"Waft your waves, ye waters!" "Carry your crests to the cradle!" "Wallala, weiala weia!" "Woglinde, are you watching alone?" "With Wellgunde there'd be two of us" " Let's see how you watch" " Safe from you" "Heiaha weia!" "Sprightly sisters!" "Flosshilde, swim!" "Woglinde's escaping:" "help me capture the truant!" "Badly you guard the sleeping gold" "Watch better over the slumberer's bed or you'll both repent!" "Hey, nymphs!" "How inviting you look, enviable creatures!" "From Nibelheim I'd gladly draw near if you'd but come down to me" " Who is there?" " See who's spying on us!" "Ugh!" "How frightful!" "Guard the gold!" "Father warned us of such a foe" " You up there!" " What do you want?" "Do I spoil your sport by standing still here, staring?" "If you'd dive down, the Nibelung would freely frolic with you" " Does he want to play with us?" " Is he in jest?" "How brightly you shine!" "I would love to embrace one of you if you'd but slip down here!" "Now I laugh at my fears" " Our foe is in love!" " Lascivious beast!" "We'll teach him!" "She's coming down" "Come close to me, then!" "Loathsome slime!" "I'm slipping!" "My hands and feet cannot grip the scaly slopes!" "Damp fills my nostrils" "Curse this sneezing!" "My wooer comes in splendour, spluttering!" "Be my love, fairest child!" "If you would woo me, woo me up here!" "Alas, do you escape me?" "Come back!" "What you manage so easily is hard for me" "Climb to the bottom:" "you'll catch me there!" " Better down there!" " But now up again!" "Ha ha ha!" "How can I catch this bashful fish?" "Wait, false one!" "Hey, beloved!" "Don't you hear me?" " Is it me you're calling?" " Take my advice:" "Turn to me and do not heed Woglinde!" "Far lovelier you are than that shy one who glistens less and is much too sly" "Dive down deeper if you'd delight me" " Am I close to you now?" " Not close enough!" "Twine your slender arms around me that I may toy and touch your neck and with ardent caress nestle against your soft breast" "If you're enamoured and longing for love let's see, my handsome, what you look like!" "Ugh, you hairy humpbacked horror!" "Swarthy, scaly, sulphurous dwarf!" "Find yourself a sweetheart who'd suffer you!" "Though I don't please you, I'll hold you fast" "Fast then, or I'll fly from you!" "Ha ha ha!" "Perfidious child!" "Frigid, bony fish!" "If I don't seem handsome, suave and sprightly well, if my skin revolts you, flirt with the eels!" "Why wrangle, gnome?" "So soon disheartened?" "You've courted two:" "if you asked the third blissful balm she'd bestow on you!" "A sweet song sounds in my ear" "How good there are more of you!" "From so many there must be one I'd please" "One alone might not choose me" "If I'm to believe you, come down!" "How stupid of you, silly sisters, not to find him handsome!" "I think them stupid and ugly since I saw you, the fairest" "Sing on that song so sweet and fine." "How irresistibly it tempts my ear!" "My heart hammers and shivers in pleasure at such pretty praises" "How your grace rejoices my eyes and your gentle smile refreshes my spirit!" " Dearest of men!" " Sweetest of maids!" " Would you but favour me!" " I'd hold you for ever!" "Might I ever see your piercing gaze and clasp your bristly beard!" "Might the curls of your wiry hair flow round Flosshilde for ever!" "Might I see only your toad-like form and hear your croaking voice!" "Ha ha ha!" "Do you mock me?" "How justly at the end of the song!" "Ha ha ha!" "Alas!" "Alack!" "Woe, o woe is me!" "Has the third, so beloved, betrayed me too?" "You worthless, sly, sluttish, dissolute wenches!" "Do you feed only on fraud, you faithless brood of nymphs?" "Wallala!" "Lalaleia!" "Leialalei!" "Heia!" "Heia!" "Haha!" "For shame, gnome!" "Don't scold down there!" "Listen to what we tell you!" "Why, weakling, did you not secure the maid for whom you yearned?" "We are faithful to the wooer who holds us fast" "Just seize on us and do not fear!" "In the water we cannot easily escape" "Lalaleia!" "Leialalei!" "Heia!" "Heia!" "Hahei!" "How, through my frame, an ardent fire burns!" "Fierce fury and longing surge through my spirit!" "Though you laugh and lie I long for you, and one of you must yield to me!" "If this fist could seize one!" "Look, sisters!" "The waking sun laughs in the depths" "Through the green waters she greets the beautiful sleeper" "Now she kisses his eyes to open them" "See, he smiles in the shining light" "His radiant rays flood through the waters around!" "Heiajaheia!" "Heiajaheia!" "Wallalalalala leiajahei!" "Rhinegold!" "Dazzling delight, how brightly and bravely you laugh!" "Your gleaming glow spreads a glorious light!" "Heiajahei!" "Heiajaheia!" "Awake, friend, wake to joy!" "We'll play for you the liveliest games" "The river flashes, the waters flame as we dance and sing in our joyous sport!" "Rhinegold!" "Heiajaheia!" "Heiajaheia!" "Wallalalalala heiajahei!" "What is it that so gleams and glistens there?" "Whence come you that you have never heard of the Rhinegold?" "Does the gnome know nothing of the eyes of gold that wake and sleep?" "Of the wondrous star in the depths that shines through the waves?" "See how we bask in its glow!" "If you, faint-heart, wish to bathe