bane too."

Quoth Sigurd, "Fain would we keep all our wealth til that day of days;
yet shall each man die once for all."

Said Fafnir, "Few things wilt thou do after my counsel; but take heed
that thou shalt be drowned if thou farest unwarily over the sea; so bide
thou rather on the dry land, for the coming of the calm tide."

Then said Sigurd, "Speak, Fafnir, and say, if thou art so exceeding
wise, who are the Norns who rule the lot of all mothers' sons."

Fafnir answers, "Many there be and wide apart; for some are of the kin
of the Aesir, and some are of Elfin kin, and some there are who are
daughters of Dvalin."

Said Sigurd, "How namest thou the holm whereon Surt (3) and the Aesir
mix and mingle the water of the sword?"

"Unshapen is that holm hight," said Fafnir.

And yet again he said, "Regin, my brother, has brought about my end,
and it gladdens my heart that thine too he bringeth about; for thus will
things be according to his will."

And once again he spake, "A countenance of terror I bore up before all
folk, after that I brooded over the heritage of my brother, and on every
side did I spout out poison, so that none durst come anigh me, and of
no weapon was I adrad, nor ever had I so many men before me, as that
I deemed myself not stronger than all; for all men were sore afeard of
me."

Sigurd answered and said, "Few may have victory by means of that same
countenance of terror, for whoso comes amongst many shall one day find
that no one man is by so far the mightiest of all."

Then says Fafnir, "Such counsel I give thee, that thou take thy horse
and ride away at thy speediest, for ofttimes it falls out so, that he
who gets a death-wound avenges himself none the less."

Sigurd answered, "Such as thy redes are I will nowise do after them;
nay, I will ride now to thy lair and take to me that great treasure of
thy kin."

"Ride there then," said Fafnir, "and thou shalt find gold enow to
suffice thee for all thy life-days; yet shall that gold be thy bane, and
the bane of every one soever who owns it."

Then up stood Sigurd, and said, "Home would I ride and lose all that
wealth, if I deemed that by the losing thereof I should never die; but
every brave and true man will fain have his hand on wealth till that
last day; but thou, Fafnir, wallow in the death-pain till Death and Hell
have thee."

And therewithal Fafnir died.

ENDNOTES:
(1) Lat. "draco", a dragon.
(2) "Unknown to men is my k