{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/ron/ron04.htm","path":"neu/ron/ron04.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/ron/ron04.htm","text":"A deep forest\n[Quite in the background the entrance to a cave. The ground rises towards a flat knoll in the middle of the stage, and slopes down again towards the back, so that only the upper part of the entrance to the cave is visible to the audience. To the left a fissured cliff is seen through the trees. It is night, the darkness being deepest at the back, where at first the eye can distinguish nothing at all.]\nAlberich\n[Lying by the cliff, gloomily brooding.]\nIn night-drear woods\n By Neidh\u00f6hl' I keep watch,\n With ear alert,\n Keen and anxious eye.\n Timid day,\n Tremblest thou forth?\n Pale art thou dawning\n Athwart the dark?\n[A storm arises in the wood on the right, and from the same quarter there shines down a bluish light.]\nWhat comes yonder, gleaming bright?\n Nearer shimmers\n A radiant form;\n It runs like a horse and it shines;\n Breaks through the wood,\n Rushing this way.\nIs it the dragon's slayer?\n Can it mean Fafner's death?\n[The wind subsides; the light vanishes.]\nThe glow has gone,\n It has faded and died;\n All is darkness.\n Who comes there, shining in shadow?\nWanderer\n[Enters from the wood, and stops opposite Alberich.]\nTo Neidh\u00f6hl'\n By night I have come;\n In the dark who is hiding there?\n[As from a sudden rent in the clouds moonlight streams forth and lights up the Wanderer's figure.]\n[Recognises the Wanderer and shrinks back at first in alarm, but immediately after breaks out in violent fury.]\n'Tis thou who comest thus?\n What wilt thou here?\n Go, get thee hence!\n Begone, thou insolent thief!\n[Quietly.]\nSchwarz-Alberich\n Wanders here?\n Guardest thou Fafner's house?\nArt thou intent\n On mischief again?\n Linger not here!\n Off with thee straightway!\n Has grief enough\n Not deluged the earth through thy guile?\n Spare it further\n Sorrow, thou wretch!\nI come as watcher,\n Not as worker.\n The Wanderer's way who bars?\nThou arch, pestilent plotter!\n Were I still the blind,\n Silly fool that I was,\n When I was bound thy captive,\n How easy were it\n To steal the ring again from me!\n Beware! For thy cunning\n I know well,\n[Mockingly.]\nAnd of thy weakness\n I am fully aware too.\n Thy debts were cancelled,\n Paid with my treasure;\n My ring guerdoned\n The giants' toil,\n Who raised thy citadel high.\n Still on the mighty\n Haft of thy spear there\n The runes are written plain\n Of the compact made with the churls;\n And of that\n Which by labour they won\n Thou dost not dare to despoil them:\n Thy spear's strong shaft\n Thou thyself wouldst split;\n The staff that makes thee\n Master of all\n Would crumble to dust in thy hand.\nBy the steadfast runes of treaties\n Thou hast not,\n Base one, been bound;\n On thee my spear may spend its strength,\n So keen I keep it for war.\nHow dire thy threats!\n How bold thy defiance!\n And yet full of fear is thy heart!\n Foredoomed to death\n Through my curse is he\n Who now guards the treasure.\n What heir will succeed him?\n Will the hoard all desire\n Belong as before to the Niblung?--\n That gnaws thee with ceaseless torment.\n For once I have got it\n Safe in my grasp,\n Better than foolish giants\n Will I employ its spell.\n The God who guards heroes\n Truly may tremble!\n I will storm\n Proud Walhall with Hella's hosts,\n And rule, lord of the world!\nThy design I know well,\n But little I care:\n Who wins the ring\n Will rule by its might.\nThou speakest darkly,\n But to me all is plain.\n Thy heart is bold\n Because of a boy,\nA hero begot of thy blood.\n Hast thou not fostered a stripling\n To pluck the fruit thou durst not\n[With growing violence.]