"Helmwige!" "Here!" "Bring your horse" "Tether your stallion next to my mare to graze" " Who is hanging from your saddle?" " Sintolt the Hegeling" "Ortlinde's mare carries Wittig the lrming" "Sintolt and Wittig were always foes" "The stallion is kicking at my mare" "The hostility alienates the horses" "Quiet, Bruno!" "Siegrune, where have you lingered?" "There was work to do" "Are the others here?" "Grimgerde and Rossweisse!" "They are riding abreast" "Greetings, you riders!" "into the wood with your steeds" "Keep the mares far apart   until the hatred has subsided" "My grey has already paid for the heroes' anger" "Welcome!" "Were you together?" "We were separate and met only today lf we are all assembled   let us set out for Valhalla to bring Wotan his warriors" "One of us is still missing" "Brunnhilde is still with the Walsung" "We must wait for her" "We will receive a grim welcome if we arrive without her" "This way!" "Brunnhilde is galloping here" "She is heading towards the firs" "How Grane is panting!" "I never saw Valkyries galloping so" " What is on her saddle?" " That is no hero" "She's carrying a woman" "How did she find her?" "She gives no greeting!" "Brunnhilde, don't you hear us?" "Help our sister from her horse!" "Powerful Grane has sunk to the ground" "She lifts the woman from the saddle" "Sister, what has happened?" "Help me in my sorest need!" "Whence come you?" "Only fugitives fly thus I am fleeing and being pursued by the father of battles" "Have you lost your senses?" "Speak!" "Tell us!" "Sisters, look from the mountain!" "Look north whether Wotan is near" "Can you see him yet?" "A storm threatens" "Heavy clouds are massing" "Father is riding his sacred steed" "The raging hunter is coming!" "Shield me, sisters!" " Save this woman!" " But who is she?" "This is Sieglinde, Siegmund's sister and bride" "Wotan is towering with rage against the Walsungs" "Brunnhilde was to have withheld victory from her brother" "But I sheltered Siegmund in defiance of the god   who smote him with his spear" "Siegmund fell, but I fled with his wife" "To save her I have hurried to you" "Protect me too, in my fear, from punishment" "Deluded sister, what have you done?" "Woe, Brunnhilde!" "Have you deliberately disobeyed the father of hosts?" " Darkness looms from the north" " A raging storm steers hither" "Wildly neighs father's horse, fearfully snorting as it comes!" "Woe to this poor woman if Wotan finds her" "Lend me your swiftest steed that would spirit the woman away" "Are you urging open defiance?" "Rossweisse, lend me your courser!" "He has never fled from father" " Helmwige, hear me!" " l obey our father" "Give me your horse!" "See my distress!" "Stand by me as I have stood by you" "Save this wretched woman!" "Do not concern yourself over me" "Death is all I ask" "Who bade you bear me from battle?" "Had I been struck by the weapon that slew Siegmund   I should have met my end united with him!" "Far from Siegmund!" "Death overwhelms me at the thought lf l am not to curse you for your care   then hear my solemn entreaty" "Thrust your sword into my heart" "Live, woman, for love's sake!" "Save the pledge from him" "A Walsung is growing in your womb" "Save me, fearless one!" "Save my child!" "Shelter me, you maidens!" " The storm is approaching" " Fly, all who fear it!" "Away with the woman!" "No Valkyrie dares protect her" "Save me!" "Save a mother!" "Then flee at once, and flee alone" "I will brave Wotan's vengeance I will detain the angry god while you escape his rage" "Which way shall I turn?" "Which of you, sisters, ranged east?" "To the east stretches a forest   into which Fafner carried the Nibelung treasure" "He assumed the form of a dragon ln a cave he keeps watch over Alberich's ring" "A forbidding place for a woman" "The wood would shelter her from Wotan's wrath" "The mighty one shuns the place" " Wotan is galloping to the rock!" " Brunnhilde, hark to the thunder!" "Hurry eastward!" "Defiant, endure all dangers, hunger, thirst, thorns and stones" "Laugh if weakness wears you down" "Know one thing, and guard it ever ln your womb you carry the world's most wondrous hero" "For him preserve the fragments of the sword" "He who forges the sword anew shall one day wield it" "Let him take his name from me" "Siegfried, joy in victory!" "Marvellous miracle!" "Most glorious maid!" "Thank you for your comfort" "For him whom we loved I will save the child" "May reward one day smile at you!" "Farewell!" "Sieglinde's woe blesses you!" "Stay, Brunnhilde!" "He has reached the rock!" "Woe, Brunnhilde!" "Vengeance blazes forth!" "Sisters, help!" "My heart fails me!" "His rage will shatter me" " Keep out of sight!" " Stay silent when he calls!" "Woe!" "Wotan