The Red Fairy Book, Andrew Lang [book club recommendations txt] 📗

went down into that deep place, and dug many pits

in it, and in one of the pits he lay hidden with his sword drawn.

There he waited, and presently the earth began to shake with the

weight of the Dragon as he crawled to the water. And a cloud of

venom flew before him as he snorted and roared, so that it would

have been death to stand before him.

 

But Sigurd waited till half of him had crawled over the pit, and

then he thrust the sword Gram right into his very heart.

 

Then the Dragon lashed with his tail till stones broke and trees

crashed about him.

 

Then he spoke, as he died, and said:

 

`Whoever thou art that hast slain me this gold shall be thy ruin,

and the ruin of all who own it.’

 

Sigurd said:

 

`I would touch none of it if by losing it I should never die. But

all men die, and no brave man lets death frighten him from his

desire. Die thou, Fafnir,’ and then Fafnir died.

 

And after that Sigurd was called Fafnir’s Bane, and Dragonslayer.

 

Then Sigurd rode back, and met Regin, and Regin asked him to

roast Fafnir’s heart and let him taste of it.

 

So Sigurd put the heart of Fafnir on a stake, and roasted it. But

it chanced that he touched it with his finger, and it burned him. Then

he put his finger in his mouth, and so tasted the heart of Fafnir.

 

Then immediately he understood the language of birds, and he

heard the Woodpeckers say:

 

`There is Sigurd roasting Fafnir’s heart for another, when he

should taste of it himself and learn all wisdom.’

 

The next bird said:

 

`There lies Regin, ready to betray Sigurd, who trusts him.’

 

The third bird said:

 

`Let him cut off Regin’s head, and keep all the gold to himself.’

 

The fourth bird said:

 

`That let him do, and then ride over Hindfell, to the place where

Brynhild sleeps.’

 

When Sigurd heard all this, and how Regin was plotting to

betray him, he cut off Regin’s head with one blow of the sword

Gram.

 

Then all ‘he birds broke out singing:

 

`We know a fair maid,

A fair maiden sleeping;

Sigurd, be not afraid,

Sigurd, win thou the maid

Fortune is keeping.

 

`High over Hindfell

Red fire is flaming,

There doth the maiden dwell

She that should love thee well,

Meet for thy taming.

 

`There must she sleep till thou

Comest for her waking

Rise up and ride, for now

Sure she will swear the vow

Fearless of breaking.’

 

Then Sigurd remembered how the story went that somewhere,

far away, there was a beautiful lady enchanted. She was under a

spell, so that she must always sleep in a castle surrounded by flaming

fire; there she must sleep for ever till there came a knight who

would ride through the fire and waken her. There he determined

to go, but first he rode right down the horrible trail of Fafnir. And

Fafnir had lived in a cave with iron doors, a cave dug deep down

in the earth, and full of gold bracelets, and crowns, and rings; and

there, too, Sigurd found the Helm of Dread, a golden helmet, and

whoever wears it is invisible. All these he piled on the back of the

good horse Grani, and then he rode south to Hindfell.

 

Now it was night, and on the crest of the hill Sigurd saw a red

fire blazing up into the sky, and within the flame a castle, and a

banner on the topmost tower. Then he set the horse Grani at the

fire, and he leaped through it lightly, as if it had been through the

heather. So Sigurd went within the castle door, and there he saw

someone sleeping, clad all in armour. Then he took the helmet off

the head of the sleeper, and behold, she was a most beautiful lady.

And she wakened and said, `Ah! is it Sigurd, Sigmund’s son, who

has broken the curse, and comes here to waken me at last?’

 

This curse came upon her when the thorn of the tree of sleep

ran into her hand long ago as a punishment because she had

displeased Odin the God. Long ago, too, she had vowed never to

marry a man who knew fear, and dared not ride through the fence

of flaming fire. For she was a warrior maid herself, and went

armed into the battle like a man. But now she and Sigurd loved

each other, and promised to be true to each other, and he gave her

a ring, and it was the last ring taken from the dwarf Andvari.

Then Sigurd rode away, and he came to the house of a King who

had a fair daughter. Her name was Gudrun, and her mother was a

witch. Now Gudrun fell in love with Sigurd, but he was always

talking of Brynhild, how beautiful she was and how dear. So one

day Gudrun’s witch mother put poppy and forgetful drugs in a

magical cup, and bade Sigurd drink to her health, and he drank, and

instantly he forgot poor Brynhild and he loved Gudrun, and they

were married with great rejoicings.

 

Now the witch, the mother of Gudrun, wanted her son Gunnar

to marry Brynhild, and she bade him ride out with Sigurd and go

and woo her. So forth they rode to her father’s house, for Brynhild

had quite gone out of Sigurd’s mind by reason of the witch’s wine,

but she remembered him and loved him still. Then Brynhild’s

father told Gunnar that she would marry none but him who could

ride the flame in front of her enchanted tower, and thither they rode,

and Gunnar set his horse at the flame, but he would not face it.