\nPluck frankly for thyself?\n[Lightly.]\nWith me\n 'Tis useless to wrangle;\n But Mime thou shouldst beware;\n For thy brother brings here a boy\n To compass the giant's doom.\n He knows not of me;\n He works for Mime alone.\n And so I say to thee,\n Do as seems to thee best.\n[Alberich makes a movement expressive of violent curiosity.]\nTake my advice,\n Be on thy guard:\n The boy will hear of the ring\n When Mime tells him the tale.\n[Violently.]\nWilt thou hold thy hand from the hoard?\nWhom I love\n Must fight for himself unaided;\n The lord of his fate,\n He stands or falls:\n All my hope hangs upon heroes.\nDoes none but Mime\n Dispute me the ring?\nOnly thou and Mime\n Covet the gold.\nAnd yet it is not to be mine?\n[Quietly coming nearer.]\nA hero comes\n To set the hoard free;\n Two Nibelungs yearn for the gold.\n Fafner falls,\n He who guards the ring;\n Then a hand, seizing, shall hold it.\nMore wouldst thou learn,\n There Fafner lies,\n Who, if warned of his death,\n Gladly would give up the toy.\n Come, I will wake him for thee.\n[He goes towards the cave, and, standing on the rising ground in front of it, calls towards it.]\nFafner! Fafner!\n Wake, dragon! Wake!\n[With anxious amazement, aside.]\nDoes the madman mean it?\n Am I to have it?\nFafner's voice\nWho troubles my sleep?\n[Facing the cave.]\nA well-wisher comes\n To warn thee of danger;\n Thy doom can he averted,\n If thou wilt pay the price\n With the treasure that thou guardest.\n[He leans his ear towards the cave, listening.]\nWhat would he?\n[Has come to the Wanderer and calls into the cave.]\nWaken, Fafner!\n Dragon, awake!\n A doughty hero comes\n To try his strength against thine.\nI want a meal.\nBold is the boy and strong;\n Sharp-edged is his sword.\nThe ring he seeks,\n Nothing besides.\nGive me the ring, and so\n The strife shall be stayed.\n Still guarding the hoard,\n In peace shalt thou live long!\nFafner\n[Yawning.]\nI have and I hold:--\n Let me slumber!\n[Laughs aloud and then turns again to Alberich.]\nWell, Alberich! That ruse failed,\n But call me rogue no more.\n This one thing thou shouldst\n Never forget:\n Each according to his kind must act;\n Nothing can change him.\n I leave thee the field now;\n Show a bold front,\n And try thy luck with thy brother;\n Thou knowest his kind perhaps better.\n And things unknown\n Thou also shalt learn!\n[He turns away, and disappears quickly in the wood. A storm arises and a bright light breaks forth; then both quickly cease.]\n[Looks after the Wanderer as he gallops off.]\nAway on his shining\n Horse he rides,\n And leaves me to care and scorn!\n Laugh on! Laugh on,\n Ye light-minded\n And high-spirited\n Race of immortals!\n One day ye shall perish\n And pass!\n Until the gold\n Has ceased to gleam,\nWill wise Alberich watch,\n And his hate shall prevail.\n[He slips into the chasm at the side. The stage remains empty. Dawn.]\nAs the day dawns Siegfried and Mime enter. Siegfried carries his sword in a sword-belt of rope. Mime examines the place carefully. At last he looks towards the background, which remains in deep shadow, whist the rising ground in the middle becomes, after a time, more and more brightly illuminated by the sun.\nMime\nOur journey ends here;\n Here we halt.\nSiegfried\n[Sits down under the lime-tree and looks about him.]\nSo here I shall learn what fear is?\n A far way thou hast led me;\n We have wandered lone together\n A whole night long in the woods.\n This is the last\n Of thee, Mime!\n Can I not master\n My lesson here,\n Alone I will push forward\n And never see thee again.\nLad, believe me,\n If thou canst not\n Learn it here and now,\n No other place,\n No other time\n Ever will teach thee fear.\n Dost thou see\n That cavern yawning dark?