Every dragon story needs a dragon, a hero, and a treasure. This one has a traitor too. Fafnir had murdered his own father, Hreidmar, for a cursed hoard of gold, then turned himself into a dragon to lie on it. His brother Regin, cheated of his share, nursed a grudge for years. Regin wanted the gold, but he knew he couldn’t face Fafnir himself. He needed a hero. He found one in young Sigurd, son of Sigmund.
The Bargain to Kill Fafnir the Dragon
Regin took Sigurd into his home and treated him like his own child. In truth, Regin was grooming Sigurd to kill Fafnir. Regin was a master smith, beyond human smithing capabilities. He made a bargain with Sigurd. Regin would forge a sword strong enough to kill a dragon if Sigurd would kill Fafnir with the sword. Sigurd swore the oath, and the vow was made.
Regin’s first two swords shattered when Sigurd tested them. So Sigurd brought him the broken pieces of his father Sigmund’s sword, and from those shards Regin forged Gram. Sigurd swung it at the anvil and split it to its base. Now Regin had kept his side of the bargain.
The Journey to Fafnir’s Realm
When Sigurd went into the forest to choose a horse, he met an old man with a long beard. The old man told him to drive the horses into the river Busiltjorn. All of them swam back to land except one, and Sigurd kept that one. It was Grani, descended from Odin’s own eight-legged Sleipnir. Then the old man vanished. He was Odin.
At Gnitaheath, the heath where Fafnir lay on his gold, they found Fafnir’s trail, the track the dragon crawled along to drink. The ground shook as he moved. Fafnir wore the helm of terror, and poison flowed from his breath. Regin’s courage failed him, and he left Sigurd to face the dragon alone.
Odin’s Counsel
Regin had told Sigurd to dig a single pit in the dragon’s path and strike from below. As Sigurd dug, an old man with a long beard appeared and gave better advice: dig several trenches, so that the dragon’s blood would drain away instead of drowning you.
Then the old man vanished. The saga leaves little doubt who he was: Odin, once again.
Sigurd lay in the trench as the earth shook. When Fafnir slid over him, spewing poison, Sigurd drove Gram up under the dragon’s shoulder, into its heart, all the way to the hilt.
Death of Fafnir the Dragon
Dying, the dragon demanded to know who had killed him. At first Sigurd hid his name, afraid of a dying man’s curse. The two then traded riddles and wisdom. Fafnir warned Sigurd that the gold would be his death, and that Regin would betray him as he had betrayed Fafnir. With that, the dragon died.
Regin’s Death
Regin appeared on the scene, and the desire for the hoard grew in him. He told Sigurd that without the weapon, Sigurd would’ve been helpless. Sigurd, however, said that courage was the more important part of the deed. Regin shrugged and carved out Fafnir’s heart, which he instructed Sigurd to cook.
Regin drank Fafnir’s blood and lay down to sleep while Sigurd roasted the heart. When Sigurd touched it to see if it was done, he burned his finger and stuck it in his mouth. The moment the dragon’s heart-blood touched his tongue, he understood the birds. Nuthatches in the branches were talking about him: Regin meant to betray him, they said, and he should eat the heart himself and strike first. Sigurd cut off Regin’s head, ate part of the heart, and drank the blood of both Fafnir and Regin.
The Gold of Fafnir the Dragon
Sigurd followed Fafnir’s trail back to the dragon’s lair and found the hoard, the helm of terror among it. He loaded the gold onto Grani and rode away a rich man. Fafnir’s warning came true all the same. In the Völsunga saga, the cursed gold, and Andvari’s ring with it, follows Sigurd to Brynhild and, in the end, to his own death.
The story of the gold begins earlier, with an otter, a ransom, and a greedy father: read The Dwarf King Hreidmar’s Downfall. For the Norse idea of dragons more broadly, see Vikings and Dragons.
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