Fáfnir
30 ‘O man of mankind!
What man begot thee?
Who forged the flame
for Fáfnir’s heart?’
Sigurd
‘As the wolf I walk
wild and lonely,
no father owning,
a flame bearing.’
Fáfnir
31 ‘A wolf was thy sire –
full well I know it!
Who egged thee eager
to mine undoing?’
Sigurd
‘My sire was Sigmund,
seed of Völsung;
my heart egged me,
my hand answered.’
Fáfnir
32 ‘Nay! Regin wrought this,
rogue and master!
O son of Sigmund!
sooth I tell thee:
my guarded gold
gleams with evil,
bale it bringeth
to both my foes.’
Sigurd
33 ‘Life each must leave
on his latest day,
yet gold gladly
will grasp living!’
Fáfnir
‘Fools! saith Fáfnir –
with fate of woe
this gold is glamoured.
Grasp not! Flee thou!’
Sigurd
34 ‘A fool, saith Sigurd,
could not fend himself
with helm of horror –
hell now seize him!’
In the heather had hidden
as a hare cowering
the fear-daunted smith;
forth now crept he.
{J.R.R. Tolkien, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, Sigurd and Fáfnir by Valeriy Vegera on ArtStation}
-Ancalagon
