Sigurd Cross Slab (Manx Cross 121)

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Sigurd charges forward, sword flashing in the sunlight as he attacks the mighty dragon Fafnir. Meanwhile, above him, Sigurd skillfully roasts Fafnir's heart on a spit, basking it in the warm flames of a roaring fire. As his scalded fingers sizzle with pain, he instinctively cools them by sucking them into his mouth, where he receives an unexpected warning from birds perched nearby: Regin, the cunning dwarf, plans to strike him down. To Sigurd's left, a bird sits quietly behind him, while the head of his loyal horse Grani gleams proudly in the sunlight. The image shifts to reveal a later scene from the saga. A manacled figure, Gunnar, is viciously attacked by one of the serpents as he lies helpless. It turns out that Gunnar has fallen prey to the curse of Fafnir's treasure after snatching it from his brother-in-law Sigurd. Now, he's in the clutches of Atli, a power-hungry king who also craves the fortune. In an attempt to extract information about the treasure from him, Atli brutally binds Gunnar and tosses him into a pit infested with snakes.