"Slave labour!" "Futile drudgery!" "The sturdiest sword I ever made was strong enough for giants to fight with." "But the one I made it for, that uncouth boy, snaps it in half as if it were some plaything for children!" "But there is a sword that he couldn't break." "Nothung's fragments would defy his antics if only I could piece them together again." "But welding that sword is beyond my powers." "If I could mend it for the fearless boy" "I'd be amply rewarded for all this humiliation." "Fafner, the dreadful dragon," "lurks in his forest lair." "With the crushing coils of his body" "the Nibelung's hoard he jealously guards." "Siegfried's youthful strength would put paid to Fafner for good." "Then I could grab the Nibelung's ring for myself." "There's only one sword that's up to the task:" "Nothung alone can serve my purpose, the devastating sword in Siegfried's hands." "But I can't mend it, Nothung, the sword!" "Slave labour!" "Futile drudgery!" "The sturdiest sword I ever made will never stand up to the test!" "All this bashing and hammering is just to appease the boy." "Whatever I make he ruins but he goes wild if I don't do as he says." "Go get him!" "Eat him up, swallow him whole, the ugly little runt!" "Stop this nonsense!" "What are you, a bear?" "I come in company, the better to hurt you:" " Bruin, enquire about the sword!" " Hei!" "Let that animal be!" "There it is, over there." "I finished it this morning." "Right, we'll let you live another day." "Bye-bye, Bruin!" "No need for you any more." "Look, I don't mind you killing bears but I don't want them poking their snouts in here!" "I was looking for better company than the kind I've got back home." "In the depths of the forest I let off a toot on my horn." "Maybe the call would attract someone I could be friends with." "At least, that was the idea." "A bear came out of the bushes and growled a bit and listened." "I liked him much better than you, though I dare say I could do better still!" "So I roped him in for my plan to buck up your ideas with that sword!" "It's a nice, sharp sword," " you'll really like the blade." " What point is there in being sharp if the steel isn't hard and stout?" "Hey, what shoddy rubbish is this?" "You call this knitting needle a sword?" "There are the remains, you botching bungler!" "I should have broken it over your skull!" "How much more trash is this windbag going to palm off on me?" "Keeps babbling about giants and sword fights, bold exploits, deeds of derring-do, says he'll make me weapons, all kinds of swords, boasts of his skill, as if he were really good!" "But whenever I get hold of the results the whole thing falls apart in my hands!" "If the little runt were worth the trouble" "I'd bash him to bits along with his trash, the ridiculous old fool!" "That would get him out of my hair for good!" "What's got you into this temper?" "How can you be so ungrateful?" "If there's the tiniest thing wrong with what I make" "the thankless loutcompletely forgets all the things I've done for him in the past." "Why do you always ignore what I taught you about gratitude?" "But that's the last thing you want to hear!" "But it looks like you're hungry, am I right?" "Look, roasted meat from the oven!" "Would you fancy some of this soup?" "I've cooked it all for you." "I can do my own cooking." "You can guzzle that slop yourself!" "So this is the reward for my loving care!" "The paltry recompense for my concern!" "As a whining baby I brought you up, gave the little fellow clothes to keep him warm." "I plied you with food and drink, looked after you like my very own self." "And as you grew up I cared for you still, made you a nice bed for your slumbers." "I made you toys and a horn to blow, gladly did all I could to make you happy," "gave you wise advice, sharpened your wits with useful lore." "When I stay at home, working and slaving, you roam through the woods as you like." "This worrying and fretting is all for you, it'll finish me off in the end!" "And this is the thanks for all my care!" "The thoughtless boy torments and hates me!" "You taught me a lot, Mime, and I learned a few things from you." "But the thing you wanted to teach me most" "I've never managed to learn:" "to stand the sight of you!" "Whenever you bring me food and drink sheer disgust turns my stomach." "When you make up a bed for my slumbers sleep refuses to come." "When you try to teach me the things you know" "I'd rather be deaf and stupid." "And when I watch you going about your business everything you do gets my hackles raised!" "When I see you tottering around, stumbling, nodding, and squinting at me," "I want to grab you by the throat and shake the living daylights out of you!" "That's how I feel about you, Mime." "But if you're so clever, tell me one thing." "I never managed to figure it out." "I go off to the woods to avoid you." "But why do I come back in the end?" "All the animals are dearer to me than you." "Trees and birds, the fish in the stream," "I like them all better than you." "So why do I come home after all?" "If you're so wise, then tell me!" "My boy, what you learn from that is how fond you are of me, deep down." "I can't stand the sight of you, don't forget that!" "You're just saying that to be nasty." "You really should curb your tongue!" "Baby animals are always whining for their parents and their home." "It's a token of their love." "That's why you keep coming back to me:" "it's a sign of your love for Mime." "And that's the way it should be!" "Birds look after their fledglings, they feed them in the nest until they are ready to fly." "The love they feel is the love you feel for the selfless care I give you." "That must be it!" "Well, Mime, if you're so clever, then tell me one last thing!" "In springtime, when the birds were singing and calling to one another," "you told me yourself when I asked you that they were males and females." "They were billing and cooing and they never parted." "They built a nest and brought up their young, the youngsters fluttered around in the nest" "and both parents shared the job." "And down on the ground the deer were mating, even wild beasts like foxes or wolves." "The male went off and brought back food, the female suckled her young." "That was how I learnt what love is." "I never took the young away from their mothers." "So where is she, Mime?" "Where's your loving mate, the woman I can call mother?" "What nonsense is this?" "Oh, you're such a fool!" "You're not a bird, are you?" "Or a fox?" "As a whining baby you brought me up, gave the little fellow clothes to keep him warm." "But how did you get me in the first place?" "Are you saying you made me without a mother?" "I've told you the facts, so believe what I say." "I'm your father and mother, all in one!" "That's a lie, you evil wretch!" "Youngsters always look like their parents." "That's one thing I've learned for myself." "When I looked down into the clear waters of the stream" "I saw the trees and the animals mirrored in the water, sun and clouds, just as they are." "They looked just the same in the glittering brook." "And then I saw my own image." "And I didn't look anything like you!" "A toad and a darting fish were more alike, but no fish was ever born of a toad!" "What idiotic drivel you're spouting!" "You see?" "Now I know the answer to that question I asked you before." "When I go off to the woods to avoid you why do I come back in the end?" "It's because I need you to tell me who my father and mother were!" "Father!" "Mother!" "What a silly question!" "I'll choke it out of you if I have to!" "You'll never tell me of your own accord!" "You never told me anything if I didn't make you." "I'd hardly have learned to speak if I hadn't forced you to teach me, you wretch!" "Out with it, you mangy scoundrel!" "Who are my father and mother?" "Are you trying to kill me, or what?" "Lay off!" "I'll tell you what you want to know, as best I can." "You evil, thankless boy!" "Now hear what you hate me for!" "I'm not your father, nor any relation, but without me you'd not be alive!" "Though we have no ties, I'm your only friend." "It was charity alone that made me take you in and a fine reward I have for my pains!" "How could I be so foolish as to expect thanks?" "One day I came across a woman whimpering out there in the woods." "I helped her back to this place" "and looked after her here in the warm." "She was great with child and soon her time had come." "She thrashed about in her pain." "I helped as best I could." "Her agony was