Fafnir is shown to return to his original giant form while delivering his death-speech to Siegfried. It is clear that much of Tolkien's work was inspired by Northern Myth. Many parallels can be drawn between Fafnir and Smaug, from "The Hobbit", as well as between Fafnir and Glaurung, the first dragon in Middle Earth. Who is slain by Turin. The exchange between Bilbo and Smaug nearly mirrors Fafnir's and Sigurd's. The main difference being that Sigurd's conversation occurs after the death blow has been struck. This is most likely due to dramatic effect, as Bilbo has much more at stake when
Wolves in folklore, religion and mythology death. One of the earliest written references to black wolves occurs in the Babylonian epic "Gilgamesh", in which the titular character rejects the sexual advances of the goddess Ishtar, reminding her that she had transformed a previous lover, In Proto-Indo-European mythology, the wolf was presumably associated with the warrior class, who would "transform into wolves" (or dogs) upon their initiation. This is reflected in Iron Age Europe in the "Tierkrieger" depictions from the Germanic sphere, among others. The standard comparative overview of this aspect of Indo-European mythology is McCone (1987) According to legend, the establishment of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius