RICHARD WAGNER THE NIBELUNG'S RING IN ENGLISH ALFRED FORMAN ?$*? $ ../,. ,_, &tr&^ k J ^ - . ',: " -V , . ''' ' * ' JWTjS ^ :,: THE NIBELUNG'S RING THE NIBELUNG'S RING ENGLISH WORDS TO RICHARD WAGNER'S RING DES NIBELUNGEN IN THE ALLITERATIVE VERSE OF THE ORIGINAL BY ALFRED FORMAN. A VERBATIM RE-ISSUE OF THE EDITION OF 1877. THE ONLY VERSION APPROVED BY THE AUTHOR, AND THE FIRST TRANSLATION OF THE WORK INTO ANY LANGUAGE. LONDON SCHOTT & CO., 159 REGENT STREET, W. MAYENCE PARIS BRUSSELLS B. SCHOTT'S SOHNE P. SCHOTT ET CIE. SCHOTT FRERES London : Henderson &> Spaldmg (Ltd.), Printers, 3 & 5, Marylebone Lane, W. All rights reserved. TO RICHARD WAGNER WITH A PRIVATELY PRINTED COPY OF" THE WALKYRIE." (" Die Liebe lockte den Lenz") WINTER has waned upon his stormy wing the woods are wild with flowers before my eyes Spring on the world lies like a lover lies the birds have bursts of song for everything it seems as if the ceaseless blossoming, the splendour and the spell can never tire for if night comes the moon is like a fire and yet my sadness will not let me sing. Mine is the single sorrow how shall I bring to my heart the heart I long to bring ? My heart so bleeds at my own bitter cry I taste its blood as Siegfried, for the ring, did Fafner's, and a bird, as it goes by, laughs " Love's enough 'twas Love that lured the Spring ! " Spring, 1873- 2046960 FORE-EVENING. THE RHINEGOLD. PERSONS. WOTAN, > DONNER, FROH, Gods. LOGE, j FASOLT, 1 FAFNER, t Giants. ALBERICH, MIME, l" Nibelungs. FRICKA, | FREIA, 1 Goddesses. ERDA, 1 WOGLINDE, I WELLGUNDE, P Rhine-Daughters. FLOSSHILDE, Nibelungs. THE RHINEGOLD. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RHINE. (Greenish twilight lighter upwards, darker downwards. The upper part is filled with waves of moving water that stream restlessly from right to left- Towards the bottom the water is dissolved into a gradually finer and finer wet mist, so that the space of a man's height from the ground seems to be quite free from water, which flows like a train of clouds over the dark depth. Everywhere rugged ridges of rock rise from the bottom, and form the boundary of the scene. The whole floor is broken into a wilderness of jagged masses, so that it is nowhere perfectly level, and indicates in every direction deeper passages stretching into thickest dark- ness. In the middle of the scene, round a ridge which, with its slender point, reaches up into the thicker and lighter water, one of the Rhine-Daughters swims in gractfuc movement?) WOGLINDE. Weia ! Waga ! Waver, thou water ! Crowd to the cradle ! \Vagalaweia ! Wallala weiala weia ! WELLGUNDE'S (voice front above). Watchest thou, Woglind', alone ? WOGLINDE. Till Wellgund' is with me below. WELLGUNDE (dives down from the flood to the ridge'). Is wakeful thy watch ? (She tries to catch Woglinde) WOGLINDE (swims out of her reach). Safe from thee so. (They incite and seek playfully to catch each other). B io The Rhinegold. FLOSSHILDE'S (voice from above). Heiala weia ! Wisdomless sisters ! WELLGUNDE. Flosshilde, swim ! Woglinde flies ; help me her flowing to hinder ! FLOSSHILDE (dives down and swims between them as they 6lay). The sleeping gold slightly you guard ; better beset the slumberer's bed, or grief will bring us your game ! (With merry cries they swim away from each other ; Flosshilde tries to catch first one and then the other ; they slip from her, and then together give chase to Flosshilde', so, laughing and playing, they dart like fish from ridge to ridge. Meanwhile Albcrich has come out of a dark chasm from below, and climbs up a ridge. Still surrounded by the darkness, he stops and observes with growing pleasure the games of the water-maidens.) ALBERICH. Hi hi ! you Nodders ! How neat I find you ! Neighbourly folk ! From Nibelheim's night I soon will be near, if made I seem to your mind. (The maidens, on hearing Alberich's voice, stop their play.) WOGLINDE. Hi ! what is here ? WELLGUNDE. It whispered and gleamed. FLOSSHILDE. Watch who gazes this way. (They dive deeper down, and perceive the Nibelung.) The Rhimgold. n WOGLINDE and WELLGUNDE. Fie ! what frightfulness ! FLOSSHILDE (swimming swiftly up). Guard the gold ! Father said that such was the foe. (The two others follow her, and all three gather quickly round the middle ridge.) ALBERICH. You there aloft ! THE THREE. What leads thee below ? ALBERICH. Spoil I your sport, if here you hold me in spell ? Dive to me deeper ; with you to dance and dabble the Nibelung yearns ! WELLGUNDE. Our play will he join in ? WOGLINDE. Passed he a joke ? ALBERICH. How fast and sweetly you flash and swim ! The waist of one I would soon undauntedly wind, slid she dreadlessly down ! FLOSSHILDE. Now laugh I at fear ; the foe is in love. (They laugh). B 2 I2 The Rhinegold. WELLGUNDE. And look how he longs ! WOGLINDE. Now shall we near him ? She lets herself down to the point of the peak, whose foot Alberich has reached.) ALBERICH. She lets herself low. WOGLINDE. Now come to me close ! ALBERICH (climbs with imp-like agility, but stopping often on the way, towards the toint of the peak). Sleek as slime the slope of the slate is ! I slant and slide ! "With foot and with fist I no safety can find on the slippery slobber ! (He sneezes.) A sniff of wet has set me sneezing ; the cursed snivel ! (He has reached the neighbourhood ofWoglinde.) WOGLINDE (laughing). With winning cough my wooer comes ! ALBERICH. My choice thou wert, thou womanly child ! (He tries to embrace her.) WOGLINDE (winding out of his way). Here, if thy bent I heed, it must be ! She has reached another ridge. The sisters laugh.) The Rhinegold. 13 ALBERICH (scratches his head). grief ! thou art gone ! Come though again ! Large for me is the length of thy leap. WOGLINDE (springs to a third ridge lower down). Sink to my side, and fast thou shalt seize me ! ALBERICH (climbs quickly down). Below it is better ! WOGLINDE darts quickly upwards to a high side-ridge). Aloft I must bring thee ! (All the maidens laugh.) ALBERICH. How follow and catch I the crafty fish ? Fly not so falsely ! (He attemps to climb hastily after her.) WELLGUNDE (has sunk down to a lower reef on the other side). Heia ! thou sweetheart ! Hear what I say ! ALBERICH (turning round). Wantest thou me ? WELLGUNDE. 1 mean to thee well ; this way turn thyself, try not for Woglind' ! ALBERICH (climbs quickly over the bottom to Wellgunde). More fair I find thee than her I followed, 14 The Rhinegold. who shines less sweetly and slips aside. But glide more down, if good thou wilt do me ! WELLGUNDE (sinking down still lower towards kirn). And now am I near ? ALBERICH. Not yet enough ! Thy slender arms set me within ; feel in thy neck how my fingers shall frolic ; in burying warmth shall bear me the wave of thy bosom. WELLGUNDE. Art thou in love, and aim'st at delight ? If so, thy sweetness 1 first must see ! Fie ! how humpy and hidden in hair ! Black with brimstone and hardened with burns ! Seek for a lover liker thyself ! ALBERICH (tries to hold her by force). Unfit though I'm found I'll fetter thee safe ! WELLGUNDE (darting quickly up to the middle peak). Quite safe, or forth I shall swim ! (All three laugh.) ALBERICH out of temper, scolding after her). Fitful child ! Chafing and frosty fish ! The Rhinegold, 15 Seem I not sightly, pretty and playful, smiling and smooth ? Eels I leave thee for lovers, if at my skin thou can scold ! FLOSSHILDE. What say'st thou, dwarf? So soon upset ? But two thou hast asked try for the other with healing hope let her allay thy harm ! ALBERICH. Soothing words to-wards me are sung. How well in the end that you all are not one ! To one of a number I'm welcome ; though none of one were to want me ! Let me believe thee, and draw thee below ! FLOSSHILDE (dives down to Albericti) What silly fancy, foolish sisters, fails to see he is fair? ALBERICH (quickly approaching her). Both dull and hateful here I may deem them, since I thy sweetness behold. FLOSSHILDE (flatteringly), O sound with length thy lovely song ; my sense it loftily lures ! 6 The Rhinegold. ALBERICH (touching her trustfully}. My heart shakes and shrivels to hear showered so pointed a praise. FLOSSHILDE (gently repulsing hint). Thy charm besets me and cheers my sight; in thy leaping laughter my heart delights ! (S/te draws him tenderly to her). Sorrowless man ! ALBERICH Sweetest of maids ! FLOSSHILDE. Art thou my own ? ALBERICH. All and for ever ! FLOSSHILDE (holding him quite in her arms). I am stabbed with thy stare, with thy beard I am stuck ; O let me not loose from the bliss ! In the hold of thy fixed and furrowing hair be Flosshild' floated to heaven ! At thy shape like a toad, to the shriek of thy tongue, O let me in answerless spell, look and hearken alone ! Woglinde and Wellgunde have dived down close to them and now break out into ringing laughter.) ALBERICH (starting in alarm out of Flosshilde' s arms). Make you laughter at me ? The Rhinegold. 17 FLOSSHILDE (breaking suddenly from him). We send it as last of the song. (She darts upwards with her sisters and joins in their laughter.) ALBERICH (with shrieking voice). Woe ! Ah, Woe ! O grief ! O grief ! The third to my trust is treacherous too ? You giggling, gliding gang of unmannerly maidens ! Feel you no touch, you truthless Nodders, of faith ? THE THREE RHINE-DAUGHTERS. Wallala! Lalaleia ! Lalei ! Heia! Heia ! Haha ! Lower thy loudness ! Bluster no longer ! Learn the bent of our bidding ! What made thee faintly free in the midst the maid who fixed thy mind ? True finds us and fit for trust the wooer who winds us tight. Freshen thy hope, and hark to no fear ; in the flood we hardly shall flee. They swim away from each other, hither and thither, now higher an now lower, to provoke Alberich to chase them. ) ALBERICH. How in my body blistering heat upheaves the blood ! Lust and hate with heedless longing harrow my heart up ! :8 The Rhinegold. Laugh and lie as you will, wide alight is my want till ease from one of you end it ! ( With desperate efforts he begins to pursue them, -with f earful nimbleness lie climbs ridge after ridge, springs from one to the other, and tries to seize now this maiden, now that, who always escape from him -with mocking laughter; he stumbles, falls into the depth below, and then climbs hastily / again till at last he loses all patience ; breathless, and foaming -with rage, he stops, and stretches his clenched fist up towards the maidens.) ALBERICH (almost beside himself). This fist on one to fix ! (He remains looking- upwards in speechless rage till his attention is suddenly caught and held by the following spectacle : Through the flood from above a gradually brighter light has penetrated, which now, at a high spot in the middle peak, kindles into a blinding golden flare ; a magical yellow light breaks thence through the water. ) WOGLINDE. Look, sisters ! The wakener's laugh is below. WELLGUNDE. Through the grassy gloom the slumberer sweetly it greets. FLOSSHILDE. Now kisses its eye and calls it to open ; lo, it smiles in the smiting light ; through the startled flood flows the stream of its star. THE THREE (gracefully swimming rouml tlie peak together) Heiayaheia ! Heiayaheia ! Wallalallalala leiayahei ! Rhinegold ! Rhinegold ! Burning delight, The Rhinegold. 