in it, sport with us!" "Wallalalala leialalei!" "Wallalalala leiajahei!" "Does the gold serve only for your water games?" "That would be little use to me!" "He would not scorn the gold's splendour if he were aware of its wonders!" "He could win the world's wealth if from the Rhinegold he fashioned the ring that confers immeasurable might" "Father said so, and ordered us to guard the gleaming treasure skilfully so that no cheat should ravish it from the river" "So hush, you chatterers!" "Wisest sister, are you accusing us?" "Do you not know to whom alone it is given to shape the gold?" "Only he who forswears love's power only he who forfeits love's delight only he can attain the magic to fashion the gold into a ring" "Then we are secure, for everything that lives wants love" "No one will reject love" "Least of all him that lascivious gnome" "With desire for love he could die!" "I do not fear him as I found him" "The heat of his passion almost burned me" "Like a sulphurous brand in the swelling waves he was loudly sizzling in the fury of love!" "Wallala!" "Wallaleialala!" "Dearest gnome!" "Why aren't you laughing too?" "In the golden glow how fair you shine!" "O come, beloved, laugh with us!" "Heiajaheia!" "Heiajaheia!" "Wallalalalala leiajahei!" "The world's wealth I could win through you?" "If I cannot extort love, can I by cunning attain pleasure?" "Mock on, then!" "The Nibelung nears your toy!" "Heia!" "Heia!" "Heiajahei!" "Save yourselves!" "The gnome has gone crazy!" "Love has sent him mad!" "Ha ha ha!" "Are you still not afraid?" "Then coquet in the dark, brood of the waters!" "I will put out your light wrench the gold from the rock forge the ring of revenge for hear me, ye waves:" "thus I curse love!" " Stop the thief!" " Rescue the gold!" "Help!" "Woe!" "Woe!" "Wotan, husband, awake!" "Gate and door guard the sacred hall of my joy" "Man's honour, eternal might extend to endless fame!" "Up, leave dreams' deceit!" "Rouse yourself and reflect!" "The everlasting work is completed" "On the mountain peak stands the gods' stronghold" "Superbly soars the resplendent building!" "As in my dreams I desired it as my will directed strong and fair it stands on show" "Sublime, superb structure!" "Do you delight in what I dread?" "The fortress fills you with joy, but I fear for Freia" "Reckless man, recall the price to be paid" "The fort is finished, and forfeit is the pledge" "Have you forgotten what you engaged to pay?" "I well know what were the terms of those that built me the fortress" "By a contract I tamed their insolent race into building me this sublime abode" "Now it stands, thanks to their strength" "As to the price, pay that no heed" "Laughing, outrageous levity!" "Loveless light-heartedness!" "Had I known of your contract, I would have prevented the fraud" "But you men firmly kept the women away so that you could deal alone with the giants" "Thus shamelessly you brazenly bartered Freia my noble sister and rejoiced at the base bargain!" "What do you harsh men hold sacred and valuable when you thirst for power?" "Was Fricka free from like thirst when she begged me for the building?" "Concern over my consort's constancy makes me sadly ponder how to keep him by me when he is drawn to roam" "A stately dwelling splendidly appointed might tempt you to tarry here and rest" "But you, in building an abode, thought only of defences" "They would increase your dominion and power" "Only to arouse storms of unrest did this towering castle arise" "Though you wished, wife, to keep me in the castle you must grant me, as a god that, even confined, I must win the outside world" "All who live love roaming and variety" "I cannot relinquish this sport!" "Unloving, most unpleasant man!" "For the idle toys of might and honour would you, in blasphemous scorn, stake love and a woman's worth?" "So as to win you for my wife I sacrificed one of my eyes" "How stupid is your scolding now!" "I prize women even more than pleases you!" "And I will not yield our good Freia" "I never had any such intention" "Then protect her now!" "She is hurrying here for help!" "Save me, sister!" "Protect me, brother!" "From yonder mountain threatening Fasolt would come to force me away" "Let him threaten!" "Did you not see Loge?" "You always prefer to trust that trickster!" "Much harm he's already done us, yet ever again he ensnares you" "When simple courage suffices, I ask for none to help me" "But to turn to use foes' jealousy only craft and cunning will serve such as Loge artfully employs" "When he counselled this contract, he promised to deliver Freia" "I now rely on him" "And he forsakes you!" "With quick strides the giants approach" "Where loiters your crafty helper?" "Where linger my brothers, who should bring help since my brother-in-law abandons me?" "Donner, help!" "Come hither!" "Rescue Freia, my Froh!" "They who betrayed you have now all gone to ground" "Sleep softly sealed your eyes while we two, unsleeping, built the fort" "Toiling mightily yet untiring, we heaped up massive stones" "A lofty tower, door and gate guard and enclose the hall of the fine fortress" "There stands what we raised" "It shines brightly in the light of day" "Now pass in and pay us