«Ho sempre saputo» disse Bilbo con uno squittio terrorizzato «che i draghi erano più molli nella parte inferiore*, specialmente nella zona del loro… ehm… petto; ma indubbiamente uno così fortificato come te ci avrà pensato…».
Il drago interruppe per un attimo le sue vanterie.…
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!’…
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!…
Sigurd
15 ‘With kin unkindly
wert thou cursed Regin!
His fire and venom
affright me not!
Yet why thou eggest me,
I ask thee still –
for father’s vengeance,
or for Fáfnir’s gold?’
Regin
16 ‘A sire avenged
were sweet to Regin;
the gold thy guerdon,
the glory thine.…
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!…
