Fáfnismál

The title Fáfnismál (Fm.) is post-medieval, as is probably the perception of Fm. (R fol. 30r–31v) as an entity distinct from Rm. and Sd.

To a modern audience possibly expecting ‘The Sayings/Lay of Fáfnir’ to include a vivid account of a dragon-fight comparably dramatic to those of Þórr against the Miðgarðsormr (in Vsp. and Hym.) and of Beowulf against the firedrake (in the Old English Beowulf), it may both surprise and disappoint. For Fm. is another prosimetrum (with verses in ljóðaháttr and fornyrðislag) in which the action advances in rudimentary prose. Most strikingly, after a few preparatory details, the introductory prose merely records matter-of-factly that Sigurðr pierced Fáfnir’s heart with his sword, whereupon the snake writhed and the pair began a conversation. No poetic description of the actual act of dragon-slaying is even attempted, and it therefore makes little impression, in contrast to the more satisfyingly vibrant depictions of this feat and related events on Swedish runestones and Norwegian stave-churches.

Nor, surprisingly, may this killing of a giant snake by the Germanic North’s greatest medieval hero appear especially heroic now, though it was presumably greatly admired in medieval times. Whereas, for example, in Beowulf, the eponymous warrior trumpets his advance into the lands of giants, wolves and water-snakes, before beheading a giantess in ferocious hand-to-hand combat, Fm.’s Sigurðr is a stealth assassin who, having planned and prepared his attack, waits in concealment for a foe whom he pierces mortally from beneath with a peerless weapon. It is a killing conducted with consummate, if unfair, efficiency, and its implicit celebration through multiple and widespread portrayals in medieval literature and art suggests that, in contrast to some modern perceptions, it was formerly thought that the martial hero should command not just courage, strength and determination, but also a ruthless precision informed by knowledge of the only or most effective way to win, especially if the enemy himself had an unfair advantage (Fáfnir wore a ‘helm of terror’). As such, aspects of Sigurðr’s killing of Fáfnir find broad parallel elsewhere in early medieval European literature, especially that of Ireland. Most notably, in medieval Irish literature, Cú Chulainn, Ulster’s pre-eminent fighter, dispatches ostensibly impenetrable human foes by anal penetration from below with a unique spear, the gae bolga, which he alone commanded and knew how to use—an act both singularly effective and unfair.¹ Another example, from England, is that of the spearman who, at Stamford Bridge on 25 September 1066, supposedly dispatched a lone Norwegian, who alone had withstood a series of Englishmen, by stabbing him from below, according to one account in the privates through openings in the bridge.² Fm., therefore, serves as a reminder of the differences of perspective that must be appreciated when evaluating literature from a different time and culture. What we are likely to want from a poem about a particular dragon-killing is not necessarily what—or not only what—a medieval Norse audience wanted or had come to expect. Once this point is accepted, Fm. need not be deprecated for what it is not (an action-packed account of a dragon-slaying) but appreciated for what it mainly is, namely a record of conversations in verse between Sigurðr and the dying Fáfnir,³ and between Sigurðr and Reginn, with additional utterances by discerning nuthatches.

Fm.’s conversational verses have strong general affiliations with Eddic wisdom poems, instances of which occur among the preceding mythological texts in R,⁴ and which, like Fm., are mainly in ljóðaháttr.⁵ Among these is Vm., which records a life-or-death contest between the god Óðinn and Vafþrúðnir, an extremely learned jǫtunn ‘(devouring) giant’, to determine who knows more about mythological matters. Having arrived at the giant’s home and concealed his true identity, Óðinn answers his host’s questions and then poses his own. After being told the manner of his death at Ragnarok, he then asks an unfair question which Vafþrúðnir cannot possibly answer, but which reveals his identity. The presumed conclusion is that the giant forfeits his life, having been outwitted by his concealed foe. Broadly similarly, in Fm. (although its telling blow comes at the start), Sigurðr, a concealed Óðinnic warrior,⁶ sneakily takes the life of a jǫtunn-snake (see st. 29) called Fáfnir ‘Embracer’ (compare Vafþrúðnir ‘Wrapping-Powerful One’) and engages in dialogue during which he elicits mythological lore, including information concerning Ragnarok (stt. 14–15) and learns of his demise (st. 9). Nor may it be wholly coincidental that in another Óðinnic wisdom-poem, Grm., the incognito god’s oppressor, Geirrøðr, namesake of a famous giant, ultimately dies by stumbling onto his own (implicitly Óðinnic) sword—he too is taken by surprise by Óðinn and pierced from below.

