How Did Sigurd Kill Fafnir the Dragon?
The Norse hero Sigurd's slaying of Fafnir the dragon, his sword Gram, the magic of the cursed ring, and the legend's place in the Volsunga saga.
Sigurd killed Fafnir by digging a pit in the path of the dragon’s daily crawl to drink from a stream, hiding in the pit, and thrusting upward with the great sword Gram into the dragon’s soft underbelly as Fafnir passed overhead. The story is told in the Völsunga saga (c. 13th century) and in the Fáfnismál of the Poetic Edda, and is one of the most celebrated heroic deeds in Old Norse literature. The killing of Fafnir is the central act of Sigurd’s career: it is the act that gives him the dragon’s cursed gold, the magic ring, and the knowledge of the runes, but it is also the act that sets in motion the curse of the gold and the chain of vengeance that consumes the Volsung family.
The Volsung Heritage
Sigurd is, in the surviving sources, the greatest of the Volsung heroes. His father is Sigmund, the son of Völsung, the founder of the dynasty. The Volsungs are descended from Odin himself, and the dynasty is one of the most important in the Norse heroic tradition. The Völsunga saga and the Edda of Snorri Sturluson preserve the story of the family across many generations, from the founding of the dynasty to its destruction.
Sigurd is the last great hero of the dynasty. His father Sigmund is killed in battle, and his mother Hjördís is taken as a wife by the man who killed Sigmund. Sigurd is raised in secret, tutored by the dwarf Regin, who becomes his foster-father and who, in the Völsunga saga and the Fáfnismál, is also the brother of the dragon Fafnir.
The figure of Sigurd is one of the most important in the Norse heroic tradition. The Völsunga saga is in part a long narrative of his life, from his birth to his death, and the central events of his life are the killing of Fafnir, the winning of the Valkyrie Brynhildr, and his death at the hands of his brothers-in-law. The killing of Fafnir is the first of the three great events, and it is the act that gives him the dragon’s gold and the curse that follows.
The Curse of Andvari’s Gold
The story of the gold is told in the Völsunga saga and in the Skáldskaparmál of the Prose Edda. According to the Skáldskaparmál, the Norse god Odin, Hoenir, and Loki killed an otter that had been killing fish at a waterfall. The otter turned out to be the dwarf Otr, one of three sons of the dwarf Hreiðmarr (the others being Fáfnir and Regin). As compensation, the gods were forced to pay a ransom in gold, which they collected from the dwarf Andvari. The dwarf, in a rage, cursed the gold to bring death to whoever possessed it.
The curse is fulfilled in a series of deaths. Andvari, the original possessor, is forced to give up the gold. The gods take the gold and pay it as ransom, but the gold then passes to Hreiðmarr, the father of Otr. Hreiðmarr is killed by his son Fáfnir for refusing to share the gold. Fáfnir takes the gold and transforms himself into a dragon, lying on the hoard and guarding it jealously. The dwarf Regin, the third son of Hreiðmarr, leaves and waits for a hero who can kill the dragon and take the gold.
The story of the curse is the framework for Sigurd’s career. The gold, cursed from the moment Andvari gave it up, is the central object of the saga, and every possessor is doomed. The killing of Fafnir is the moment when Sigurd takes possession of the gold, and the moment when the curse is set to consume him.
Regin and the Forging of the Sword
Regin, the foster-father of Sigurd, has a plan: he will have Sigurd kill the dragon and take the gold. To do this, Regin first forges a sword for Sigurd. The sword, called Gram, is forged by Regin from the broken shards of the sword that had belonged to Sigurd’s father Sigmund — a blade originally given to the Volsung line by Odin and shattered by Odin himself in the battle in which Sigmund fell. Regin forges the blade, and the sword is described as one of the greatest weapons ever made.
The forging of the sword is a central moment in the saga. The blade is forged three times, each time in a greater heat. The third time, the blade is so strong that Sigurd cuts through an anvil with it. The sword is a magical weapon, and the act of forging is a kind of consecration.
Sigurd, in the Völsunga saga, then tests the sword by splitting the anvil and the anvil’s bench, and the sword is found to be the perfect weapon for the task. The sword Gram is, in the Norse tradition, one of the great weapons, alongside Mjölnir and Gungnir.
The Strategy of the Pit
According to the Völsunga saga and the Fáfnismál, Sigurd’s strategy is based on information from Regin. Regin knows that Fafnir, the dragon, has a habit of crawling along a certain path to drink from a stream. The dragon’s underbelly, Regin tells Sigurd, is the only vulnerable part of his body, and a sword thrust into the soft skin will kill him.
Sigurd digs a deep pit in the path of the dragon’s crawl. He hides in the pit, with the sword Gram in his hand. When the dragon passes over the pit, Sigurd thrusts upward, plunging the sword into the dragon’s soft underbelly. The sword is so sharp that it cuts through the dragon’s scales and into the flesh. Fafnir is killed.
The strategy is one of the most often-described heroic strategies in Old Norse literature. The image of a hero waiting in a pit for a dragon to crawl past, then thrusting upward with a sword, is one of the most vivid in the heroic tradition. The image has inspired many modern adaptations, in which the killing of Fafnir is the central event of the hero’s career.
Fafnir’s Death and the Curse
After the killing, Fafnir speaks to Sigurd as he lies dying. According to the Fáfnismál, the dragon asks Sigurd who he is, and Sigurd tells him his name and lineage. Fafnir then warns Sigurd that the gold is cursed, and that whoever possesses it will be killed. Sigurd hears the warning but does not heed it; the gold is taken.
