Part 8 (2/2)
This suddenly snaps--terrific omen! Appalled, with the cry that ”eternal wisdom is at an end,” they vanish in search of their mother, Erda, in the earth's depths
Day breaks The reflection of Loge's defence pales There greets our ear suddenly a sturdy strain, rese we have heard before By analysis, we discover in it one of the Siegfried-hty, so fir, that it hardlyforth hopefully to find a ”dear co been found Hard upon this fried comes a wholly new motif, thetenderness, yet the elevation it coiven over and over; the instruments pass it from one to the other, like a ord
The two thus announced cofried full-arlorious in this scene of parting A nobler passion we do not re expressed than ani It is all a little more than life-size
”To new exploits, beloved hero, how poor were le care restrains me, fear of the insufficiency of all I could bestow What I learned froiven you, a rich treasury of holy runes, but the th the hero took froh filled with desire to serve; rich in love, but devoid of power, oh, despise not the poor lover who can only wish you, not give you, hter, not the rich treasury of runes, have availed to change Siegfried fro incurable siive ry that your teaching should have left e there is which I, none the less, hold fast: that Brunnhilde lives and is mine; one lesson I learned with ease: to think ever of Brunnhilde!”
The gift she asks of his love is that he shall think of hilory He bestows on her in leaving the Ring, in which the virtue is condensed of all great deeds he ever did In exchange she gives hireat mood, the consolation that to part is for theoes she, and where she remains there does he too abide, they call upon the Gods to feed their eyes upon the dedicated pair they are, and with jubilant appellations for each other--Victorious light!
Effulgent star! Radiant love! Radiant life!--the last good words ever exchanged between the She watches hie-directions say: ”From her happy s hero” The emphatic phrase is heard, as he descends into the valley, in which at their first fried”) they vowed that each was to the other ”eternally and for ever, his inheritance and his possession, his only and his all!” The curtain closes on the Prologue
By the fried on his journey We knohen he comes to the fire, when he comes to the Rhine There floats to us, with the effect of a folk-song, a legend, the laold Sounds of warning are in the air as Siegfried approaches the Hall of the Gibi+chungen, but to such the hardy hero, no need to say, is fast sealed
The curtain unclosing shows the interior of the Hall of the Gibi+chungen, open at the further end on the Rhine Gunther, his sister Gutrune, and their half-brother Hagen, sit at a table set with drinking-horns and flagons
This Hagen is the Nibelung's son of Erda's prophecy: ”When the dark eneet a son, the end of the Gods shall not be long delayed” An allusion of Hagen's there is to hissuccumbed to the craft of Alberich On the other hand, a reference of Gunther's to Frau Grien's, would seem to show that her history, whatever it may have been, bore no outward blot
He is early old, this ”child of hate,” as Wotan long ago called hilad He is the tool created by Alberich--even as Sieg Fro father he has e In the conversation which we overhear between the brethren, itness Hagen laying lines for the recapture of the Ring and Siegfried's destruction, for he, like Mime, understands that there can be no safety for hi, while the strong-handed fellow lives
Gunther--whose motif betrays him, with its little effect of shallow self-satisfaction, like a jaunty toss of the head,--Gunther asks Hagen, is he not lory of Gibi+ch? ”It is en evasively, ”to envy you” ”Nay, for me it is to envy you, and not you me,” Gunther in his pleasant huht of the first-born, but wisdoood counsel when I inquire of en, ”for indifferent is as yet the fa has not yet won” Gunther's inquiry he satisfies: ”In suour I behold the stem of Gibi+ch: you, Gunther, without wife,--you, Gutrune, still unwed” Gunther and Gutrune, struck, are silent a moment Then Gunther inquires wholory of the House? ”I knooh rock is her throne; a fire surrounds her abode; only he who shall break through the fire may proffer his suit for Brunnhilde” Gunther's enuously confessed in his question: ”Is e sufficient for the test?” ”The achieveer even than you” ”Who is this unparalleled charown in the forest to th, is the man I wish Gutrune for her lord”
Gutrune's motif, sweet and shallow, like Gunther's betrays her; an innocent admission of mediocrity, too, is in her exclaen! How should I be able to attach Siegfried to me?” She is unsure of her fee As he finds nothing repugnant in the proposition to win his bride through another, so she accepts to win her love through aare the only plain hu, and certainly they produce the effect of raed ones Acquiescently Gutrune hears Hagen's suggestion: ”Remember the drink in the cupboard; trust me who provided it By means of it, the hero whofried now to enter, were he to taste the spiced drink, that he ever saoman before you, that ever a woet!” Thus they have it planned: Siegfried shall by a love-potion be won to Gutrune, and, as a task by which to obtain her from her brother, shall be deputed to fetch Brunnhilde for hien is alone, of the three, to know of the tie existing between Siegfried and Brunnhilde But, ”How shall we find hiht-heartedly about the world in search of adventures, it can hardly be, Hagen judges, but that he shall come too to Gibi+ch's shore on the Rhine Even while he is speaking, Siegfried's horn is heard in the distance
Hagen fro: ”In a boat, a hero and a horse: he it is, sothe horn By an easy stroke, as if with an idle hand, he drives the craft against the stream” (We hear that easy stroke of the idle hand,--the power and gaiety of Siegfried are in it; it has a faourous a hand at the swinging of the scull he alone can boast who slew the dragon It is Siegfried, surely no other!” Hagen -tube of his hands: ”Hoiho!