our fee!" "Name your fee, my men:" "what do you think of asking?" "We asked what seemed to us fair" "Is your memory so weak?" "Freia the fair" "Holda the free" "It was agreed that we should take her home" "Has this contract sent you off your heads?" "Think of some other fee:" "I cannot sell Freia!" "What say you?" "Are you planning to betray our bond?" "Are the marks of solemn compact on your spear but sport to you?" "Most trusty brother, do you now see the swindle?" "Son of light easily swayed!" "Hearken and beware:" "Hold firm to your bond!" "What you are you are only by contracts" "Limited and defined is your power" "You have more wisdom than we have wits" "You bound us, who were free, to keep peace" "I will curse all your wisdom and flee from your peace if openly, honourably and freely you do not know to keep faith in your bond!" "A simple giant thus counsels you" "Wise one weigh his words!" "How cunning to take in earnest what was agreed only in jest!" "The lovely goddess, of what use is her charm to you louts?" "Do you mock us?" "Ha, how unjust!" "You who rule by beauty, radiant, august race how foolishly you strive for towers of stone and place in pledge woman's beauty for fortress and hall!" "We dullards toil away, sweating, with our horny hands to win a woman who, winsome and gentle will live with us poor creatures" "And do you now upset our bargain?" "Cease your idle chatter, we'll get no gain from this" "Custody of Freia serves little" "But to carry her off from the gods is worth much" "Golden apples grow in her garden" "Only she knows how to tend them!" "By eating the fruit, her kindred are endowed with eternal, never-ageing youth" "Sick and wan, their bloom will wane old and weak they will waste away if they are forced to forego Freia" "So let her be taken from their midst!" "Loge delays too long!" "Straight give your answer!" "Think of another fee!" "No other: only Freia!" "You there, follow us!" "Help from these ruffians!" "To me, Freia!" "Let her be, rascal!" "Froh will protect the fair one" "Fasolt and Fafner, have you yet felt my hammer's heavy blow?" "Why do you threaten?" "Why do you rush upon us?" "We sought no strife and only want our wages" "Many a time have I paid giants their due" "Come on, the size of the payment I'll weigh in full measure!" "Hold, hothead!" "Violence avails naught!" "My spearshaft protects bonds" "Spare your hammer's haft!" "Alas!" "Woe is me!" "Wotan forsakes me!" "Do I understand you aright cruel man?" "Loge at last!" "Is this how you hasten to right your evil bargain?" "What bargain did I conclude?" "That which you contracted with the giants in council?" "My whim takes me to depths and heights" "House and hearth delight me not" "Donner and Froh are dreaming of food and shelter" "When they want to wed, a house would gladden them" "A stately home, a stronghold, this was Wotan's wish" "House and court, hall and keep the glorious fortress now firmly stands" "Its proud walls I myself tested" "I made sure that all was solid" "I found Fasolt and Fafner reliable" "Every stone was firm in its place" "I was not idle, as were many here" "He lies who rebukes me as lazy!" "You slyly evade the point" "Take good care how you betray me in my trust" "I, your only friend among all the gods took you up when the rest mistrusted you" "Now speak and counsel well!" "When those who built the castle stipulated Freia as payment you know that I agreed only because you undertook to redeem the noble pledge" "To consider with the utmost care how to release her, that I promised" "But that I could find what never existed nor could succeed how could that ever be promised?" "What a treacherous knave you trusted!" "Your name is Loge, but I call you liar!" "Accursed fire, I'll quench you!" "The fools revile me to cover their disgrace!" "Leave my friend in peace!" "You know not Loge's wiles" "His counsel is of richer weight when he delays in giving it" "No delays!" "Pay up quickly!" "We're waiting for our wages!" "Now listen, shifty one!" "Keep your word!" "Where have you been roving?" "Ingratitude is always Loge's lot!" "Concerned but for you, I looked about feverishly ransacking the ends of the earth to find a substitute for Freia such as would be fair to the giants" "In vain I searched, and see now full well that in the whole wide world nothing is so rich that a man will accept it in lieu of woman's beauty and delight" "Wherever there is life and being, in water, earth and air I asked and sought of all where forces stir and seeds sprout:" "What would a man think mightier than woman's beauty and delight?" "But wherever there was life and being my cunning question was derided" "In water, earth and air nothing will give up love and womankind" "Only one I saw who had forsworn love" "For shining gold he had renounced woman's affection" "The Rhine's innocent children bewailed their plight to me" "The Nibelung, night-Alberich, moped in vain for the maidens' love" "In revenge, he stole from them the Rhinegold" "He now esteems it earth's most precious prize greater than woman's grace" "For the glittering toy torn from the deep the daughters made moan to me" "To you, Wotan, they appeal to bring the thief to justice and