The conversation between Fafnir and Sigurd is one of the most important in the saga. The dying dragon tells the hero that the gold is cursed, and the hero hears the warning and ignores it. The hero, by his very heroic nature, cannot turn back from the gold. The curse is the price of heroism, and the hero’s acceptance of the gold is the moment when the curse begins to operate.
The Fáfnismál also describes the death of Regin. Regin, after the killing of Fafnir, asks Sigurd for the heart of the dragon. Sigurd cuts out the heart and roasts it on a spit, but when he touches the heart to test whether it is cooked, his finger is burned. He puts his finger in his mouth to cool it, and the blood of the dragon gives him the ability to understand the language of birds. He hears the birds warning him that Regin plans to kill him, and he cuts off Regin’s head with the sword Gram.
The act is the second killing in the saga. Regin, the foster-father, has plotted to kill the hero. The hero, warned by the birds, kills the foster-father. The two killings, of the dragon and the dwarf, are the central acts of the saga, and they are the moments when Sigurd becomes the owner of the gold and the agent of the curse.
The Gold and the Curse
The gold, after the killing of Fafnir, is taken by Sigurd and becomes the basis of his wealth and his marriage. The gold includes the ring Andvaranaut, the central cursed object of the saga, and a great hoard of treasure. The gold is divided by Sigurd and his companion, and the act of division is the beginning of the curse.
The Völsunga saga then describes the rest of Sigurd’s career. He wins the Valkyrie Brynhildr, gives her the ring Andvaranaut, marries the princess Guðrún, and gives the ring to Guðrún. The ring passes from Brynhildr to Guðrún, and the curse begins to operate. Brynhildr, who had been betrothed to Sigurd, is married to Gunnar, Guðrún’s brother, and the marriage is the cause of the great chain of vengeance that ends in the death of Sigurd.
The killing of Fafnir is, in this sense, the first link in the chain. The dragon dies, the gold is taken, the ring is given, the curse is set in motion. The death of Sigurd at the end of the saga is the fulfillment of the curse. The killing of Fafnir is the cause, and the death of Sigurd is the effect.
The Death of Fafnir in the Fáfnismál
The Fáfnismál of the Poetic Edda is the most explicit poetic account of the killing. The poem is structured as a dialogue between Sigurd and Fafnir, in which the dying dragon tells the hero the truth about the gold, the curse, and the meaning of heroism. The poem is one of the most important in the eddic corpus, and it has been the subject of modern interpretation.
The Fáfnismál also includes a long speech by Fafnir in which the dying dragon tells Sigurd that the gold is cursed, that the curse will follow the gold, and that the hero will die for possessing it. The dragon’s speech is, in the surviving sources, one of the most powerful warnings in the Norse tradition. The dragon’s last words are: “I counsel you, Sigurd, to ride away, for the gold is cursed.” Sigurd hears the warning and does not heed it.
The image of the dying dragon warning the hero is one of the most striking in the heroic tradition. The dragon, who has guarded the gold for years, is killed by the hero, and the hero is warned of the curse. The warning is ignored, the curse is set, and the hero is doomed.
Sources and Their Relation
The story of Sigurd and the dragon is preserved in three principal sources: the Völsunga saga (c. 13th century), the Fáfnismál of the Poetic Edda, and the Þiðreks saga (a Norse prose translation of a continental German source). The three accounts agree in the basic plot but differ in details. The Völsunga saga is the most detailed; the Fáfnismál is the most poetic; the Þiðreks saga is the most medieval.
The story has parallels in the continental Germanic tradition. The Old English Beowulf describes a hero who kills a dragon, and the Old High German Nibelungenlied describes a hero who takes a dragon’s gold. The parallels suggest that the story of Sigurd and Fafnir is one of the oldest and most widely distributed heroic narratives in the Germanic tradition. The reading has been treated in modern scholarship since the 19th century.
The Killing of Fafnir in Modern Culture
The killing of Fafnir has inspired many modern adaptations. The story is told in Richard Wagner’s opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, in which the hero is called Siegfried and the dragon is called Fafner. The image of the hero thrusting upward with a sword into the dragon’s underbelly is one of the most famous in modern opera, and it has inspired many modern adaptations.
The story is also a major theme of the modern fantasy tradition. The image of a hero digging a pit, hiding in it, and killing a dragon is a common motif in modern fantasy fiction, and it has inspired many works of modern fiction. The story is also a major theme in modern video games, in which the killing of a dragon is a common central event.
The story of the curse of the gold is also a major theme in modern fiction. J. R. R. Tolkien, in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, draws on the Norse tradition in which a dragon is killed and a cursed gold is taken, and the central figure of the dragon Smaug is a clear echo of Fafnir. The reading has been widely discussed in modern Tolkien scholarship.
The Hero and the Dragon
The story of Sigurd and Fafnir is, finally, a story about the price of heroism. The hero kills the dragon, takes the gold, marries the princess, wins the Valkyrie, and is killed. The hero, by his very heroic nature, cannot turn back from the gold. The curse is the price of heroism, and the hero’s acceptance of the gold is the moment when the curse begins to operate.
The dragon is, in this sense, a mirror of the hero. The dragon guards the gold; the hero takes the gold. The dragon is killed; the hero lives. The dragon’s last words warn the hero of the curse; the hero ignores the warning. The picture is of two beings, both of whom are bound to the gold, and both of whom will die because of it. The reading matches with the Norse cosmic pessimism, in which heroism is a temporary, doomed structure, destined to return to the elements from which it was made.