\n Yonder dwells\n A dragon dread and grim,\n Horribly fierce,\nEnormous in size,\n With terrible jaws\n That threaten and gape;\n With skin and hair,\n All at a gulp,\n The brute could swallow thee whole.\n[Still sitting under the lime tree.]\n'Twere well to close up his gullet;\n His fangs I will therefore avoid.\nPoison pours\n From his venomous mouth;\n Were he to spue out\n Spittle on thee,\n Thy body and bones would decay.\nThat the poison may not consume me,\n I will keep out of its reach.\nA serpent's tail\n Sweeping he swings;\n Were that about thee wound\n And folded close,\n Thy limbs would be broken like glass.\nThat his swinging tail may not touch me,\n Warily then I must watch.\n But answer me this:\n Has the brute a heart?\nA pitiless, cruel heart.\nIt lies, however,\n Where all hearts lie,\n Brute and human alike?\nOf course! There, boy,\n The dragon's lies too.\n At last thou beginnest to fear?\n[Who till now has been lying indolently stretched out, sits up suddenly.]\nNothung into\n His heart I will thrust!\n Is that what is meant by fearing?\n Hey, old dotard!\n Canst thou teach me\n Nothing but this\n With all thy craft,\n Linger no longer by me:\n No fear is here to be learnt.\nWait awhile yet!\n What I have told thee\n Seems to thee empty sound;\n When thou hast heard\n And seen him thyself,\n Thy senses will swoon, overwhelmed?\n When thine eyes grow dim,\n And when the ground rocks,\n When in thy breast\n Thy heart beats loud,\n[Very friendly.]\nThou wilt remember who brought thee,\n And think of me and my love.\nThy love is not wanted!\n Hast thou not heard?\n Out of my sight with thee;\n Let me alone!\n Begin again talking of love,\n And on the instant I go!\n The horrible winking,\n The nods and blinking\n When shall I see\n The last of them,\n And rid be at length of the fool?\nWell, I will off,\n And rest there by the spring.\n Thou must stay here,\n And as the sun scales the sky\n Watch for the foe:\n From his cave\n He lumbers this way,\n Winds and twists\n Past this spot,\n To water at the fountain.\n[Laughs.]\nLiest thou by the spring,\n Unchecked thither the brute shall go;\n He shall swallow thee\n Down with the water,\n Ere with my sword\n To the heart I stab him!\n So heed well what I say:\n Rest not beside the spring.\n Seek somewhere else\n A far-off spot,\n And nevermore return.\nThou wilt not refuse\n Cooling refreshment\n When the fierce fight is over?\n[Siegfried motions him angrily away.]\nCall on me too\n Shouldst thou need counsel,\n[Siegfried repeats the gesture with more violence.]\nOr if felled on a sudden by fear.\n[Siegfried rises and drives him away with furious gestures.]\n[Aside, as he goes away.]\nFafner and Siegfried--\n Siegfried and Fafner--\n Might each the other but slay!\n[He disappears in the wood on the right.]\n[Stretches himself at his ease under the lime-tree, and looks after Mime as he departs.]\nHe is no father of mine!\n How merry of heart I feel!\n Never before\n Seemed the forest fair;\n Never day\n Wore as lovely a smile,\n For the loathed one has gone at last,\n To be looked on by me no more.\n[He meditates in silence.]\nMy father--what was he like?--\n Ha! like me, without doubt.\n Had Mime by chance had a son,\n He would have been\n Mime's image:\n Quite as disgusting,\n Filthy and grey,\n Small and bent,\n Hunchbacked and halting,\n With ears long and hanging,\n Rheumy eyes running--\n Off with the fright!\n To see him makes me sick!\n[He leans further back and looks up through the branches of the tree. Deep silence. Woodland murmurs.]\nWhat could my mother,\n I wonder, be like;\n That is not\n So easy to picture.\n[Very tenderly.]\nHer clear shining eyes\n Must have been soft,\n And gentle like the roe-deer's,\n Only far fairer.