''Fáfnismál'' (''

Fáfnir In Germanic heroic legend and Germanic folklore, folklore, Fáfnir is a Germanic dragon, worm or dragon slain by a member of the Völsung family, typically Sigurð. In Nordic mythology, he is the son of Hreiðmarr, and brother of Regin and Ótr ...

's sayings'') is an Eddic poem, found in the

Codex Regius Codex Regius (, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; ) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it is made up of 45 vellum Vellum ...

manuscript. The poem is unnamed in the manuscript, where it follows '' Reginsmál'' and precedes ''

Sigrdrífumál (also known as ) is the conventional title given to a section of the ''Poetic Edda'' text in . It follows without interruption, and it relates the meeting of Sigurðr with the valkyrie Brynhildr, here identified as ("driver to victory"). ...

'', but modern scholars regard it as a separate poem and have assigned it a name for convenience. The poem forms a more coherent whole than ''Reginsmál''. Most of it is composed in ''

ljóðaháttr Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in the Old Norse language, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Old Norse poetry is associated with the area now referred to as Scandinav ...

'', though nine stanzas deviate from the form. The first part of the poem is a dialogue between

Sigurd Sigurd ( ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon — known in Nordic tradition as Fafnir () — and who was later murdered. In the Nordic countries, he is referred t ...

and

. The poem moves on to Sigurd's slaying of Fáfnir, dealings with Reginn and claiming of the gold hoard.

Synopsis

Fafnismal begins with Reginn egging on Sigurd to slay Fáfnir, a golden hoard guarding dragon. Sigurd hides in a pit near Fafnir's lair and springs out of it stabbing Fáfnir in the heart. Fáfnir, mortally wounded, converses with Sigurd in riddle-like conversation. Initially, Sigurd withholds his name because it was a belief that a mortally wounded man had special powers if he cursed his slayer by name. Fáfnir then answers Sigurd's questions of wisdom about the gods. Before dying, Fáfnir warns Sigurd that his golden hoard is cursed and that Reginn will betray him. Reginn praises Sigurd for slaying the dragon, but takes credit for making the sword that allowed him to do it. Sigurd replies saying courage is more important than a weapon and blames Reginn for tricking him into killing Fáfnir. Reginn cuts out Fáfnir's heart and drinks the blood, and Sigurd cooks the heart over the fire for Reginn to eat. Sigurd accidentally ingests Fáfnir's blood and gains the ability to understand birds. He overhears the birds saying he should eat the heart for wisdom. Sigurd also hears them say Reginn will betray him. He decapitates Reginn in anticipation, eats Fáfnir's heart, and drinks both Reginn and Fáfnir's blood. The birds then tell him of his future wife Guðrún, and suggest he use the golden hoard to win her hand. They also tell of an imprisoned Valkyrie named

Brynhildr Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( , , or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigothic princess and queen Brunhilda of Austrasia. In the Norse tradition, Brunhild is a shiel ...

. Sigurd loads two chests with gold, takes the Helm of Terror, and takes the sword Hrotti.

''The Hobbit''

There are striking similarities between J.R.R. Tolkien's Smaug and Fáfnir. According to Ármann Jakobsson, Tolkien translates the epic poem into a modern representation of Fáfnir through Smaug. Fáfnir and Smaug are most alike in that they speak in riddles, have wisdom, and guard golden hoards. They also are very human-like, unlike dragons from other stories such as

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

. Further, Tolkien makes a point to show that the master of Esgaroth “fell under the dragon sickness” and died. This is similar to Fáfnir's transformation from human to dragon in order to protect his own hoard. Tolkien clearly draws inspiration from Fáfnismal for both Smaug and greed in ''

The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ...

''. Another similar representation of a talking Dragon written by Tolkien and clearly inspired in part by Fafnir and certainly by the larger Volsungr Saga is that of Glaurung, found in his work "The Silmarillion" (and now edited as a separate work by his son Christopher as "The Children of Hurin"). The Dragon Glaurung also speaks, uses curses and magic but most similar is the death of Glaurung by Turin Turambar stabbed from below with a cursed sword.

References

External links

Fáfnismál
English translation by

Benjamin Thorpe Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Old English language, Anglo-Saxon literature. Biography In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated hi ...

Fáfnismál
in Guðni Jónsson's edition with normalized spelling, at Heimskringla.no {{DEFAULTSORT:Fafnismal Eddic poetry Nibelung tradition Völsung cycle