In Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried, the hero defeats the dragon Fafner.
Siegfried is the third opera in Wagner’s four-part Ring Cycle and premiered in 1876. Fafner originally appears in Das Rheingold as a giant who kills his brother Fasolt and takes possession of the Rhine gold and the ring. In Siegfried, he has transformed into a dragon and guards the hoard in a cave.
The young hero Siegfried, guided partly by the dwarf Mime, reforges the broken sword Nothung and uses it to kill Fafner. After tasting the dragon’s blood, Siegfried gains the ability to understand the language of birds.
Fafner is Wagner’s adaptation of Fáfnir from Germanic heroic tradition. Fasolt is his brother, not the dragon, while Alberich is the dwarf who originally obtains the ring and Mime is Siegfried’s treacherous foster father.