\n[Very softly.]\nIn fear and woe she bore me,\nThe hot blood burns like fire!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0See p. 58\nBut why did she die through me?\n Must then all human mothers\n Thus die on giving\n Birth to a son?\n That would truly be sad!\n Ah, if I only\n Could see my mother!--\n See my mother,\n A woman once!\n[He sighs softly, and leans still further back. Deep silence. Louder murmuring of the wood. His attention is at last caught by the song of the birds. He listens with growing interest to one singing in the branches above him.]\nO lovely warbler,\n I know not thy note;\n Hast thou thy home in this wood?\n If I could but understand him,\n His sweet song might say much--\n Perhaps of my mother tell me.\n A surly old dwarf\n Said to me once\n That men might learn\n To follow the sense\n Of birds when they were singing;\n Could it indeed be done?\n Ha! I will sing\n After him,\n On the reed follow him sweetly.\n Though wanting the words,\n Repeating his measure--\n Singing what is his language-\n Perhaps I shall know what he says.\n[He runs to the neighbouring spring, cuts a reed of with his sword, and quickly makes himself a pipe out of it. He listens again.]\nHe stops to hear,\n So now for my song!\n[He blows into the pipe, breaks of, and cuts it again to improve it. He resumes his blowing, shakes his head, and cuts the pipe once more. After another attempt he gets angry, presses the pipe with his hand, and tries again. He ceases playing and smiles.]\nThat rings not right;\n For the lovely tune\n The reed is not suited at all.\n I fear, sweet bird,\n I am too dull;\n Thy song cannot I learn.\n[He hears the bird again and looks up to him.]\nHe listens so roguishly\n There that he shames me;\nHe waits, and nothing rewards him.\n Heida! Come hearken\n Now to my horn;\n[He flings the pipe away.]\nAll I do sounds wrong\n on the stupid reed;\n To a song of the woods\n That I know,\n A merry song, listen now rather.\n I hoped it would bring\n Some comrade to me,\n But wolves and bears\n Were the best that came.\n Now I will see\nThe dwarfs quarrelling over the body of Fafner\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0See p. 59\nWho answers its note:\n What comrade will come to its call.\n[He takes the silver hunting-horn and blows on it. During the long-sustained notes he keeps his eyes expectantly on the bird. A movement in the background. Fafner, in the form of a monstrous lizard-like dragon, has risen from his lair in the cave. He breaks through the underwood and drags himself up to the higher ground, so that the front part of his body rests on it, while he utters a loud sound, as if yawning.]\n[Looks round and gazes at Fafner in astonishment. He laughs.]\nMy horn with its note\n Has allured something lovely;\n A jolly companion wert thou.\n[At the sight of Siegfried has paused on the high ground, and remains there.]\nWhat is that?\nIf thou art a beast\n Who can use its tongue,\n Perchance thou couldst teach me something.\n Here stands one\n Who would learn to fear\n Say, wilt thou be his teacher?\nIs this insolence?\nCourage or insolence,\n What matter?\n With my sword I will slay thee,\n Wilt thou not teach me to fear.\n[Makes a laughing sound.]\nDrink I came for;\n Now food I find too\n[He opens his jaws and shows his teeth.]\nWhat a fine set of teeth\n Thou showest me there!\n Sweetly they smile\n In thy dainty mouth!\n 'Twere well if I closed up thy gullet\n Thy jaws are gaping too wide!\nThey were not made\n For idle talk,\n But they will serve\n To swallow thee.\nHoho! Ferocious,\n Merciless churl!\n I have no fancy\n To be eaten.\n Better it seems to me\n That without delay thou shouldst die!\n[Roaring.]\nPruh! Come,\n Boy, with thy boasts!