Völsung Cycle in the context of "Fafnir"

Worm, wurm or wyrm (Old English: wyrm; Old Norse: ormr; Old High German: wurm), meaning serpent, are archaic terms for dragons (Old English: draca; Old Norse: dreki/*draki; Old High German: trahho) in the wider Germanic mythology and folklore, in which they are often portrayed as large venomous snakes and hoarders of gold. Especially in later tales, however, they share many common features with other dragons in European mythology, such as having wings.

Prominent worms attested in medieval Germanic works include the dragon that killed Beowulf, the central dragon in the Völsung Cycle – Fáfnir, Nidhogg (Old Norse: Níðhǫggr), and the great world serpent, Jǫrmungandr, including subcategories such as lindworms and sea serpents.

The Sigurd stones form a group of eight or nine Swedish runic inscriptions (five or six runestones, two natural rocks, and a baptismal font) and one picture stone that depict imagery from the Germanic heroic legend of Sigurd the dragon slayer. They were made during the Viking Age and constitute the earliest Norse representations of the matter of the Völsung cycle that is the basis of the Middle High German Nibelungenlied and the Sigurd legends in the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda, and the Völsunga saga.

In addition, the figure of Sigurd sucking the dragon's blood from his thumb appears on several carved stones in parts of Great Britain with strong Scandinavian cultural influence: at Ripon and Kirby Hill, North Yorkshire, at York and at Halton, Lancashire, and carved slates from the Isle of Man, broadly dated c. 950–1000, include several pieces interpreted as showing episodes from the Sigurd story.

Völsung (Old Norse: Vǫlsungr [ˈvɔlsuŋɡr̩], Old English: Wæls) is a figure in Germanic mythology, where he is the eponymous ancestor of the Völsung family (Old Norse: Vǫlsungar, Old English: Wælsings), which includes the hero Sigurð. In Nordic mythology, he is the son of Rerir and was murdered by the Geatish king Siggeir. He was later avenged by one of his sons, Sigmund, and his daughter Signy, who was married to Siggeir.

Völsung's story is recorded in the Völsung Cycle, a series of legends about the clan. The earliest extant versions of the cycle were recorded in medieval Iceland; the tales of the cycle were expanded with local Scandinavian folklore, including that of Helgi Hundingsbane (which appears to originally have been part of the separate tradition of the Ylfings), and form the material of the epic poems in the Elder Edda and of Völsunga saga, which preserves material from lost poems. Völsung is also the subject matter of the Middle High German epic poem Nibelungenlied and is referred to in the Old English epic Beowulf.

In Germanic mythology, Gram, in Norse legend (Old Norse: Gramr, "ill-tempered"), or Balmung, in the Middle High German epic poem Nibelungenlied, is a magical godlike sword, specifically the sword that the hero Sigurd used to kill the dragon Fafnir. It is primarily used by the Völsungs in the Völsung Cycle, however, it is also seen in other legends, such as the Thidrekssaga in which it is wielded by Hildebrand.

The myth of Gram may be related to the British myth of "the sword in the stone", Excalibur, as Gram has been thrust into a tree, from which only the hero Sigmund can pull it out, much like how Excalibur only can be pulled out by the true king of England, King Arthur. The myth of Gram being broken and then reforged was also the inspiration of Tolkien's sword Narsil.