19 how bright is thy lordly laugh ! Holy and red the river behold in thy rise ! Heiayahei ! Heiayaheia ! Waken, friend, fully wake ! Gladdening games around thee we guide ; flames are aflow, floods are on fire ; with sound and with song, with dives and with dances, we bathe in the depth of thy bed. Rhinegold ! Rhinegold ! Heiayaheia ! Wallalaleia yahei ! ALBERICH (whose look is strongly attracted by the light, and remains fixed on the gold). What's that, you gliders, that there so gleams and glows ? THE THREE MAIDENS (by turns). Where is the wonderer's home, who of Rhinegold never has heard ? He guessed not aught of the golden eye that wakes and wanes again ? Of the darting star that stands in the deep and lights the dark with a look ? See how gladly we swim in its glances ! Bathe with us in the beam thy body, and fear no further its blaze ! (They lau%h.) The Rhinegold. ALBERICH. Is the gold but good for your landless games ? I lean to it little ! WOGLINDE. To the matchless toy more he would take, were he told 'of its wonder ! WELLGUNDE. The world's wealth is by him to be won, who has from the Rhinegold hammered the ring that helps him to measureless might. FLOSSHILDE. Father it was who warned us, fast and whole to guard him the gleaming hoard that no foe from the flood might seize it ; so check your chattering song ! WELLGUNDE. What brings, besetting sister, thy blame ? Hast thou not learned who alone, that lives, to forge it is fit ? WOGLINDE. Who from delight of love withholds, who for its might has heed no more, alone he reaches the wonder that rounds the gold to a ring. The Rhinegold. 21 WELLGUNDE. No dread behoves it to daunt us here ; for life without love is unknown of ; none with its pastime will part. WOGLINDE. And hardest the deed to the hankering dwarf; with fire of love he looks to be faint ! FLOSSHILDE. I fear him not as I found him now ; with his love he soon would have set me alight. WELLGUNDE. Like a brimstone brand in the waves he burned ; with heat of love he hissed aloud. THE THREE. (together). Wallalalleia ! Lahei ! Wildering lover, wilt thou not laugh ? In the swaying gold how softly thou gleam'st ! Why sound we our laughter alone ? ( They laugh.) ALBERICH with his eyes fixed on the &old has listened to the hurried chttter of the sisters'). The world's wealth by the might of thy means I may win 22 The Rhinegold. and forced I not love, yet delight at the least I might filch ! (Fearfully loud.) Laugh as you like ! The Nibelung nears you at last ! (With rage he leafs to the middle peak and climbs with terrible speed towards its top. The maidens dart asunder with cries and swim upwards in different directions.) THE THREE RHINE-DAUGHTERS. Heia ! Heia ! Heiahahei ! See to yourselves ! The dwarf is unsafe ! How the water spits where he has sprung ; with love his wits he has lost ! ( They laugh in maddest merriment.) ALBERICH (at the top of the peak stretching his hand towards the gold.) Dream you no dread ? Then smother the dark your drivelling smiles ! Your light let I begone ; the gold I clutch from the rock and clench to the greatening ring ; for lo ! how I curse love, be witness the water ! (He seizes, with fearful 'force, the gold from the ridge, and plunges head- long -with it into the depth where he swiftly disappears. Thick night breaks suddenly in on all sides. The maidens dart straight after the the thief down into the depth.) THE RHINE-DAUGHTERS (screaming). Grasp the stealer ! Stop the gold ! Help! Help! Woe ! Woe ! (The flood falls with them down towards the bottom ; from the lowest depth is heard A Iberich's yelling laughter. The ridges disappear in thick- est darkness ; the whole scene, from top to bottom, is filled with black waves of water that for some time still seem to sink downwards.) The Rhinegold. 23 (By degrees the waves change into clouds which become gradually clearer, and when at last they have quite disappeared, as it were in fine mist, AN OPEN DISTRICT ON MOUNTAIN-HEIGHTS becomes visible, at first still dim with night. The breaking iiay lightens with growing brightness a castle with shining battlements that stands upon a point of rock in the backgrouml ; between this castle-crowned rock and the foreground of the scene lies, as is to be supposed, a deep valley, with the Rhine flowing through it. A t the side on flowery ground lies W otan with Fricka beside Aim ; both are asleep.) FRICKA (awakes, her eye falls on the castle ; she is surprised and alarmed) . Wotan ! Husband ! Awaken ! WOTAN {lightly in his dream) The happy hall of delight is locked amid gate and guard ; manhood's worship, measureless might, mount to unfinishing fame ! FRICKA (shakes him). Up from the dreadless drift of thy dreams ! Awake, and weigh what thou doest ! WOTAN (awakes, and raises himself a little ; his eye is immediately caught by sight of the castle). Behold the unwithering work ! With heeding towers the height is tipped ; broadly stands the stately abode ! As I drew it in dream as it was in my will safe and fair finds it my sight, holy, sheltering home ! 24 The Rhinegold. FRICKA. So meet thou deemest what most is my dread ? Thy welcomed walls for Freia beware of. Waken and be not unmindful to what a meed thou art bound ! The work is ended and owed for as well ; forgettest thou what thou must give ? WOTAN. Forgotten not is the guerdon they named who worked at the walls ; the unbending team by bargain I tamed, that here the lordly hall might be lifted ; they piled it thanks befall them ; for the pay fret not thy thought. FRICKA. O light unmerciful laughter ! Loveless masterly mischief ! Had I but heard of your freak, its fraud would wholly have failed ; but boldly you worked it abroad from the women, where safe from sight you were left alone with the giants to juggle. So without shame or shyness you sold them Freia, my flowering sister, and deemed it sweetly was done. What to you men for worship is meet, when your minds are on might ? WOTAN. Was Wotan's want The Rhine gold. 25 from Fricka so far, who sought for the fastness herself ? FRICKA. Of my husband's truth was my heed ; I tried, in soundless sorrow, how to find him the fetters fittest to hold him at home ; lordly abode and blissful living lightly with bitless reins should bind thee to lingering rest ; thy bent for the building leaned on fence and fight alone ; worship and might thou mean'st it to widen ; that steadier storm may betide thee thou turn'st to its towering strength. WOTAN (smiling). Wert thou to grasp me in guard like a woman, thou yet must yield to my godhood that, in the bulwarks irked and bounded, the world it outwards should win. Freedom and freshness he loves who lives ; I part not lightly with pastime. FRICKA. Hard, unmoved and harassing man ! For might and lordship's meaningless lure, thou scatter'st in loudness of scorn love and a woman's worth ! 2 6 The Rhinegold. WOTAN (earnestly), To earn a wife in thee was it my other eye went into pledge when I wooed ; how blindly passed is thy blame ! Women I worship too far for thy wish ; and Freia, the sweet'ner, sell I not forth ; I meant not such in my mind. FRICKA. Then shield her to-day ; in shelterless dread hither she dashes for help ! FREIA (entering hurriedly). Ward me, sister ! See to me, Wotan ! For Fasolt roars, from the ridge of his fastness, his fist is ready to fetch me. WOTAN. Let him howl ! Beheld'st thou not Loge ? FRICKA. How besettingly try'st thou his slyness with trust ! Though harm we have stood at his hands, he clouds thee still with his cunning. WOTAN. Where manly mood counts I call none of my neighbours ; but to find in hate of foes a friendship, cunning only and craft, The Rhinegold. 27 with Loge to lead them, can aid. He, whom 1 hearkened to, swore to find a safety for Freia ; on him my hope I have set. FRICKA. And he leaves thee alone. Here stride instead the giants in storm ; where slinks thy slippery stay ? FREIA. What hinders my brothers from help they should bring me, when of Wotan's my weakness is bare ? Behold me, Donner! Hither! Hither! Haste to Freia, my Froh ! FRICKA. In the heartless bargain who bound thee, they hide their best from thee here. (Fasolt andFafner enter, both of giants' stature, and armed with strong stakes.) FASOLT. Soft sleep sealed thy sight ; we set meanwhile unslumb'ringly the walls. Nameless toil tired us not; strength of stone on high we stowed ; deep in towers, tight with doors, holds and seals the slender house its hall. Well stands what we steepened, c 2 28 The Rhinegold. decked with light of laughing dawn ; pass the gate, and give the pay ! WOTAN. Name, neighbours, your meed ; what like you most to light on ? FASOLT. The rate we mean already is marked ; I find thy memory faint. Freia, the holder Holda, the freer we have thy word her win we for home. WOTAN. Sick is thy brain with bargain and sale ? ' Think on fitter thanks ; Freia I sell not so. FASOLT (for a moment speechless -with rage and surprise). What hear I? Ha! Brood'st thou on harm, on hurt to the bond ? On thy spear written read'st thou as sport the runes that bound the bargain ? FAFNER (sneering). My trusty brother ! Tells the blockhead a trap ? FASOLT. Light-son, lightly made and minded, hark with timely heed The Rhinegold. 