der ring des nibelungen - Fantasy Castle Books

My trusty brother!
Tells the blockhead a trap?
FASOLT.
Light-son, lightly made and minded,
hark with timely heed
and truthful be to bonds!
All thou art abides but under a bargain;
in measured mood
wisely weighed was thy might.
Thou warier wert than we in thy wits,
wielded'st our freedom to friendly ways;
curses await thy wisdom,
far I keep from thy friendship,
find I thee aught but open and fair
when faith to thy bargains is bid!
A senseless giant so has said;
though wiser, see it his way!
WOTAN.
How slyly thou say'st we meant
what passed at playtime among us!
The flowery goddess, gleaming and fleet,
would blind you both with a glance!
FASOLT.
Must thou mock? Ha! is it meet?
You who for fairness rule,
young unfaltering race,
like fools you strive
for a fastness of stone,
put for house and hall
worth of woman in pledge!
We sorely hasten
and sweat with hardening hand,
till won is a woman
with sweetening ways
beside us to wait;
and upset wilt thou the sale?
FAFNER.
Balk thy worthless babble!
For wealth woo we no bit!
Faintly help us Freia's fetters;
yet much grows
if once from the gods we can get her.
Golden apples
there are in her gleaming garden;
none but her has the knowledge to nurse them;
the kindly fruit kindles her fellows
to youth that bears unyellowing blossom;
far at once they wane from their flower,
weak and low will they be left,
when Freia feeds them no longer;
from their faces let her be led!
WOTAN (to himself).
Loge saunters long!
FASOLT.
Make swiftly thy mind!
WOTAN.
Point to lighter pay!
FASOLT.
No lower; Freia alone!
FAFNER.
Thou there, follow forth!
(They press towards Freia.)
FREIA (fleeing).
Help! Help! they will have me!
FROH (taking Freia in his arms).
To me, Freia!
Meddle no further!
Froh saves his sister.
(Donner and Froh hurry in.)
DONNER (placing himself before the giants).
Fasolt and Fafner
have halted before
at my hammer's hearty fall!
FAFNER.
What wilt thou threat?
FASOLT.
Who thrusts this way?
Fight fits us not now;
we need what fairly we named.
DONNER (swinging his hammer).
I judged oft what giants are owed;
rested no day in wretches' debt;
behold! your guerdon here
I give you in worthy weight!
WOTAN (stretching out his spear bet-ween the opponents)
Hold, thou haster! Force is unfit!
I shield the words on my weapon's shaft;
beware for thy hammer's hilt!
FREIA.
FRICKA.
Sorrow! Sorrow!
Wotan forsakes me!
Fasolt.
Wotan.
Fasolt.
Fafner.
My trusty brother,
seest thou, fool, now his guile?
Son of light, light of spirit!
hear and heed thyself;
in treaties aye keep troth!
What thou art, art thou only by treaties;
by bargains bound,
bounded too is thy might:
art wiser thou than wary are we,
pledged are we freemen in peace to thee:
cursed be all thy wisdom,
peace be no more between us,
if, no more open, honest and free,
in bargains thou breakest thy faith!
A foolish giant gives this rede:
thou, wise one, learn it from him!
How sly to take in earnest
what but in sport we have spoken!
The loveliest goddess, light and bright,
what boots you dullards her grace?
Mock'st thou us? ha, how unjust!
Ye who by beauty reign,
hallowed radiant race!
how vainly strive ye
for towers of stone,
place for court and hall
woman's beauty in pledge!
We, dullards, plague ourselves,
sweating with toil-hardened hands —
to win us a woman,
who, winsome and sweet,
should dwell aye among us:
and the pact call'st thou a jest?
Cease thy foolish chatter;
no gain look we to win:
Freia's charms help little,
but much it boots
from 'mongst the gods now to wrest her.
Golden apples
ripen within her garden,
she alone knoweth how they are tended;
the garden's fruit grants to her kindred,
each day renewed, youth everlasting:
pale and blighted passeth their beauty,
old and weak waste they away,
if e'er Freia should fail them.
From their midst let us bear her away!
Wotan (aside).
Loge lingers long!
Fasolt.
Wotan.
Fasolt.
Fafner.
Straight speak now thy word!
Ask for other wage!
No other, Freia alone!
Thou, there, follow us!
(Fafner and Fasolt press towards FREIA.)
Freia (getting away).
Help! help from the hard ones!
Froh (clasping Freia in his arms).
To me, Freia!
Back from her, miscreant!
Froh shields the fair one!
(Donner and Froh enter in haste).
Donner (planting himself before the two giants).
Fasolt and Fafner,
know ye the weight
of my hammer's heavy blow?
Fafner.
Fasolt.
What means thy threat?
Why com'st thou here?
Strife have we not sought,
nought ask we now but our wage.
Donner (swings his hammer).
Full oft paid I, giants, your wage.
In debt to thieves I ne'er remain.
Approach and take your due
weighed with a generous hand.
Wotan (stretching out his spear between the disputants).
Hold, thou fierce one! Nought booteth force!
All bonds the shaft of my spear doth shield:
spare then thy hammer's haft!
Freia.
Fricka.
Woe's me! Woe's me!