Whither, blitheso son of Gibi+ch!” comes answer frofried, beloved hero!” The hero lands As he stands at the entrance, holding Grane by the bridle, with the unconstraint of ancienttake one another's fried's faon, the possessor of the Hort, and coen ”Which is the son of Gibi+ch?” he inquires Gunther presents hifried says; and, with the fresh directness again of ancient ht withcoance which pertains to Siegfried's calth and siaze from him since his entrance, withdraws--to prepare the drink
As Hagen takes his horse to stable, Siegfried charges hiood care of Grane for me Never did you hold by the bridle a horse of nobler breed!”
Magnificent is Gunther in expressions of welcouest: ”Joyfully hail, O hero, the Hall of ard as your own Yours is my inheritance, yours are my land and my people To these add fried replies: ”I offer neither land nor people; no father's mansion nor court My sole inheritance ishave I but a sword, forged by en, overhearing, ventures; ”Yet report calls you possessor of the Nibelungen-Hort” And Siegfried; ”I had alotten the treasure, so do I prize its idle wealth! I left it lying in a cave where it once was guarded by a dragon” (The reason is clear why the curse ht this free nature, unenfeebled by covetousness as by fear!) ”And you brought away no part of it?” ”This nises the Tarnhelm and explains its virtues
”And you took fro” ”You have it no doubt in safe keeping?” ”It is in the keeping of a gracious wo, tremulous, as different as is well possible fro-horn
”Welcohter offers you drink!”
Siegfried holds the cup before hi afar The words co An infinite tenderness invades hihtI shall still hold fast My first draught, to faithful love, Brunnhilde, I drink to you!” With which secret toast to the absent beloved he sets the horn to his lips and drains it--to the etfulness, closely rese the Tarnhelm-motif, but sweeter,--cruel as a treacherous caress
This whole passage, surpassingly exquisite to the ear, is painful to the heart as hardly another in the opera, fertile as this is in tragic mofried's eyes, as he returns the cup to Gibi+ch's daughter, rest upon her, it is, as Hagen had foretold, as if he had never before beheld a woht of Brunnhilde asleep, now makes his voice falter with instantaneous passion as he exclai, wherefore do you drop your eyes before me?” And when shyly she looks up: ”Ha, fairest wolance!
Its beam scorches the heart within my breast--Gunther, what is your sister's naood runes_ which I read in her eye?” Impetuously he seizes her hand; ”I offered hty one repelled ance toward me, if I offer myself as your ally?” She cannot answer, for the confusion of joy which overwhelh honour, with unsteady step she leaves the rooeringly after her, fast-bewitched So his next words: ”Have you, Gunther, a wife?” ”Not yet have I courted, and hardly shall I rejoice in a wife! I have set my heart upon one whom no well-advised endeavour can win for fried's brisk assurance, ”if I stand by you?” ”Upon a high rock is her throne, a fire surrounds her abode,” Gunther in hopeless tone describes the forbidding circuh rock is her throne, a fire surrounds her abode,” Siegfried rapidly says the words after hiely well ”Only he who breaks through the fire” ”Only he who breaks through the fire,” Siegfried is visiblya tre so curiously fae evoked ”May be Brunnhilde's suitor” By this, the cup of forgetfulness has co, the effort itself to rehs Gunther, ”to climb the rock; the fire will not die down for me!”
”I fear no fire! I in the wofried declares, ”for your man am I, and my valour is yours, if I may obtain Gutrune for fried's heated brain--for the first tiee woirdled fastness of whom they tell him, by means of the Tarnhelm, which lends the wearer any shape he wish to adopt The future brothers swear ”blood-brotherhood,” pledging their truth in wine, into which each has let trickle a drop of his blood ”If one of the brothers shall break the bond, if one of the friends shall betray his faithful ally, let that which in kindness we drink to-day by drops gush forth in streams, sacred reparation to the friend!” They clasp hands upon the co-horn ”Why,” it occurs to Siegfried, ”did not you, Hagen, join in the oath?” ”My blood would have spoiled the drink,”
replies the joyless man; ”it does not flow noble and untroubled like yours; cold and nates in me, and will not colour ue” The ancient conception of the power of a vow, as of the power of a curse, is interestingly illustrated in this story The effectiveness of a vow, as we discover, has nothing to do with persons or circumstances; an oath becomes a sort of independent creation with a precise operation of its own Hagen, capable of any breach of faith,but treachery, dare not join in the forer in breaking it Siegfried deceives Gunther without intending or knowing it, yet his blood ush forth in streafried is for starting without delay on the quest: ”There is ht you shall wait in the boat on the shore, then shall you lead hoen's care Followed by Gutrune's eyes, the heroes hurry off Hagen places himself with spear and shi+eld in the doorway, and, while sitting there sentinel-wise, reflects upon the success of his devices: ”Blown along by the wind, the son of Gibi+ch goes a-wooing Heler in his stead His own bride this latter will bring for hiood fellows, light-hearted coh he may seem to you, you are yet his servants--the servants of the Nibelung's son!” The curtain closes
When it reopens we see the scene onceBrunnhilde sits sunk in conte and the memories attached to it Distant thunder disturbs her dreams; her ear seizes a faallop of an approaching air-horse Her name comes borne on the wind She rushes to receive Waltraute, whose call she has joyfully recognised In her delight, she does not at once take account of the Valkyrie's sorrowful and preoccupied mien She presses rapid questions upon her: ”You dared then for love of Brunnhilde brave Walvater's commandment? Or--how? Oh, tell me! Has Wotan's disposition softened toward ainst the God, while it was a fault, I know that I was fulfilling his wish I know, too, that his anger was appeased, for even though he sealed me in slumber, left me bound on a rock, to be the bondranted favour to the prayer offire which should close the way to the base Thus was I through my punishment made happy! The ht of his love to-day I beah!” With uncontrolled joy she embraces the sister, unconscious of the latter's impatience and shy attempt to repel her ”Did my fate, sister, allure you?