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Poetic Edda

His life, methinks,  must Fafnir lose, For the mightier man wast thou."

Regin had gone to a distance while Sigurth fought Fafnir, and came back while Sigurth was wiping the blood from his sword. Regin said:

23. "Hail to thee, Sigurth!  Thou victory hast, And Fafnir in fight hast slain;Of all the men  who tread the earth, Most fearless art thou, methinks."
  Sigurth spake:24.[1] "Unknown it is,  when all are together, (The sons of the glorious gods,) Who bravest born shall seem;Some are valiant  who redden no sword In the blood of a foeman's breast."
  Regin spake:25.[2] "Glad art thou, Sigurth,  of battle gained, As Gram with grass thou cleansest;My brother fierce  in fight hast slain, And somewhat I did myself."

    Fafnir say: "For it often happens that he who gets a deadly wound yet avenges himself." It is quite likely that two stanzas have been lost.

    The Volsungasaga places its paraphrase of this stanza between those of stanzas 15 and 16.

  1. ↑ Line 2 is probably spurious, but it is a phrase typical of such poems as Grimnismol or Vafthruthnismol.
  2. ↑ Gram: Sigurth's sword; cf. Reginsmol, prose after 14.

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