leaps from his horse" "Hither he hastens, breathing revenge!" "Where is the guilty one?" "Do you dare hide the miscreant?" "Your wrath fills us with fear!" "What have we done to provoke you?" "Do you mock me?" "Take care!" "I know you are hiding Brunnhilde" "Recoil from her!" "She is cast off for ever!" "From pursuit she fled to us" "In fear she roused your wrath" "For our anguished sister's sake we beg you to curb your fury" "Weak-willed womanish brood!" "Did you inherit such spineless spirits from me?" "Did I make you bold in battle   did I make your hearts harsh   so that you wild ones now whine when my wrath punishes perfidy?" "Then learn, you whimperers, her offence" "None but she knew my inmost thoughts" "None but she knew the source of my resolve" "She was my will's creative womb" "Now she has broken the sacred bond" "She has disloyally flouted her father's command   and turned against me the weapon my will alone made her!" "Do you hear, Brunnhilde   you to whom I granted helmet and spear   affection, name and life?" "Do you hear me make this charge, and yet hide from your accuser   whose punishment you evade?" "Here I am, father" "Pronounce my sentence!" "The sentence does not stem from me." "You brought punishment on yourself" "My will brought you into being  but you have set your will against it" "You could carry out my orders only, but you have given counter-orders" "You were my wish's maid   but your wishes thwarted mine" "You were my shield-bearer   but you raised it against me" "You were my arbiter of fate   but you chose to frustrate me" "You were my rouser of heroes   but you roused them against me" "Wotan has told you what you were" "Tell yourself what you are now" "No longer are you my wish's agent" "You have been a Valkyrie" "Henceforth be what you are now!" "Would you disown me?" "Never again will I send you from Valhalla   never assign heroes to you" "Never again will you bring victors into my hall" "At the god's banquets   never again will you pass me my drinking-horn" "Never again will I kiss my child" "From the gods you are cut off   expelled from the race of the immortals" "Our bond is broken" "You are banished from my sight" "Woe, sister!" "Do you take all you once gave?" "He who masters you will take it from you" "To this mountain I banish you" "I will lock you tight in defenceless sleep" "Let the man then capture the maid who finds her and wakes her" "Retract your curse!" "Must the maid be wasted by a man?" "Hear our plea!" "Spare this dreadful disgrace!" "We should share in her shame" "Did you not hear what I decreed?" "She is banished from your band" "No longer shall she ride with you" "Her beauty's flower will wither" "A husband will win her favours" "Henceforth she shall belong to this masterful man   sit and spin by the fire, the butt and sport of all mockers" "Does her fate appal you?" "Then flee the lost one!" "Keep away!" "Should any of you dare to linger and sustain her   that fool shall share her fate" "Of this I warn you!" "Away with you!" "Shun this rock!" "Quickly, ride away now   or calamity will befall you" "Was my offence so shameful   that you punish my misdeed with such shame?" "Was what I did to you so base   that you so profoundly debase me?" "Was what I did so dishonourable   that my dereliction now robs me of honour?" "Speak, father!" "Look me in the eyes" "Silence your wrath" "Make clear the hidden guilt which forces you   inflexibly and obstinately   to repudiate your favourite child" "Ask what you did lt will explain your guilt to you!" "I carried out your command" "Did I command you to fight for the Walsung?" "As ruler of battles, you did" "But that order I revoked" "When Fricka had turned your intention against you   when you resigned yourself to her will   you were your own enemy" "I fancied that you understood me, and castigated conscious defiance" "But you thought me cowardly and foolish" "So did I not need to avenge treason?" "I am not wise" "But one thing I know   that you loved the Walsung" "I knew the inner conflict that compelled you to erase this" "You had to see the alternative   though it grieved you   that you should deny Siegmund your defence" "You knew this, yet defended him?" "Because for you I kept in sight   the one thing on which you turned your back in perplexity" "She who in war guarded Wotan's back saw what you could not see" "I had to see Siegmund!" "I appeared to warn him of death" "I looked into his eyes, I heard his words I understood the hero's distress" "The brave man's laments rang in my ears   the fearful despair of love   the dauntless defiance of the saddest of souls" "In my ears was echoed   what, deep in my breast, filled my heart" "Shy, astonished, I stood in