\n[Draws his sword.]\nBeware, growler!\n The boaster comes!\n[He springs towards Fafner and remains defiantly confronting him. Fafner drags himself further up the knoll and spits at Siegfried from his nostrils. Siegfried a voids the poison, springs nearer, and stands on one side. Fafner tries to reach him with his tail. Siegfried, who is nearly caught, springs over Fafner with one bound, and wounds him in the tail. Fafner roars, pulls his tail angrily away, and raises the front part of his body so that he may throw its full weight on Siegfried, thus offering his breast to the stroke. Siegfried quickly looks to see where his heart is, and thrusts his sword into it up to the hilt. Fafner raises himself still higher in his pain, and, when Siegfried has let go his sword and sprung aside, he sinks on the wound.]\nLie there, envious brute!\n Nothung's point home has speeded!\n[In a weaker voice.]\nWho art thou, boy bold-hearted,\n That hast pierced my breast?\n Who stirred up thy childish soul\n To the murderous deed?\n Thy brain schemed not the harm\n Wrought by thy hand.\nNot much have I learned,\n Not even who I am;\n Thou thyself with thy taunting\n Stirred me to fight and to slay.\nO boy bright-eyed,\n Who knowest not yet who thou art,\n Whom thou hast murdered\n Hear from me.\n Two mighty giants there were,\n Fasolt and Fafner;\n The brothers now are both fallen.\n For the curs\u00e8d gold\n We got from the Gods\n I did Fasolt to death.\n He who now guards\n The hoard as dragon,\n Fafner, the last remaining,\n Falls, by a rosy boy slain.\n Boy in thy bloom,\n Watch and be wary:\n He who stirred thee blind to this deed\n Takes thought how to compass thy death.\n[Dying.]\nMark the ending!\n Think on me!\nWho was my father?\n Tell, if thou canst.\n Dying, thou showest,\n Wild one, much wisdom.\n Siegfried my name is; haply\n That may help thee to guess.\nSiegfried! . . .\n[He raises himself and dies.]\nThe dead can tell no tidings.\n My living sword, lead!\n Lead onward, my sword!\n[Fafner has rolled to the side in dying. Siegfried now draws the sword from his breast. In doing so his hand gets sprinkled with the blood; he draws it back quickly.]\nThe hot blood burns like fire!\n[Involuntarily he raises his fingers to his mouth to suck the blood from them. As he looks musingly before him his attention becomes more and more attracted by the singing of the birds.]\nI almost seem\n To hear the birds speaking to me.\n Is there a spell,\n Perhaps, in the blood?\n The curious bird up there--\n Hark! he sings to me.\nVoice of the Wood-bird\n[From the branches of the lime-tree above Siegfried.]\nHei! Siegfried now owns\n All the Nibelung hoard!\n Oh! could he the hoard\n In the cave but find!\n Tarnhelm, if he could but win it,\n Would help him to deeds of renown;\n And could he discover the ring,\n It would make him the lord of the world!\n[Has listened holding his breath and beaming with delight.]\nThanks, bonnie bird,\n For the counsel good\n I follow the call!\n[He turns towards the back and descends to the cave, where he at once disappears.]\nMime steals up, looking about him timidly to assure himself of Fafner's death. At the same time Alberich comes out of the cleft on the opposite site. He observes Mime, rushes on him and bars his way, as the latter turns towards the cave.\nOn what errand\n Furtive and sly,\n Knave, dost thou slink?\nAccurs\u00e8d brother,\n That thou shouldst come!\n What brings thee here?\nRogue, has my gold\n Provoked thy greed?\n Dost covet my goods?\nGet thee gone quickly!\n This corner is mine;\n What huntest thou here?\nHave I disturbed thee,\n Thief, at thy work,\n Secret and sly?\nWhat I have slaved\n And toiled to win\n Shall not escape me.\nWho was it robbed\n The Rhine of gold for the ring?