Study › Runes & Norse › Sigurd and the Dragon Fafnir
The Volsung legend turns on a hoard of cursed gold. Fafnir killed his father for it and became a dragon to guard it, and the hero Sigurd killed him with the sword Gram.
The cursed gold
The Volsung legend is the greatest of the Norse hero-tales, and it turns on a hoard of cursed gold. Travelling together, Odin, Loki and Hoenir killed an otter that was really Otr, a son of Hreidmar, and to pay the blood-price they had to fill and cover the otter's skin with gold. Loki seized the treasure of the dwarf Andvari, and with it the ring Andvaranaut — and the dwarf laid a curse on the ring, that it would destroy whoever owned it.
Fafnir becomes a dragon
The curse took hold at once. Hreidmar's sons Fafnir and Regin killed their father for the gold; Fafnir then took it all for himself and turned into a dragon to brood over it on Gnitaheath, while Regin, a smith, nursed his hatred.
Sigurd kills the dragon
Regin fostered the young hero Sigurd and goaded him to kill the dragon, forging for him the sword Gram from the shards of his father's blade. Sigurd dug a pit in Fafnir's path and drove Gram up into the dragon's belly as it crawled over him. Tasting the dragon's blood, he suddenly understood the speech of birds, who warned him that Regin meant to betray him — so Sigurd struck off Regin's head and took the hoard.
Brynhild and the curse
Riding on, he woke the sleeping valkyrie Brynhild and loved her; but a draught of forgetfulness later drove her from his mind, and he married another. From that tangle of broken vows came jealousy, betrayal and death, as the curse of Andvari's gold ran its course to the end. The full story survives in the Volsunga saga and the heroic poems of the Poetic Edda.
Read about Gram, Andvaranaut and Brynhild.
Questions
How did Sigurd kill Fafnir?
He dug a pit in the dragon's path and drove Gram up into its belly as it crawled over him.
What happened when Sigurd tasted the dragon's blood?
He understood the speech of birds, who warned him that Regin meant to betray him.