to give the gold back to the waters for it to remain their own for ever" "I promised the maidens to tell you this" "Now Loge has kept his word" "You are mad, if not downright malicious!" "You see me in trouble myself:" "how can I bring others help?" "I grudge the gnome this gold" "Much harm he has already done us" "Yet he has always slyly slipped from out our clutches" "New mischief will the Nibelung plot if the gold gives him power" "You there, Loge!" "Say without lies:" "Of what great value is the gold, that it satisfies the Nibelung?" "It is a toy in the depths to please laughing children" "But if it were fashioned into a round ring it would bestow supreme power and win its master the world" "I have heard talk of the Rhine's gold" "Its glittering glow hides runes of riches" "A ring would give unbounded power and wealth" "Would the golden trinket's glittering gems equally serve as fair adornment for women too?" "A wife could ensure her husband's fidelity if she decked herself with the bright ornament that dwarfs forge to shine, toiling in the power of the ring" "Could my husband win this gold for himself?" "To control this ring seems wise to me" "But how, Loge, could I learn this art?" "How can I forge this gem?" "A magic spell turns the gold into a ring" "No one knows it" "But anyone can easily acquire it who renounces blissful love" "That you will not do;" "you are too late also" "Alberich did not hesitate" "Boldly he gained the power of the spell" "The ring became his!" "The dwarf will control us all if the ring is not wrested from him" "I must have the ring!" "It is easily won now without cursing love" "So easy, without skill, like child's play!" " Tell us, how?" " By theft!" "What a thief stole, you steal from the thief" "Could possessions be more easily acquired?" "But Alberich guards himself with guile" "You must act shrewdly and subtly to bring the thief to justice and to return to the Rhinemaidens the gold, their shining toy" "For that is what they beg of you" "The Rhinemaidens?" "What is this counsel to me?" "I wish to know nothing of that watery brood" "Many a man, to my sorrow, have they lured with their sport" "Believe me, that glittering gold is worth more than Freia" "Eternal youth he gains who commands it by gold's magic" "Hear, Wotan, what we have to say!" "Freia may stay with you in peace" "An easier fee I've found in settlement" "We rough giants would be satisfied with the Nibelung's shining gold" "Have you lost your senses?" "Can I give you, shameless ones, what I do not own?" "The castle was hard to build" "It will be easy for you, with cunning craft which we could never command, to fetter the Nibelung firmly" "Shall I exert myself against the gnome for you?" "For you fetter the foe?" "You fools, my debt has made you shameless and over-covetous!" "Come, girl!" "You are in our power!" "Follow us as hostage till we receive your ransom!" "Woe!" "Woe is me!" "Let her be carried far from here!" "Till evening, pay due heed, we will hold her as hostage" "We shall return;" "but when we come if as ransom the bright gleaming Rhinegold is not lying ready then the time will be up and Freia will go with us for ever!" "Sister!" "Brothers!" "Save me!" "Help!" "Up, after them!" "Let us break everything!" "Save me!" "Help!" "Over stock and stone they stride to the valley" "Through the ford across the Rhine wade the giants" "Freia hangs, far from happy, over the ruffians' shoulders!" "Heia!" "Hei!" "How the louts lurch along!" "Now they tramp through the valley" "Only at the boundary of Riesenheim will they pause" "On what does Wotan brood so darkly?" "How goes it with the glorious gods?" "Does a mist deceive me?" "Does a dream mock me?" "How anxious and pale you've suddenly become!" "The bloom has fled from your cheeks" "The light has faded from your eyes!" "Courage, Froh, it is but early yet!" "From your hand, Donner, the hammer falls!" "How is it with Fricka?" "Is she displeased with Wotan's grey gloom that suddenly turns him into a greybeard?" "Alas!" "Alas!" "What has happened?" "My hand drops!" "My heart falters!" "I have it:" "hear what it is you lack!" "Of Freia's fruit you have not yet eaten today" "The golden apples in her garden made you hearty and young when you ate them every day" "She who tended the garden is now a hostage" "On the branches the fruit fades and withers" "Soon it will decay and fall" "It irks me less" "To me Freia was always niggardly with the precious fruit for I am only half as godlike as you glorious ones!" "But you staked all on the youth-giving fruit" "This the giants knew well" "Your life they laid against it:" "now take care to defend it!" "Without the apples, old and grey, hoary and haggard withered, the scorn of all the world the race of gods will die" "Wotan, husband, unhappy man!" "See how your giddy thoughtlessness has brought disgrace and humiliation on us all!" "Loge, come down with me!" "We will descend to Nibelheim" "I will procure the gold" "The Rhinemaidens appealed to you" "Can they hope for a hearing?" "Silence, babbler!" "Freia the kind, Freia we must deliver!" "As you command, I will willingly lead you down" " Shall we go through the Rhine?" " Not through the