29 and truthful be to bonds ! All thou art abides but under a bargain ; in measured mood wisely weighed was thy might. Thou warier wert than we in thy wits, wielded'st our freedom to friendly ways ; curses await thy wisdom, far I keep from thy friendship, find I thee aught but open and fair when faith to thy bargains is bid ! A senseless giant so has said ; though wiser, see it his way ! WOTAN. How slily thou say'st we meant what passed at playtime among us ! The flowery goddess, gleaming and fleet, would blind you both with a glance ! FASOLT. Must thou mock ? Ha ! is it meet ? You who for fairness rule, young unfaltering race, like fools you strive for a fastness of stone, put for house and hall worth of woman in pledge ! We sorely hasten and sweat with hardening hand, till won is a woman with sweetening ways beside us to wait ; and upset wilt thou the sale ? 30 The Rhinegold. FAFNER. Balk thy worthless babble ! For wealth woo we no bit ! Faintly help us Freia's fetters ; yet much grows if once from the gods we can get her. Golden apples there are in her gleaming garden ; none but her has the knowledge to nurse them ; the kindly fruit kindles her fellows to youth that bears unyellowing blossom ; far at once they wane from their flower, weak and low will they be left, when Freia feeds them no longer ; from their faces let her be led ! WOTAN {to himself). Loge saunters long ! FASOLT. Make swiftly thy mind ! WOTAN. Point to lighter pay ! FASOT.T. No lower ; Freia alone ! FAFNER. Thou there, follow forth ! (They press tcnvards Freia.) FREIA (fleeing). Help ! Help ! they will have me ! (Dinner and Froh hurrv in.) The Rhinegold. 31 FROM (taking Freia in his arms). To me, Freia ! Meddle no further ! Froh saves his sister. DONNER (placing himself before the giants) . Fasolt and Fafner have halted before at my hammer's hearty fall ! FAFNER. What wilt thou threat ? FASOLT. Who thrusts this way ? Fight fits us not now ; we need what fairly we named. DONNER (swinging his hammer) . I judged oft what giants are owed ; rested no day in wretches' debt ; behold ! your guerdon here I give you in worthy weight ! WOTAN (stretching out his spear bet-ween the opponents). Hold, thou haster ! Force is unfit ! I shield the words on my weapon's shaft ; beware for thy hammer's hilt ! FREIA. Sorrow ! Sorrow ! Wotan forsakes me ! 32 The Rhinegold. FRICKA. As hitherto hard find I thy heart ? WOTAN (turns away and sees Loge coining). Loge at last ! Com'st thou so soon to see me unclasped from the cursed bond of thy bargain ? LOGE (has come in from the background, out of the valley). Why ? from what bargain where I have bound thee ? The one that the giants joined thee wisely to work ? For heights and for hollows hankers my heart ; house and hearth not a day I hold ; Donner and Froh are fonder of roof and room ; when they will woo, a house wait they to have ; a stately hall, a standing home, were what stirred Wotan's wish. House and hall wall and wing the laughing abode at last is broadly built ; the soaring towers I tested myself; if all was hard I asked with heed ; Fasolt and Fafner I found were fair ; not a stone flinched where it stood. No sloven was I like some I see ; he lies who says I was lame ! The Rhinegold. 33 WOTAN. So slily slipp'st thou aside ? How thou betray'st me take the whole of thy heed ! Among us all not another moved even with me to up-aid thee into our midst. Now spur thy wits and speak ! When first as worth of their walls the workmen fixed upon Freia, thou saw'st I would no sooner be won than on thy oath I had put thee to loosen the lordly pledge. LOGE. With lasting heed to look for hints of how we might loose her such wholly I swore ; but now to find thee what never fits what needs must fail, a bond could nowhere have bound me ! FRICKA (to Wotan). Wronged I lately the lingering rogue ? FROH. Thou art known as Loge, but liar I name thee ! DONNER. Thou cursed fire, I'll crush thee flat ! 34 The Rhinegold. LOGE. Their blame to screen scold me the babies. Donner and FroJi prepare to attack hint.') WOTAN (forbidding ihent). In freedom leave me my friend, and scorn not Loge's skill ; richer worth in his words is read when counted well as they come. FAFNER. Push the counting ! Quickly pay ! FASOLT. Much palters the meed ! WOTAN (to Loge). Await, harasser ! Hark to me well ! What was it that held thee away ? LOGE. Threats are what Loge learns of thanks ! In heed for thy strait I hied like a storm, I drifted and drove through the width of the world, to find a ransom for Freia fit for the giants and fair. I looked soundly, but see that at last in the wheeling world lies not the wealth, that can weigh in mind of a man for woman's wonder and worth. (All Jail into surprise and confusion.') The Rhinegold. 35 Where life is to be lit on, in water, earth, and wind, I asked always, sought without end, where forces beset, and seeds are unfettered, what has in mind of man more weight than woman's wonder and worth ? But where life is to be lit on, to scorn I was laughed for my questioning skill ; in water, earth, and wind, nothing will loose from woman and love. But one I learned of at last who had warred on love ; for gleaming gold from woman he widely goes. The Rhine's bemoaning children chattered to me their wrong ; the Nibelung, Night-Alberich, bade them in vain bend to his voice in their bath ; the Rhinegold then and there from the river he rent ; he holds its glance his holiest good, and greater than woman's worth. For the flickering toy, so torn from the flood, they sounded their tale of sorrow ; thy side, Wotan, soon they will seek ; thou wilt rightly see to the robber, its wealth again wilt give the water, and sink it away into safety. Such are the tidings 36 The Rhinegold. I said I would take thee ; so Loge told them no lie. WOTAN. Wanton thou art, or else bewildered ! Myself see'st thou in need ; what help is now in my hands ? FASOLT (who has carefully listened, to Fafner) . The gold from the dwarf should be guarded, much wrong he has done us already ; but slily always slipped he out of reach of our wrath. FAFNER. Harm anew the Niblung will hatch us, now that the gold he has got. Swiftly, Loge, say without lies, what good is known of the gold, that the Niblung sought it so ? LOGE. A lump was it below the water, children to laughter it charmed : but when to a ring it rightly is welded, it helps to highest might and wins its master the world. WOTAN. Of the Rhinegold were already whispers ; runes of booty abide in its ruddy blaze. Might and riches would make without measure a ring. The Rhinegold. 37 FRICKA. Would not as well the golden wealth be worn with its gleam by women for shining show ? LOGE. A wile might force her husband to faith, held she in hand the sparkling heaps that spring from hurrying hammers raised at the spell of the ring. FRICKA. My husband will get the gold to him here ? WOTAN. The hoop to have with me hold I wholly for wisdom. But hark, Loge, how shall I learn the means that let it be made ? LOGE. By spell of runes is wrought the speeding ring ; none has known it ; yet each can wield its aid, who weans from love his life. ( Wotan turns away with disgust.) Thy loss were ill, and late moreover ; Alberich lingered not off; swiftly he severed the wonder's seal ; and rightly welded the ring. 38 The Rhinegold. DONNER. Ill would dwell for us all in the dwarf, if long we the ring were to leave him. WOTAN. The robber must lose it ! FROH. Lightly lo without curse of love will it come. LOGE Gladly as laughter, without pain in a game of play ! WOTAN. But hear me, how ? LOGE. By theft ! What a thief stole thou steal'st from the thief; could gain be more thankfully got ? But with artful foil fences Alberich ; brisk and sly be in the business, call'st thou the robber to claim, that the river's maidens their ruddy mate, the gold, back may be given ; for so as I said they will beg. WOTAN. The river's maidens ? What mean they to me FRICKA. Of the trickling breed bring me no tidings ; The Rhinegold. 39 for many men, with loss to me already they reft from the light. (Wotan stands in silent conflict with himself; the other gods, in speech- less anxiety, fix their eyes on him. Mean-while, Fafner, aside, Aas con- sulted with Fasolt.) FAFNER. Mark that more than Freia fits us the glittering gold ; and endless youth is as good, though by spell of gold it be got. (They come near again.) Hear, Wotan, a word while we halt ! Live with Freia in freedom ; lighter rate find I of ransom ; for greedless giants enough is the Nibelung's ready gold. WOTAN. Wander your wits ? What is not my wealth, to askers like you can I yield ? FAFNER. Long work uplilted thy walls ; light were it, by warier ways than our hatred happened to know, to fetter the Niblung fast WOTAN. For such now to seize on the Niblung? For such fight with the foe ? Unabashed and overbearing I think you under my thanks ! 40 The Rhincgold. FASOLT (suddenly seizes Freia and takes her with Fafner aside). To me, Maid ! For home we make ! In pledge rest for our toil, till thy ransom is paid. {Freia. shrieks ; all the gods are in the greatest alarm.) FAFNER. Fast along let her be led ! Till evening hear me out her we pin as a pledge ; we back will bring her ; but if it be that we find ready no ransom of Rhinegold fit and red FASOLT. We wrangle no further, Freia, as forfeit, for ever follows us off! FREIA. Sister ! Brother ! Save me, both ! (The giants hurriedly drag her off: the troubled gods hear her cries of distress die away in the distance. ) FROH. Up, to her aid ! DONNER. Bar me not any ! ( They question Wotan -with their looks.) LOGE (looking after the giants'). Over stump and stone they heave hence like a storm ; through the river's forded reach fiercely they flounder ; The Rhinegold. 