der ring des nibelungen - Fantasy Castle Books

As hitherto hard
find I thy heart?
WOTAN (turns away and sees Loge coining).
Loge at last!
Com'st thou so soon to see me unclasped
from the cursed bond of thy bargain?
LOGE
(has come in from the background, out of the valley).
Why? from what bargain
where I have bound thee?
The one that the giants
joined thee wisely to work?
For heights and for hollows hankers my heart;
house and hearth not a day I hold;
Donner and Froh
are fonder of roof and room;
when they will woo,
a house wait they to have;
a stately hall, a standing home,
were what stirred Wotan's wish.
House and hall wall and wing
the laughing abode at last is broadly built;
the soaring towers I tested myself;
if all was hard I asked with heed;
Fasolt and Fafner I found were fair;
not a stone flinched where it stood.
No sloven was I like some I see;
he lies who says I was lame!
WOTAN.
So slily
slipp'st thou aside ?
How thou betray'st me
take the whole of thy heed !
Among us all
not another moved
even with me
to up-aid thee into our midst.
Now spur thy wits and speak !
When first as worth of their walls
the workmen fixed upon Freia,
thou saw'st I would
no sooner be won
than on thy oath I had put thee
to loosen the lordly pledge.
LOGE.
With lasting heed to look for hints
of how we might loose her
such wholly I swore;
but now to find thee what never fits
what needs must fail,
a bond could nowhere have bound me!
FRICKA (to Wotan).
Wronged I lately the lingering rogue?
FROH.
Thou art known as Loge, but liar I name thee!
DONNER.
Thou cursed fire, I'll crush thee flat!
LOGE.
Their blame to screen scold me the babies.
(Donner and Froh prepare to attack him.)
WOTAN (forbidding them).
In freedom leave me my friend,
and scorn not Loge's skill;
richer worth in his words is read
when counted well as they come.
FAFNER.
Push the counting! Quickly pay!
FASOLT.
Much palters the meed!
WOTAN (to Loge).
Await, harasser! Hark to me well!
What was it that held thee away?
LOGE.
Threats are what Loge learns of thanks !
In heed for thy strait I hied like a storm,
I drifted and drove
through the width of the world,
to find a ransom for Freia
fit for the giants and fair.
I looked soundly, but see that at last
in the wheeling world lies not the wealth,
that can weigh in mind of a man
for woman's wonder and worth.
(All fall into surprise and confusion.)
Where life is to be lit on,
in water, earth, and wind,
I asked always, sought without end,
where forces beset, and seeds are unfettered,
what has in mind of man more weight
than woman's wonder and worth?
But where life is to be lit on,
to scorn I was laughed for my questioning skill;
in water, earth, and wind,
nothing will loose from woman and love.
But one I learned of
Is this thy resolve,
merciless heart?
Wotan (turns away and sees Loge coming).
There is Loge!
Such is thy haste bargains to mend
that were struck by thy evil counsel?
Loge
(has come up out of the valley).
How? what bargain
have I then counselled?
Belike 'twas the pact
that ye with the giants did make?
To hollow and height my whim drives me on;
house and hearth delight me not.
Donner and Froh
are dreaming of household joys;
if they would wed,
a home e'en must they find.
A proud abode, a castle sure,
thereto leaned Wotan's wish.
House and hall, court and keep,
the blessed abode now standeth firmly built.
The lordly pile I proved myself,
if all be firm, well have I tried:
Fasolt and Fafner faithful I found:
no stone stirs on its bed.
Not idle was I like many here;
who calls me laggard, he lies.
Wotan.
Loge.
Craftily
wouldst thou escape?
If thou betray me,
truly I bid thee beware!
Of all the Gods,
as thy only friend,
I took thee up
mid the troop who trusted thee not.
Now speak and counsel well.
Whenas the builders did crave
from us Freia as guerdon,
thou know'st, I only
yielded my word
when, on thy faith, thou didst promise
to ransom the hallowed pledge?