awful!" "She died." "But Siegfried survived." "So my mother died through me?" "She entrusted you to my care" "and I was happy to look after the child." "The lengths that Mime went to, the trouble he took in his kindness!" ""As a whining baby I brought you up..."" "Yes, we've heard that before!" "Now tell me:" "Why is my name Siegfried?" "Your mother told me to call you by that name, as "Siegfried" you would grow strapping and handsome." ""I gave the little fellow clothes to keep him warm..."" "But what was my mother's name?" "I really cannot say! "I plied you with food and drink..."" " Tell me her name at once!" " I must have forgotten." "No, wait!" "Sieglinde was her name, I think, who left you to me." ""I looked after you like my very own self..."" "One more question!" "Who was my father?" "I never met him." "But my mother mentioned his name?" "All she said was he'd been killed in combat." "Then she gave me the orphan." ""And as you grew up I cared for you still,"" ""made you a nice bed for your slumbers..."" "Oh, give us a rest, will you?" "If you want me to believe your story, if you haven't been making it all up give me some token to prove it!" "What more do you want?" "I won't believe what you tell me." "I'll only believe what I see!" "What proof do you have for your story?" "Your mother gave me this." "For trouble, care and food she left it as meagre recompense." "Look, it's a broken sword." "She said your father wielded it in the fight in which he was killed." "This is the sword you must mend for me!" "Then at last I'll have a proper weapon!" "Come on!" "Hurry up, Mime!" "Get moving!" "If you're so skilful, now's the time to prove it!" "Forget the shoddy trash you've fobbed me off with." "This is the one sword I can trust!" "If I find you idle, if you do a bad job, if you patch up the steel instead of forging it new then I'll flay your craven hide, you'll get a drubbing you won't forget!" "I want that sword and I want it soon." "I must have it before the day's out!" "Why are you in such a hurry?" "I want to get out of this wood and never come back!" "At last I'm free." "Nothing holds me back!" "You're not my father." "My home is far away." "Your house is not my house." "I'm a stranger under your roof." "Like a fish in the water, like a bird winging away in the air," "I'll be off from here in a trice, away like the wind over the woods, never to see you, Mime, again!" "Hey!" "Wait!" "Where are you going?" "There he goes charging off!" "And I'm stuck here!" "My plight was bad enough and now it's even worse." "Now I'm really in a fix!" "How can I get out of it?" "How can I keep him here?" "How can I get this hothead to Fafner's lair?" "How can I weld those stubborn pieces of steel?" "No furnace is fiery enough to melt them, no hammer of mine is hard enough to forge them." "Neither the hate in my heart nor trouble and sweat will put Nothung together and weld the sword back into shape!" "Hail to you, wise smith!" "Your guest is weary from his travels." "Grant me the shelter of your house!" "Who has found me here in the wild wood?" "Who has hunted me down in the grim forest?" "In the world" "I am known as "Wanderer"." "I have wandered many a mile." "On the face of the earth I have roamed far and wide!" "Well then, roam some more and be off!" "Wanderer, live up to your name!" "Good folk have been hospitable to me, many a gift I received from them." "He who fears misfortune usually deserves it." "Misfortune has always dogged me." "Would you pile more trouble on my head?" "Much have I witnessed, my knowledge is great." "I have shared that knowledge with many, helped to free them of their troubles," "the distress that weighed them down." "Maybe you are wise enough to see to the heart of things, but I don't need spies like that here!" "I want to be left alone, on my own, and I don't want any loiterers here!" "Many have believed that they were wise but what would serve them best they did not know." "What they needed I made them ask me and they profited from my advice." "Useless knowledge is a futile burden." "I know enough for my purposes." "I have my wits and that's all I need, so take your wisdom somewhere else!" "I sit at your fire and wager my head." "It's yours if I cannot answer." "My head is yours to do with as you will if the answers I give bring you no profit," "if I cannot advise you for the best." "How can I get rid of this intruder?" "I must catch him out with my questions." "You have wagered your head for shelter." "So have all your wits about you!" "Three questions" "I shall ask you." "And I must answer all three." "You have wandered far on the face of the earth and seen much of the world." "So tell me, if you can, what race of beings dwells in the depths of the earth?" "In the depths of the earth dwell the Nibelungs." "Nibelheim is their home." "They are black spirits." "Once, long ago, Alberich ruled over them." "The awesome power of a magic ring bent the diligent dwarves to his will." "A rich hoard of shimmering treasure they amassed at his behest." "With its aid he thought to win the world for himself." "What is your second question, say?" "Wanderer, you seem to know much of the realms at the heart of the world." "Now say in a word what race of beings" "lives on the face of the earth?" "On the face of the earth lives the race of giants." "Riesenheim is their home." "Fasolt and Fafner, their rugged lords, envied the Nibelungs' power." "They won the huge hoard for themselves and with it the ring." "That ring caused the brothers to quarrel," "Fafner killed Fasolt to have it and now he guards it as a fearsome dragon." "I await your third question." "Wanderer, you seem to know much of the realms on the face of the earth." "Now tell me true what race of beings" "dwells on high above the clouds?" "On high, above the clouds dwell the gods." "Valhalla is the name of their palace." "They are spirits of light." "Light Alberich, Wotan, rules over their hosts." "From the most hallowed branch of the primeval ash he fashioned the shaft of his spear." "Though the ash may wither that spear shall never lose its power." "With the point at its head Wotan holds sway over the world." "The runes safeguarding the contracts he made are carved on the shaft of the spear." "The weft of the world has in his hands he who wields the spear in Wotan's grasp." "The Nibelung hordes acknowledged his power, his counsel tamed the race of giants." "All of them owe obeisance to the mighty lord of the spear." "Now tell me, in your wisdom, did I answer the questions right?" "Have I redeemed my head?" "You knew the answers, you've saved your neck, so, Wanderer, be on your way!" "What you need to know" "I told you to ask." "I wagered my head on the outcome." "As you do not know what would profit you" "I now claim yours as a pledge." "The welcome you gave me was surly," "I put my head in your hands to enjoy the shelter of your home." "Now the turn is mine and your head is forfeit if you fail to answer my three questions." "So pluck up your courage, Mime!" "My native land I left long ago, long ago I crawled from my mother's womb." "I know the light of Wotan's eye, it is fixed on me here and now." "My cunning cringes before it." "But wisdom, it seems, is my only recourse, so, Wanderer, ask what you will!" "Perhaps, in this evil dilemma," "I can manage to save my head." "Now, honest Mime, tell me first" "what is the name of the race" "that Wotan vented his fury on" "though it is dearest of all to his heart?" "Little I know of heroes' lore but this question holds no terrors." "The Wälsungs are the chosen race that Wotan fathered and tenderly loved though he treated them harshly indeed." "Siegmund and Sieglinde were Wälse's children, a wild and desperate pair of twins." "Siegfried was born of their union, a youth of invincible strength." "Am I right, Wanderer?" "Have I saved my head?" "Profound indeed is your knowledge of these things." "Your wisdom, churl, astounds me!" "The first game goes to you." "But now comes the second question." "A cunning Nibelung is Siegfried's guardian." "He wants him to kill Fafner so that he can get at the ring" "and be lord of the mighty hoard." "What sword must Siegfried wield if Fafner is to die at his hands?" "Nothung's the name of that doughty sword." "Wotan thrust it in the trunk of an ash and said it would be his by right who managed to pull it back out." "The strongest warriors tried and failed, only bold Siegmund was equal to the task." "He wielded it in combat till it shattered on