41 Freia seems far from sweetly to sit the shape of their shoulders ! Heia! Hei ! How bluster the blockheads along ! In the land hang not their heels ; nought but Riesenheim's bound now will bring them to rest ! (He turns to the gods.) Why left is Wotan so wild ? How goes the luck of the gods ? (A pale mist with increasing thickness Jills the stage ; in it the gods soon put on a look of growing whiteness and age ; all stand looking with trouble and expectation at Wotan, -wlio fixes his eyes on the ground in thought. ) LOGE. Mocks me a dream, or drowns me a mist ? How sick and sad you suddenly seem ! In your cheeks the light is checked ; the cheer of your eyes is at end ! Up, my Froh, yet early it is ! In thy hand, Donner, what deadens the hammer ? Why grieved is Fricka ? Greets she so faintly the grayness Wotan has got, to warn him all must be old ? FRICKA. Sorrow ! Sorrow ! Why are we so ? DONNER. My hand is stayed. FROH. My heart is still. D 42 The Rhinegold. LOGE. Behold it ! Hark what has happened ! On Freia's fruit I doubt if you feasted to-day ; the golden apples out of her garden have yielded you dower of youth, ate you them every day. The garden's feeder in forfeit is guarded ; on the branches frets and browns the fruit and rots right to its fall. My need is milder ; to me never Freia has given gladly the fostering food ; for barely half so whole I was bred as you here ! But your welfare you fixed on the work of the fruit, and well were the giants ware ; a trap they laid to tangle your life, which look how to uphold ! Without the apples, old and hoar hoarse and helpless worth not a dread to the world, the dying gods must grow. FRICKA. Wotan ! Husband ! Where is thy hope ? Own that thy laughing lightness has ended in wrong and wreck for all WOTAN (starting up -with, sudden decision). Up, Loge ! The Rhinegoid. 43 And let us be off ! To Nibelheim now together ! At hazards I'll have the gold. LOGE. The Rhine-maidens moan for their rights and may they not hope for thy hearing ? WOTAN ( impetuously) . Tush, thou talker ! Freia befriending Freia rests for her ransom. LOGE. Fast as thou like let it befall ; right below nimbly I lead through the Rhine. WOTAN. Not through the Rhine ! LOGE. Then come to the brim of the brimstone cleft, and slip inside with me so ! (He goes first and. disappears sideways inacleft, out of -which, immediately lows a sulphurous mist.) WOTAN. You others, halt till evening here ; for faded youth the fresh'ner is yet to be found ! (He goes down after Loge into the cleft ; the mist that rises out of it spreads itself over the whole scene and quickly fills it -with a thick cloud. A Iready those who stay behind have become invisible.) DONNER. Farewell, Wotan ! D 2 44 The. Rhinegold. FROM. Good luck ! Good luck ! FRICKA. O soon again be safe at my side ! (The mist darkens till it becomes a perfectly black cloud, which moves from below upwards : this changes itself into a firm datk chasm of rock, that still moves in an upward direction, so that it seems as if the stage were sinking deeper and deeper into the earth. At length from different directions in the distance dawns a dusky rea light : a -vast far-stretching SUBTERRANEAN CAVERN. becomes visible, which on all sides seems to issue in narrmv passages. Alberich drags the shrieking Mime by the ear out of a side-cleft.) ALBERICH. Hihi ! Hihi ! To me ! To me ! Try not thy tricks ! Lustily now look to be lashed, find I not finished fitly and well at once the work that I fixed ! MIME (howling), Oho ! Oho ! Oh ! Oh ! Let me alone ! Ready it lies ! Rightfully wrought, with sores and sweat not to be named ; off with thy nail from my ear ! ALBERICH (loosing him). Why saunter so long to let me see ? The Rhinegold. 45 MIME. It struck me something might still beseem it. ALBERICH. What stays to be settled ? MIME (con/used) . This . . . and that . . . ALBERICH. What " that and this " ? Hither the whole ! {He seeks to seize him again by the ear : in fright Mime lets fait a piece of metal-work tliat he held convulsively in his hands. Alberich instantly ticks it up and examines it -with care.) So thou rogue ! See it is ready, and finished as most fits to my mind ! So fancied the sot slily to foil me, and take the masterly toy that he made only by help of a hint of my own ? Thoughtless and hasty thief ! (He puts the work as " Tarn-helm " on his head.') The helm sets to my head ; see, if the wonder will work ? " Night and darkness, know me none ! " (His figure disappears ; in his place a pillar of cloud is seen.) See'st thou me, brother? MIME (looks laonderingly about). What bars thee ? I see thee no bit. 46 The Rhinegold. ALBERICH'S {voice), Then feel me instead, thou standing fool ! Be weaned from thy stealthy whims ! Mime screams and writhes under the strokes of a whip whose fall is heard, without the -whip itself being visible.) ALBERICH'S (voice, laughing). Thanks, thou thinker, for wise and thorough work. Hoho ! Hoho ! Nibelungs all, kneel now to Alberich ! Everywhere waits he and watches his workmen ; rest and room are you bereft of; now you must serve him though not in your sight ; when he seems to be far he fully besets you ; under him all are for ever ! Hoho! Hoho! Lo he is near, the Nibelungs' lord ! illar of cloud disappears towards the background; Alberich' s angry scolding is heard gradually farther and farther off; from the lower clefts he is answered by howls and cries, the sound of which by degrees dies out in the further distance. Mime for pain has fallen to the ground; his whimpering and groaning are heard by Wotan and Loe who descend by a cleft from above.) LOGE. Nibelheim here; through hindering film what a sputter of fiery sparkles ! WOTAN. Who groans so loud ; what lies on the ground ? The Rhinegold. 47 LOGE (bends ricnvn to Mime). Who is the whimperer here ? MIME. Oho! Oho! Oh ! Oh ! LOGE. Hi, Mime ! merry dwarf! What frets and forces thee down ? MIME. Mind not the matter ! LOGE. Such is my meaning ; and more, behold ; help I have for thee, Mime ! MIME (raising himself a. little). Who sides with me ? I serve the mastering son of my mother, who bound me safely in bonds. LOGE. But, Mime, to bind thee what bred him the might ? MIME. With evil wit welded Alberich, of gold he wrung from the Rhine, a ring ; at its stubborn spell we stammer and stumble ; with it bridles he all of us Nibelungs now to his bent. 48 The Rhimgold. Once in our forges freely we welded gifts for our women, winningest gear ; neatly like Niblungs we toiled, and laughed for love of the time. Now hotly he works us in holes and in hollows ; for him alone we hammer and live. Through the golden ring his greed can guess what ore unhewn is withheld in the earth ; then straight we must strike it, grovel and stir it ; we smelt the booty and smite at the bars, without room or rest, to heap our ruler the hoard. LOGE. What laggard was latest under his lash ? MIME. He looks on me, alas ! without mercy ; a helm he wished heedfully welded ; he hinted well the way he would have it. I marked in mind what boundless might must be in the work, as I wove the brass ; so, hoped to save the helm for myself, and in its force from Alberich's fetter be free perhaps, yes perhaps, The Rhinegold. 49 outwit my unwearying header with fetters to rise and befall him the ring wrench from his finger so that, then, such as I find him, a master in me he might feel ! LOGE. What let thy wisdom limp by the way ? MIME. Ah, though the helm I had welded, the wonder, that in it hides, I read not aright how to hit ! Who bespoke the work, and spoiled it away, he led me to learn, when truly too late, what a trick lurked in the toy ; from my face he faded, and blows, that from nowhere known abounded, I bore. For such, my unthoughtful self I thank ! (With cries, he rubs his back. The gods laugh.) LOGE {to Wotan). To seize, not light at least he seems. WOTAN. But the foe, ere fail thy wits, must fall. MIME struck with the laughter of the gods examines them more carefully). Who are you that stir me so strongly for answers ? LOGE. Friends to thy kin ; 50 The Rhinegold. we come to free the Nibelungs forth from their need. (Alberich' s scolding and beating approach again.) MIME. Heed to yourselves ! He is at hand ! WOTAN. We wait for him here. (He seats himself quietly on a stone; Loge leans at his side. Alberich, who has taken the tarn- helm from his head and hung it in hisgirdie, with the swing of his whip drives before him a crowd of Nibelungs upwards front the lower hollow ; they are laden with go:d and silver treasure which, under Alberich' s continued abuse and blame, they store all in a pile and so heap to a hoard.) ALBERICH. To-wards ! Away ! Hihi! Hoho! Lazy lot, here aloft heighten the hoard ! Thou there ! On high ! Hinder not thus ! Harassing herd, down with it hither ! Am I to help you ? All of it here ! (fie suddenly sees Wotan and Loge) Hi ! Who beholds ? What walks this way ? Mime ! To me, rubbishing rogue ! Ply'st thou thy tongue with the trespassing pair ? Forth, thou failer ! Hence to thy forge and thy hammer ! (With strokes of his whip he drives Mime in among the crowd of the Nibelungs.) Hi ! to your work ! Wontedly hasten ! The Rhinegold. 51 Lighten below ! From the greedy places pluck me the gold ! The whip shall dint you, dig you not well ! If listlessly Mime lets you be minded, he hardly will shield from my hand his shoulders ; that I lurk like a neighbour when nobody looks, enough he lately has learned. Linger you still ? Loiter and stay ? (ffe draws his ring front his finger, kisses it, and stretches it threateningly out.) Shake in your harness, you shameful herd ; fitly fear the ruling ring ! With howling and crying, the Nibelungs, with Mime among them, disperse and slip, in all directions, dovm into the pits.) ALBERICH (fiercely approaching Wotan and Loge). What hunt you here ? WOTAN. From Nibelheim's hiding land we lately in news have heard of endless wonders worked under Alberich, and greed to behold them gained thee hither thy guests. ALBERICH. Your grudge you ran rather to glut ; such nimble guests I know well enough. 52 The Rhinegold. LOGE. Know me indeed, drivelling dwarf? What seems there, so to bark at, in sight ? When low in cowering cold thou lay'st, who fetched thee light and fostering fire, ere Loge laughed to thee first ? What for were thy hammer, had I not heated thy forge ? Kinsman I count thee, and friend I became, I think but faulty thy thanks ! ALBERICH. For light-elves now is Loge's laughter, and slippery love ; art thou fully their friend, as once my own thou wert ha ha ! behold ! I fear no further their hate ! LOGE. So me to hope in thou mean'st ! ALBERICH. In thy falsehood freely, not in thy faith ! But at ease face I you all. LOGE. Lofty mood has lent thee thy might ; great and grim thy strength has grown. ALBERICH. See'st thou the hoard The Rhinegold. 