\n And whose cunning wrought\n The spell of magical might?\nWho made the Tarnhelm,\n Changing its wearer's form?\n Though thou didst want it,\n Was it designed by thee?\nAnd what of thyself\n Couldst aright have fashioned, thou bungler?\n The magic ring\n Forced thee to master thy craft.\nAnd where is the ring?\n 'Twas reft from thy clutch by the giants.\n What thou hast lost\n I will gain and keep by my guile.\nWhat the boy has won\n Would the niggard deny him?\n 'Tis not thine; the hero\n Who won it is now its lord.\nI brought him up;\n For my pains now he shall pay;\n For its reward\n My trouble has waited too long.\nJust for rearing him,\n The old niggardly,\n Beggarly knave,\n Bold as brass,\n A king now would become?\n The ring would befit\n Better a dog\n Than bumpkin like thee.\n Never to thee\n The magical ring shall fall!\n[Scratches his head.]\nWell, keep it, then,\n And guard with care\n The gleaming gold;\n Be thou lord,\n But treat me as a brother;\n Give me against it\n Tarnhelm for toy,\n Fairly exchanged;\n Divided thus,\n There will be booty for both.\n[He rubs his hands confidingly.]\n[With a mocking laugh.]\nShare it with thee?\n And the Tarnhelm too!\n How sly thou art!\n I could never\n Sleep for a moment safely.\n[Beside himself.]\nWhat I not even\n Strike a bargain!\n I must go bare,\n Beggared of gain!\n Thou wouldst leave me with nothing!\n[Shrieking.]\nNothing, not so\n Much as a nail,\n Shall fall to thy portion.\n[In a fury.]\nNeither ring nor Tarnhelm\n Shall thy hand touch, then;\n 'Tis I will not share!\n I will call on Siegfried,\n Summon the aid\n Of his keen-edged sword;\n The lad will make\n Short work, dear brother, of thee!\n[Siegfried having appeared in the background.]\nTurn and look there!\n From the cavern hither he comes.\nHe will have chosen\n Trivial toys.\nHe bears the Tarnhelm!\nAlso the ring!\nCurst luck! The ring!\n[Laughing maliciously.]\nGet him to give thee the ring now!\n 'Tis I, not thou, who shall win it.\nAnd yet to its lord\n Must it at last be surrendered!\n[He disappears in the cleft.]\n[During the foregoing Siegfried, with Tarnhelm and ring, has come slowly and meditatively from the cave; he regards his booty thoughtfully, and stops on the knoll in the middle of the stage.]\nI do not know\n Of what use\n Ye are; I chose you\n From out the heaped-up hoard\n Because of friendly advice.\n Meanwhile, of this day\n Be ye worn as witness,\n Recalling to mind\n How with fallen Fafner I fought,\n And yet could not learn how to fear.\n[He hangs the Tarnhelm on his girdle and puts the ring on his finger. Silence. His notice is involuntarily drawn to the bird again, and he listens to him with breathless attention.]\nThe Wood-bird's voice\nHei! Siegfried now owns\n Both the helm and the ring!\n Oh! let him not listen\n To Mime, the false!\n He were wise to be wary of\n Mime's treacherous tongue.\n He will understand\n Mime's secret intent,\n Because he has tasted the blood.\n[Siegfried's mien and gestures show that he has understood the bird's song. He sees Mime approaching, and remains without moving, leaning on his sword, observant and self-contained, in his place on the knoll till the close of the following scene.]\n[Steals forward and observes Siegfried from the foreground.]\nHe weighs in his mind\n The booty's worth;\n Can there by chance\n Have come this way\n A Wanderer wise\n Who talked to the child,\n And taught him crafty runes?\n Doubly sly\n Be then the dwarf;\n My snares must be cunning,\n Cleverly set,\n That with cajoling\n And wily falsehoods\n The insolent boy I may fool.\n[He goes nearer to Siegfried and welcomes him with flattering gestures.]\nHa! Welcome, Siegfried!\n Say, bold fighter,\n Hast thou been taught how to fear?