Wotan's spear." "The pieces are in the keeping of a wily smith for he knows that Wotan's sword alone will empower Siegfried, the bold, brainless boy," "to deal the dragon the fatal wound." "Have I saved my neck once again?" "The wiliest you are of the wily!" "Who else could match your wisdom?" "But if you are clever enough to use the youthful hero for your dwarfish designs you must answer the third question now." "Tell me, wily weapon-smith, who will weld that sword together again and fashion Nothung anew?" "The pieces?" "The sword?" "Curses!" "I'm trapped!" "What shall I say?" "My mind's gone blank!" "Accursed steel that I took for my own!" "It's brought me nothing but calamity!" "It will not yield to my hammer's blows, rivets and solder serve no purpose!" "The wiliest smith is at his wits' end!" "Who will mend the sword if the task is beyond me?" "No one can know, so how should I?" "Three questions you were given, three times I was yours for the asking." "The questions you asked were futile." "The thing you really needed to know, that crucial question you failed to ask." "And now I've guessed it and it drives you insane!" "Your wily head has fallen to me!" "Now, valiant dragon-slayer, though you're doomed, hear what I say:" ""Only he who has never known fear"" ""can forge Nothung anew."" "Your wily head guard well, if you can!" "I leave it for him to claim who has never known fear!" "Curse this light!" "What is that glare in the air?" "What's that flickering and quivering, flimmering and wavering," "what is looming and glooming and hovering all around?" "It glimmers and glitters in the light of the sun!" "What's that humming and thrumming and droning nearby?" "It's growling and howling and hurtling this way!" "It breaks forth from the woods and it's coming nearer!" "A horrible maw gapes before my eyes!" "The dragon is after me!" "Fafner!" "Fafner!" "Hey, you idler!" "Have you finished it?" "Quick!" "Show me my new sword!" "Where is Mime?" "Has he done a bunk?" "Hey, Mime, you coward!" "Where are you?" "Where've you hidden yourself?" "Is it you, child?" "Are you on your own?" "Behind the table?" "Why are you skulking there?" "Is my sword ready?" "The sword?" "How could I mend it?" ""Only he"" ""who has never known fear"" ""can forge Nothung anew."" "I know too much for such work!" "Will you give me an answer?" "Do you want some help?" "Who can help me in my dilemma?" "I've wagered my wise old head." "It's forfeit, it's his to claim" ""who has never known fear"." "What babble is this?" "Are you trying to fool me?" "I might try to fool anyone who knows what fear is!" "But I forgot to teach the boy that!" "Like an idiot, I neglected the one thing I need." "I tried to teach him to love me." "And that went badly wrong!" "But how can I teach him what fear is?" "Hey, do you hear me?" "Where's my sword?" "Concerned for your welfare" "I fell to thinking about some important advice I must give you." "You thought so hard that you were grovelling on the floor!" "What advice did you find for me there?" "I learned fear for your sake so that I can teach you what it is." " What's this talk of fear?" " Have you never felt it?" "And you want to leave the woods for the wide world?" "What use would the sturdiest sword be to you if you don't know what fear is?" "Is this some more of your bogus advice?" "The advice I give you comes from your mother." "I must keep the solemn promise I gave her not to expose you to the wiles of the world before you have learned fear." "Is it some skill?" "Why don't I know about it?" "Tell me!" "What's all this talk about fear?" "Imagine you're lost in the depths of the woods, the light is failing, the place is dark." "Suddenly you hear something humming and droning, it's getting nearer, growling and roaring," "a horrid flickering" "quivers all around, a monstrous throbbing descends on you!" "Did you not feel your flesh creep as horror transfixed you to the spot?" "Nameless dread makes you shudder and shake, appalled and aghast, you can feel your heart hammering, fit to burst!" "If you've never been through all that then you do not know what fear is." "What a strange feeling that must be!" "Sturdy and stout my heart beats in my breast." "All this horror and dread, this shuddering and shaking, quivering and quaking, hammering and trembling," "I'd like to give it a try!" "It's a pleasure I yearn to sample!" "But how will you teach me that, Mime?" "How could your puny powers be equal to the task?" "Follow me." "I will be your guide." "I've thought of a way to do it." "I know of an evil dragon who kills and devours his victims." "Fafner will teach you what fear is, so follow me to his lair." "And where is that lair of his?" "Hell Hole the place is called, to the east, at the rim of the forest." "Then it cannot be far from the world?" "The world begins near his lair." "Then take me there at once!" "When I've learned fear I'll go out into the world!" "Quickly now!" "Make me the sword" "I can wield out there in the world!" "The sword!" "Curses!" "Get back to your work!" "Show me what you've done!" "The sword is jinxed!" "I cannot repair it." "The spell that guards it defies my powers." "Someone who knows no fear might be better at doing the job." "Enough of these flimsy excuses!" "You're no good at your job!" "Admit it instead of squirming your way out like this!" "Give me the pieces, bungler, and stand aside!" "My father's sword will obey my will." "I shall forge it anew myself!" "If you'd paid more attention to learning my skills it'd stand you in good stead now!" "But you never put your mind to the task so how do you think you can cope?" "If the teacher can't do it, what good would it do if I'd always been a good pupil?" "Now get out of the way and don't interfere or you'll end up in the fire as well!" "What do you think you're doing?" "Use the solder!" "It's ready and waiting, I made it myself!" "No solder for me!" "I don't need it!" "I can't make a sword with your muck!" "You're ruining the file, you're wrecking the rasp!" "Would you batter the sword to pieces?" "I'm filing it down to splinters." "Then I can make the broken blade whole!" "Expert advice is no use here," "I see that now." "His own folly is the only thing that can help this fool." "With what zest he goes about his work!" "The steel is melting but there's no sweat on his brow!" "Old as the woods I may be but I've never seen anything like this!" "He'll mend the sword," "I can see it coming, he's getting it back into shape." "The Wanderer knew it well!" "How can I save my hapless head?" "It will fall to this lout if Fafner does not teach him fear!" "But there's the rub!" "How could he kill the dragon if the dragon struck fear in his heart?" "How can I get hold of the ring?" "Devilish fix!" "My fate is sealed unless I can find some way to outwit this rowdy myself!" "Hey, Mime!" "Quick!" "What's the name of the sword that I have filed down to splinters?" "Nothung's the name of the valiant blade." "Your mother told me." "Nothung!" "Nothung!" "Valiant blade!" "What force could make you shatter?" "Now that I've splintered the glorious blade" "I can melt the shards in the furnace." "Blow, bellows, blow!" "Fan the flames!" "There was once a tree growing wild in the wood," "I felled it in the forest." "I burnt the brown ash until it was coal and here it lies piled on the hearth." "Blow, bellows, blow!" "Fan the flames!" "The coal from that tree burns bright and bold." "How bright and fair are the flames!" "The sizzling sparks go leaping up!" "The shredded steel is a molten mass!" "The sword will be his, Fafner has no chance," "I can see it all, clear as day!" "The hoard and the ring will be his to command so how can I make it all mine?" "With crafty cunning I'll win the whole lot and save my head into the bargain!" "When he's worn himself out with the dragon" "I'll make him a drink for his pains." "With the juices won from potent herbs" "I'll concoct something special for him." "A few drops of it will be ample to numb his senses in sleep." "And then with the weapon he made for himself" "I can finish him off with ease, and the ring and the hoard are mine!" "Nothung!" "Nothung!" " Valiant blade!" " Hey!" "Wise Wanderer!" "Now the shreds of steel are melted down!" " You thought me stupid?" " Now you lie here in your own lather!" "How do you like my crafty plan?" "Have I got my head out of the noose?" "Soon I shall wield you as my own!" "A stream of fire flowed into the water, how it hissed in its raging wrath!" "But, fiery as it