Sigurd

thumb|The death of Siegfried. Hagen stands to the right of Siegfried with a bow. From the Hundeshagenscher Kodex. thumb|"Sigurd proofs the sword gram (mythology)|Gram" (1901) by Johannes Gehrts. thumb|Siegfried's Departure from Kriemhild, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, c. 1843

Sigurd ( ; Old Swedish: Siwrdh), Siegfried (), or Sigvard (Old Danish and Old Swedish: Sivard, Sivar, Sevar, Sivert), is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon — known in Nordic tradition as Fafnir () — and who was later murdered. In the Nordic countries, he is referred to with the epithet "Fáfnir's bane" (, , , ), and is also widely known as "the Dragon Slayer". In both the Norse and continental Germanic traditions, Sigurd is portrayed as dying as the result of a quarrel between his wife (Gudrun/Kriemhild) and another woman, Brunhild, whom he had unknowingly tricked into marrying the Burgundian king Gunnar/Gunther. His slaying of a dragon and possession of the hoard of the Nibelungen is also common to both traditions. In other respects, however, the two traditions appear to diverge. The most important works to feature Sigurd are the , the Völsunga saga, and the Poetic Edda. He also appears in numerous other works from both Germany and Scandinavia, including a series of medieval and early modern Scandinavian ballads.