Sigurd- Germanic HeroHero"Dragon Slayer"

The Völsung Line

In the Norse tradition, Sigurd descends from the Völsung dynasty, itself descended from Odin. His father Sigmund was a great hero who wielded a magical sword that Odin himself had thrust into the trunk of the tree Barnstokk in the Völsung hall, drawable only by Sigmund. When Sigmund died in battle, his sword shattered by Odin's spear when the god decided his time had come, the shards were preserved for his unborn son.

Sigurd's mother Hjördís remarried, and Sigurd was raised at the court of King Hjálprek. There the dwarf Regin became his foster-father and tutor, teaching him skills and the arts of war, but also nursing a secret agenda: Regin wanted Sigurd to kill his brother Fafnir, who had transformed into a dragon to guard a cursed treasure. Regin forged a sword for Sigurd, but the blade shattered against an anvil. A second sword met the same fate. Finally, Sigurd brought the shards of his father's sword, and Regin forged them into a new blade named Gram. When Sigurd tested it, the sword split the anvil in half and, thrust into the river, cut a floating tuft of wool that drifted against the edge.

Slaying Fafnir

Regin directed Sigurd to Gnita-heath, where the dragon Fafnir lay upon his gold. Following the advice of a mysterious old man (Odin in disguise), Sigurd dug a pit in the path Fafnir used to crawl to a stream. When the dragon crawled over the pit, Sigurd thrust Gram upward through its belly and into its heart. The dragon's blood poured down on him, drenching him entirely.

The dying dragon spoke. He asked Sigurd's name and parentage. He warned him that the gold was cursed and would destroy him as it had destroyed Fafnir. Sigurd acknowledged the warning but said that all men must die, and he would enjoy the gold while he lived. Fafnir had once been a man, a son of Hreiðmar who chose to become a serpent for greed, and now he passed the knowledge of his long watch to his killer.

The Dragon's Blood and the Birds

Regin asked Sigurd to roast Fafnir's heart for him. As Sigurd cooked the heart over a fire, he touched it to test if it was done and burned his finger. When he put the finger to his mouth, he tasted the dragon's blood and suddenly he could understand the speech of birds.

The nuthatches in the branches spoke among themselves. They said Sigurd was foolish to cook the heart for Regin when eating it himself would give him wisdom. They said Regin planned to kill Sigurd and take all the treasure. They spoke of Brynhild, a valkyrie asleep on a mountain surrounded by fire, awaiting a hero brave enough to cross the flames.

Sigurd looked at Regin, saw the treachery in his eyes, and struck off his head with Gram. He ate the dragon's heart, loaded the treasure onto his horse Grani, and rode toward Hindarfjall.

Brynhild and the Potion of Forgetting

Atop Hindarfjall, a wall of flames surrounded a hall where a warrior in full armor lay sleeping. Sigurd rode Grani through the fire; no other horse or rider could cross. The sleeping warrior was a woman: Brynhild, a valkyrie punished by Odin for granting victory against his will. Sigurd cut off her mail coat, which had grown into her flesh, and she awoke. They exchanged vows. She taught him runes and wisdom. He gave her the ring Andvaranaut, not knowing its curse. They pledged to marry, and Sigurd rode away, planning to return.

But fate and a witch's magic intervened. Sigurd came to the court of King Gjúki of the Burgundians. Queen Grimhild, a sorceress, gave him a potion that erased all memory of Brynhild. He married Grimhild's daughter Guðrún instead and became sworn brother to her sons Gunnarr and Högni.

Grimhild then persuaded Sigurd to help Gunnarr win Brynhild. Gunnarr rode to Hindarfjall, but his horse refused the flames. When he borrowed Grani, the fire still barred him, for it recognized that only Sigurd was fated to cross. So Sigurd and Gunnarr exchanged shapes through magic. Sigurd, wearing Gunnarr's form, crossed the flames and wooed Brynhild. He spent three nights in her hall, laying his sword between them on the bed. She agreed to marry this man she believed was Gunnarr.

The Quarrel and the Revelation

Brynhild married Gunnarr and came to the Gjúkung court. Years passed. Sigurd lived alongside the woman he had once sworn to marry, unable to remember and then, when the potion's power faded, unable to speak. He was bound by his oaths of brotherhood to Gunnarr.

The truth emerged when Brynhild and Guðrún quarreled over whose husband was greater. Guðrún revealed everything: that Sigurd, not Gunnarr, had crossed the flames, that Sigurd had lain in her bed, that the ring she wore proved it, for Sigurd had taken it from Brynhild and given it to Guðrún. Brynhild's pride shattered. She had been tricked into marrying a lesser man while her true betrothed married another. Her love curdled into rage. She demanded Sigurd's death.

The Murder of Sigurd

The Gjúkings conspired to kill their sworn brother. They could not do it themselves, being oath-bound, so they induced their younger brother Gutthorm, who had sworn no oaths to Sigurd, to commit the murder. They fed him wolf-flesh and snake-flesh to inflame his courage. In the Völsunga saga, Gutthorm stabs Sigurd as he lies sleeping beside Guðrún. The dying hero throws Gram, cutting Gutthorm in half.

Brynhild, hearing of his death, laughed and then wept. She stabbed herself with a sword and asked to be burned on the same pyre as Sigurd, with a blade between them as there had been in life.

In the Nibelungenlied, it is Hagen who carries out the murder. He tricks Kriemhild into revealing Siegfried's one vulnerable spot, the place between his shoulder blades where a linden leaf blocked the dragon's blood, and stabs him while he drinks from a spring during a hunt.

The Curse Fulfilled

Fafnir's dying warning proved true. The treasure brought death to all who possessed it. Sigurd was murdered for it. The Gjúkings who seized it were lured to destruction at Atli's court, where Guðrún avenged her brothers by killing her own sons, feeding them to Atli, and burning his hall to the ground. Hagen sank the Nibelung gold in the Rhine before riding to his death, swearing never to reveal its location while any of his lords lived.

The hoard has never been recovered.