Part 10 (1/2)
She breaks into complaint over the shameful requital hich the love has met that, unknown to him, by charms woven all about his body, made hien
”No weapon that is borne in battle” But she corrects herself, reht, in truth, be wounded in the back ”Never, I kneould he retreat or in flight show his back to the foe Upon it therefore I spared to place the spell” ”And therelearned from her all that he need, he turns to Gunther: ”Up, noble Gibi+chung! Here stands your strong wife Why do you hang back there in dejection?”
Gunther breaks into passionate exclanity he has suffered Close indeed upon his hour of glory comes the hour of his humiliation, when he must hear from the queenly wonoble, false coht gain for you the prize of courage! Low indeed has your precious race sunk, when it produces such dastards!” Gunther utters broken excuses, ”while deceiving her he was hi her, he was betrayed--” and appeals to Hagen to stamp him out of life or help hien has them now both where, for his purposes, he wishes them
”No brain can help you,” he replies to Gunther, ”nor can any hand!
There is but one thing can help you--Siegfried's death!” The tords fall awfully on the air, followed by a long silence The irresolute Gunther at the sound of the sentence writhes amid doubts and hesitations, such as do not for a moment move his stern fellow-sufferer He reins to question whether the blood-brother has in very fact been false A returning wave of affection and adh, and then the thought of Gutrune: ”Gutrune, to whoave him! If we punish her husband so, hat face shall we stand before her?” At this ht breaks upon Brunnhilde; ”Gutrune! is the naic charm which has enchanted away from me my husband
Terror smite her!” ”If the manner of his death en soothes Gunther's scruple
”We will to--expedition The noble one will, according to his i ahead of us, andto a co upon the different powers to whoe--Brunnhilde and Gunther upon Wotan, guardian of pro of this vow of vengeance will beforth, withof flowers, the bridal procession Gutrune, rose-wreathed, is borne shoulder-high upon a gilded and begarlanded throne At the vision of her and the glowing Siegfried at her side, Brunnhilde shrinks back Hagen forces her hand into Gunther's, and this second bridal pair falls into the train winding up the hillside to offer the nuptial sacrifices
III
A rocky and wooded valley opening on the Rhine It is part of the region over-ranged by the hunting-party of Hagen's devising The horns of the hunters are heard in the distance,--Siegfried's horn-call aen's
Our old acquaintances, the Rhine-daughters, rise to the surface of the water They have warning or scent that Siegfried is not far, with the Ring, their stolen gold They co of the darkness now in the deep, where of old it was light, when the gold was there to shi+ne for the their loss, they are little less full of their fun than before; they splash and frolic in the water and with their voices copy the crystal play of the river They pray the sun to send their way the hero who shall give theard without envy the sun's lu it as that of the hero who interests the the best fried co the river, in search of tracks of his ga hiht, hail hi tone of pretty girls with a likely-looking young fellow: ”What are you gruround? What imp excites your ire?
Has a water-sprite bothered you? Tell us, Siegfried, tell us!”
He watches the, and replies in their own vein: ”Have you chary felloho disappeared froht? If he is your sweetheart, far be it froh loud and long, the Rhine-nyame for you?” ”I have so far no fruit of olden ring gleaunde, and, unable to restrain their eagerness, the three cry out in a voice: ”Give us that!” He considers the Ring a , and I ae for the paws of a worthless bear?” ”Are you so niggardly? So higgling at a bargain? You should be generous to ladies!” they shaood humour, he offers as a better objection: ”Were I to waste my property on you, my wife, I suspect, would find fault” ”She is a shrew, no doubt? I dare say she beats you The hero has a presentih ihs with them, but, not to be compelled by their derision: ”I shall none the less leave you to disappointet for you!” The wilyfrom him, pere a!
So fitted to inspire love! What a pity that he is a hter they duck under
Siegfried turns away, untroubled, and descends further into the narrow valley But their words have not quite glanced off him
”Why do I suffer such a ibes of the sort? If they should coht have!” Too large to feel demeaned by an inconsistency, he shouts to them: ”Hey, you lively water-beauties!
Co it off, he holds it toward them This is the point in his fortunes where we perceive the working of Siegfried's fate If the ny, had risen and caught the Ring froht have been well Hagen would have had nothing to gain by killing hi to a bloody end would not have it so It had been crippled, it is true, against the noble one; it had failed to make him suspicious, sad, and careful
But his violent death we see provided for when, by what see to the Rhine-maidens is not accepted on the expected ter with laughter they show hi countenances Their subaqueous deliberations have resulted in aat the proffered Ring and glad to have it, they represent to Siegfried that he will be under an obligation to theed by a threat into one of refusal
”Keep it, hero, and guard it with care, until you beco under its shape Then you will be glad if ill deliver you froer and bids thefried!