flowed, it flows in the water no more." "Now it is hard and stiff, lordly is the sturdy steel." "But soon hot blood will be flowing down its blade!" "Now seethe anew so that I can forge you," "Nothung, valiant blade!" "What's that dolt up to there with his pots?" "When I'm forging steel are you rustling up slop?" "The craftsman stands disgraced, the teacher must learn from his prentice." "Old Mime has given his craft up for good, now he serves the boy as cook." "While he melts down the iron in the fire old Mime cooks eggs for his meal." "Mime, the craftsman, is learning to cook." "He has lost all zest in his trade." "All the swords he made me I snapped in two and I will not sample his cooking!" "He's promised to take me where I can learn fear, some dragon's supposed to scare me stiff." "The skill he knows best he cannot teach me, he bungles everything he does!" "My hammer is forging a doughty sword!" "Your steely blue was tinted with gore, ran red with the blush of fresh blood." "Grim was the relish you took as you licked the warm blood cool!" "Now the furnace has fired you red, your soft hardness yields to the hammer." "Angrily you spit your sparks at me for taming your proud spirit!" "He forges himself a sturdy sword to slay Fafner, Mime's foe." "I have cunningly brewed a potion" "to stun Siegfried when he's killed the dragon." "My plan is crafty indeed, the reward is as good as mine!" "My hammer is forging a doughty sword!" "How the sizzling sparks rejoice my heart!" "Spit out in anger, they honour my feat." "The sight of you gladdens my eyes though you glower grim and gaunt!" "With fire and hammer I have forged you anew, with powerful blows I have beaten you straight." "Now cast off the blush of shame!" "Be cold and hard once again!" "The shimmering ring my brother made, the mighty magic it holds." "The golden ring that makes me king is now within my grasp!" "At last it is mine!" "Alberich, who made me slave for him, Alberich will be my slave!" "The Nibelungs will have a new lord, all their hordes are mine to command!" "What honour he'll have, the downtrodden dwarf!" "Gods and heroes will envy the treasures he owns." "At a nod from me the world will blench and quake in the face of my wrath!" "Nothung!" "Nothung!" "Valiant blade!" "Now you are fixed in the hilt!" "Then Mime's toiling will be at an end." "Broken you were, now I've made you whole." "No blow will ever snap you again!" "Let others labour to make me rich!" "The sword that failed my dying father is forged anew by his living son." "The gleaming blade rejoices his eye," " its sharpness cuts hard and true." " Mime the mighty, Mime is king!" "Lord of the underworld, ruler of all!" "Nothung!" "Nothung!" "Valiant blade!" "I have roused you to new life, dead though you were and undone." "Now you shine again, to challenge the world!" "Hey, Mime!" "What a brilliant feat!" "Let miscreants quail at your sheen!" "Who'd have thought it?" "Slaughter the villains, slash the rogues!" "Look, Mime, you smith!" "See what Siegfried's sword can do!" "In the dark of the forest I stand guard near Hell Hole." "No sound escapes me, my eyes strain to pierce the gloom." "Are those the first streaks of dawn?" "Or what is it that flecks the darkness?" "What sudden gleam flashes there?" "There's a brightness coming this way, plunging ahead like a fiery charger, surging this way through the woods." "Is this the dragon-slayer?" "Is it he who shall kill Fafner?" "The light has faded," "the gleam has died away." "It is night again." "Who is this, shimmering in the shadows?" "By night I have sought out Hell Hole." "Who lurks in the darkness there?" "You dare to show yourself here?" "What do you want?" "Get out of here!" "On your way, shameless thief!" "Alberich!" "Is that you prowling around?" "Are you guarding Fafner's lair?" "What new evil are you plotting?" "Take yourself off, out of my sight!" "This place is steeped in your treachery." "Leave it to me, do you hear?" "I came to watch," "not to intervene." "Who would bar the Wanderer's way?" "You scheming blackguard!" "I have learned from my errors, you will not outwit me again." "It won't be so easy to get the ring this time!" "Beware!" "I know all your tricks!" "And I know your weak points, too." "None of them have escaped me." "You paid your debts with my treasure." "My ring was the giants' reward for building Valhalla for you." "The bargain you made with those ruffians is still carved in runes on the shaft of your proud spear." "That ties your hands, you cannot wrest the wage you paid away from the giants again." "The shaft of your spear would splinter, the mighty token of your power would shatter to bits in your hands!" "I have no contract with you" "that would bend you to my will." "By its power alone the spear keeps you cowed." "I shall use it on you if there's need!" "What a fine show of haughty disdain you make though at heart you are quaking in fear!" "My curse has put the mark of death on the guardian of the hoard." "Who will inherit his wealth?" "Will the Nibelung regain possession of the treasure?" "The prospect preys on your mind!" "For when I have the ring in my grasp again, unlike those dim-witted giants I shall make better use of its power." "Your army of heroes will not help you then." "I'll storm Valhalla with the forces of night and then I'll be lord of the world!" "I know your plans very well but they cause me no concern." "He shall be lord of the ring who wins it for himself." "Why be so mysterious about something I know full well?" "Your hopes are pinned to a hero's son, the scion of your own blood." "Have you nurtured well that glorious boy to pick you the fruit" "that you can never pluck?" "Spare your venom and use it on Mime." "Your brother spells danger for you." "He's coming this way with a boy he hopes will kill Fafner for him." "The boy has no knowledge of me, Mime is using him for his purposes." "So, my friend, my advice to you is:" "Do exactly what you think best!" "Hear what I say and be on your guard!" "The boy is ignorant of the ring." "But Mime well knows its worth!" "You have no designs on the gold?" "Those I love" "I leave to fend for themselves." "For better or worse, their fate is in their hands." "Only heroes are of use to me." "Mime is my only rival for the ring?" "Only you and he lust after the gold." "But you say it would still not be mine?" "A hero is approaching to free the hoard." "Two Nibelungs desire the treasure." "Fafner, the guardian of the ring, will die." "Get your hands on it first and it's yours!" "What more do you want?" "The dragon lies in his lair." "Warn him of what's in store and he'll perhaps leave you the gold." "I'll wake him for you myself." "Fafner!" "Fafner!" "Rouse yourself, dragon!" "What folly is this?" "Does he really want me to have it?" "Who disturbs my sleep?" "Here is one who has come to warn you." "You'll pay with your life unless you pay him for your life with the hoard you guard!" "What does he want?" "Awake, Fafner!" "Rouse yourself, dragon!" "A valiant hero comes this way to challenge you and prevail." "I hunger for him." "The boy is bold and strong, his sword cuts sharp and deep." "All he wants is the ring of gold!" "Give me the ring in reward and there'll be no need to fight." "The hoard is yours and you can grow old in peace!" "Here I lie, the hoard is mine." "Let me sleep!" "Well, Alberich, that was a flop!" "But rail at me no more!" "I advise you, mark me well!" "All things are as they are." "Nothing you can do will change that." "I leave the place to you, so stake your claim!" "Try your luck with Mime, your brother." "You'll fare better with his kind." "That others are different" "you will find out soon enough!" "There he goes striding away, leaving me troubled and mocked." "Laugh yourselves to death, you gang of carefree, pleasure-seeking gods!" "I'll see you all perish yet!" "As long as the gold gleams in the light" "I shall wait here to take my chance." "And I will defy you to the end!" "This is the place!" "Stay where you are!" "This is where I'm to learn fear?" "You've taken me a long way." "One whole night in the forest it took us to get here." "This is the parting of the ways, Mime!" "If I don't learn fear here" "I shall journey on alone." "Then I'll be rid of you at last!" "Listen, my dear boy!" "If you don't learn fear here and soon you're not likely to learn it anywhere else!" "Do you see that gaping black hole over there?" "In that cave lives a dreadful dragon." "He's horribly fierce and huge." "When he sees you