Sleep Thorn Fafnismal

Sigurd cut off Regin’s head and then he ate Fafnir’s heart and drank the blood of both Regin and Fafnir. Then Sigurd heard the nuthatches saying:

40 ‘Gather up, Sigurd, the red rings;
it’s not kingly to be afraid of anything!
I know a girl, the fairest by far,
endowed with gold, if you could win her.

41 ‘Green paths lie straight towards Giuki,
fate points forward for a far-travelling man.
There the lavish king has raised up a daughter.
Sigurd, you’ll win her with a wedding settlement.

42 ‘There is a hall on high Hindarfell,
outside it is all surrounded with flame;
wise men have made it
out of radiant river-light.

43 ‘I know on the mountain the battle-wise one sleeps,
and the terror of the linden plays above her;*
Odin stabbed her with a thorn;*
the goddess of flax had brought down*
a different fighter from the one he wanted.

44 ‘Young man, you shall see the girl under the helmet,
who rode away from battle on Vingskornir.
Sigrdrifa’s sleep may not be broken,
by a princely youth, except by the norns’ decree.’

Sigurd rode along Fafnir’s track to his lair and found it open and with doors and door-frames of iron. All the beams of the house were of iron, and they were driven down into the earth. There Sigurd found a huge amount of gold and filled two chests with it. Then he took the helmet of terror and a gold mail-shirt and the sword Hrotti and many other treasures, and loaded Grani with it, but the horse would not proceed until Sigurd climbed onto his back.


- Poetic Edda, Fafnismal


("terror of the linden: fire, for the tree is consumed by it." - from the Explanatory Notes section included with the translation)

("thorn: a sleep-thorn as a punishment for giving victory to the wrong fighter." - from the Explanatory Notes section included with the translation)

("goddess of flax: conventional term for a woman, who wears linen garments." - from the Explanatory Notes section included with the translation)