Part 3 (1/2)
”Yes, now, as long as love need not be renounced, it will be easy to obtain it,” says sie
”Then do you tell us, how?” Wotan's fine leefully replies, ”By theft! What a thief stole, you steal fro be easier? Only, Alberich is on his guard, you will have to proceed craftily if you would overreach the robber in order to return their treasure to the Rhine-daughters, who earnestly entreat you”
”The Rhine-daughters?” chafes Wotan ”What do you trouble me with them?”
And the Goddess of Wisdom,--more sympathetic on the whole in this exhibition of weakness than in her hard justice later--exposing the core of her fe whatever of that watery brood Many a reatly to , with pro and have taken counsel together
Fafner now approaches Wotan ”Hear, Wotan Keep Freia We have fixed upon a lesser reward We will take in her stead the Nibelung's gold”
Wotan co his temper ”What I do not own, I shall bestow upon you shameless louts?”
Fafner expresses a perfect confidence in Wotan's equipo to this trouble?” rails the irritated God, ”For you I shall circumvent this eneratitude has made you clowns!”
Fasolt who has only half-heartedly accepted his brother's decision in favor of the gold, stays to hear no arded as a hostage till evening, but that if when they return the Rhinegold is not on the spot as her ransoiants hurry her off
Her cry for help rings back Her brothers, in the act of rushi+ng to the rescue, look at Wotan for his sanction No encourageathered from his face He stands motionless, steeped in perplexity, in conflict with hie has now a fewhis superiors He stands, with his fresh, ingenuous air, on a point overlooking the valley, and describes the giants' progress, as does theon the back of the rough ones as they wade through the Rhine” Her dejected kindred wince
The heavy footsteps die away Loge returning his attention to the Gods, voices his aht which meets him: ”Am I deceived by a mist? Am I misled by a drealow is dead in your cheeks, the lightening quenched in your glances Froh, it is still earlyyour hareyness of age creeping over Wotan?” Sounds of woe burst froround still stands absorbed in gloo
The solution of the puzzle suddenly, as he feigns, flashes upon Loge: This is the result of Freia's leaving the tasted her apples Now, of necessity, those golden apples of youth in her garden, which she alone could cultivate, will decay and drop ”Myself,” he says, ”I shall be less inconvenienced than you, because she was ever grudging to ood lineage as you, Resplendent Ones On the other hand, you depended wholly upon the rejuvenating apples; the giants knew that and are plainly practising against your lives Now bethink yourselves how to provide against this
Without the apples, old and grey, a mock to the whole world, the dynasty of the Gods must perish!+”
With sudden resolution, Wotan starts froe!
Doith old!”
”The Rhine-daughters, then,” speaks wicked Loge, ”ranted?”
Wotan harshly silences hiood, Freia e drops the subject and offers his services as guide ”Shall we descend through the Rhine?”
The Rhine, with its infesting nyh the Rhine!” says Wotan
”Then through the sulphur-cleft slip doith h which Wotan, after bidding his fa, follows
Thick vapour pours forth fro out the scene We are travelling doard into the earth
A dull red glow gradually tinges the vapour Sounds of diminutive hammers upon anvils becoestion and turns it into a si silent in this scene--which co s off on every side into rough shafts, is at last clearly visible, lighted by the ruddy reflection of forge-fires
This is where Alberich reigns and by the power of the ring co love has not been good for the disposition of Alberich It is not only the insatiable lust of gold and power now darkening the soul-face of the earlier fairly gentle-natured Nibelung, it is a savage gloating cruelty, bespeaking one unnaturally loveless; it is a sanguinary hatred, too, of all who still can love, of love itself, a thirst and determination to see it completely done aith in the world, exterainst the Holy Ghost