53 my sullen host set me on high ? LOGE. Such harvest I never have known. ALBERICH. A daylight's deed, of scanty deepness ; mighty measure must it end in hereafter. WOTAN. How helps thee now such a hoard in hapless Nibelheim, where nought for wealth can be won ? ALBERICH. Goods to gather and hide when together, helps me Nibelheim's night ; but from the hoard, in the hollow upheaped, unheard of wonders I wait for ; the world with all its wideness my own is for ever. WOTAN. To thy kindness how will it come ? ALBERICH. Though in listless breezes' breadth above me you live, laugh and love ; with golden fist you gods I will fall on together ! As love no more to me belongs, all that has breath must be without her ; though gold was your bane, for gold you blindly shall grapple. 54 The Rhinegold. On sorrowless heights in happy sway you hold yourselves ; and dark-elves you look in their deepnesses down on ; have heed ! Have heed ! When first you men have fall'n to my might, shall your frisking women who failed to be wooed, though dead is love to the dwarf, feed under force his delight. Hahahaha ! Hear you not how ? Have heed ! Have heed of the night and her host, when Niblungs heave up the hoard from depth and dark into day ! WOTAN (pehemently). The false, slandering fool ! ALBERICH. What says he ? LOGE (stepping between them). Thy senses see to ! (To Alberick.) Who of wonder is empty, that haps on Alberich's work ? If half thou would'st meet from the hoard should come as means it thy cunning, of all I must own thee most mighty ; for moon and stars and the sun in the middle would, like everything other, work but under thy will. But weighty holds it my wisdom, The Rhinegold. 55 that the hoard's upheavers the Nibelungs' host hold thee not in hate. Thou hast raised fiercely a ring, and fear rose on thy folk ; but say, in sleep a thief on thee slipped and reft slily the ring, in safety would ward thee thy wits ? ALBERICH. The longest of head is Loge ; others holds he always unhinged ; if he were but wanted to help my work for heavy thanks, how high were his thievish heart ! The safening helm I hit on myself, the heedfullest smith, Mime, had it to hammer ; ably to alter whither I aim, to be held for another, helps me the helm ; neighbours see me not when they search ; but everywhere am I, unsighted by all. So at my ease I settle at even thy side, my fond unslackening friend ! LOGE. Life I have looked on, much have been led to, but such a wonder not once I have seen. The helm to believe in hardly I hasten ; 5 6 The Rhinegold. if thou hast told me truly, for thy might is there no measure. ALBERICH. Deem'st thou I lie and drivel like Loge ? LOGE. Weight it with work, or, dwarf, I must doubt thy word. ALBERICH. The blockhead with wind of his wisdom will burst ; now grip thee thy grudge ! For say, in what kind of a shape shall I come to thy sight ? LOGE. The most to thy mind ; but dumb must make me the deed ! ALBERICH (has put on the hehtf). " Wheeling worm wind and be with him ! " (He immediately disappears ; in his pin ce an enormous snake is seen wind- ing on the ground ; it rears and stretches its open jaws towards Wot an and Loge.) LOGE (pretends to be seized with/ear). Oho! Oho! Snap not so fiercely, thou fearful snake ! Leave my life to me further ! WOTAN (laughs). Right, Alberich ! Right, thou rascal ! How deftly waxed the dwarf to the width of the worm ! The Rhinegold. 57 (The snake disappears, and in its place Alberich immediately is seen again in his real/ami) ALBERICH. How now ! you doubters, did I enough? LOGE. My fear is fully the witness. The clumsy worm becam'st thou at once ; since what I watched, thy word I take for the wonder. But works it likewise when to be little and light thou wantest ? A safer trick were such, in time of danger or dread ; only too deep after all ! ALBERICH. Too deep indeed it sounds for a dunce ! How slight shall I seem ? LOGE. That the closest cleft may befit thee, a toad can take to in fear. ALBERICH. Nought is lighter ! Look at me now ! (He puts the tarn-helm on again.) " Grizzly toad twist and grovel ! " (He disappears ; the gods perceive among the stones a toad creeping ftnvards them.) LOGE (to Wotan). Trap with fleetest fetter the toad ! Wotan puts his foot on the toad; Loge grasps at its head and seizes the tarn-helm in his hand.) 58 The Rhimgold. ALBERICH (becomes suddenly visible in his real shape as he writhes under Wotan'sfoot). Oho ! Be cursed ! Behold me corded ! LOGE. Tread him hard, till he is tied. (He has taken out a rope and -with it fastens A Iberich's arms and legs ; they both seize him as he writhes in his attempts to defend himself, find drag him with them towards the cleft by which they had descended.) LOGE. Now swiftly up ! So he is ours ! (They disappear upwards.) (The scene gradually changes back to the OPEN DISTRICT ON MOUNTAIN HEIGHTS, as in the second scene ; it is however still -veiled in a pale mist, as, before the second change, after Freia's disappearance. IVotan and Loge, dragging with them Alberich in his bonds, come up out of the cleft.) LOGE. Here, kinsman, come to thy halt ! Watch, beloved, and learn the world thou wilt bend to thy beggarly will ; bespeak the spot, where Loge his life may spend. ALBERICH. Rascally robber ! Thou wretch ! Thou rogue ! Loosen the rope, let me alone, or pay at the last for thy pastime. WOTAN. With fetters hast thou The Rhinegold. 59 fairly been haltered, since to the world, that wheels and slides, thou meantest thy will for master. In fear thou art tied at my feet, and feel'st the truth as I tell it ; thy wriggling limbs now loose with a ransom. ALBERICH. Fie ! the dunce, the fool for my dream ! To think of trust in the treacherous thieves ! Withering vengeance wipe out the whim ! LOGE. Ere vengeance befall us thou first must vaunt thyself free ; to a foe in fetters pay the free for no plunder. So for vengeance to find us, veer from thy fierceness and reach us a ransom in full ! ALBERICH (sharply). Unfold what fix you to have ? WOTAN. The hoard and thy glancing gold. ALBERICH. Wretched and ravening rogues ! (To himself.) Yet let me but hold the ring, the hoard without risk I can lose ; for again it shall gather and sweetly shall grow in the might of the mastering gold ; 2 6p The Rhinegold. and the trick were a way of turning me wise, no further than fittingly paid, if for it I part with the pile. WOTAN. The hoard shall we have ? ALBERICH. Loosen my hand and let it be here. (Loge unties his right hand.) ALBERICH (touches the ring with his lips and mutters the command). And now the Nibelungs hastily near ; my behest they bend to ; hark how they bring from the deepness the hoard into day. Now free me from press of the bonds ! WOTAN. No bit till first thou hast paid. ( The Nitelungs rise out of the cleft laden with the treasure of the hoard. ALBERICH. O withering wrong that the wary rascals should see me suffer such woe ! Settle it here ! Hark what I say ! Strait and high stow up the hoard ! Move it not lamely, and look not at me ! Downwards deep at once from the daylight ! Back to the work that waits in your burrows ! The Rhinegold. 61 Harm to him that is faint, for I fast shall follow you home ! (Thi Nibelungs, after they have piled up the hoard, slip eagerly down again into the cleft?) ALBERICH. The gold I leave you ; now let me go ; and the helm at least that Loge withholds, again you will give me for luck ? LOGE (throwing- the tarn-helm on the hoard). By rights it belongs to the ransom. ALBERICH. The cursed thief ! But comes a thought ! Who aided in one, he welds me another ; still hold I the might that Mime must heed. Yet ill it feels that eager foes should have such a harbouring fence. But lo ! Alberich all has left you ; so loose the bite of his bonds ! LOGE (to Wotan). Now is he needless, here in his knots ? WOTAN. A golden hoop behold on thy finger ; hear'st thou, dwarf? Without it the hoard is not whole. ALBERICH (horrified). The ring? 62 The Rhinegold. WOT AN. Along with the ransom's rest thou must leave it. ALBERICH. My life ere I lose the ring ! WOTAN. The ring I look for ; thou art welcome well to thy life ! ALBERICH. Rendered, with breath and body, the ring must be to the ransom ; hand and head, eye and ear, are my own no rather than here is this ruddy ring ! WOTAN. Thy own thou wilt reckon the ring ? Ravest thou openly of it ? Soundly here to me say whence thou hadst the gold for the glimmering hoop ? Ere thou torest it to thee under the water, was it thy own ? From the river's daughters rightfully draw whether the gold was so willingly given from which the ring thou hast wrenched. ALBERICH. Sputtering slander ! Slovenly spite ! Me to blot with the blame thy mind so much was set on itself! The Rhinegold. 63 How long wouldst thou have wished to leave them their wealth, hadst thou not held the wisdom to weld it too hard ? And well, thou feigner, fell it that once, when the Niblung here was gnawed to the heart at a nameless harm, on the harrowing wonder he happed, whose work now laughs to thy look ! By woe seized upon, searched and wildered, a deed of crowded curses I did and dreadly to-day shall the fruit of it deck thee, my curse to befriend thee be called ? Guard thyself more, masterful god ! Wrought I amiss, I wrecked but a right of mine ; but on all that will be, is and was, god, thou raisest a wrong, if got from my grasp is the ring ! WOTAN. Off with the ring ! No right to it takest thou out of thy tongue. (With, impetuous force he pulls the ring from Alberich's finger.) ALBERICH (with horrible shrieks). So ! Uprooted ! and wrecked ! Of wretches the wretchedest slave ! WOTAN (has put the ring on his finger and gazes on it with satisfaction). And lo what makes me at last of masters the mastering lord ! 