he'll bare his horrible fangs and in one gulp he'll devour you." "It'll be a good thing to shut his snout for good." "I'll keep out of the way of his fangs." "He spits out streams of venom as he goes." "Get in the way of that death-dealing slobber and your flesh and bones will shrivel!" "I'll avoid the deadly slime by attacking him from the side." "A tail like a huge serpent flails in his wake." "If he gets its coils around you your limbs will shatter like glass!" "That flailing tail will not harm me if I keep my wits about me." "But tell me one thing." "Does the dragon have a heart?" "Yes, a black and merciless heart!" "It beats in his breast, like everyone else's, be they man or beast?" "Oh, yes, my boy, just like everyone else's." "Is fear beginning to tell?" "Nothung I shall thrust into his proud heart!" "Does that sound like fear to you?" "Hei, Mime!" "Is that the best your wisdom can teach me?" "If so, then be on your way!" "I won't learn fear here." "Wait and see!" "You think what I've said is just hot air but once you've seen and heard him your senses will forsake you forthwith!" "When your sight goes blurred and your knees buckle, when your heart quails in your breast," "then you'll thank me for bringing you all this way, then you'll see how much Mime loves you." "I don't want you to love me!" "I told you that, didn't I?" "Get out of my sight!" "Leave me alone!" "I'll not stay here any more if you start drivelling about love!" "This disgusting nodding and blinking!" "When will I see the back of him, when will I be rid of him at last?" "All right, I'm going." "I'll be down there by the stream." "You just wait here." "When the sun is at its highest, watch out for the dragon!" "That's when he comes lumbering out of his lair." "Then he passes close by this spot and goes down to the stream to drink." "Mime, if that's where you're hanging out" "I think I might just let him pass by." "I won't ram Nothung down his gizzard until he's guzzled you down with his drink." "So heed my advice!" "Don't hang around by the stream!" "Go away, as far as you can and don't bother to come back!" "After such a fierce fight you'll need some refreshment." "You won't refuse that from me?" "And call on me if you need advice or if you find that fear's to your taste!" "Fafner and Siegfried, Siegfried and Fafner, if only they'd kill one another!" "At least he's not my father." "That was a real relief!" "Now there's nothing to spoil my delight in these woods, my pleasure in the fair light of day." "Now I'm rid of that foul runt and I'll never clap eyes on him again!" "What did my father look like?" "Much like myself, I suppose!" "For if Mime had a son somewhere wouldn't he look just like Mime?" "Just as grim and grumpy and grey, small and crooked, misshapen and lame, with hanging ears and bleary eyes." "Enough of the dwarf!" "I've had more than my fill of him!" "But what did my mother look like?" "I cannot imagine that!" "I bet she had eyes like a doe, all lovely and shining but much more beautiful!" "But when she gave birth to me why did she have to die?" "Do human mothers all die when they've given birth to their sons?" "That would be sad indeed!" "Ah, how much this son would give to see his mother!" "My mother," "a mortal woman!" "What a nice little bird!" "I've never heard you before." "Is this forest your home?" "If only I could understand your sweet song!" "Perhaps it's trying to tell me something about my dear mother?" "That surly old dwarf told me once that the language of the birds is something you can learn to understand." "But how could I go about it?" "Well, I'll give it a try." "I'll just imitate your song." "If I carve this right, it'll sound like you!" "If I forget the words and listen to the melody" "I can mimic your voice and then I'll understand what you say." "No sound!" "He's waiting for me." "Well, here goes!" "That doesn't sound right." "This pipe is no good to imitate his sweet lay." "Woodbird, it looks like I'm not clever enough." "It's not easy to learn from you!" "I stand here shamed by your knowing silence." "You wait, but I've nothing to say." "Oh, well!" "Then listen to my horn instead." "That stupid pipe is no good for the job." "I offer you a woodland tune instead, of the cheerful kind I know best." "How often I hoped it would win me a friend though no one heard me but wolves and bears." "So let's see if I'm luckier this time." "Will a good companion answer my call?" "Oho!" "Is this the reward for my efforts?" "You're a fine comrade, I must say!" "Who is there?" "Well, if you're an animal that can talk maybe I can learn something from you?" "Here is someone who knows no fear." "Can you show me what it is?" "Reckless fool!" "Fearless, reckless, call me what you like!" "But I'll soon put paid to you if you don't teach me what fear is!" "I came to drink and now I find food!" "That's a fine set of teeth you're showing me, all gleaming in your charming face!" "The time has come to shut your gullet, you've opened it far too wide!" "It was not made for idle chatter but it's all the better to eat you with!" "Oho!" "You're a nasty piece of work!" "I don't fancy being digested by you!" "So it seems like the best idea is to finish you off on the spot." "Come here, boastful boy!" "Take care, big mouth!" "The boaster is on his way!" "That's the end of you!" "Nothung has pierced your heart!" "Who are you, fearless boy?" "Who has dealt me this blow?" "Who put you up to this deed?" "Who told you to kill me?" "This thing that you have done was not of your own devising." "As yet I do not know much, not even who I am." "But if I have killed you in combat you've only yourself to blame." "You bright-eyed boy, unknown to your own self, whom you have killed" "I shall tell you." "Of the towering race of giants," "Fasolt and Fafner, the brothers, now they are slain both." "For accursed gold, the reward of the gods," "I clubbed Fasolt to death." "His brother, the dragon that guarded the hoard," "Fafner, the last of the giants, lies felled by a youthful hero." "Be on your guard, valiant boy!" "He who prompted you to this deed is planning your death!" "Learn from my fate!" "Heed my words!" "But tell me first where I hail from." "It seems that in death you are wise." "Hear who I am and tell me!" "Siegfried is my name." "Siegfried!" "Death has sealed his lips." "Then let my living sword be my guide!" "The blood burns like fire!" "Can it be?" "I think I can understand the song of the birds!" "Does this come from the blood on my lips?" "This rare little bird, what does his song tell me?" "Hei!" "Siegfried has won the Nibelungs' hoard!" "It lies in the cave and is his to command!" "The magic helmet will serve him for glorious deeds!" "But if he finds the ring it will make him lord of the world!" "Thank you, my friend, for your good advice!" "I shall follow it gladly!" "Where are you slinking in such a hurry, sly wretch?" "Accursed brother, you're the last one I need!" "What brings you here?" "Rogue!" "Do you covet my gold?" "Would you steal my hoard?" "Be off!" "This is my territory." "What are you after?" "Have I queered your pitch?" "Caught you in the act?" "I have worked hard for this and I won't give it up!" "Was it you who stole the gold from the Rhine?" "You who cast the spell on the ring?" "Who made the helmet that changes your shape?" "It served you well!" "Was it your invention?" "Bungler!" "What would you have wrought on your own?" "My magic ring forced you to do as I bade!" "And where is it now?" "The giants took it off you!" "What you lost I have won by stealth." "The boy has prevailed and you call the deed your own?" "You had no hand in it, the boy did it alone!" "I brought him up." "And now he will pay for my care!" "The reward is mine by right!" "For bringing up a boy, this scabby, miserly wretch has the gall to call himself king?" "A mangy dog would make better use of the ring than you!" "The power in that ring will never be yours, you runt!" "Well, keep it then and guard it well, the ring of gold!" "You can be king." "But remember I'm your brother." "Give me the magic helmet and I'll let you have the ring." "We'll both be content if we share the booty like that." "Share with you?" "And give you the helmet?" "A cunning ploy!" "I'd never be safe from your scheming!" "You refuse to swap?" "You refuse to share?" "No reward for my pains?" "You would leave me nothing at all?" "Nothing at all!" "Not one flake of the gold will be yours!" "Then ring and helmet are mine!" "I'm no longer in sharing