Then Gunnar tried Sigurd’s horse Grani, but he would not move

with Gunnar on his back. Then Gunnar remembered witchcraft

that his mother had taught him, and by his magic he made Sigurd

look exactly like himself, and he looked exactly like Gunnar. Then

Sigurd, in the shape of Gunnar and in his mail, mounted on Grani,

and Grani leaped the fence of fire, and Sigurd went in and found

Brynhild, but he did not remember her yet, because of the forgetful

medicine in the cup of the witch’s wine.

 

Now Brynhild had no help but to promise she would be his wife,

the wife of Gunnar as she supposed, for Sigurd wore Gunnar’s shape,

and she had sworn to wed whoever should ride the flames. And he

gave her a ring, and she gave him back the ring he had given her

before in his own shape as Sigurd, and it was the last ring of that

poor dwarf Andvari. Then he rode out again, and he and Gunnar

changed shapes, and each was himself again, and they went

home to the witch Queen’s, and Sigurd gave the dwarf’s ring to

his wife, Gudrun. And Brynhild went to her father, and said

that a King had come called Gunnar, and had ridden the fire,

and she must marry him. `Yet I thought,’ she said, `that no

man could have done this deed but Sigurd, Fafnir’s bane, who was

my true love. But he has forgotten me, and my promise I must

keep.’

 

So Gunnar and Brynhild were married, though it was not Gunnar

but Sigurd in Gunnar’s shape, that had ridden the fire.

 

And when the wedding was over and all the feast, then the magic

of the witch’s wine went out of Sigurd’s brain, and he remembered

all. He remembered how he had freed Brynhild from the spell,

and how she was his own true love, and how he had forgotten and

had married another woman, and won Brynhild to be the wife of

another man.

 

But he was brave, and he spoke not a word of it to the others to

make them unhappy. Still he could not keep away the curse which

was to come on every one who owned the treasure of the dwarf

Andvari, and his fatal golden ring.

 

And the curse soon came upon all of them. For one day, when

Brynhild and Gudrun were bathing, Brynhild waded farthest out

into the river, and said she did that to show she was Guirun’s

superior. For her husband, she said, had ridden through the flame

when no other man dared face it.

 

Then Gudrun was very angry, and said that it was Sigurd, not

Gunnar, who had ridden the flame, and had received from Brynhild

that fatal ring, the ring of the dwarf Andvari.

 

Then Brynhild saw the ring which Sigard had given to Gudrun,

and she knew it and knew all, and she turned as pale as a dead

woman, and went home. All that evening she never spoke. Next

day she told Gunnar, her husband, that he was a coward and a liar,

for he had never ridden the flame, but had sent Sigurd to do it for

him, and pretended that he had done it himself. And she said he

would never see her glad in his hall, never drinking wine, never

playing chess, never embroidering with the golden thread, never

speaking words of kindness. Then she rent all her needlework

asunder and wept aloud, so that everyone in the house heard her.

For her heart was broken, and her pride was broken in the same

hour. She had lost her true love, Sigurd, the slayer of Fafnir, and

she was married to a man who was a liar.

 

Then Sigurd came and tried to comfort her, but she would not

listen, and said she wished the sword stood fast in his heart.

 

`Not long to wait,’ he said, `till the bitter sword stands fast in

my heart, and thou will not live long when I am dead. But, dear

Brynhild, live and be comforted, and love Gunnar thy husband, and

I will give thee all the gold, the treasure of the dragon Fafnir.’

 

Brynhild said:

 

`It is too late.’

 

Then Sigurd was so grieved and his heart so swelled in his breast

that it burst the steel rings of his shirt of mail.

 

Sigurd went out and Brynhild determined to slay him. She

mixed serpent’s venom and wolf’s flesh, and gave them in one dish

to her husband’s younger brother, and when he had tasted them he

was mad, and he went into Sigurd’s chamber while he slept and

pinned him to the bed with a sword. But Sigurd woke, and caught

the sword Gram into his hand, and threw it at the man as he fled,

and the sword cut him in twain. Thus died Sigurd, Fafnir’s bane,

whom no ten men could have slain in fair fight. Then Gudrun

wakened and saw him dead, and she moaned aloud, and Brynhild

heard her and laughed; but the kind horse Grani lay down and died

of very grief. And then Brynhild fell a-weeping till her heart broke.

So they attired Sigurd in all his golden armour, and built a great

pile of wood on board his ship, and at night laid on it the dead Sigurd

and the dead Brynhild, and the good horse, Grani, and set fire to it,

and launched the ship. And the wind bore it blazing out to sea,

flaming into the dark. So there were Sigurd and Brynhild burned

together, and the curse of the dwarf Andvari was fulfilled.[33]

 

[33] The Volsunga Saga.