shame I could think only of helping   of sharing victory or death with Siegmund I knew that this alone was the lot to choose" "He who breathed this love into my heart   whose will had bound me to the Walsung   to him I was inwardly loyal   though I disobeyed your command" "So you did what I longed to do   yet which necessity forced me not to?" "So you thought of bliss   when woe broke my heart   when need roused my wrath   and for love of the world I dammed up the love in my heart?" "While I turned against myself   goaded by frustration   driven by longing to the dread decision   to end my sorrow in the ruins of my own world   then bliss was enfolding you" "Intoxicated with emotion   you laughingly drank the draught of love   while, for me, gall was blended with divine distress" "Then follow your foolish instinct" "You have broken with me" "I must shun you" "Never again can I share secret counsels with you" "We can no more work together" "While life and breath endure, the god must never see you again" "Unfit for you was the maid   who did not understand you" "My own view counselled one thing only   to love what you had loved" "If I must leave you   if you must sever what once linked us   and cut from yourself a half   that belonged wholly to you   do not forget that!" "You cannot dishonour what will always be a part of you   cannot wish for a disgrace that debases you" "You would be demeaned   if you saw me derided" "You followed the power of love" "Now follow him whom you must love!" "If I must depart from Valhalla, no longer to work with you   and belong henceforth to a man as master   do not give me to some boaster" "Let whoever wins me not be worthless" "You flouted the father of battles" "Now he cannot choose for you" "You begot a noble race" "No coward can disgrace it" "The most dedicated of heroes will spring from Walsung stock" "Do not speak of the Walsung race!" "I have flung it off with you" "My grudge had to destroy it" "She who tore herself from you saved it" "Sieglinde carries the holiest fruit ln grief and pain   she will bear what she anxiously hides" "Never seek protection for her from me, nor for her womb's fruit!" "She guards the sword you made for Siegmund" "And that I broke in pieces!" "Child, do not seek to upset my decision" "Await your fate   whatever befall" "I cannot choose for you!" "But now I must go I have already stayed too long l must turn from you" "What you wish I may not know I must only see your punishment enforced" "What must I suffer?" "I shall enclose you in deep sleep" "Whoever finds the weaponless maid   shall awaken her and win her as wife" "If fetters of sleep are to bind me as easy booty to any faintheart   one thing you must grant   for which I plead in anguish" "Surround my sleep   by fearsome terrors, so that only the most fearless hero   will find me on the rock!" "You ask too much, too great a favour" "This one thing you must grant" "Annihilate your child" "Trample your favourite under foot." "Crush the maid with your spear" "But do not condemn her   to this gross degradation" "At your command   let flames flare up" "Let their fiery glow engirdle the rock" "Let their tongues lick, their teeth devour   any coward who ventures to approach the dread rock" "Farewell, valiant child   holiest pride of my heart!" "If I must shun you   and may not again lovingly give you a greeting   if you may no more ride beside me   or bring me mead at my meal   if I must lose you, whom I loved   you, the delight of my eyes   then a bridal fire shall now burn for you   as never has burned for a bride" "Let the glow of fierce flames encircle the rock" "Let it strike fear into the fainthearts" "Cowards shall flee from Brunnhilde's rock" "Only one shall win the bride   one freer than I, the god!" "Those radiant eyes   that, smiling, I often kissed   when the joy of battle won you an embrace   when the praise of heroes   flowed from your sweet lips   those sparkling eyes ..." "... that shone on me in storms   when hopeless yearning seared my heart   when, amid wild alarm, I longed for worldly pleasures   for the last time let them delight me   with their last farewell kiss" "On a more fortunate man   let their star shine" "For the hapless immortal   they must close for ever" "For so does the god now turn from you" "So does he kiss the godhead from you!" "Loge, hear me!" "Come hither!" "As first I found you, a fiery glow   as you escaped me, a wandering flame   as I bound you   so today I summon you!" "Arise, flickering flame!" "Ring the rock with fire!" "Loge!" "Appear!" "He who fears my spear-point   shall never penetrate the fire!" "Translation (c) 1988 Lionel Salter Subtitling:" "David Hogarth (c) Philips Classics Productions"