mood!" "I'll set Siegfried on you with his sword." "He'll soon put paid to you, brother dear!" "Look behind you!" "He's coming out of the cave!" "I bet he's chosen some childish junk!" "He's got the helmet!" " And the ring as well!" " Curses!" "The ring!" "Go over and tell him it's yours!" "I'll get it for myself in the end!" "I am its rightful lord." "It will serve me alone!" "I do not know what use you will be but I took you from the mighty hoard of gold" "at the woodbird's good advice." "You are the tokens of my exploits today, bear witness that I worsted Fafner in the fight" "though fear I still have not learned!" "Hei!" "Now Siegfried has helmet and ring!" "Ah, let him be wary of Mime and his treachery!" "Pay heed to the meaning behind his sly words!" "You can read the thoughts in Mime's evil mind." "Fafner's blood has given you the power." "Some inkling he has of the value of what he has won." "Has a wise wanderer been this way, prowling around, advising the boy with cunning counsel and wiles?" "Then I must be doubly cunning." "Now is the time for my subtlest snare." "With fawning flattery I must win the trust of the foolish, obstinate boy." "Welcome," "Siegfried!" "Tell me, bold warrior, have you learned what fear is now?" "There was no one here to teach me!" "But the dragon, you slew him in the fight?" "He was a nasty customer, wasn't he?" "Fierce and cruel as he was" "I almost regret his death when there are much worse villains walking around unscathed!" "The one who egged me on to fight him is more hateful to me than the dragon!" "Gently does it!" "You won't see me much longer." "Soon I shall close your eyes for ever!" "You've done what I brought you here to do." "All I need to do now is get the gold off you." "I should be able to manage that!" "You're easy to fool after all!" "So you are seeking to harm me?" "That's not what I said!" "Siegfried!" "Listen to me, my boy!" "You and your kind I have always loathed with all my heart." "It wasn't for love that I brought you up" "I did it for the treasure in Fafner's keeping for the gold he guarded here." "And if you won't give it me of your own free will," "Siegfried, my boy, as I'm sure you'll agree, then you must pay for it with your life!" "You hate me, do you?" "That's fine!" "But you're after my life as well?" "But I never said that!" "You've got the wrong end of the stick!" "Look, you're tired after your exertions." "I'm sure you're parched and dry." "A drink will refresh you, I made it myself to restore you after the fight." "I brewed it when you were making your sword." "Drink it now and your fine sword is mine, and helmet and gold into the bargain!" "So that's what you're after, my sword and my spoils, the ring and the rest of the hoard?" "How can you be so obtuse?" "Am I talking in riddles, or what?" "I'm doing the very best I can to hide my deepest desires and you're so stupid you understand it all wrong!" "Prick up your ears and hear what I say!" "This is what Mime means!" "Take this and let it restore you." "I have often refreshed you before." "Though you acted surly and behaved like a brat the drinks I made you" "you always took, with never a word of thanks." "A good drink would be welcome indeed!" "How did you make this?" "Aw, just drink it." "Trust to my skill!" "Soon your senses will sink into deep, dark night, your limbs will be splayed, your mind will go blank." "As you lie in stupor, I could easily grab the gold and run." "But once you awoke" "I'd never be safe from you, not even with the ring." "So I'll take the sword that you made so sharp and cut off your head instead." "Then I can sleep easy." "And I'll have the ring!" "So you're going to kill me in my sleep?" "What did you say?" "What makes you think that?" "All I want is to cut off your head!" "For if I didn't hate you like I do, if I didn't have so many insults and troubles" "to avenge myself for," "I'd still have no choice, I'd still have to bump you off." "How else could I be sure of grabbing the gold, with Alberich after it, too?" "Well, my Wälsung, son of the wolves, now drink, and choke to death!" "It's the last drop you'll ever drain!" "Taste the blade of my sword, vile prattler!" "Nothung pays you out for your pains!" "It was for this that I forged it." "Lie here on the gold, in Fafner's lair!" "With dogged persistence you schemed for the prize." "Now it's yours to command." "I've even got a good watchdog to protect you from robbers and thieves." "Join him here, dread dragon!" "Keep watch on the hoard with the foe who craved it for his own!" "Now both of you have got what you wanted!" "I am hot from my arduous labours!" "My fiery blood courses through my veins, my hand burns on my brow." "The sun stands high in the sky." "It glares from the blue and beats right down on my head." "I shall rest in the shade of that lime tree." "Once again, dear little woodbird, now that peace is restored," "I would gladly hear your song." "I see you swaying on that branch." "Your brothers and sisters flutter around, what a merry band you are!" "But I am all alone," "I have no brothers or sisters." "My mother died, my father fell," "their son never saw them!" "My only companion was an evil dwarf, there was no love lost between us." "He was plotting foul schemes to undo me." "In the end it was him or me!" "Dear little woodbird," "I ask you now:" "Do you have a companion for me?" "Will you advise me what to do?" "In vain I have sought but nothing came of my efforts." "You, my friend, can do better than that." "Your advice has always been right." "So sing!" "I shall heed what you say." "Hei!" "Siegfried has killed the evil dwarf!" "Now I can show him a glorious bride." "High on a rock she waits, asleep." "A great fire burns all around." "If he strode through the flames and woke his bride," "Brünnhilde would then be his!" "O wondrous song!" "Sweet tidings!" "Joyful anguish sears my heart!" "It leaps up, inflamed with delight!" "What assails my heart, what fires my senses?" "Tell me, dear friend, what it is!" "The sweet sorrow of love is my song." "Despairing delight is my argument." "Only lovers know its meaning." "The joy that awaits me drives me from here, away from the woods to the rock." "But tell me one thing, my dear, sweet friend, will I find my way through the fire?" "Can I wake my bride?" "No coward can win Brünnhilde for his bride." "Only he who knows no fear!" "The unthinking boy who knows no fear, my friend, you see before you!" "Today I strove once more in vain to find out what it is from Fafner." "Now I burn with longing to learn it from Brünnhilde!" "But how can I find my way to the rock?" "Ah, you'll guide me?" "Then lead on!" "I'll follow wherever you take me!" "Awake, Erda!" "Erda!" "Awake!" "From the depths of sleep I summon you." "Hear my call!" "Arise!" "From the mists of time, from eternal night, arise!" "Erda!" "Eternal woman!" "From the depths where you dwell rise up to me!" "Hear my incantation!" "Hear it and awake!" "From slumber and dreams I rouse you." "Omniscient one!" "Wisest of all!" "Erda!" "Eternal woman!" "Awake, Erda, awake!" "Urgent is the summons, mighty the power of the spell." "I have awoken from knowing slumber." "Who has roused me from sleep?" "I am your summoner, and the spells I cast arouse all those locked in sound sleep." "I have travelled the world and wandered afar to hear what you say, to win your wise counsel." "There is no one wiser than you." "You know the secrets of the deeps, the spirit that pervades hill and dale, air and water." "Where life is found, your breath inspires it, where minds are at work, your knowledge resides." "They say there is nothing unknown to you." "To profit from your wisdom" "I have wakened you from sleep!" "My sleep is dreaming, my dreams are wisdom," "my wisdom the power of truth." "But when I sleep the Norns keep watch." "They spin the yarn, they spin it to tell what I know." "Why do you not ask the Norns?" "The Norns obey the laws of the world, they can alter nothing, for better or worse." "But in your wisdom you could advise me how to halt the progress of things!" "The deeds of men cloud my thoughts." "Much though I know, a god once bent me to his will." "A glorious maiden I bore to Wotan." "The choice of heroes she made on his behalf." "Bold she is, and wise to boot." "Why do you wake me and why don't you ask" "Erda and Wotan's child?" "You mean the Valkyrie?" "Brünnhilde, the maiden?" "She defied me, the master of storms, when I mastered my own dearest wish." "Fain would I have turned the course