Seiðr Loom

creature

Otr

Son of Hreiðmarr who fished in otter shape; Loki killed him with a stone, and the gold paid for his death carries Andvari's curse.

Otr is known only for his death, and the sources tell very little about him. In Reginsmál his brother Reginn says that Otr often went into Andvari's waterfall in the shape of an otter. He had caught a salmon and sat eating it on the bank with his eyes shut when Loki killed him with a stone. The gods skinned him and showed the skin at the house of his father, Hreiðmarr Reginsmál, prose 1. Snorri tells the same story without naming him, adds that Loki boasted of getting "otter and salmon with one blow", and has Hreiðmarr recognise the animal as his son Skáldskaparmál 39.

His skin had to be filled and covered with gold. That ransom gave skalds a kenning for gold, "Otter's Wergild", and the cursed hoard passed through Fáfnir to Sigurðr and the Gjúkungs Skáldskaparmál 39. See Otter's ransom and Andvari's curse.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

Otr was the name of a brother of ours, said Regin, who often went into the fall in the shape of an otter
Reginsmál, prose 1 Reginn tells Sigurðr about his brother.
And Loki boasted in his catch, that he had got otter and salmon with one blow.
Skáldskaparmál 39 Snorri's Loki is pleased with himself.

Myths with Otr

Otter's ransom and Andvari's curse Loki kills an otter that turns out to be a farmer's son. To buy their lives the gods must fill and cover its skin with gold, which Loki wrings from the dwarf Andvari, along with a ring Andvari curses. The curse starts working at once.

Related

Hreiðmarr Father of Otr, Fáfnir and Reginn, who makes the gods pay a gold ransom for his son's death and is killed by his own son for it. Reginn Hreiðmarr's son, a dwarfish smith who fosters Sigurðr, forges his sword and sends him against his brother Fáfnir, then plots to betray him and is beheaded. Fáfnir Son of Hreiðmarr who killed his father for the otter's ransom and lay on the gold as a dragon on Gnitaheiðr until Sigurðr killed him from a pit. Loki The giant-born trickster counted among the Æsir: father of Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent and Hel, contriver of Baldr's death, bound until Ragnarök. Andvari A dwarf living as a pike in a waterfall, from whom Loki extorts all his gold, including a ring he curses so that it will destroy whoever owns it. Andvaranaut Andvaranautr The cursed gold ring taken from the dwarf Andvari, used to cover the last whisker of the otter's skin, and later worn by Brynhildr and sent as a warning by Guðrún.