64 The Rhinegold. LOGE. Leave has he got ? WOT AN. Let him go ! LOGE (unfastens Alberich's bands). Haste to thy home ! Not a link withholds thee ; fare freely below ! ALBERICH (raising himself frotn the ground, lOith raging laughter). So am I free ? Safely free ? Then fast and thickly my freedom's thanks shall flow ! As by curse I found it first, a curse rest on the ring ! Gave its gold to me measureless might, now deal its wonder death where it is worn ! No gladness grows where it has gone, and with luck in its look it no more shall laugh ; care to his heart who has it shall cleave, and who holds it not shall the need of it gnaw ! All shall gape for its endless gain ; but wield it shall none from now as wealth ; by its lord without thrift it shall lie, but shall light the thief to his throat ! To death under forfeit, faint in its dread he shall feel ; The Rhinegold. 65 though long he live day by day he shall die, and serve the ring that he seems to rule ; till again its gold I shall find and fill with rny finger ! Such blessing in blackest need the Nibelung has for his hoard ! Withhold it now, next to thy heart ; till my curse catches thee home ! (He disappears quickly into the cleft.) LOGE. So he leaves us and sends his love ! WOTAN (lost in contemplation of the ring). Losing his spittle in spite ! (The mist in the foreground gradually becomes clearer. LOGE (looking towards the righf). Fasolt and Fafner haste from afar ; Freia follows their heels. (From the other side come in Fricka, Donner, and Froh. FROH. So back they are brought. DONNER. Be welcome, brother. FRICKA (hurrving anxiously to Wotan). Sound will thy tidings sweetly ? LOGE (pointing to the hoard). Of trick and of force the fruit we took, and won what Freia wants. 66 The Rhinegold. DONNER. From the giants' hold joys she to hasten. FROH. With freshening breath filled is my face ; sweetness of sunlight into me sinks ! Our hearts were wistful as women's while here we waited for her, who only yields us the bliss of endlessly blossoming youth. (The foreground has again become bright ; the gods' appearance regains in the light its fanner freshness ; over the background, however, the mist still hangs, so that the distant castle remains invisible.) (Fasolt and Fafner approach, leading Freia between them.) FRICKA (rushes joyously towards her sister to embrace her). Loveliest sister, sweetest delight ! Bind me again to thy bosom ! FASOLT (forbidding her) Stay ! Let her alone ! Still she all is ours. At Riesenheim's towering rim rested we two ; in blameless plight the bargain's pledge we held for pay ; though grief it prove, again we give her, if whole and ready the ransom's here. WOTAN. At hand lies it ready ; in friendly mood may it fairly be measured ! The Rhinegold. 67 FASOLT. To leave the woman, lightly will lead me to woe ; so that she wane from my senses, must the hoard we take heighten its top, till from my gaze her flowering face it shall guard ! WOTAN. At Freia's height the heap shall be fixed. (Fafncr and Fasolt stick their stakes in front oj Freia into the ground, insuch manner that they include the same height and breadth as her figure.) FAFNER. The poles we have set to the pledge's size ; the hoard must hide her from sight. WOTAN. Hurry the work ; hateful I hold it ! LOGE. Help me, Froh ! FROH. Freia's harm haste I to finish. (Loge and Froh quickly heap the treasure bet-ween the stakes.) FAFNER. Not so light and loose it must look ; fast and firm let it be found ! With rude force he presses the treasure close together', he stoops down to search for spaces.) A gap I behold ; the holes are forgotten ! 68 The Rhinegold. LOGE. Withhold, thou lubber ! Lift not a hand ! FAFNER. But look ! A cleft to be closed ! WOTAN (fuming away in disgiist). Right to my heart hisses the wrong. FRICKA (yuith her eyes fixed on Freid). See how in shame she shyly and sweetly shrinks ; to be loosed she lifts wordless woe in her look. O harmful man ! So much at thy hand she has met ! FAFNER. Still more I miss ! DONNER. Beside myself makes me the wrath roused by the mannerless rogue ! Behold, thou hound ! Must thou measure, thy size thou shalt settle with me ! FAFNER. Softly, Donner ! Roll when thy sound will help thee sooner than here ! DONNER. With thy bark see if thou balk it ! WOTAN. Hold thy rage ! Already Freia is hid. The Rhinegold. 69 LOGE. The hoard is drained. FAFNER (measuring- with his eye). Still dazzles me Holda's hair ; more is at hand meet for the heap ! LOGE. Mean'st thou the helm ? FAFNER. Quickly let it come ! WOTAN. Keep it not longer ! LOGE (throws the helm on the heap). Enough it is heightened. Now are you happy ? FASOLT. Freia's no longer free to my look ; is she then loosed ? Am I to leave her? (He steps close up to the hoard and spies through it.) Woe ! yet gleams her glance to me well ; her eyelight's star streams without end ; here through a cleft it comes to me whole ! While with her look I am lighted, from the woman I will not loose. FAFNER. Hi ! what bring you its brightness to hinder ? The Rhinegold. LOGE. Hunger-holder ! Hast thou forgot that gone is the gold ? FAFNER. Not fully, friend ! From Wotan's finger glean the glimmering ring, and choke the chink in the ransom. WOTAN. What ! with the ring ? LOGE. Madly mean you ! To Rhine-maidens belongs its gold ; to their guard back he must give it. WOTAN. What blab'st thou about ? With work and wear I found it, and freely save it myself. LOGE. Ill then weighs it all for the word that I gave them over their grief. WOTAN. But thy word can bar not my right ; as booty wear I the ring. FAFNER. But here for ransom hast thou to reach it. WOTAN. Fleetly fix what you will ; The Rhinegold. 71 all shall await you ; but all the world not rend me out of the ring ! FASOLT. (with rage fulls Freia from behind the hoard). Then all is off, the time is up, and Freia forfeit for ever ! FREIA. Help me ! Hold me ! FRICKA. Stubborn god, stay not the gift ! FROH. Gone let the gold be ! DONNER. Hold not the hoop back ! WOTAN. Leave me at rest ! I loose not the ring. (Fa/ner still holds off the impetuous Fasolt ; all stand in perplexity ; Wotan in rage turns away from them. The stage has again become dark ; from the chasm at the side a bluish light breaks forth ; in it Wotan sud- denly perceives Erda, who, as far as her middle, rises out of the depth ; she is of noble appearance with wide-flowing black hair.) ERDA (stretching her hand wamingly towards Wotan). Yield it, Wotan, yield it 1 Keep not what is cursed ! Soon is sent darkly and downwards he who saves the hoop. WOTAN. What warning woman is here ? 72 The Rhinegold. ERDA. How all has been, count I ; how all becomes, and is hereafter, tell I too ; the endless world's ere-Wala, Erda, bids thee bethink. Thrice of daughters, ere-begotten, my womb was eased, and so my knowledge sing to thee Norns in the night-time. But dread of thy harm draws me in haste hither to-day ; hearken ! hearken ! hearken ! Nothing that is ends not ; a day of gloom dawns for the gods ; be ruled and wince from the ring ! She sinks slowly up to the breast, while the bluish light begins to darken. WOTAN. With hiding weight is holy thy word ; wait till I more have mastered ! ERDA (as she disappears). I warned thee now thou know'st enough ; brood, and the rest forebode ! (She disappears completely^) WOTAN. Fear must sicken and fret me ? Not if I seize thee, and search to thy knowledge. (ffe attempts to follow Erda into the cleft to hold her ; Donner, Froh, and Fricka throw themselves before him and prevent him.) The Rhinegold. 73 FRICKA. What mischief maddens thee ? FROH. Beware, Wotan ! Hallow the Wala, hark to her word ! DONNER (to the giants). Heed, you giants ! Withhold your hurry ; the gold have, that you gape for. FREIA. How shall I hope it ? Was then Holda rightly her ransom's worth ? (All look with anxiety at Wotan ) WOTAN (it'as sunk in deep thought and now collects himself with force to a decision). To me, Freia ! I make thee free ; yield us again the youth that thy going had reft ! You giants, joy of your ring ! (ffe throws the ring' on the hoard.) (The giants let Freia, go ', ske hastens joyfully towards the gods, who for some time caress her by turns in greatest delight.) (Fafner spreads out an immense sack and attacks the hoard topack it in it.) FASOLT (throwing himself in his brother's way). Softly, hungerer ! Some of it hither ! Both for a wholesome half were the better. FAFNER. More to the maid than the gold hadst thou not given thy heart ? 74 The Rhinegold. With toil I brought thy taste to the bargain. Would'st thou have wooed but half of Freia at once ? Halve I the hoard, rightly I hold the roundest sack for myself. FASOLT. Slandering rogue ! Rail at me so ? (To the gods.) Try the matter between us ; halve for us meetly here the hoard ! (Wotan turns contemptuously away.) LOGE. The rest leave to Fafner ; light with thy fist on the ring ! FASOLT (falls upon Fafner, who meanwhile has been vigorously packing his sack). Withhold, thou meddler ! Mine is the hoop ; I got it for Freia's glance. (He grasps sharply at the ring.) FAFNER. Forth with thy fist ! My right is first ! (They struggle ; Fasolt wrenches the ring from Fafner. .) FASOLT. Mine wholly have I made it ! FAFNER. Hold it fast ! Might it not fall ? (He strikes madly at Fasolt with his stake, and stretches him, with a blow on the ground; as he dies he snatches the ring from him.) The. Rhinegold. 75 Now freely at Freia blink ; with the ring at rest I shall be ! He puts the ring in the sack, and then leisurely packs the whole hoard. All the gods stand Iwrrified. Long solemn silence) WOTAN. Fiercely comes before me the curse's force ! LOGE. Thy luck, Wotan, will not be likened ! Much was reaped when thou met'st with the ring : but its good is still greater since it is gone, for their fellows, see, slaughter thy foes for the gold that thou forego'st. WOTAN (deeply moved). Still misgivings unstring me ! A threatening fear fetters my thought ; how to end it Erda shall help me ; to her down I must haste ! FRICKA (pressing caressingly to hint). What weighs on Wotan? Sweetly await the soaring walls to draw with welcome wide and warmly their doors. WOTAN. I bought with blameful pay the abode ! F 2 7 6 The Rhinegold. DONNER (pointing to the background, which is still veiled in misf). Harassing warmth hangs in the wind ; ill for breath is the burdened air ; its lowering weight shall lighten with scattering weather, to sweep the sky for me sweet. He has mounted a high rock in the slope of the -valley, and begins to swing his hammer.) Heyda ! Heyda ! To me with you, mists ! In crowd at my call ! Hark how your lord hails for his host ! At the hammer's swing sweep to me here ! Heyda ! Heyda ! Deepen the dark ! Donner hails for his host ! {The clouds have drawn themselves round him together ; he disappears entirely in a mass of storm-cloud that gradually becomes denser and darker. Then the blow of his hammer is heard falling heavily on the rock ; strong lightning leaps from the cloud; a violent thunder-clap follows.) Brother, to me ! Mark out its way for the bridge ! (Frohhas disappeared with him in thecloud. Suddenly it draws asunder ; Donner and Froh become visible ; from their feet, in blinding brightness, a rainbow bridge stretches over the valley to the castle, that now, lighted by the evening sun, shines in clearest splendour.) (Fafner, near his brother's corpse, having at last packed the whole hoard into the great sack, has, during Donner s storm-spell, put it on hi* back and left the stage.) FROH. Though built lightly looks it, fast and fit is the bridge ; it helps your feet without fear to the hall ! The Rhinegold. 