\nA teacher still is to find.\nBut the dragon grim\n Has fallen before thee?\n A fell and fierce monster was he.\nThough grim and spiteful the brute,\n I grieve over his death,\n While there live still, unpunished,\n Blacker scoundrels than he was!\n The one who bade me slay\n I hate far more than the slain.\nHave patience! Thou wilt not\n Look on me long.\n[Sweetly.]\nIn endless sleep\n Soon thine eyelids will be sealed.\n Thy uses are over,\n[As if praising him.]\nDone is the deed;\n The only task left\n For me is to win the booty.\n Methinks that task will not tax me;\n Thou wert always easy to fool.\nTo me thou art plotting harm, then?\n[Astonished.]\nWhat makes thee think that?\n[Continuing tenderly.]\nSiegfried, listen, my own one!\n I have always loathed\n Thee and all that are like thee.\n It was not from love\n That I reared thee with care:\n The gold hid in Fafner's cave\n I worked for as my reward.\n[As if he were promising him something nice.]\nIf thou wilt not yield\n It up to me,\n[As if he were ready to lay down his life for him.]\nSiegfried, my son,\n Thou plainly must see\n[As if in friendly jest.]\nI have no choice but to slay thee!\nThat I am hated\n Pleases me;\n But must I lose my life for thy pleasure?\n[Angrily.]\nI never said that;\n Thou hast made a mistake.\n See, thou art weary\n From stress of strife,\n Burning with fever and thirst;\n Mime, the kind one,\n To cool thy thirst\n Brought a quickening draught.\n While thy blade thou didst melt\n I brewed thee the drink;\n Touch it, and straight\n Thy sword shall be mine,\n And mine the hoard and Tarnhelm too.\n[Tittering.]\nSo thou of my sword\n And all it has won me--\n Ring and booty--wouldst rob me?\nWhy wilt mistake so my words!\n Do I drivel or dote?\n I use the utmost\n Pains with my speech,\n That what in my heart\n I mean may be hidden;\nAnd the stupid boy\n Misunderstands what I say!\n Open thy ears, boy,\n And attend to me!\n Hear, now, what Mime means.\n Take this: the drink will refresh thee\n As my drinks oft have done.\n Many a time\n When fretful and bad,\n Though loth enough,\n The draughts I brought thou hast swallowed.\nOf a cooling drink\n I were glad;\n Say, how has this one been brewed?\n[Jesting merrily, as if describing to him a pleasant state of intoxication which the liquor is to bring about.]\nHei! just drink it!\n Trust to my skill.\n In mist and darkness\n Soon shall thy senses be sunk;\n None to watch or ward them,\n Stark-stretched shall thy limbs be.\n Thou lying thus,\n 'Twere not hard\n To take the booty and hide it;\n But wert thou to awake,\n Nevermore would\n Mime be safe,\n Even owning the ring.\n So with the sword\n He has made so sharp\n[With a gesture of extravagant joy.]\nFirst I will hack\n The child's head off!\n Then I shall have both rest and the ring!\nThou wouldst, then, slay me when sleeping?\n[Furiously.]\nDo what, child? Did I say that?\n[He takes pains to assume the utmost tenderness. Carefully and distinctly.]\nI only mean\n To chop off thy head!\n[With the appearance of heartfelt solicitude for Siegfried's health.]\nFor even if I\n Had loathed thee less,\n And had not thy scoffs\n And my drudgery shameful\n So loudly urged to vengeance,\n[Gently.]\nI should never dare to pause\n Till from my path I thrust thee:\n[Jestingly again.]\nHow else could I come by the booty,\n Which Alberich covets as well?\n[He pours the liquid into the drinking-horn, and offers it to Siegfried with pressing gestures.]\nNow, my W\u00e4lsung,\n Wolf-begot,\n Drink the draught and be choked,\n And never drink again!\n[Threatens him with his sword.]\nTaste thou my sword,\n Loathsome babbler!\n[As if seized by violent loathing, he gives Mime a sharp stroke with his sword. Instantly Mime falls dead to the ground. Alberich's voice in mocking laughter from the cleft.]