The wise speaking birds whom the hero understands in Fm. find parallel in, for example, HHv. 1–4 and Rþ. 44, 47. More closely related to Fm. are chapters 18–20 of VS, which give another account of the same events, including a less perfunctory prose version of the killing; it is an account for which a version of Fm. is clearly a major source. A close variant of st. 13 is quoted in SnEGylf, and close variants of stt. 32 and 33 appear in SnESkáld amid another prose version of these events. Additionally, chapter 6 of Norna-Gests þáttr (FSN I) briefly refers to Sigurðr’s killing of Fáfnir and seizure of the treasure. As touched on earlier, events recounted in Fm. were also popular subjects for depiction in medieval visual art, such as the c. 1030 Ramsung stone-carving from Södermanland, Sweden, and late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century wood-carvings from Hylestad Stave Church, Norway.

Chapters 163–67 of the Old Norse (Norwegian) Þiðreks saga af Bern give a variant version of the story in which Sigurðr is fostered by a smith called Mímir, whose brother, Reginn, was a fiery dragon. Sigurðr kills Reginn and then Mímir.

Outside Old Norse literature, accounts of fundamentally the same hero’s killing of a dragon appear in the Middle High German Nibelungenlied (3.100, 16.899–902), the Faroese ballad Regin smiður ‘Regin the Smith’, and the sixteenth-century German Lied vom hürnen Seyfrid ‘Lay of Horny Seyfried’. The Nibelungenlied’s references to the hero’s killing of a dragon, whose blood made him almost wholly invulnerable to piercing weapons after he bathed in it, though significant for the narrative, are brief and retrospective. By contrast, the Faroese ballad includes a far more dramatic dragon-slaying scene during which the whole world shakes at the force of the sword-blow struck by the hero, which bisects the worm. Despite its late attestation, the Lied vom hürnen Seyfrid is thought to contain ancient elements, and is made more attractive by its series of accompanying woodcut illustrations.

Another important parallel is between Fm.’s account of Sigurðr’s acquisition of knowledge of bird-language by sucking the finger he accidentally burnt while cooking Fáfnir’s heart and, in medieval Irish literature, the acquisition of poetic knowledge by the foremost Fenian hero, Finn mac Cumhaill. Finn acquired this knowledge in a similar way, after burning his thumb when cooking a remarkable salmon.

Synopsis

Prose: Sigurðr rode into the iron-house where the treasure lay. He loaded a huge amount onto Grani, including the helm of terror, a golden mail-coat and a sword called Hrotti. Grani would not advance until Sigurðr was also on his back.

Further Reading

Acker, P., ‘Dragons in the Eddas and in Early Nordic Art’, in P. Acker and C. Larrington, ed., Revisiting the Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Heroic Legend (New York: Routledge, 2013), pp. 53–75, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203098608-12  

Andersson, T. M., The Legend of Brynhild (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980).

Barreiro, S., ‘The Hoard Makes the Dragon: Fáfnir as a Shapeshifter’, in S. Barreiro and L. C. Russo, ed., Shapeshifters in Medieval North Atlantic Literature (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019), pp. 53–82, https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048535132-005  

Bourns, T., ‘The Language of Birds in Old Norse Tradition’, JEGP 120 (2021), 209–38, https://doi.org/10.5406/jenglgermphil.120.2.0209  

Byock, J., ‘Sigurðr Fáfnisbani: An Eddic Hero Carved on Norwegian Stave Churches’, in T. Pàroli, ed., Poetry in the Scandinavian Middle Ages (Spoleto: Presso la sede del Centro studi, 1990), pp. 619–28.

