Advice for Killing Fafnir

Now Sigurđ and Regin went up on Gnitaheiđ, and there they found
the path that Fáfnir followed when he slithered down to the water. It
is said that the cliff Fáfnir sat on when he drank from the water below
was thirty feet high. Sigurđ said, “Regin, you told me that this dragon
wasn’t any larger than an average snake, but the trail he’s left here tells
me he is very large.”

Regin said, “So dig a pit and sit in it. And when the dragon comes
slithering to the water, stab him in his heart and kill him that way. You’ll
win great fame for it.”

Sigurđ said, “What will happen to me if I get the dragon’s blood
on me?”

Regin said, “There’s just no getting you to do anything, since you’re
afraid of everything. You are nothing like your departed kinsmen when
it comes to courage.” Then Regin fled in terror, and Sigurđ rode up on
Gnitaheiđ and dug a pit.

And while he was at this work, an old man with a long beard came
up to him and asked what he was doing there. Sigurđ told him.

The old man said, “This is unwise. Dig more pits, so that the blood
will run off into them, while you sit in this one and stab the dragon’s
heart.” Then the man disappeared, and Sigurđ dug more pits, as the
man had advised.

And when the dragon came slithering toward the water, there was
an earthquake that shook all the earth in the vicinity. The dragon blew
poison from his mouth in every direction in front of him, and Sigurđ
was afraid neither of the sight nor the sound. And when the dragon
slithered over his pit, Sigurđ stabbed him beneath his left armpit, so
deep that the sword sank up to the hilt. Then Sigurđ leapt up out of
his pit and drew his sword back, and his arms were bloody up to the
shoulders. And when the great dragon felt himself mortally wounded,
he thrashed out with his head and tail and broke everything in reach.

And as Fáfnir felt himself dying, he said, “Who are you? Who is your
father? What family are you from, that you were daring enough to bring
weapons against me?”


- Volsunga Saga, Chapter 18