\n[Looking at Mime on the ground, quietly hangs his sword again on his belt.]\nEnvy's wage\n Pays Nothung;\n 'Twas for this that I forged him.\n[He picks up Mime's body, carries it to the knoll, and throws it into the cave.]\nIn the cavern, there,\n Lie on the hoard;\n With steadfast guile\n The gold thou hast gained:\n Now let it belong to its master!\n And a watchman good\n I give thee, that thieves\n Never may enter and steal.\n[With a great effort he pushes the body of the dragon in front of the entrance to the cave, which it completely stops up.]\nThere lie thou too,\n Dragon grim;\n Along with thy foe\n Greedy of gain\n Thou shalt guard the glittering gold:\n So both at last shall rest in peace.\n[He looks down thoughtfully into the cave for a time, and then turns slowly to the front of the stage as if tired. He passes his hand over his brow.]\nHot I feel\n From the heavy toil;\n Fast and furious\n Flows my blood,\n My hand burns on my head.\n High stands the sun in heaven;\n From azure heights\n Falls his gaze\n Through a cloudless sky on my crown.\nPleasant shadows will cool me under the linden.\n[He stretches himself out under the lime-tree, and again looks up through the boughs.]\nIf only, pretty warbler,\n So long and so\n Rudely disturbed,\n I could once more hear thee singing!\n On a branch I see thee\n Merrily swaying;\n Chirping and chattering,\n Brothers and sisters\n Are happily hovering round.\nBut I--I am alone,\n Without brother or sister;\n My mother died,\n My father fell,\n Unseen by their son!\n The one soul I knew\n Was a loathsome old dwarf;\n[Warmly.]\nLove he festered not\n By kindness;\n Many a cunning\n Snare did he set me;\n At last I was forced to slay him.\n[He looks sorrowfully up at the branches.]\nBird sweet and friendly,\n I ask thee a boon:\n Wilt thou find for me\n A comrade true?--\n Wilt thou choose for me the right one?\n So oft I have called,\n And yet no one has come!\nThou, my friend,\n Wilt manage it better,\n So wise thy counsel has been.\n[Softly.]\nNow sing! I hearken to thy song.\nHei! Siegfried has slain\n The deceitful dwarf!\n I know for him now\n A glorious bride.\n She sleeps where rugged rocks soar;\n Ringed is her chamber by fire.\n Who battles the flames,\n Wakens the bride,\n Br\u00fcnnhilde, wins as reward.\n[Starts up impetuously from his seat.]\nO lovely song,\n Flower-sweet breath!\n Thy yearning music\n Burns in my breast!\n Like leaping flame\n It kindles my heart.\n What races so swift\n Through soul and senses?\n Sweetest of friends, O say!\n[He listens.]\nGrieving yet glad,\n Love I am singing;\n Blissful, from woe\n Weaving my song:\n They only who yearn understand.\nForth, forth then,\n Swift and rejoicing!\n Forth from the wood to the fell!\n just one thing more\n I would learn, sweet singer:\nSay, shall I break through the fire?\n Can I awaken the bride?\n[He listens again.]\nThe Wood-bird's voice.\nNo coward wins\n Br\u00fcnnhild' for bride,\n Or wakes the maid:\n Only a heart without fear.\n[Shouting with joy.]\nThe foolish boy\n Who has never learned fear,\n Dear bird, that dullard am I!\n To-day I took endless\n Trouble in vain,\n To find out what fear was from Fafner.\n With longing I burn\n Now from Br\u00fcnnhild' to learn it.\n What path soonest leads to the fell?\n[The bird flutters up, circles over Siegfried, and flies hesitatingly before him.]\nThe bird to my goal will guide me.\n Fly where thou wilt,\n I follow thy flight!\n[He runs after the bird, who for a time flies uncertainly hither and thither to tease him; at last he follows him, when, taking a definite direction towards the back, the bird flies away.]","title":"SIEGFRIED: The Second Act","type":"page"}