The Völsung legend

Below stands the original wording of the source, public domain, with a translation of our own or one that is public domain. Marked words lead to the entry in the register that took something from them.

• Chapter 18: Fáfnir asks the name of his slayer

  Ok er Fáfnir fekk banasár, spurði hann: "Hverr ertu, eða hverr er þinn faðir, eða hver er ætt þín, er þú vart svá djarfr, at þú þorir at bera vápn á mik?" Sigurðr svarar: "Ætt mín er mönnum ókunnig. Ek heiti göfugt dýr, ok á ek engan föður né móður, ok einn saman hefi ek farit." Fáfnir svarar: "Ef þú átt engan föður né móður, af hverju undri ertu þá alinn? Ok þótt þú segir mér eigi þitt nafn á banadægri mínu, þá veiztu, at þú lýgr nú."

  So whenas Fafnir had his death-wound, he asked "Who art thou? and who is thy father? and what thy kin, that thou wert so hardy as to bear weapons against me?" Sigurd answered, "Unknown to men is my kin. I am called a noble beast: neither father have I nor mother, and all alone have I fared hither." Said Fafnir, "Whereas thou hast neither father nor mother, of what wonder wert thou born then? But now, though thou tellest me not thy name on this my death-day, yet thou knowest verily that thou liest unto me."

  public-domain translation·Völsunga saga, normalised Old Norse text (ed. Guðni Jónsson / Bjarni Vilhjálmsson, Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda, 1943), ch. 18

  English by Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris (1888); the German rendering is ours. The dying dragon tries to learn his slayer's name, and Sigurd hides it — a name spoken to a dragon gives him power. Tolkien said Smaug's conversation is obviously in debt to Fáfnir; Bilbo's riddling answers to Smaug are the same game.