77 WOTAN. Evening eyelight aims the sun ; its sinking stream strikes widely the walls ; when they led the morning's look into laughter, lone and masterless, lost and luring they lay. From morning to evening, with easeless mind and might worked I to win them ! The night is near ; her hatred now ward from my head the walls ! So hail to the hall! Shelter from shame and harm ! (To Fricka.) Follow me, wife ! To Walhall find we the way ! (He takes her hand.) FRICKA. What sense is inside it ? The name till now was unsounded. WOTAN. What, in might over fear, my manfulness found, shall matchlessly live and lead the meaning to light ! \Votan and Fricka ivalk towards the bridge ; Froh and Freia follow next, then Donner.) LOGE (lingering in ttie foreground and looking after the gods] . To their end they fleetly are led, who believe themselves founded for ever. Almost I shame to mix in their matters ; 78 The Rhinegold. in flustering fire afresh to be loosened a lurking fondness I feel. To swallow the teachers who settled me tame, rather than blindly blend in their wreck, though godliest gods I may think them, no fool's thought were it found ! I'll deem about it ; who bodes what I do ? (He proceeds leisurely to join the gods. Out of the depth is heard the song of the Rhine-daughters, sounding upwards.) THE THREE RHINE-DAUGHTERS. Rhinegold ! Guiltless gold ! How bright and unbarred was to us once thy beam ! We mourn thy loss that lone has made us ! Give us the gold, O bring us the gleam of it back ! WOTAN ( just about to set his foot on the bridge, stops and turns round'}. Whose sorrow reaches me so ? LOGE. The river-maidens', who grieve for their missing gold. WOTAN. The cursed Nodders ! Keep me clear of their noise ! LOGE (calling down into the valley). You in the water, why yearn you and weep ? Hear from Wotan a hope The Rhinegold. 79 " Gleams no more " the gold to the maids, " may the gods, with strengthened glory, "sun them sweetly instead !" ( The gods laugh aloud and step on to the bridge.) THE RHINE-DAUGHTERS (from the depth). Rhinegold ! Guiltless gold ! O would that thy light in the wave had been left alive ! Trustful and true is what dwells in the depth ; faint and false of heart what is happy on high (As ail the ?od; are crossing the bridge to the castle, the curtain falls.) FIRST DAY. THE WALKYRIE. PERSONS. SlEGMUND. HUNDING. WOTAN. SlEGLINDE. BRUNNHILDF. FRICKA. Eight Walkyries. THE WALKYRIE. FIRST ACT. The inside of a dwelling-place. (In the middle stands the stem of a mighty ash, whose roots in strong relief straggle far over the ground ; the top of the tree is shut out by a wooden roof pierced in suck a manner that the stem and the branches, which stretch in ei>ery direction, pass through corresponding openings ; it is assumed that the foliage of the top spreads itself out above this roof. Built round the ash-stem as centre is a wooden room ; the walls are of rough-hewn woodwork hung here and there 'with woven curtains. To the right in the foreground stands the hearth, the chimney of which goes sideways out through the rorf; behind the hearth is an inner room like a store-house to which a few wooden steps lead up ; before it hangs a woven curtain half drawn back. In the background an entrance-door with smooth wooden bolt. To the left the door of an inner chamber, lo which also steps lead up ; further forward on the same side a table, with a broail wooden seat behind it attached to the wall, and with wooden footstools in front of it.) (A short orchestral 'prelude of impetuous stormy movement introduces the action. As the curtain rises, Siegmund hurriedly opens the entrance-door from without and conies in; it is towards evening', a strong storm just about to end. Sicgmund holds for a moment the bolt in his hand and sunieys the room ; he appears spent with extreme exertion ; his clothes and looks show that he is inflight. As he sees no one he shuts the door behind him, walks to the hearth and throws himself exhausted on a covering oj bearskin!) SlEGMUND. Whose hearth here may be, ^jU-e-v- help it must bring me. ^^, 7****^-$ *^*~n- 1, (He sinks back and remains for some time sti etched out without move- ment. Sieglinde enters from the door of the inner chamber. From the noise she had heard she supposed it was her husband returned home; her look expresses earnest surprise at seeing a stranger stretched out at the hearth.) SIEGLINDE (still in the background). An unknown man ! Me he must answer. ' Xy c*ct- A. (She goes softly a few steps nearer.) 86 The Walkyrie. Who haunts the house and lies at the hearth ? (As Siegmund does not move she foes still a little nearer and looks at him.) Weary looks he with length of way ; seized him a sickness ? Lost is his sense ? (She lends closer to hint.) He breathes with his bosom ; his lids he but lowered ; meet and manful he seems, in his sunken might. SIEGMUND (suddenly raising his head). A well ! a well ! SlEGLINDE. I go for water. (She hurriedly takes a drinking horn, goes out of the house, comes back with it filled and hands it to Siegmund.') Drink, to ease it, I offer thy dryness ; water what thou hast wished ! (Siegtnund drinks and hands the horn back to her. After he has made signs of thanks with his head, his look remains fixed with growing sympathy on her features.) SIEGMUND. Fast with its coolness tt-p{t. a#.. filled me the cup, >Cc^&v /Lw a lifted weight lightens my limbs, my mood is a man's, my eye is wide with wonted sweetness of sight ; who wakes and welcomes me so ? SlEGLINDE. The woman and house are wealth of Hunding ; The Walkyrie. 87 let him lend thee his roof; halt till he reaches home ! SIEGMUND. Weaponless am I ; the wounded guest he will grieve not to harbour. <*# tfy Lu^m^ SlEGLINDE (anxiously). But where are hidden thy SIEGMUND (shakes himself and springs vigorously up into a sitting posture). Too light weigh they to lead to a word ; my limbs in their sockets safely are left. If but half as well as my hands shield and weapon had helped me, flight from foes I had shunned ; but in shivers they falsely fell. The foe with his hatred followed me hard, a burning storm stifled my breath ; but faster than I could fly them, wanes my faintness away ; lost is the night from my look, and sunlight sent me anew. SlEGLINDE (has filled a horn with mead and hands it to him). The freshening might of flowery mead seek not to leave unsipped. SIEGMUND. First if it feel thy lips ! (Sieglinde sips the horn and offers it to him again ; Siegmund takes a long draught ; he then takes the horn quickly from his lips and gives it back. They look at each otherforsome time in silence and with increasing interest. ) 88 The Walkyrie. SlEGMUND (with trembling voice). With thy help met'st thou a hapless man ; far may woe from thy way be found ! (He starts quickly up to depart.} Aroused and rested and sweetly saved, forth from sight I will fare. SlEGLINDE (turning quickly round). Who besets thee to flee so soon ? SlEGMUND (stayed by her voice turns again ; slowly and gloomily). Ill-luck I always after me lead ; ill-luck is swiftly lured where I settle ; but aloof from thy side it shall light ! Forth lift I look and foot. (He goes quickly to the door and lifts the bar.) SlEGLINDE (calling after him with, impetuous self-forgetfulness). Here stay behind ! No sorrow hast thou for her, whose house is her sorrow's seat ! SlEGMUND (deeply moved remains standing and searches Sieglinde's face; she at length, ashamed and sad, casts down her eyes. Long silence. Siegmund turns back and sits down leaning against the hearth). Wehwalt I said that I was; Hunding here I will wait for. (Sieglinde remains in troubled silence ; then starts, listens and hears Hunding lead his horse to the stable outside ; she goes hastily to the door and opens it.) The Walkyrie. 89 (Hunding, armed ivith shield and spear, appears and remains standing in the doorway when he sees Siegmund.) SlEGLINDE (in reply to Handing's seriously inquiring look). Faint at the hearth I found him here ; harm followed him fast. HUNDING. Thou fresh'ned'st him ? SlEGLINDE. His mouth I moistened him, gladly made him guest. SIEGMUND (steadily and quietly observing Hunding). House and drink I had from her ; blame shall it help to bring her ? HUNDING. Holy is my hearth ; holy find thou my house ! (To Sieglinde, as he puts off his -weapons and hands them to her.) Haste the meal for us men ! (Sieglinde hangs up the weapons on the ash-stem, takes food and drink out of the store-room and sets supper on the table.) HUNDING. {examines sharply and with surprise Siegmund's features, which he com- pares with his wife's ; to himself). How like to the woman ! The lurking worm looms like hers in his look. (He conceals his surprise, and turns without restraint to Siegmund.) Long thy way looks to have wound ; no horse he rode, who rested here ; what muddy pathways made thee thy pain ? c; 90 The Walkyrie. SlEGMUND. Through field and forest, heather and hedge, hunted me storm and strongest need ; I know not the way that I went ; where I have lighted learned I of none ; gladly I'd gather the news. HUNDING (at the table, and offering Sieginund a seat). Whose house thou hast, whose roof's thy rest, Hunding reckon the host : well to the westward from here away, in crowded halls harbour the kindred, who foster the fame of Hunding. Make me glad of my guest ; let me greet him now by his name ! (Siegmund, who has seated himself at the table, fixeshis eyes in thought. Sieglinde has seated herself by Hunding, opposite Siegmund, and fastens her leak on the latter -with strange sympathy and expectation.