Rhine!" "Through the sulphurous cleft?" "Slip into it with me!" "You others wait here till evening" "Our loss of youth I'll banish with redeeming gold!" "Fare thee well, Wotan!" "Good luck!" "Return soon to your anxious wife!" "Come here, crafty dwarf!" "You shall be pitilessly pinched if you haven't finished the fine-wrought gold on time!" "Ow!" "Ow!" "Let me go!" "It's ready, as you ordered, made by moiling and toiling" "Take your nails from my ear!" "Why are you so slow to show it?" "I hesitated only lest something was lacking" " What is not ready?" " Here, and there" "What here and there?" "Give me the work!" "See, you scoundrel!" "Everything forged and finished as I commanded!" "Did the simpleton slyly seek to deceive me and keep for himself the object my craft taught him how to forge?" "Have I found you out, stupid thief?" "The helmet fits my head." "Will the spell work too?" ""Night and mist..." ""..." "like to no one!"" "Can you see me, brother?" "Where are you?" "I cannot see you" "Then feel me, rascal!" "Take that for your thieving thoughts!" " Oh!" "Oh!" "Ow!" "Ow!" "Ow!" " Ha ha ha!" "Thank you, stupid!" "Your work has stood the test" "Hoho!" "Hoho!" "Nibelungs all, bow down to Alberich!" "Now he is watching you everywhere" "Repose and rest is refused you" "You must work for him though he is unseen" "You are his vassals for ever!" "Hoho!" "Listen for him, he is near, the Lord of the Nibelungs!" "Here is Nibelheim." "What fiery sparks are flashing?" "What is that among the rocks?" "Why are you whimpering?" "Hey, Mime!" "Merry dwarf!" "What torments you so?" "Leave me in peace!" "That I will gladly, and more yet:" "I would help you, Mime!" "Who can help me?" "I must obey my own brother, who brought these bonds on me" "But what, Mime, gave him the power to bind you?" "Cunning Alberich wrought himself a ring from the Rhine's gold" "At the might of its magic we tremble and marvel" "With it he has overcome us, the Nibelungs' nocturnal race" "Carefree smiths, once we created ornaments for our women, wondrous trinkets dainty trifles for Nibelungs" "Lightly we laughed at our work" "Now this villain compels us to creep into caverns and ever toil for him alone" "Through the ring his greed divines where a new gleam is concealed" "There we have to track and trace it, dig it out melt down the booty and forge the cast without pause or peace, to pile up our master's hoard" "Your idleness brought on his ire?" "On me, most wretched, he forced the heaviest task" "He bade me forge and weld a helmet" "He gave exact orders how I was to make it" "I shrewdly noted what mighty power lay in the work I fashioned" "So I wanted to keep the helmet and through its spell escape from Alberich's sway" "I thought I could outwit the tyrant, get him in my power snatch the ring from him so that I might be free and he my slave!" "Why, shrewd one, did you not succeed?" "Though I fashioned the work the spell that would bind him that spell I did not guess aright!" "He who planned the work and snatched it from me now has taught me, alas too late, what cunning lay in the helmet" "He vanished from my sight" "But unseen, his arm raised weals on me while I was blind" "That's what thanks I earned, fool that I am!" "Admit, our capture will not be easy" "The foe will fall with your cunning" "Who are you, then, strangers, with your questioning?" "Friends to you." "We will free the Nibelung people!" "Beware!" "Alberich draws near" "We'll wait here for him" "Here!" "There!" "Idle herd, pile up the hoard there in heaps!" "You there, get up!" "Will you get on?" "Despicable dogs, put down the treasure!" "Bring it all here!" "Who is there?" "Who has broken in?" "Come here, Mime, shabby scamp!" "Have you been chattering to these tramps?" "Be off, idler!" "Or do you want to start forging?" "Out of here, all of you!" "Hurry below!" "Find me gold from the new veins!" "My whip waits for those that don't dig deep!" "Mime shall stand bail that no one idles or flee the lash of my whip if he can!" "That I am everywhere, though none can tell where he knows full well, I think!" "Are you still lingering?" "Still loitering?" "Tremble with terror, abject throng!" "At once obey the master of the ring!" "What do you want here?" "From Nibelheim's land of night we have heard new rumours" "Mighty marvels Alberich works here" "Greed drove us here as guests to gorge on them" "Envy led you to Nibelheim:" "I well know such bold guests!" "Do you know me well, childish gnome?" "Who am I, that you should snarl so?" "In your cold cave where you lay cowering it was Loge who smiled on you giving you light and warming flames" "How could you have forged if I had not fired the smithy?" "I am your kinsman, was your friend:" "you show little thanks!" "Loge, the cunning rogue, laughs now at the elves of light" "If, false one, you're their friend as you once were mine ha ha!" "I rejoice!" "From them I have nothing to fear" "Then you can have faith in me" "I have faith in your faithlessness, not in your fidelity!" "But dauntlessly I defy you all!" "Your power lends you assurance" "Grim and great has grown your strength" "Do you see the hoard that my henchmen have heaped up?" "I never yet saw one so enviable" "That