of the fight but I resisted, against my own will!" "In her defiance she went too far and took it upon herself to intervene in the fray." "Wotan punished the maid." "He closed her eyes in sleep." "She is locked in slumber on the rock." "When she awakes it will be for love of a man who claims her as his wife." "What good would it do to ask her?" "How confused things appear since I awoke!" "The world whirls wild and mad!" "The Valkyrie, Erda's child, was locked in the bonds of sleep while her wise mother slept?" "He who taught defiance punishes defiance?" "He who prompted the deed is angered by the deed?" "He who guards what is right and watches over all oaths," "he shuns what is right and rules by falsehood?" "Let me return to the depths!" "Let my wisdom be steeped in sleep!" "You cannot escape from me." "I have the power to hold you." "With your wisdom you once sowed doubt in Wotan's adventurous heart." "His dread of decline and defeat was the fruit of your knowledge, his courage was dulled by fear." "If you are the wisest of all women, then tell me now:" "How can the god conquer his doubts?" "You are not what you pretend to be!" "What has brought you here, stubborn and wild, to disturb Erda's sleep?" "You are not what you think you are!" "This is the end of your age-old wisdom!" "Your knowledge crumbles in the face of my will." "Do you know what Wotan desires?" "You cannot, and therefore I'll tell you, then you can sleep in peace for all time!" "I do not fear the demise of the gods, since I have no other desire!" "What once I resolved in searing anguish, the decision born of despair, freely and gladly I shall now see it done." "In wrathful loathing I discarded the world for the Nibelung." "But now the valiant Wälsung shall inherit all that is mine." "My chosen heir, though he knows me not, that valiant boy, unaided by me," "has won the Nibelung's ring." "Rejoicing in love, untainted by hate," "Alberich's curse is powerless to harm him, for he is not acquainted with fear." "The maid you bore me, Brünnhilde, will be his when he wakes her from sleep." "And once awakened, your child in her wisdom will redeem the world from its plight." "So sleep once more, close your eyes!" "Witness my end in your dreams!" "Whatever may come, to eternal youth the god will gladly yield." "Descend then, Erda!" "Mother of fear!" "Sorrow of the world!" "Away!" "To everlasting sleep!" "I see Siegfried approaching." "The woodbird went winging away!" "Fluttering before me with his merry songs he guided me here to this spot." "Now he leaves me to fend for myself." "It's up to me to find the rock." "This far I came with his help." "The rest I can do on my own." "Where are you headed for,my boy?" "A voice close by!" "Perhaps it will tell me the way." "I'm in search of a rock ringed by fiery flames." "On that rock is a maiden asleep, and I intend to wake her." "Who told you to search for the rock?" "Who bade you yearn for the woman?" "The song of a woodbird told me of these things." "I gladly did as it said." "Birdsong is idle chatter." "No one can say what it means." "How could you make sense of the song?" "By tasting the blood of a fierce dragon." "I slew him outside his lair." "With the first drop of blood that touched my tongue" "I could tell what the birds were singing." "You slew the giant?" "At whose behest did you challenge the fearsome dragon?" "That was Mime, a treacherous dwarf." "He promised to help me learn fear." "But to plunge my weapon into his heart was provoked by the dragon himself." "He bared his fangs at me." "Who made the blade so keen and true that could fell such a fearsome foe?" "I made it myself." "The job was too hard for the smith." "Otherwise I'd still be unarmed." "But who forged the mighty pieces you joined to make the sword?" "How do I know?" "All I know is that the pieces alone were useless, so I forged the sword myself." "Yes, you certainly did!" "What's so funny?" "Old man," "I'm sick of your questions!" "I can't chat with you here all day!" "If you can tell me the way, then say so." "If you can't, just shut your mouth!" "Patience, my boy!" "If you think me old you should have more respect." "You must be joking!" "All my life, there was an old man getting in my way." "Now I've got rid of him for good." "If you bar my way any longer be careful you don't get the same treatment as Mime!" "Why do you look so funny?" "Why are you wearing that hat?" "Why is it pulled down over your face?" "All wanderers do that when the wind is blowing in their face." "It's to hide that eye you've lost!" "I bet someone punched it out of your head because you got in his way." "Now take yourself off, or else you might lose the other one as well!" "You may not know what you're talking about but you're never at a loss." "By the light of the eye that I lost of the two you yourself see the one" "that looks at you now." "Oh, yes!" "Very good!" "Very funny!" "But look." "I've no more time to be chatting to you." "Just show me the way, double quick, then get on your way yourself!" "You're no good for anything else so give me an answer or I'll give you a swipe!" "If you knew who I am, audacious boy," "you would spare me such insults!" "Beloved as you are, your jibes cause me pain and distress." "The race you spring from is dear to my heart but my anger, once roused, struck dread in their hearts." "So, though I delight in you, glorious boy," "do not rouse me to wrath!" "It would destroy you and me!" "Will you shut your mouth, you obstinate fool?" "Get out of my way, for this path will lead me to the rock where the woman lies asleep!" "The woodbird told me as much before it suddenly flew away." "It flew away to save its life!" "It knew that the Lord of the Ravens was here, what would happen if they caught up with it!" "I forbid you to follow the path it showed you!" "Oho!" "Forbid me, would you?" "What gives you the right to tell me what to do?" "Fear the guardian of the rock!" "The sleeping maiden is under my spell!" "He who awakes her and wins her for himself would undo my power for ever!" "A wall of fire surrounds the maid, fiery flames girdle the rock." "To win her as your bride you must make your way through the fire." "Look there, on the heights!" "Do you not see that glow?" "The flames will rear, the blaze will engorge you, clouds of searing smoke, tongues of flickering fire will descend on you, crackling and burning." "A sea of light will encircle your head, searing fire will consume your limbs." " So desist, foolhardy youth!" " Desist yourself, you braggart!" "That fire shows me the way I must go to find Brünnhilde!" "If fear of the fire will not stop you" "my spear will bar your way!" "This token of power is still mine to wield, the sword in your hands once shattered on its shaft." "It will break once again when it strikes the eternal spear!" "My father's foe!" "Have I found you here?" "Sweet revenge is mine at last!" "Brandish your spear!" "My sword will split it in two!" "Go your ways!" "I cannot stop you!" "With his spear shattered, the coward has made good his escape!" "Ah!" "Delightful glow!" "Magnificent blaze!" "Bathed in its light, my road beckons to me!" "I shall revel in that fire!" "In that fire I shall find my bride!" "Now I shall be alone no more!" "Blissful silence drenched by the sun!" "What is that at rest over there in the shade?" "It's a horse, resting in deep slumber!" "What is that gleaming here?" "Shining steel, shimmering in the light?" "Are my eyes still dazzled by the fire?" "The flash of weapons!" "Shall I pick them up?" "Ha!" "A man, in full armour!" "How the sight uplifts my heart!" "Shall I free his noble head from the helmet?" "He would rest more easily without his headgear." "Ah!" "What beauty!" "Shimmering clouds come cascading down around his glorious face!" "The shining sun of his radiant features streams out through the clouds that frame it!" "His breast rises and falls with each breath." "Should I take off the close-fitting garment?" "Come, sword, and cut through the clasps!" "This is no man!" "Searing enchantment grips my heart!" "Holy terror dims my eyes!" "My thoughts are numbed and dazed!" "Who can I call to, who will aid me?" "Mother!" "Mother!" "Remember me!" "How can I waken the maid, bring her to open her eyes?" "But what if she did?" "Would her gaze not blind me?" "Will my courage suffice?" "Could I stand such dazzling light?" "I'm confounded and dazed, my head is whirling!" "Searing longing cripples my senses." "My heart quails, my hand trembles!" "Why do I shrink