With greatest pains thereon to ponder,
how we might free her,
that — promise I gave.
But there to prosper where nought will fit
and nought will serve —
could e'er such promise be given?
Fricka (to Wotan).
See what traitorous knave thou didst trust!
Froh.
Donner.
Loge.
Loge art thou, but liar I call thee!
Accursed flame, I will quench thy glow!
Their disgrace to cover, fools now revile me!
(DONNER and FROH threaten to strike LOGE.)
Wotan (steps between them).
In quiet leave now my friend!
Ye know not Loge's craft:
richer count I his counsel's worth,
when 'tis haltingly paid.
Fafner.
Fasolt.
Halt no longer! Promptly pay!
Long waiteth our wage!
Wotan (turns sharply to Loge).
Now hear, crabbed one! keep thy word!
Say truly, where hast thou strayed?
Loge.
Thankless was ever Loge's toil !
In care but for thee, looked I around
and restlessly searched
to the ends of the world,
to find a ransom for Freia,
fit for the giants and fair.
In vain sought I, and see now full well,
in the world's wide ring nought is so rich
that a man will take it as price
for woman's worth and delight!
(All show astonishment and perplexity.)
Where life ever is moving,
in water, earth and air,
much sought I, asking of all men,
where force doth but stir and life hath beginning:
what among men more mighty seems
than woman's worth and delight?
But where life ever is moving,
still scorned alone was my questioning craft:
in water, earth and air,
none will forego the joy of love—
But one I looked on
a god, adding "eternal" even when the gods' end is glaringly at hand.
The other gods look to him as chief among them. But he is ever
acknowledging the existence of something outside and above
himself, a law, a moral necessity, which it is no use to contend
against; through which, do what he may, disaster finally overtakes
him for having tried to disregard it. There is a stray hint from him that
the world is his very possession and that he could at will destroy it;
but this which so many facts contradict we may regard as a dream.
Yet he feels toward the world most certainly a responsibility, such as
a sovereign's toward his people; a duty, part of which is that for its
sake he must not allow his spear to be dishonoured. Compacts it
must sacredly guard. All his personal troubles come from this
necessity, this constant check to him: he must respect covenants, his
spear stands for their integrity. Alberich in a bitter discussion declares
his knowledge of where the god is weak, and reminds him that if he
should break a covenant sanctioned by the spear in his hand, this,
the symbol of his power, would split into spray!
He is perhaps best understood, on the whole, with his remorse and
despair, the tortures of his heart and his struggle with his soul, if one
can conceive him as a sort of sublimated aristocrat; a resplendent
great personage--just imaginable in the dawn of history, when there
were giants upon earth--lifted far above the ordinary of the race by
superior gifts, "reigning through beauty," as Fasolt describes;
possessing faculties not shared by common mortals, but these
rudimentary or else in their decline: the power of divination, not
always accurate or clear; the power of miracle, not altogether to be
relied upon; remaining young indefinitely, yet not wholly enfranchised
from time and circumstance; living indefinitely, but recognising
himself as perishable, and passing at last, swallowed in twilight. A
great warrior and leader of heroes, inciter of men to bold actions and
novel flights; some of his titles: Father of Hosts, Father of Battles,
Father of Victory; riding in the storm-clouds on his “Luft-ross,” his airhorse,
whose hoof-beats and neigh fill us with excited delight. But his
air-horse cannot overtake Bruennhilde's air-horse, in his pursuit of
her, and Grane reaching the goal falls exhausted.... A great reveller:
reference is repeatedly made to the light-minded, light-hearted,
careless humour of the gods, their glorious feasts and joyous life in
the light up there. Their tribe is qualified as "laughing." Wotan's
unshakable dignity indeed does not prevent a quick easy laugh. And
he shows the true aristocratic temper in being little moved by the
sorrows of those beneath and unrelated to him: one of his laughs,
which we witness, is for the howls of a poor wee dwarf who had been
savagely beaten. (4)
15. Loki’s Motive / 16. The Magic Fire
The situation is becoming critical, when a respite is gained
through the arrival of the long-expected Loge, the fire god, the
intriguer, the shifty and adroit. The motive that accompanies
him and his doings has been described as the most
characteristic one in the whole Trilogy—a sparkling,
scintillating passage in chromatics, ending with trills in sixths.