} HUNDING (^watching them both). May not the truth be trusted with me, my wife shall take thy tidings ; see how she waits for their sound ! SIEGLINDE (with unembarrassed sympathy). Guest, of thy name I gladly would know. SIEGMUND (raises his eyes, looks in her face, and begins earnestly). Friedmund I cannot be called ; Frohwalt would that I were ; but to Wehwalt only I answer. The Walkyne. 91 Wolfe my father was ; at once into the world awoke a sister and I ; soon missed I both mother and maid ; who brought me forth and who fellowed my birth ; barely I knew them by name. Warlike and strong was \Volfe ; his foes unstinted and fierce. Once forth to hunt my father I followed ; from hurry and heat when homeward he led, left we beheld the lair ; to dust was burnt the lordly abode, to a stump the oak's unwithering stem, before us the mother manfully fall'n, . and smothered in cinders the sister's trace ; the Neidings' treacherous band had dealt us the deadly blow. Beset we fled the father and son ; years now lurked the life of the youngling with Wolfe in wild and wood ; hunt and snare were set for their heels ; but well we warded them wolf and whelp. ( Turning to Handing.) A Wolfing tells thee the tale, who as " Wolfing " follows his fame. HUNDING. Wonder and startling story, stranger, thy words unwind ; G 2 92 The Walkyrie. Wehwalt the Wolfing ! In tidings of wildness and war their names ere now were told me, though never I Wolfe and Wolfing knew. SIEGLINDE. But further, guest, unfold where to-day thy father dwells. SIEGMUND. The Neidings fiercelier now held us in hunt than before ; the wolf was hard with wounds on his hunters, in flight from their game fast they were gone ; they sped before us like spray. But my father amid them I missed, and his track was fainter the further I trod ; a fallen wolfskin far in the wood I found under my feet ; my father I met no more. When the wood wanted his face, it forced me to men and to women ;- wherever I fared, whomever I found, wished I for friend, or strove for wife, still was my wooing unwanted ; ill-luck on me lay. The rule I counted right others cried to be wrong ; the deed I deemed was false others found to be fair, and war was with me over the world ; The Walkyrie. 93 rage rose on every road ; grasped I at gladness, woe was my gain ; so to call myself Wehwalt came I, for only woe was my own. HUNDING. To have let thee know such luck, must love thee not the Norn ; with gladness hails thee no host to whom thou go'st as guest. SlEGLINDE. None but cowards mind a man unweaponed and lone to meet ! Yet further, guest, why it befell at last thy weapons were lost ? SIEGMUND (with hicreasing animation). A hapless child hailed me for help ; her kin were minded to couple by might, to a man that she loved not, the maid ; heed to her grief I hastily gave ; with scars and blood scattered the band ; the field I bared of foes ; undone and dead were the brothers ; the woman bewailed on their breasts ; her wrath was wrecked in her woe ; with tide too full to quench befell the quarry her tears ; for their death, that herself she had dealt in, sorrowed the brotherless bride. But a storm of kindred came as I stood, 94 The Walkyrie. vengeance swore and vowed they would slaughter me round us the forest flamed with their faces ; still from the men stirred not the maid ; with sword and spear her safety I served, till hilt and shaft were hewn from my hand. Wounded and shelterless was I saw them murder the maid ; I fled from the rage of the foe on the slaughter she rested slain. (With a look of painful fire at Sieglinde) Now, asking woman, thou know'st why is not Friedmund my name ! (He gets ul> and walks to the hearth. Sieglinde, deeply moved, turns pale and look* down) HUNDING (very sullenly). I've heard of a bridleless breed, not holy it holds what others hail ; by men it is hated and me. To help a vengeance I hasted ; blood of my kindred from earth had called ; too late I came, and hardly am back when in house and hall I tread on track of the flying foe. My doors ward thee, Wolfing, today; till the dawn shelter they show ; a flawless sword will befit thee at sunrise ; by day be ready for fight, and pay thy debt for the dead. Ti^ Sieglinde, who, with anxious gesture, f>lacesherself between the two men. The Walkyrie. 95 Hence from the hall ! Loiter not here ! The night-drink brew within, and bide for me to bed. (Sieglinde takes thoughtfully a drinking horn from the table, goes to a cupboard from which she takes spices, and turns towards the side-chamber; having reached the highest step by the door she turns once more and aims at Siegmund who ivithsitppressed rage stands quietly by the hearth and sees nothing but her a long longing look with which, at last, she directs him meaningly and urgently to a spot in the ash-stem. Hunding, u-no notices her delay, drives her forth with a commanding gesture, whereupon, with the drink- horn and the lantern, she disappears through the doorway.) HUNDING (takes his weapons from the tree), With weapons ward themselves men. I meet thee, Wolfing, to-morrow ; thou heard'st what I said see to thyself! (He goes with his weapons into the chamber.) SIEGMUND (alone it has now become quite night; the room is only lighted by a laintfire in the hearth Siegmund sits down on the couch near the fire and broods for some time in troubled silence). A sword, so swore me my father, should be near me in furthest need. Weaponless finds me a house of foes ; here to their hate in pledge I am held ; I saw a woman lordly and sweet, and gladness sets its dread in my soul ; to her here my pulses pour, with the sway of sweetness she pulls a husband holds her in might, who mocks my weaponless hand. Walse ! Walse ! Where is thy sword ? 96 The Walkyrie. The steadfast sword, that in storm I would swing ! Breaks there not out of my breast the rage that at heart I bear ? (The fire falls together ; front the sparks, as they spring up, a sharp light falls on the spot in the ash-stem which Sieglinde's look had pointed out, and where now more plainly is seen the hilt efa sword?) What firmly gleams in the fitful glow ? How the blaze starts from the ash's stem ! The steady lightning strengthens its stare, stays and laughs like a look. How the lordly light my heart has lit ! Is it a flash that her flowering face can have left here behind her at last, when from the hall she went ? (The fire on the hearth begins gradually to go out.) Settled shadow shrouded my sight ; when the might of her look lighted on me, morning and warmth it awoke. High and happy the sun I beheld ; he filled with the light of his laughter my face, till far he hid in the hills. Again, ere all was gone, he aimed an evening gleam for the ash's fading stem to answer in stately fire ; now falls the flower the light allays night in shade has shut me anew ; The Walkyrie. 97 deep in my bosom's darkness hides an unbrightening heat ! ( The fire has quite gone out ; complete night. The side-chamber is lightly opened ; Sieglinde, in a white garment, comes out and goes towards Sieginund.~) SIEGLINDE. Sleep'st thou, guest ? SlEGMUND. (leaping up with sudden joy). Who seeks me so ? SIEGLINDE (with mysterious haste). It is I ; behold what I say ! In heedless sleep is Hunding ; I set him a drink for his dreams. The night for thy safety thou need'st ! SlEGMUND (fierily interrupting her). Safe makes me thy side ! SIEGLINDE. To a weapon let me lead thee O were thy lot to win it, the highest hero lo I might hail thee, the man with the hand meant for its hilt. O take with heed what I tell thee ! By Hunding's kin was crowded the hall, to help at the wine of his wedding ; the woman he married, against her will wretches had given to wife. Drearly I sat aside from the drinkers ; a stranger strode to the board 98 The Walkyrie. in a cloak of blue he was clad, so wide was his hat, that one of his eyes was hidden ; from its fellow's flash dreadly they faltered, when fell in their midst its unflinching might ; in me alone met was its light with sweet wildering woe, sorrow and salve at once. He gazed at me, and glared on the men, as he heaved a sword in his hands, and aimed it straight at the ash's stem, to the hilt hurried it in ; he only should have the weapon, who hauled it from out the wood. Though most they made of their might in the work, not a man the weapon could move ;- guests have gathered and guests have gone, the strongest grasped at the steel not an inch they started it out ; here still is settled the sword. So guessed I who was he that here had greeted my grief; I know as well for none but one he stuck the sword in the stem. O found I but now and near me his face, fared he this way to the friendless woman, the woe I have measured with merciless moans, the bonds that in shame and shade I have borne, The Walkyrie. 99 sweetening vengeance swiftly would swallow ! At last lit on were all I have lost, at once would be won all I have wept for found I the holy friend and felt him here at my heart ! SIEGMUND (embraces her ivithfire). So free from thy sorrow makes thee the friend for weapon and woman meant ! Up from my breast blazes the oath that weds me all to thy worth. Whatever I hoped for, in thee I behold ; whatever failed me, in thee I have found ! Wounded thee wrong and wasted me woe have I been hunted with shame hast thou housed hastening vengeance hails to me hither ! Loud I laugh to greet its delight, holding thee guarded and holy, bearing the blow of thy heart ! SIEGLINDE (starts in alarm and tears herself from hint). Ha ! who went ? who was it came ? ( The large door in the background has sprung back and remains wide open ; outside a splendid Spring night ; the full-moon shines in and flings its light on them both, so that they suddenly and plainly see each other.) SIEGMUND (in gentle ecstasy). No-one went but one has come ; ioo The Walkyrie. look how the Spring laughs in the hall ! (Witt soft viaUxce ke drams her to himself