back?" "Is this fear?" "Ah, mother!" "Your courageous boy!" "A woman lies here asleep." "She has taught him what fear is!" "How can I conquer this fear?" "Revive my courage?" "If I am to rouse myself then this maid must rouse me first!" "How sweetly they tremble, her fulsome lips!" "How timid they make me, what enchantment is theirs!" "Ah, the heady scent of her fragrant breath!" "Awake!" "Hallowed maid!" "She does not hear me." "Then let me suck life from these sweetest of lips," "though my heart should give out!" "Hail, bright sun!" "Hail to your beams!" "Hail, glorious light of day!" "Long I have slept but now I wake." "What hero is this who has roused me?" "I strode through the fire that burnt round the rock." "I undid the clasps of your helmet." "Siegfried" "I am, I have ended your sleep." "Hail to you, gods!" "Hail to you, world!" "Hail to you, glorious earth!" "I sleep no more, and awake, I see Siegfried." "He it is who has woken me!" "Hail to the mother who bore me!" "Hail to the mother who bore you!" "Hail to the earth where I thrived!" "Hail to the earth where you thrived!" " For now at last I see these eyes" " Your eyes alone could behold me," " that smile on me in my bliss!" " you alone could rouse me from sleep!" "O Siegfried!" "Siegfried!" "Blessed hero!" "You have roused me to life, all-conquering light!" "Ah, if only you knew, joy of the world, how I have always loved you!" "My thoughts turned on you, and my cares!" "I nurtured you before you were conceived." "Before you were born my shield protected you." "This long you have been my love," "Siegfried!" "Then my mother did not die?" "She was asleep the whole time?" "Ah, innocent youth!" "Your mother will not return." "We are one and the same" "if you grant me the bliss of your love." "What you do not know, I know for you." "But I only know what I know because I love you!" "O Siegfried!" "Siegfried!" "All-conquering light!" "I have always loved you." "For Wotan's design was mine alone to accomplish." "The design that I durst not call by name, the design I did not conceive of but only felt, the design I fought for, battled for, strove for, the design I upheld in defiance of its author," "the design I atoned for when my punishment came, because it was not in my mind" "but in my heart alone!" "For that design, ah, tell me you know it," "was nothing but my love for you!" "What wonders are these that you tell me of?" "Their meaning I cannot grasp." "I see your eyes shining bright," "I feel the warm scent of your breath," "I hear your sweet voice and the song it sings, but what you say to me as you sing," "these marvels I cannot fathom." "I cannot make sense of such things long gone when all my senses only see and feel your presence!" "In awe of you I stand amazed." "You alone have taught me the meaning of fear." "Free my valour of your powerful bonds, give me my courage again!" "There I see Grane, my trusty steed." "How blithely he grazes where he slept so long!" "Like me, Siegfried has roused him too." "My eyes feast on your divine lips." "But my own lips are parched!" "How they yearn to share in the feast and be stilled!" "There I see the shield that protected heroes." "There I see the helmet that covered my head." "They shield and protect me no more!" "A heavenly maiden has seared my heart, my head reels from the wounds dealt me by a woman." "I came without shield and helmet!" "There lies my breastplate of shining steel, a keen blade cut it in two." "My maidenly body has lost its defence." "I am stripped of protection, disarmed, a despondent woman!" "I strode through the flames to be at your side!" "No armour protected my body." "Now those flames are kindled here in my heart, my blood is a torrent of fire in my veins, ablaze with the desire that consumes me." "The fire that burned around Brünnhilde's rock is burning now in my breast!" "O maid!" "Quench those flames!" "Still the searing blaze!" "No god has ever approached me!" "The maiden struck awe in the hearts of the heroes," "pure as a saint she left Valhalla's halls!" "Woe!" "Dreadful disgrace, humiliation, despair!" "I am bloodied by him who woke me from sleep!" "He has pierced my maidenly armour." "Brünnhilde I am no more!" "To me you are still the dreaming maid." "Brünnhilde's sleep has not yielded to me." "Awake, be mine in love!" "My senses are reeling, my wisdom is mute." "Is it no longer mine to command?" "Did you not say that your wisdom was nothing but your love for me?" "Doleful darkness dims my eyes." "My vision fails me, the light is spent." "Night falls all around me." "From darkness and dread nameless fear clutches at my heart!" "Horror rears up to engulf me!" "Unbind your eyes and the darkness will yield!" "That nameless horror is banished by the light of day!" "Break forth from the dark and behold!" "The day shines bright in the sun!" "Bright day shines down on my shame!" "O Siegfried!" "Behold my anguish!" "Immortal I was, immortal I am," "immortal in sweet, yearning joy," "but immortal for your sake alone!" "O Siegfried!" "Magnificent saviour of the world!" "Life of the earth!" "Joyous hero!" "Leave me, leave me as I am!" "Spare me your ardour, the rage of your love!" "Do not make me succumb to your forceful embrace." "If you love me, then leave me unharmed!" "You have seen your image in the stream?" "Did it gladden your heart as you looked?" "But if you troubled the waters the cool, clear mirror of the surface was shattered." "You no longer saw yourself." "All you saw was the churning water!" "So leave me untouched" "and sully me not!" "Then your image will smile back from my eyes and gladden you ever, bold and lusty, a hero!" "O Siegfried!" "Resplendent youth!" "Love yourself and let me be!" "Do not destroy what is your own!" "I love you." "If only you loved me!" "I am my own no more." "If only you were mine!" "Magnificent waters well up before me." "With all my senses I see one thing, the ripple and surge of the waves." "They have shattered my image and now I burn to cool the searing fire in the flood." "Just as I am, I leap into the stream, longing for its waters to engulf me in rapture," "to douse my longing in the flood!" "Awake!" "Awake to me, maiden!" "Laugh and live, sweetest delight!" "Be mine!" "Be mine!" "Be mine!" "O Siegfried!" "I have always been yours!" "If you've always been mine, then be mine now!" "I shall be yours for ever!" "What you shall be, be for me now!" "When my arms enfold you and embrace you tightly, when my heart beats wildly against yours, when our eyes alight and our breath comes short," "mouth to mouth,eye to eye, then for me you are what you have been and will be!" "Then my tortured mind would be at rest." "Then I'd know that Brünnhilde is mine!" "You ask me if I am yours?" "Godly composure has yielded to frenzy, virginal light flames up all ablaze, divine wisdom is caught up in the storm, the joy of love has put it to flight!" "You ask me if I am yours?" "Siegfried!" "Siegfried!" "Can you not see?" "My eyes devour you, are you not blinded?" "My arms enfold you, does my ardour not consume you?" "My blood surges toward you like waves of fire, do you not feel it burn?" "Do you not fear me, Siegfried, do you not fear the wild passion of this woman?" "Ah!" "In the fire that consumes our blood, in the searing ardour of our eyes, in the rapture of our passionate embrace," "my courage is restored all at once and that fear I had not known before, that fear you had just begun to teach me," "that fear, I do believe, has left me as quick as it came!" "O youthful hero!" "Glorious boy!" "Unheeding doer of wondrous deeds!" "In joy I must love you, in joy that will blind me, in joy that announces my end!" "In joy you awaken to me at last." " Farewell, Valhalla, bright world!" " Brünnhilde lives!" " Let the mighty fortress crumble!" " Brünnhilde lives in joy!" "Hail to the day that shines all around!" "Farewell, proud splendour of the gods!" "Hail to the sun that gives us its light!" "Rejoice in your decline, immortal race!" "Hail to the light that shines forth from the dark!" "Snap the thread of the runes, you Norns!" " Hail, world!" "Brünnhilde lives!" " The end of the gods is nigh!" "She wakes and lives" " and laughs with me!" " Night of destruction, fall!" " Brünnhilde's star shines on me!" " Siegfried's star shines on me!" "She is mine for ever, herself and my own, my one and all!" "He is mine for ever, himself and my own, my one and all!" "Radiant love, joyful death!" "Radiant love, joyful death!" "Radiant love, joyful death!"