Tyrfing

In Hlöðskviða, a cursed sword that was fashioned by the dwarfs. It would cut through anything as if through cloth, would neither break nor rust, would always bring victory, but would also always kill a man each time it was unsheathed.

According to the 13th-century Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, the sword was made by Dvalinn and Durinn for king Svafrlami, the son of Sigrlami, the son of Odin. When Dvallin handed over the sword, he did so with a curse:

Svafrlami swung the sword at the dwarfs but they had disappeared into the rock. The king named the sword Tyrfing. He lost it to the berserker Arngrímr, who later passed it later on to his son Angantýr. Angantýr died in a fight with the Swedish hero Hjálmarr and was buried by Örvar-Oddr in a barrow together with the sword. The warrior-maiden Hervör raised her father from the dead in order to recover the weapon. Her son Heiðrekr possessed it after her. The sword caused a feud between Heiðrekr's sons Angantýr and Hlöd. The latter, who was aided by the Huns, was defeated and killed; and the story of Tyrfing ends with him.

According to the R version of the saga (MS 2845, 4to), dated to the 15th century, Arngrímr became the war-chief of Svafrlami (here called Sigrlami). The aged king gave him his daughter Eufyra and the sword Tyrfing as a reward.

In Völuspá, stanza 23, it is the name of a dwarf; it is also the name of an ancestor of Óttar, according to Hyndluljóð, stanza 23.

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