Its descriptive quality is unmistakable. Closely associated with
it is the motive of his Fire Magic. He has much to say of his
efforts to think of some way to help Wotan, which rouses the
anger of the gods Froh and Donner; but Wotan calms them
with assurances of the worth of Loge’s counsel. We hear the
motive of Reflection that later, in “Siegfried,” is to be the
audible symbol of much thought. (2)
At this critical moment Wotan sees his cunning adviser, Loge,
approaching, and we hear the characteristic motives of the
LOGE MOTIVE, coupled with the MAGIC FIRE MOTIVE. They
are heard throughout the ensuing scene, in which Wotan
upbraids Loge for not having discovered something which the
Giants would be willing to accept as a substitute for Freia.
Loge says he has traveled the world over without finding aught
that would compensate man for the renunciation of a lovely
woman. At this point is heard the Motive of Renunciation.
Then follows Loge’s narrative of his wanderings. With great
cunning he intends to tell Wotan of the theft of the Rhinegold
and of the wondrous worth of a ring shaped from the gold in
order to incite the listening Giants to ask for it as a
compensation for giving up Freia. Hence Wagner, as Loge
begins his narrative, has blended, with a marvelous sense of
musical beauty and dramatic fitness, two phrases: the Freia
Motive and the accompaniment to the Rhine daughters’ shout
of triumph in the first scene. Whoever will turn to the vocalpiano
score, will find the Freia Motive in the treble and the
somewhat simplified accompaniment to the cry “Rhinegold!”
in the bass. This music continues until Loge says that he
discovered but one (namely, Alberich) who was willing to
renounce love. Then the Rhinegold Motive is sounded tristly
in a minor key, and immediately afterward is heard the Motive
of Renunciation. (1)
The Spirit of Hypocrisy now steps in to the aid of the troubled deities.
This is Loge, the Fire-element, the Norse Loki. In the Edda, as in the
Nibelung’s Ring, he appears as an embodiment of evil, a liar and a
mocker, the Mephistopheles of Northern mythology. There, as here,
he is represented as the sometime associate of the Gods, afterwards
confined by them in punishment for his treachery and maleficence;
and as in the Völuspá he fares against the Aesir on the great day of
their doom, so in the Götterdämmerung Walhall, with its host of
deities and heroes, is finally consumed in Loge’s flames. It is by
Loge’s counsel that Wotan has made the evil compact with the
giants, and it is under his guidance that the Gods, having once
set their feet on the downward path, proceed thereon with fatal
celerity. Sent to search the earth for aught that may be offered
to Fafner and Fasolt in place of Freia, as of greater value than
love and beauty, he narrate the story of Alberich’s theft of the
gold, and instills into the minds of Gods and giants a lust for
the delusive treasures of the Nibelung. (3)
And then finally, finally, comes in sight Loge. Wotan lets out his
breath in relief: "Loge at last!" The music has introduced Loge by a
note-painting as of fire climbing up swiftly through airiest fuel. There
is a quick flash or two, like darting tongues of flame. A combination of
swirling and bickering and pulsating composes the commonest Logemotif,
but the variety is endless of the fire's caprices. Fantastical,
cheery, and light it is mostly, sinister sometimes, suggestive of
treachery, but terrible never; its beauty rather than its terror is
reproduced. So characteristic are the fire-motifs that after a single
hearing a person instinctively when one occurs looks for some sign or
suggestion of Loge.