Claußnitzer, M., and K. Sperl, ed., Das Lied vom Hürnen Seyfrid (Stuttgart: S. Hirzel Verlag, 2019).

Düwel, K., ‘On the Sigurd Representations in Great Britain and Scandinavia’, in M. A. Jazayery and W. Winter, ed. Languages and Cultures: Studies in Honor of Edgar C. Polomé (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1988), pp. 133–56.

Ellis, H. R., ‘Sigurd in the Art of the Viking Age’, Antiquity 16 (1942), 216–36.

Flood, J. L., ‘Siegfried’s Dragon-Fight in German Literary Tradition’, in W. McConnell, ed., A Companion to the Nibelungenlied (Columbia, SC: Camden House, 2010), pp. 42–65.

Gunnell, T., The Origins of Drama in Scandinavia (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995).

Haimerl, E., ‘Sigurðr, a Medieval Hero: A Manuscript-Based Interpretation of the “Young Sigurðr Poems”’, in P. Acker and C. Larrington, ed., Revisiting the Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Heroic Legend (New York: Routledge, 2013), pp. 32–52, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203098608-11  

King, K. C., ‘Siegfried’s Fight with the Dragon in the Edda and the Hürnen Seyfrid’, in Selected Essays on Medieval German Literature, ed. J. L. Flood and A. T. Hatto (London: Institute of Germanic Studies, University of London, 1975), pp. 7–13.

Jensen, B., ‘Skull-Cups and Snake-Pits: Men’s Revenge and Women’s Revenge in Viking Age Scandinavia’, in U. Matić and B. Jensen, ed., Archaeologies of Gender and Violence (Oxford: Oxbow, 2017), pp. 197–222,  https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dp2p.14  

Kragerud, A., ‘De mytologiske spørsmål i Fåvnesmål’, ANF 96 (1981), 9–48.

Larrington, C., A Store of Common Sense: Gnomic Theme and Style in Old Icelandic and Old English Wisdom Poetry (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).

Liepe, L., ‘Sigurdssagen i bild’, Fornvännen 84 (1989), 1–11.

Lionarons, J. T., The Medieval Dragon: The Nature of the Beast in Germanic Literature (Enfield Lock: Hisarlik Press, 1998).

Nagy, J. F., ‘Intervention and Disruption in the Myths of Finn and Sigurd’, Ériu 31 (1980), 123–31.

Ney, A., ‘Bland ormar och drakar. En jämförande studie av Ramsundsristningen och Gökstenen’, Scripta Islandica 64 (2013), 17–37 [with English summary].

Oberlin, A., ‘Odinic Elements in the Northern Sigurðr Legend: A Re-Reading of Fáfnismál’, in E. Torner and V. Lenshyn, ed., Myth: German and Scandinavian Studies (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), pp. 170–79.

Ploss, E., Siegfried-Sigurd, der Drachenkämpfer: Untersuchungen zur germanischdeutschen Heldensage (Cologne: Böhlau, 1966).

Quinn, J. E., ‘Verseform and Voice in Eddic Poems: The Discourses of Fáfnismál’, ANF 107 (1992), 100–30.

Scott, R. D., The Thumb of Knowledge in Legends of Finn, Sigurd and Taliesin: Studies in Celtic and French Literature (New York: New York Institute of French Studies, 1930).

Von See, K., B. La Farge, W. Gerhold, E. Picard and K. Schulz, Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda, Bd. 5: Heldenlieder (Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2006).

Fáfnismál

1. ‘Sveinn ok sveinn!   Hverjum ertu sveini um borinn?

Hverra ertu manna mǫgr?

Er þú á Fáfni rautt   þinn inn frána mæki?

Stǫndumk til hjarta hjǫrr!’

