‘Draupnir‘ tells the tale of dwarven headhunters, a father’s love, the ultimate wealth multiplier, and a journey to hell and back. It’s about a gift, made in response to a wager, that almost cost a trickster his head.

Forged in fire, Draupnir was one of three gifts which also included the Mjollnir and the Gullinbursti. They were created by dwarves, Brokkr and Sindri, as part of a wager with Loki. Loki made a bet that they could not make better gifts than the Sons of Ivaldi.

Loki must have lost his head, betting against the brothers. He was very wrong, and this was no small wager.

The dwarven brothers may have won the contest because of the Mjollnir (Thor’s Hammer), but the Draupnir was literally worth it’s weight in gold – actually eight times it’s weight in gold!

It was time for Loki to pay up and he had wagered his head. But as usual Loki had a trick up his sleeve. He argued that in order for the brothers to take his head they would need to injure his neck and that wasn’t part of the bargain.

The dwarves discussed, and settled for sewing his lips together with wire.

Perhaps just to shut him up.

‘Draupnir’, old Norse for The Dripper, was no slouch of a gift. It was a golden arm ring with a special ability: every nine days it would drip out eight new arm rings of the same weight and quality of gold!

Move over Michael Bloomberg, that’s quite a return on investment!

This arm ring would become a prized possession of Odin’s, but in the ultimate act of a father’s love Odin placed it on the funeral pyre of his son Baldr.

But the rings story does not end here.

In the land of death, Baldr would give the ring to the messenger god Hermodr, who would ultimately return it to Odin.

A circular journey to Hell and back rings true for ‘Draupnir‘ – but if you buy this vase, please don’t return it to me.

It’ll be yours. I insist.

If you liked this story, you can find many others like it in our first book “A Potter’s Dream: Myths & Legends”.

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