Wotan forsakes me !
of light" a series of observations eminently to the point. Wotan to
these makes no more retort than as if the words had not been
spoken; but--to gain time till Loge shall arrive--when the giant has
quite finished, he inquires, "What, after all, can the charm of the
amiable goddess signify to you clumsy boors?" Fasolt enlarges, "You,
reigning through beauty, shimmering lightsome race, lightly you offer
to barter for stone towers woman's loveliness. We simpletons labour
with toil-hardened hands to earn a sweet woman who shall dwell with
us poor devils.... And you mean to call the bargain naught?..." (4)
To return to the second scene of the Rheingold, we find that already
the disturbing element of selfish Desire, by which hereafter the doom
of the creeds is brought about, has entered into the world of the
Gods. Its introgression here is typified by the building of Walhall, the
symbol of selfish sway for their race, and of parallel significance to
the Ring, in the lower sensual sphere of the Nibelungs. Wotan has
ratified with the Giants, Fafner and Fasolt, a compact by virtue of
which the latter are to erect for the Gods the castle Walhall, and to
receive in return Freia, the goddess of love and beauty. The original
suggestion of this scene is to be found in the Younger Edda, where a
certain smith of the giant kin bargains to build a burg for the Aesir,
and he shall have, as his hire, Freia and the Sun and Moon. In the
Eddaic Songs the Giants are huge elemental beings, older than the
Gods, and their home—Riesenheim, Giant-home, the Old Norse
Jötunheim—is in the region of ice and snow, lying far in the North
beyond the great mid-earth ocean. Wagner speaks of them as “they
who once ruled the world, the towering race of Giants,” and the Edda
relates how of the Giant Ymir’s body the earth itself was formed. They
represent then the chaotic condition of the primæval world, barren
and unproductive, ere yet the beneficent Gods, their constant
enemies, had sent the fertilizing showers and the ripening warmth of
the summer sun; and thus in our poem these uncouth beings may be
regarded as an appropriate type of Ignorance, and the bargain by
which the Gods are bound to them denotes that inevitable period in
the history of all creeds when, by the aid of man’s ignorance, they
commence to set limits to the exercise of his free thought, and to
assert an absolute and dogmatic rule over his mind. This limitation is
suggested by the walls of Walhall. But hereby is determined the
doom of creeds; their freedom has departed, and the bond that binds
them to ignorance, although it give them temporary power, is the
cause of their downfall when the human mind at length breaks the
shackles of credulity and superstition. Runes of Bargain are cut in
Wotan’s spear-shaft, as a token of this unenduring sovereignty over
humanity. (3)
13. The Motive of Eternal Youth (The Golden Apples)
The Walhalla, Giant and Freia motives again are heard until
Fafner speaks of the golden apples which grow in Freia’s
garden. These golden apples are the fruit of which the gods
partake in order to enjoy eternal youth. THE MOTIVE OF
ETERNAL YOUTH, which now appears, is one of the loveliest
in the cycle. It seems as though age could not wither it, nor
custom stale its infinite variety. Its first bar is reminiscent of
the Ring Motive, for there is subtle relationship between the
Golden Apples of Freia and the Rhinegold. The motive is
finely combined with that of the Giant Motive at Fafner’s
words: “Let her forthwith be torn from them all.” (1)
Fafner gloomily checks Fasolt: Words will not help them. And the
possession of Freia in itself is to his mind of little account. But of great
account to take her from the gods. In her garden grow golden apples,
she alone has the art of tending these. Eating this fruit maintains her
kinsmen in unwaning youth. Were Freia removed, they must age and
fade. Wherefore let Freia be seized! Wotan frets underbreath, "Loge
is long acoming!" (4)
Fafnir, in replying to Wotan’s scornful query as to what such
dullards want of her, recalls the Golden Apples that ripen in
her garden; and their motive is a musical expression of the
everlasting youth and joy they bring. The commentators
request us to notice the relationship of this with the motives of
the Ring, of Renunciation and of Valhalla. (2)
Another, or rather a continued, parallelism is to be noticed in this
scene; for Wotan’s renunciation of Freia, as the price of Walhall,
corresponds exactly with Alberich’s renunciation of love to obtain the
Ring. But Freia is the life of the Gods: the Goddess of Love is the
emblem of spiritual life. It is she who feeds them with the golden
apples of everlasting youth; deprived of her they are already dying,
and it is therefore evident that means must be found of recovering her
without delay. (3)
Froh (Freyr) and Donner (Thor), Freia’s brother, enter hastily
to save their sister. As Froh clasps her in his arms, while
Donner confronts the Giants, the Motive of Eternal Youth
rings out triumphantly on the horns and woodwind. But Freia’s
hope is short-lived. The Motive of the Compact with the
Giants, with its weighty import, resounds as Wotan stretches
his spear between the hostile groups. For though Wotan
desires to keep Freia in Walhalla, he dare not offend the
Giants. (1)
14. The Freya Motive
Freia's cries, as the giants lay hands upon her, bring her brothers
Donner and Froh—the god of Thunder and the god of the Fields—
quickly to her side. A combat between them and the giants is
imminent, when Wotan parts the antagonists with his spear, "Nothing
by violence!" and he adds, what it might be thought he had lost sight
of, "My spear is the protector of bargains!"
Strong and calm is Wotan; music of might and august beauty, large
music, supports every one of his utterances. There is no departure
from this, even when his signal fallibility is in question. Waftures of
Walhalla most commonly accompany his steps; the close of his
speech is frequently marked by the sturdy motif of his spear, the
spear inseparable from him, cut by him from the World-Ash, carved
with runes establishing the bindingness of compacts, by aid of which
he had conquered the world, subdued the giants, the Nibelungs, and
Loge, the Spirit of Fire. Athirst for power he is, before all: in this trait
lie the original seeds of his destruction; it is for the sake of the tokens
of power, the castle and later the ring, that he commits the injustices
which bring about ruin. Athirst, too, for wisdom: he has given one of
his eyes for Wisdom, in the person of Fricka, who combines in herself
law and order and domestic virtue. And athirst for love,--something of
a grievance to Fricka. "I honour women more than pleases you," he
retorts to her reproach of contempt for woman's love and worth,
evidenced in his light ceding of Freia. He calls himself and all call him