Sigurðr dulði nafns síns, fyr því at þat var trúa þeira í forneskju at orð feigs manns mætti mikit, ef hann bǫlvaði óvin sínum með nafni. Hann kvað:

2. ‘“Gǫfugt dýr” ek heiti,   en ek gengit hefk

“inn móðurlausi mǫgr”;

fǫður ek ákka,   sem fira synir,

æ geng ek einn saman.’

3. ‘Veiztu, ef fǫður né áttat,   sem fira synir,

af hverju vartu undri alinn?’

4. ‘Ætterni mitt,   kveð ek, þér ókunnigt vera

ok mik sjálfan it sama;

Sigurðr ek heiti —   Sigmundr hét minn faðir —

er hefk þik vápnum vegit!’

5. ‘Hverr þik hvatti,   hví hvetjask lézt,

mínu fjǫrvi at fara?

Inn fráneygi sveinn,   þú áttir fǫður bitran —

áburnu skjór á skeið.’

6. ‘Hugr mik hvatti,   hendr mér fulltýðu

ok minn inn hvassi hjǫrr;

fár er hvatr,   er hrøðask tekr,

ef í barnæsku er blauðr.’

7. ‘Veit ek, ef þú vaxa næðir   fyr þinna vina brjósti,

sæi maðr þik vreiðan vega;

nú ertu haptr   ok hernuminn;

æ kveða bandingja bifask!’

8. ‘Því bregðr þú nú mér, Fáfnir,   at til fjarri sják

mínum feðrmunum;

eigi em ek haptr,   þótt ek væra hernumi —

þú fannt at ek lauss lifi!’

9. ‘Heiptyrði ein   telr þú þér í hvívetna,

en ek þér satt eitt segik:

it gjalla gull   ok it glóðrauða fé,

þér verða þeir baugar at bana!’

10. ‘Fé ráða   skal fyrða hverr

æ til ins eina dags,

þvíat einu sinni   skal alda hverr

fara til Heljar heðan.’

11. ‘Norna dóm   þú munt fyr nesjum hafa

ok ósvinns apa;

12. ‘Segðu mér, Fáfnir,   allz þik fróðan kveða

ok vel mart vita:

hverjar ru þær Nornir   er nauðgǫnglar ru

ok kjósa mœðr frá mǫgum?’

Fáfnir kvað:

13. ‘Sundrbornar mjǫk,   hygg ek, at Nornir sé —

eigut þær ætt saman:

sumar eru Áskungar,   sumar álfkungar,

sumar dœtr Dvalins.’

Sigurðr kvað:

14. ‘Segðu mér þat, Fáfnir,   allz þik fróðan kveða

ok vel mart vita:

hvé sá hólmr heitir   er blanda hjǫrlegi

Surtr ok Æsir saman.’

Fáfnir kvað:

15. ‘Óskópnir hann heitir,   en þar ǫll skulu

geirum leika goð;

Bilrǫst brotnar   er þeir á brot fara,

ok svima í móðu marir.

16. ‘Œgishjálm   bar ek um alda sonum,

meðan ek um menjum lág;

einn rammari   hugðumk ǫllum vera;

fannka ek marga mǫgu!’

Sigurðr kvað:

17. ‘Œgishjálmr   bergr einugi,

hvars skulu vreiðir vega;

þá þat finnr,   er með fleirum kømr,

at engi er einna hvatastr!’

Fáfnir kvað:

18. ‘Eitri ek fnæsta   er ek á arfi lá

miklum míns fǫður.’

Sigurðr kvað:

19. ‘Inn fráni ormr,   þú gørðir fræs mikla

20. ‘Ræð ek þér nú, Sigurðr,   en þú ráð nemir

ok ríð heim heðan!

It gjalla gull   ok it glóðrauða fé —

þér verða þeir baugar at bana!’

21. ‘Ráð er þér ráðit,   en ek ríða mun

til þess gulls er í lyngvi liggr;

en þú, Fáfnir, ligg   í fjǫrbrotum,

þar er þik Hel hafi!’