We know of evil threatening you! To your danger you retain the Ring! Out of the Rhine-gold it was forged; he who shaped it and o, that it should bring death upon hion, even so shall you be slain, and this very day, of this arn you, unless you give us the Ring to bury in the deep Rhine; its water alone can allay the curse!” ”You artful ladies,” the hero shakes his head, ”let be that policy! If I hardly trusted your flatteries, your attempt to alarm me deceives me still less” When , protesting their truth, urging the irresistible strength of the curse woven by the Norns into the coil of the eternal law, he answers, and the nature against which the curse had so long been of no effect shows brightly forth in the brief tirade: ”My sword once cleft asunder a spear
The eternal coil of the lahatever wild curses they have woven into it, the Norns shall see cut through by Nothung A dragon once upon a time did of a truth warn h the whole world ly cede it; you should have it if you gave h the ring should not enclose the worth of a finger, not by any force could you get it from me! For life and limb, if I must live loveless and a slave to fear,--life and limb, look you, like this I cast thes a clod of earth over his shoulder The Rhine-daughters in agitation press hi the futility of these, with the prophecy: ”A proud woman will this very day inherit of you; she will lend a !”
they finally say, as they announce: ”To her! To her! To her!”
Their singing floats back, dying away, a long tiried stands watching theht, amused: ”In water as on land I have now learned the ways of wo, they try threats with him; if he boldly brave these, let him look for scorn and reproaches! And yet--were it not for my truth to Gutrune, one of those dainty water-women I should have liked to ta-party are heard approaching Siegfried shouts in answer to their shouts When Hagen and Gunther coht, he calls to them to join him down there where it is fresh and cool The coe, to camp for an hour The wine-skins and drink-horns are passed Siegfried, questioned by Hagen of his fortune at the chase, jestingly gives his account: ”I caame was all that presented itself Had I had a ht for you, who sang to me, there on the Rhine, that I should be slain to-day!”
Never had he spoken with a lances apprehensively at Hagen Siegfried stretches out contentedly between them, the ample sunshi+ne in his blood, and reen treats the evil prophecy as lightly as does Siegfried hifried's reference to the water-birds, he refried, that you understand the language of the birds Is it true?” ”I have not heeded their babble this , when Gunther's heavy and preoccupied mien is borne upon him; he breaks off to reach hi his it to you!” Gunther, oppressed by his dark doubt of Siegfried, is not pro the proffered cup His reply obscurely conveys his sense of sofried takes it up hs ”You over-cheerful hero!” sighs Gunther Sofried cannot fail to see He drops privately to Hagen his interpretation of the friend's gloo him trouble?” ”If he understood her as well as you understand the song of the birds!” Siegfried has an inspiration Those last words of Hagen's contain the germ of it ”Hei! Gunther!” he calls to the blood-brother, who appears so sorely in need of cheering: ”Youyou tales from the days of en joins his invitation to the half-brother's The listeners place theround about the narrator, seated in their fried, with his beautiful, botto sketches the story we know One after the other the familiar motifs pass in review From them alone one could reconstruct the tale Of his childhood in Mion Of the wonder worked by the drop of dragon's blood on the tongue, the little bird's good counsel by which he won Tarnhel upon which he slew Mi hoith Brunnhilde wiped froen hands him a horn filled ine, in which he has been seen expressing the juice of an herb; this, the Nibelung's son, wise in the virtues of si close remote events
Siegfried takes the cup, but for a moment does not taste it, absorbed, as is evident, in the effort to reht after the point in his story at which he just broke off The forgetfulness- Mechanically he sets the horn to his lips--a strain of the tenderest and fried-Brunnhilde love-ht which dissolves theBrunnhilde-fried, waked fro breath of relief at the weight rerows in Siegfried's face, as upon this recovering of his true identity he takes up his story again: ”Wistfully I listened for the bird in the tree-tops He sat there still, and sang; 'Hei, Siegfried has slain the wicked dwarf! I have in h rock she sleeps, a wall of flah the fire, if he should waken the bride, then were Brunnhilde his own!'” Gunther hears in growing a, I hastened forth I reached the fire-girt rock I crossed the fla barrier, and found in reward”--the memory holds his breath suspended--a beautiful wo arlorious head; audaciously with a kiss I waked the maid Oh, hat ardour did then the ars up in horrified comprehension Two ravens at thisout of a tree and wheeling above Siegfried's head He starts up, in natural interest at the apparition of Wotan'sof these ravens?” sneers Hagen Siegfried, looking after the black birds as they bend their flight Rhine-wards, turns his back to the questioner ”They bid rimly interprets for hifried's body, from the back Too late Gunther holds his arfried's eyes flash wildly about for a weapon He snatches up his great shi+eld and lifts it aloft to crush the perfidious eneth fails, the shi+eld drops, and he falls crashi+ng backwards upon it