is today's, a paltry pile" "It will increase boldly and mightily in the future" "But what help is the hoard to you since Nibelheim is joyless and treasure can buy nothing?" "Nibelheim's night serves me to create and conceal treasure" "With the hoard heaped in the cave I intend to work wonders" "With it I will win the whole world for my own" "How will you start on that, my man?" "You who aloft in the zephyrs' breeze live, laugh and love all you gods I'll grip in my golden grasp!" "As I renounced love all living things shall renounce it!" "Allured by gold, for gold alone shall you hunger" "On radiant peaks you live, lulled in bliss" "The black gnome you despise, you eternal revellers!" "Beware!" "Beware!" "For when once you men serve my might the dwarf will take his pleasure with your pretty women who scorn his wooing, though love does not smile on him" "Ha ha ha!" "Did you hear?" "Beware!" "Beware the nocturnal host when the Nibelung hoard rises from the silent depths to the light!" " Enough, blasphemous fool!" " What?" "Keep your head!" "Faced with Alberich's work, who would not feel wonder?" "If your masterly cunning can win, with your treasure, all you demand I must acclaim you the mightiest for moon, stars and the radiant sun can do no other but serve you too" "But I deem it significant above all that those who heap the hoard, the Nibelung host obey you ungrudgingly" "Boldly you fingered a ring before which your people trembled in fear" "But if in sleep a thief stole upon you and by stealth snatched the ring?" "How, wise one, would you guard yourself?" "Loge thinks himself the most artful" "Others always seem stupid to him" "That I should need his counsel and owe him thanks the thief would surely rejoice to hear!" "I myself conceived the concealing helmet" "I had Mime, the most skilful smith, fashion it for me" "The helmet allows me to change my shape swiftly at will" "No one can see me, though he search for me" "Yet I am everywhere, hidden from sight" "Thus I can live carefree, safe even from you kind, considerate friend!" "I have seen much and met many strange things but never have I witnessed such a wonder" "I cannot credit this unique work" "Were this one thing but possible, your power would last for ever" "Do you think I lie and boast like Loge?" "Until I see it for myself I doubt your word" "The fool is bursting with wisdom!" "Now may envy devour you!" "In what shape shall I appear?" "In whatever you will:" "strike me dumb with astonishment!" ""Giant snake, curl and coil!"" " Oh!" "Oh!" " Ha ha ha!" "Terrible serpent, do not swallow me!" " Spare Loge's life!" " Good, you villain!" "How quickly the dwarf turned to a monstrous dragon!" "Clever ones, do you believe me now?" "My trembling testifies to it" "You swiftly made yourself into a giant snake" "Now that I have seen it I readily believe the marvel" "But, as you grew larger, can you also make yourself tiny?" "That would be the most subtle way to escape danger" "But I think that would be too hard!" "Too hard for you because you're stupid!" "How small shall I be?" "So that a crevice might hold you where a toad timidly hides" "Nothing simpler!" "Watch me!" ""Crawl, crooked and grey toad!"" "There's the toad!" "Seize it quickly!" "Curse it!" "I am captured!" "Hold him tight till I tie him" "Now quickly up we go:" "there he will be ours" "Sit tight there, kinsman!" "Look, my dear, there lies the world that you wanted to win, you loafer" "What spot, tell me, will you allow me for my sty?" "Rascally robber!" "Rogue!" "Ruffian!" "Loosen my bonds and set me free, or you'll rue this outrage!" "You are captured, caught in my chains" "As you fancied the world lay in your power you lie in fetters before me" "Wretch, you cannot deny it!" "Now to set you free a ransom is demanded" "Dolt that I am!" "Dreaming idiot!" "How stupid to trust this thievish trick!" "Terrible vengeance I vow!" "If revenge is to avail you, first you must set yourself free" "To a fettered man no free soul makes amends" "If you relish thoughts of revenge, first think about the ransom!" "Then say what it is you want!" "The treasure and your gleaming gold" "Greedy gang of rogues!" "But if I keep only the ring I could easily spare the treasure for new wealth would soon be won at the ring's command" "It would be a warning to make me wise" "I shall not pay too dear if the lesson costs me only these baubles" "Will you yield the treasure?" "Loosen my hand and I'll summon it" "Well then, I've called the Nibelungs to me" "Obedient to their master I hear them hauling the hoard from the depths to the daylight" "Now loosen my burdensome bonds!" "Not until all has been paid" "O shameful humiliation, that my slaves should see me captive!" "Bring it in there as I command!" "Pile the hoard into a heap!" "Shall I help you cripples?" "Don't glance over here!" "Quick there, quick!" "Then get out of here, back to your labour!" "Off to your pits!" "Woe betide you if I find you idle!" "I am following hard at your heels!" "I have paid: now let me depart" "And the helmet that Loge holds now kindly give it back to me!" "This too belongs to the ransom" "Accursed thief!" "But patience!" "He who made it can make me another" "Mine