22. ‘Reginn mik réð,   hann þik ráða mun —

hann mun okkr verða báðum at bana!

Fjǫr sitt láta   hygg ek at Fáfnir myni;

þitt varð nú meira megin.’

Reginn var á brot horfinn meðan Sigurðr vá Fáfni, ok kom þá aptr er Sigurðr strauk blóð af sverðinu.

Reginn kvað:

23. ‘Heill þú nú, Sigurðr!   Nú hefir þú sigr vegit

ok Fáfni um farit!

Manna þeira   er mold troða,

þik kveð ek óblauðastan alinn!’

24. ‘Þat er óvíst at vita,   þá er komum allir saman,

sigtíva synir,

hverr óblauðastr er alinn;

margr er sá hvatr   er hjǫr né rýðr

annars brjóstum í.’

25. ‘Glaðr ertu nú, Sigurðr,   ok gagni feginn,

er þú þerrir Gram á grasi;

bróður minn   hefir þú benjaðan,

ok veld ek þó sjálfr sumu.’

26. ‘Þú því rétt,   er ek ríða skyldak

27. ‘Sittu nú, Sigurðr,   en ek mun sofa ganga,

ok halt Fáfnis hjarta við funa!

Eiskǫld   ek vil etin láta

eptir þenna dreyra drykk.’

Sigurðr kvað:

28. ‘Fjarri þú gekkt,   meðan ek á Fáfni rauðk

minn inn hvassa hjǫr;

afli mínu   atta ek við orms megin,

meðan þú í lyngvi látt!’

Reginn kvað:

29. ‘Lengi liggja   létir þú þann lyngvi í,

inn aldna jǫtun,

ef þú sverðs né nytir,   þess er ek sjálfr gørða,

ok þíns ins hvassa hjǫrs!’

Sigurðr kvað:

30. ‘Hugr er betri   en sé hjǫrs megin,

hvars vreiðir skulu vega;

þvíat hvatan mann   ek sé harliga vega

með slævu sverði sigr.

31. ‘Hvǫtum er betra   en sé óhvǫtum,

í hildileik hafask;

glǫðum er betra   en sé glúpnanda,

hvat sem at hendi kømr.’

Sigurðr tók Fáfnis hjarta ok steikði á teini. Er hann hugði at fullsteikt væri, ok freyddi sveitinn ór hjartanu, þá tók hann á fingri sínum ok skynjaði hvárt fullsteikt væri. Hann brann ok brá fingrinum í munn sér. En er hjartblóð Fáfnis kom á tungu honum, ok skilði hann fuglsrǫdd. Hann heyrði at igður klǫkuðu á hrísinum. Igðan kvað:

32. ‘Þar sitr Sigurðr,   sveita stokkinn,

Fáfnis hjarta   við funa steikir;

spakr þœtti mér   spillir bauga,

ef hann fjǫrsega   fránan æti!’

33. ‘Þar liggr Reginn,   ræðr um við sik,

vill tæla mǫg,   þann er trúir honum;

berr af reiði   rǫng orð saman,

vill bǫlva smiðr   bróður hefna!’

34. ‘Hǫfði skemmra   láti hann inn hára þul

fara til Heljar heðan!

Ǫllu gulli   þá kná hann einn ráða,

fjǫlð, því er und Fáfni lá.’

35. ‘Horskr þœtti mér,   ef hafa kynni

ástráð mikit   yðvar systra,

hygði hann um sik   ok Hugin gleddi;

þar er mér úlfs vón   er ek eyru sék!’

36. ‘Erat svá horskr   hildimeiðr,

sem ek hers jaðar   hyggja myndak,

ef hann bróður lætr   á brot komask,

en hann ǫðrum hefr   aldrs of synjat!’

37. ‘Mjǫk er ósviðr,   ef hann enn sparir

fjánda inn fólkská,

þar er Reginn liggr,   er hann ráðinn hefr;

kannat hann við slíku at sjá!

