norse mythology

Ahhhh, all you barbarians look and sound alike - how can you expect civilized folk to tell you and your myths apart?








(This from a whole-blood Celt, BTW :wink: )

Well, I was wrong. The Fafnir story IS Norse and is found in the Lay of Fafnir. It makes me wonder if the "fit" between the tale and the question might not be better than I originally thought.

YES DEFINATELY NORSE!!!

In the Lay of Fafnir, Fafnir kills his father in his sleep to steal a Dane Geld treasure paid for the loss of a brother. Fafnir then hides the treasure and turns himself into a dragon to guard the gold. Regin, Fafnir's brother, helps instigate Sigurd to steal the treasure. Regin forges a sword for the purpose, and Sigurd kills Fafnir. Fafnir has some things to say before dying, amongst them that Regin will betray Sigurd as well. Sigurd roasts Fafnir's heart and upon tasting it is able to understand the language of the birds and beasts. The tale continues.

This is all a pretty good fit within the constraints of the original question. To really be certain would take more research time than I'm willing to spend this morning.

You have attracted the interest of some of the most knowledgable people on this site. Nothing, however, can substitute for doing the research yourself. I imagine that all of us here have responded initially off the tops of our pointy heads, but finding the information sought was really quite easy, though full confirmation will take a few hours more work. Good luck.

Norse mythology
I plunk for Fafnir.

A little further research has cleared away some of my memory clouds as well, leading me to side with Asherman on this; Fafnir is a good fit; I was way off-base with Andvari, who is in the story, but not the character we're looking for.

I misrembered Fafnir as a dwarf; in the sagas he was a giant. Fafnir's hord of gold indeed was stolen, from his father, Hreidmar, who also was Regin's father, making Fafnir and Regin, the crafter of the sword with which Sigurd killed Fafnir, brothers. Fafnir murdered Hreidmar for the gold, which had come into Hreidmar's possesion by way of a death-price extorted from the god Loki for his killing of yet another of Hreidmar's sons, Otter.


I wanna take this opportunity to thank justaclue for bringing this up; Winter is settling in hereabouts, and I'm really looking forward to renewing my too-long-set-aside freindship with the denizens of Asgard and the men who knew them. A more fitting pastime for evenings by a crackling fire as Ull, the Wintergod, howls outside cannot be imagined.

Norse mythology
The first relevant reference on Google is to a citation from The Encyclopedia Of All Known Gods, and lists Fafnir, under the heading Norse Mythology. On the other hand, Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature puts Fafnir as a character in the Niebelungenlied which is Teutonic.

There is frequently considerable overlap in the mythology of neighboring cultures which could of course account for the confusion.

Timber - if you enjoy this sort of medieval literature ...

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/

<from my favourites - it's where I found the Volsunga I linked on the previous page>

Thanks for the thought, ehBeth - I know it well, and the Gutenberg Project is a treasure that grows and grows.

Well i have searched some more, and decided that Fafnir is the answer to this. Thanks to everybody for their help and comments, and look forward to connecting with you all again.

as an aside : the dwarf of the nibelungen was ALBERICH, who wore a cloak to make him invisible while guarding the gold. when we were in "worms" , the german nibelungen city on the rhine, the news papers carried lenghty articles about the research being conducted to unravel the mysteries surrounding the nibelungen story.
there was also work being conducted to try and find the gold; one theory was that the gold had been hidden in the river and gold nuggets that had been found in the rhine were a sure sign of it.
the city of worms seemed to have been gripped by "nibelungen fever" and they made good use of the story to attract plenty of tourists to the "nibelungen festival". i'll try to find some illustrations - websites seem to be in german only. hbg

norse mythology
here are some great illustrations for the


...NIBELUNGEN SAGA...
while the text is in german, i think the illustrations hardly require any text. hbg

btw. the research being carried out by german universities made some very strong connections between the nibelungen story and the norse story.

Snorri Sturleson I believe had begun to publish a compiled work by 1220.

I think you will find that was a different Sturleson.