is still the might that Mime obeys" "Yet it's hard to leave my most cunning weapon to my crafty foes!" "Alberich has left you everything:" "now, bullies, loosen my bonds!" "Are you satisfied?" "Shall I untie him?" "A golden ring rests upon your finger" "Do you hear, gnome?" "That belongs to the hoard" "The ring?" "To be freed you must forfeit it" "My life, but not the ring!" "I require the ring:" "with your life do what you will!" "I lose limb and life if I must lose the ring too" "Hand and head, eye and ear are not more my own than this shining ring!" "You call the ring your own?" "Are you raving, shameless gnome?" "From whom did you take the gold from which you made the ring?" "Was it your own, that you wickedly stole it from the water's depths?" "Ask the Rhine's daughters whether they gave you their gold that you robbed for the ring!" "Base trickery!" "Vile deceit!" "Thief, do you throw on me the blame for what you so dearly desired?" "Gladly you would have robbed the Rhine of its gold had you so easily found the way to forge it!" "Hypocrite, how well it worked for you that I the Nibelung, in shame and distress maddened by fury, gained the terrible magic whose work now gladdens you!" "Must this fatal, fearful deed of one most wretched with fear serve you as a royal toy, my curse serve for your pleasure?" "Take heed, haughty god!" "If I sinned, I sinned only against myself" "But you sin against all that was, is and shall be if recklessly you seize my ring!" "Surrender the ring!" "No right to it can your prattle prove" "Crushed!" "Shattered!" "Of wretches the wretchedest slave!" "Now I possess what will make me the mightiest of mighty lords!" "Is he to go free?" "Set him free!" "Slink off home!" "No knot holds you:" "go your way freely!" "Am I free now?" "Truly free?" "Then thus I give you my freedom's first greeting!" "Since by curse it came to me, accursed be this ring!" "Since its gold gave me measureless might now may its magic bring death to whoever wears it!" "It shall gladden no happy man" "Its bright gleam shall light on no one lucky!" "Whoever possesses it shall be consumed with care" "And whoever has it not shall be gnawed with envy!" "Each shall itch to possess it, but none shall find pleasure in it!" "Its owner shall guard it profitlessly" "Through it he shall meet his executioner!" "Forfeit to death, faint with fear shall he be fettered" "The length of his life he shall long to die the ring's master to the ring a slave until again I hold in my hands what was stolen!" "Thus, in direst distress, the Nibelung blesses his ring!" "Keep it now, guard it well!" "My curse you cannot escape!" "Did you heed his fond farewell?" "Let him give vent to his fury!" "From afar Fasolt and Fafner are approaching" "They are bringing Freia back" "They have returned" "Welcome, brother!" "Do you bring good tidings?" "By craft and force we carried out the task" "There lies what will free Freia" "From the giants' grasp our fair one approaches" "How soft is the breeze which breathes on us again!" "A feeling of bliss fills our senses" "It would be gloomy for us all to be for ever separated from her who gives us perpetual youth and joyous delight" "Dearest sister sweetest delight!" "Are you restored to me?" "Stop!" "Do not touch her!" "She still belongs to us" "At Riesenheim's towering boundary we stopped to rest" "Honourably we tended the pledge for the pact" "Much as I regret it, I am returning her for us brothers to be paid her ransom" "The ransom lies ready" "Now the amount of gold shall be fully measured" "Know that to do without the woman saddens me sorely" "If she is to be banished from my mind the hoard of treasure must be heaped so high that it completely hides the lovely one from my sight!" "Then Freia's form shall be the measure!" "These poles we've planted to the measure of the pledge" "Now fill the space with the hoard" "Hurry with the work:" "it is repugnant to me!" "Help me, Froh!" "I'll hasten to put an end to Freia's shame" "Not so light and loosely packed!" "Fill the measure firm and close!" "I can still see through it here:" "stop up these chinks!" " Stand back, clod!" " Here!" " Keep your hands off!" " Here!" "Close these crevices!" "Deep in my breast burns my disgrace" "See how our pure one stands humiliated and ashamed" "Her anguished look mutely pleads for release" "Wicked man, to ask this of a loved one!" "Still more!" "Yet more on here!" "I can scarcely contain myself:" "rage this rogue rouses in me!" "Come here, you cur!" "If you want to measure, measure yourself against me!" "Down, Donner!" "Roar where it helps:" "here your din avails you nothing" "Not even to crush a slanderer?" "Let's have peace!" "I think Freia is covered now" "The hoard is used up" "I still see the gleam of Holda's hair" "Throw that object on the pile!" "What, the helmet too?" "Quick, here with it!" "Let it go then!" "We're finished then!" "Are you satisfied?" "Freia the fair I see no more" "Is she then released?" "Must I let her go?" "Her gaze still gleams on me here" "The stars of her eyes still shine on me through a crack!" "So long as I see those lovely eyes I cannot tear myself away" "I advise you, stop up this crack!" "Insatiable!" "Can't