38. ‘Hǫfði skemmra   láti hann þann inn hrímkalda jǫtun,

ok af baugum búa;

þá mundu fjár,   þess er Fáfnir réð,

einvaldi vera!’

39. ‘Verðrat svá rík skǫp   at Reginn skyli

mitt banorð bera,

þvíat þeir báðir brœðr   skulu brálliga

fara til Heljar heðan!’

Sigurðr hjó hǫfuð af Regin ok þá át hann Fáfnis hjarta ok drakk blóð þeira beggja, Regins ok Fáfnis. Þá heyrði Sigurðr hvar igður mæltu:

40. ‘Bitt þú, Sigurðr,   bauga rauða,

era konungligt   kvíða mǫrgu!

Mey veit ek eina,   myklu fegrsta,

gulli gœdda,   ef þú geta mættir!

41. ‘Liggja til Gjúka   grœnar brautir,

fram vísa skǫp   fólklíðǫndum;

þar hefir dýrr konungr   dóttur alna —

þá mundu, Sigurðr,   mundi kaupa.

42. ‘Salr er á há   Hindarfjalli,

allr er hann útan   eldi sveipinn;

þann hafa horskr   halir um gǫrvan

ór ódøkkum   Ógnar ljóma.

43. ‘Veit ek á fjalli   fólkvitr sofa,

ok leikr yfir   lindar váði;

Yggr stakk þorni:   aðra feldi

hǫr-Gefn hali,   en hafa vildi.

44. ‘Knáttu, mǫgr, sjá   mey und hjálmi,

þá er frá vígi   Vingskorni reið;

máat Sigrdrífar   svefni bregða,

Skjǫldunga niðr,   fyr skǫpum Norna!’

Sigurðr reið eptir slóð Fáfnis til bœlis hans ok fann þat opit, ok hurðir af járni ok gætti; af járni váru ok allir timbrstokkar í húsinu, en grafit í jǫrð niðr. Þar fann Sigurðr stórmikit gull ok fyldi þar tvær kistur. Þar tók hann ægishjálm ok gullbrynju ok sverðit Hrotta ok marga dýrgripi, ok klyfjaði þar með Grana. En hestrinn vildi eigi fram ganga fyrr en Sigurðr steig á bak honum.

The Sayings of Fáfnir

Sigurðr and Reginn went up to Gnitaheiðr and there they came across Fáfnir’s track, when he slithered to water. There Sigurðr made a great pit in the way, and Sigurðr went in there. And when Fáfnir slithered from the gold, he blew poison, and it fell from above on Sigurðr’s head. And when Fáfnir slithered over the pit, then Sigurðr pierced him to the heart with a sword. Fáfnir shook himself and lashed with head and tail. Sigurðr leapt from the pit, and each then saw the other. Fáfnir said:

About Fáfnir’s Death

1. ‘Boy, oh boy(?)!⁷ To which boy were you born?

A son of which men are you?

Is it you [who] reddened in Fáfnir that shining sword of yours?8

A sword stands at my heart!’

Sigurðr concealed his name, because it was their belief in olden times that the word of a doomed man could be mighty, if he cursed his enemy by name. He said:

2. ‘I am called “noble deer”,⁹ but I have come as

“the motherless boy”;

I have no father, as the sons of men [do],

always I walk alone.’¹⁰

3.¹¹ ‘Do you know, if you had no father, as the sons of men [do],

from what wonder you were born?’

4. ‘My origin, I say, is unknown to you

and I myself the same;

I am called Sigurðr12 — my father was called Sigmundr —

5. ‘Who incited you, why did you let yourself be incited,

to destroy my life?

Shining-eyed boy, you had a bitter father;

………………….’¹³

6. ‘Spirit incited me, hands helped me sufficiently,

and my sharp sword;

scarcely is one courageous, when one starts to age,

if in childhood one is cowardly.’

7. ‘I know, if you’d managed to grow in the bosom of your friends,

[that] one might have seen you fight angry;¹⁴

now you’re a captive and taken in war;

they say bound men always shake!’

