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Dwarf of Norse mythology
Otr on the
Ramsund carving
in
Sodermanland
, c. 1030
In
Norse mythology
,
Otr
(
Old Norse
:
[?oːtz?]
; alternately:
Ott
,
Oter
,
Otr
,
Ottar
,
Ottarr
,
Otter
) is a
dwarf
. He is the son of the king
Hreidmar
and the brother of
Fafnir
and
Regin
.
According to the
Prose Edda
, Otr could
change into any form
and used to spend his days in the shape of an
otter
, greedily eating fish. In this form, he was slain by
Loki
, who wanted his pelt. Initially, Hreidmar demanded a life for a life, but with the argument that the murder had been an accident when no one involved knew that Otr was a dwarf, he settled for receiving a large
weregild
for Otr's death, namely to fill Otr's skin with yellow gold and to then cover it entirely with red gold. When the skin was covered, one whisker still protruded, forcing Loki to give up the ring
Andvarinaut
to hide it. The ring had been stolen from, and cursed by, the dwarf
Andvari
. It is suggested that this story was meant to show the benefits of not only adhering to the
letter of the law
(repayment for manslaughter) but sticking to the spirit of the law as well (demanding an exorbitant ransom).
[1]
Greed for this cursed treasure ultimately caused the deaths of Hreidmar and his two surviving sons: Hreidmar was killed by Fafnir, who transformed into a
dragon
, and the other two were slain by
Sigurd
's sword
Gram
.
References
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