill the dragon Fafnir.[2] It was forged by Wayland the Smith and originally belonged to his father, Sigmund, who received it in the hall of the Volsung after pulling it out of a log into which Odin had stuck it–nobody else could pull it out. The sword was destroyed and reforged at least once. After it was reforged, it clove an anvil in half. (See Sigurd for more details on the story of Siegfried and Fafnir)

In the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried's sword is called Balmung;[3] in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, it is called Nothung[4] (Notung in more modern German).

References

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  1. Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0-304-34520-2.
  2. Sigurd—ein Held des Mittelalters (Edgar Haimerl)
  3. The Nibelungenlied – A Prose Translation. Translated by Armour, Margaret. London: JM Dent. 1934 [c. 1200]. Retrieved 2019-04-26 – via Project Gutenberg.
  4. Cord, W. O. (1989:22). The Teutonic Mythology of Richard Wagner's "The Ring of the Nibelung". United Kingdom: E. Mellen Press.