8. ‘You’re throwing this at me, Fáfnir, now that I’m too far

from my father’s possessions;15

I’m not a captive, even if I were a prisoner of war¹⁶ —

you found that I live freely!’

9. ‘You hear only hateful words in everything,

but I’m only telling you the truth:

the ringing gold and the glowing red treasure —

those arm-rings will bring about your death!’

10. ‘Every person shall preside over treasure,

always, until that one day,

because on one occasion each human must

journey to Hel17 from here.’

11. ‘You’ll have the Nornir’s sentence18 before headlands

and [that] of an unwise ape;¹⁹

in water you’ll drown, if you row in a wind:

everything is a danger for a doomed man.’

12. ‘Tell me, Fáfnir, since they say you’re wise

who are those Nornir who come at times of need

and deliver mothers from their sons?’20

Fáfnir said:

13.²¹ ‘Of very diverse birth, I think, the Nornir are —

together, they don’t have a [single] family:22

some are of Áss23-kind, some of elf-kind,

some are daughters of Dvalinn.’24

Sigurðr said:

14. ‘Tell me this, Fáfnir, since they say you’re wise

what the islet is called where Surtr25 and the Æsir26

will blend sword-liquid together.’²⁷

Fáfnir said:

15. ‘Óskópnir28 it’s called, and there all the gods

shall sport with spears;

Bilrǫst29 breaks when they journey away,

and their steeds swim in the mighty river.

16. ‘A helm of terror³⁰ I bore over the sons of men,

while I lay upon torcs;

I thought I alone was stronger than all;

I didn’t meet many men!’

Sigurðr said:

17. ‘A helm of terror protects no one,

wherever wrathful ones shall fight;

one finds this [out], when one comes among more [men],

that no one is boldest of all!’³¹

Fáfnir said:

18. ‘I snorted poison when I lay on

the mighty inheritance³² of my father.’

Sigurðr said:

19. ‘Shining snake, you made a mighty hissing

and got yourself a hard heart;

hatred arises the more in³³ sons of men

who have that helm.’

Fáfnir said:

20. ‘I advise you now, Sigurðr, and you should take my advice34

and ride home from here!

The ringing gold and the glowing red treasure —

those arm-rings will be the death of you!’

21. ‘Advice has been advised by you,³⁵ but I shall ride to the gold

which lies in the ling;³⁶

but you, Fáfnir, lie in life-spasms,37

there where Hel may have you!’

22. ‘Reginn betrayed me,38 he will betray you —

he will be the death of us both!

I think that Fáfnir will lose his life;

Reginn had turned away while Sigurðr was killing Fáfnir, and then he came back when Sigurðr was wiping blood from the sword.

Reginn said:

23. ‘Hail now, Sigurðr! Now you have secured victory through fighting

and finished Fáfnir!

24. ‘It’s hard to know for certain, when we all come together,

the sons of the victory-gods,

who is born the least cowardly;

there’s many a brave man who doesn’t redden his sword

in another’s breast.’

25. ‘You’re glad now, Sigurðr, and delighted with your gains,

as you dry Gramr39 on the grass;

you’ve wounded my brother mortally,

and yet I myself played some part.’

26. ‘You advised this, that I should ride

here over holy mountains;

the shining snake would [still] command treasure and life,

if you hadn’t questioned my courage.’

Then Reginn went to Fáfnir and cut the heart from him with a sword that was called Riðill,40 and then he drank blood from the wound afterwards.

27. ‘Sit now, Sigurðr, and I shall go to sleep,

and you hold Fáfnir’s heart by the fire!

I want to eat the heart41

after a drink of this blood.’

Sigurðr said:

28. ‘You went far [away], while in Fáfnir I reddened

I pitted42 my strength against the snake’s might,

while you lay in the ling!’

Reginn said:

29. ‘Long you’d have left him lying in the ling,

that ancient giant,⁴³

if you didn’t make use of the sword that I myself made,

and that sharp blade of yours!’