you see that all the gold has gone?" "By no means, friend." "On Wotan's finger still glints a ring of gold:" "give it here to fill the crack!" "What!" "This ring?" "Listen!" "This gold belongs to the Rhinemaidens" "Wotan will give it back to them" "What idle chatter is this?" "What I won with such difficulty I'll keep for myself" "Then it goes badly with the promise I gave the lamenting maidens" "Your promise does not bind me:" "the ring remains with me" "But you must yield it here towards the ransom" "Boldly ask what you will, I will grant you everything" "But for all the world I will not surrender the ring!" "Then our first bargain stands:" "Freia follows us for ever!" " Help!" " Cruel god, give in to them!" " Do not hold the gold back!" " Give up the ring!" "Leave me in peace!" "The ring I'll not surrender!" "Yield, Wotan, yield!" "Escape from the ring's curse!" "To dark destruction irredeemably its possession dooms you" "Who is this woman who threatens?" "I know whatever was" "Whatever is, whatever shall be I also see" "The eternal world's first ancestress Erda, warns you" "My womb bore three daughters, conceived before the start of time" "What I see, the Norns nightly tell you" "But direst danger today brings me in person to you" "Hear me!" "All that is shall come to an end" "A dark day dawns for the gods" "I charge you, shun the ring!" "Mysteriously impressive your words sound" "Stay that I may know more!" "I have warned you" "You know enough" "Reflect in fear and dread!" "If I must fear and dread, I must seize you and learn all!" "What would you do, madman?" "Desist, Wotan!" "Touch not the noble one, heed her words!" "Listen, you giants!" "Come back and wait:" "you shall be given the gold" "Dare I hope so?" "Do you think me truly worth this ransom?" "Come to me, Freia!" "You are freed" "Brought back, restore to us our youth!" "You giants, take your ring!" "Stop, greedy!" "Leave some for me too!" "A fair division will be best for both of us" "You longed more for the maid than for the gold, lovesick loon" "I persuaded you to exchange her" "You would not have shared Freia" "So, as I am dividing the treasure, I retain more for myself" "You swindler!" "Do you vilify me?" "I call on you as judges:" "divide the treasure fairly between us" "Let him take the treasure:" "only keep control of the ring!" "Back!" "Mine is the ring." "For it I gave up Freia's gaze" "Hands away!" "The ring is mine!" "I hold it, it belongs to me!" "Hold it fast in case it falls!" "Now blink at Freia's gaze!" "The ring you will not touch again!" "Terrible now I find the curse's power" "What can equal your luck, Wotan?" "Great your gain when you won the ring" "Still more it profits you now that it is taken" "For see, your foes fell each other for the gold that you gave up" "Yet how anxiety weighs upon me!" "Dread and fear fetter my mind" "How to end it Erda must teach me" "I must go down to her!" "Why do you tarry, Wotan?" "Does the noble fair fort not beckon you as it waits to welcome its owner to its shelter?" "With unclean wages I paid for that building!" "A sultry haze hangs in the air" "Its dull weight oppresses me" "I will collect the pale clouds into a lightning-storm" "That will sweep the sky clear!" "Heda!" "Heda!" "Hedo!" "Come to me, mists!" "Vapours, to me!" "Donner, your master, summons you to his host!" "As I swing my hammer, hover here!" "Misty moisture, hanging haze!" "Donner, your master, summons you to his host!" "Heda!" "Heda!" "Hedo!" "Brother, hither!" "Point out the path!" "The bridge leads to the fortress, light but firm beneath your feet" "Boldly tread its terrorless path!" "The sun's eye sheds its evening beams" "In its glorious gleam the castle shines in splendour" "In the radiance of the morning it stood tenantless grand and inviting before me" "From morn to eve, in care and anxiety not lightly it was won!" "Night draws on" "From its envy it now offers shelter" "Thus I salute the fortress, safe from terror and dread!" "Wife, follow me and dwell with me in Valhalla!" "What means the name?" "Never have I heard it before, I think" "What my courage found for me, mastering fear if it lives on victorious will make its meaning plain!" "They hasten to their end, though they think themselves strong" "I am almost ashamed to share their doings" "My fancy lures me to transform myself back into flickering flames" "To burn them who once tamed me, rather than end with the blind even though they be gods!" "It does not seem stupid to me!" "I'll think it over:" "who knows what I will do?" "Rhinegold!" "Rhinegold!" "Purest gold!" "How clear and bright you once shone on us!" "What lamenting assails me here?" "For your lustre we now lament!" "The children of the Rhine lament their looted gold" " Accursed nymphs!" " Give us its glory again!" "Stop them annoying us!" "You there in the water, why wall to us?" "Hear what Wotan wills for you!" "No more gleams the gold on you maidens" "Henceforth bask in bliss in the gods' new radiance!" "Rhinegold!" "Rhinegold!" "Purest gold!" "If but your bright gleam still glittered in the deep!" "Now only in the depths is there tenderness and truth" "False and faint-hearted are those who revel above!"