Sigurðr said:

30. ‘Courage is better than a sword’s strength,

wherever wrathful ones shall fight;

because I see a bold one harshly securing victory

[even] with a blunt sword.

31. ‘It’s better for the keen⁴⁴ than it is for the unkeen,

to bring themselves into battle-play;⁴⁵

it’s better for the happy than it is for those losing heart,

whatever comes to hand.’⁴⁶

Sigurðr took Fáfnir’s heart and roasted it on a spit. When he thought that it was fully roasted, and the blood was foaming from the heart, then he touched it with his finger and tested whether it was fully roasted. He burnt [himself] and quickly put the finger in his mouth. And when Fáfnir’s heart-blood came onto his tongue, he also understood bird-language. He heard that nuthatches47 were twittering in the bushes. The nuthatch⁴⁸ said:

32.⁴⁹ ‘There sits Sigurðr, splattered with blood,

cooking Fáfnir’s heart by the fire;

the spoiler of rings50 would seem to me wise,

if he ate the shining life-slice!’⁵¹

33.⁵² ‘There lies Reginn, deliberating with himself,

34. ‘Shorter by a head⁵³ he⁵⁴ should make⁵⁵ the hoary sage

journey to Hel from here!

an abundance, that which lay under Fáfnir.’

35. ‘Astute he’d seem to me, if he knew how to take

the great loving advice of you sisters,

[if] he thought about himself and gladdened Huginn;56

I expect a wolf⁵⁷ when I see its ears!’⁵⁸

36. ‘The battle-tree⁵⁹ isn’t as astute

as I’d have thought an army’s protector [should be],

if he lets [one] brother⁶⁰ get away,

but has denied the other old age!’⁶¹

37. ‘He’s very unwise, if still he spares

the army-crushing enemy,⁶²

there where Reginn lies, who has betrayed him;

38. ‘Shorter by a head he should make that rime-cold giant,⁶³

and [make him] dwell [far] from arm-rings;⁶⁴

then he’d be sole controller of the treasure,

of that which Fáfnir ruled!’

39.⁶⁵ ‘Fate won’t become so powerful that Reginn shall

bring word of my death,66

because both those brothers shall swiftly

journey to Hel from here!’

Sigurðr cut off Reginn’s head and then he ate Fáfnir’s heart and drank the blood of them both, Reginn and Fáfnir. Then Sigurðr heard how the nuthatches said:67

40. ‘Bind [up],⁶⁸ Sigurðr, red arm-rings,69

it’s not kingly to fear much!

I know a maiden, the fairest by far,

endowed with gold, if you could [only] get her!

41. ‘Green ways lead to Gjúki’s,

fates show [the way] forward for folk-wandering ones;70

there the worthy⁷¹ king has brought up a daughter⁷² —

you will buy that one, Sigurðr, for a bride-price.73

42. ‘There’s a hall on high Hindarfjall,74

it’s all swathed in fire round the outside;

wise men have made it

from the undark light of Ógn.75

43. ‘I know a battle-being sleeps on the fell,

and the linden’s destruction⁷⁶ plays over her;

Yggr77 pierced her with a thorn:⁷⁸ the flax-Gefn79

felled men other than [those] he wanted to have.⁸⁰

44. ‘You, young man, can see the maiden beneath the helm,

the one who rode from battle on Vingskornir;81

one cannot break Sigrdrífa’s82 sleep,

kinsman of the Skjǫldungar,83 before the decrees of the Nornir!’84

Sigurðr rode along Fáfnir’s track to his lair and found it open, and the doors were of iron, as were the door-frames; also of iron were all the posts in the house, and [they were] buried down in the earth. There Sigurðr found a vast amount of gold and he filled there two chests. There he took a helm of terror and a golden mail-coat and the sword Hrotti85 and many precious treasures, and he loaded Grani with them. But the horse would not go forward until Sigurðr climbed on his back.

Textual Apparatus to Fáfnismál