der ring des nibelungen - Fantasy Castle Books

at last who had warred on love;
for gleaming gold from woman he widely goes.
The Rhine's bemoaning children
chattered to me their wrong;
the Nibelung, Night-Alberich,
bade them in vain bend to his voice in their bath;
the Rhinegold then
and there from the river he rent;
he holds its glance his holiest good,
and greater than woman's worth.
For the flickering toy, so torn from the flood,
they sounded their tale of sorrow;
thy side, Wotan, soon they will seek;
thou wilt rightly see to the robber,
its wealth again wilt give the water,
and sink it away into safety.
Such are the tidings I said I would take thee;
so Loge told them no lie.
WOTAN.
Wanton thou art,
or else bewildered!
Myself see'st thou in need;
what help is now in my hands?
FASOLT (who has carefully listened, to Fafner).
The gold from the dwarf should be guarded,
much wrong he has done us already;
but slyly always slipped he
out of reach of our wrath.
FAFNER.
Harm anew
the Niblung will hatch us,
now that the gold he has got.
Swiftly, Loge, say without lies,
what good is known of the gold,
that the Niblung sought it so?
LOGE.
A lump was it
below the water,
children to laughter it charmed :
but when to a ring
it rightly is welded,
it helps to highest might
and wins its master the world.
WOTAN.
Of the Rhinegold were already whispers;
runes of booty abide in its ruddy blaze.
Might and riches
would make without measure a ring.
FRICKA.
Would not as well the golden wealth
be worn with its gleam
by women for shining show?
LOGE.
A wile might force her husband to faith,
held she in hand the sparkling heaps
that spring from hurrying hammers
raised at the spell of the ring.
FRICKA.
My husband will get the gold to him here ?
WOTAN.
The hoop to have with me
hold I wholly for wisdom.
But hark, Loge, how shall I learn
the means that let it be made?
LOGE.
By spell of runes is wrought the speeding ring;
none has known it;
yet each can wield its aid,
who weans from love his life.
(Wotan turns away with disgust.)
Thy loss were ill, and late moreover;
Alberich lingered not off;
swiftly he severed the wonder's seal;
and rightly welded the ring.
DONNER.
Ill would dwell for us all in the dwarf,
if long we the ring were to leave him.
WOTAN.
The robber must lose it!
FROH.
LOGE
Lightly lo without curse of love will it come.
Gladly as laughter,
without pain in a game of play!
WOTAN.
But hear me, how?
Wotan.
who love's delights forswore;
for ruddy gold renouncing all woman's grace—
The Rhine's fair winsome children
told to me all their woe:
the Nibelung, Night-Alberich,
seeking in vain grace from the swimmers to win;
the Rhinegold the robber
then stole in revenge:
he deems it now the holiest good,
greater than woman's grace.
For the glittering dross, so reft from the deep,
resounded the maidens' wailing :
to thee, Wotan, turning their prayers
that thy vengeance fall on the Niblung,
the gold they pray thee now to give them
to shine in the water for ever.
This to tell thee I promised the maidens:
and now has Loge kept faith.
Foolish art thou,
if not e'en knavish!
Myself seest thou in need:
what help for others have I?
Fasolt (who has listened attentively, to Fafner).
The gold I begrudge the Niblung;
much ill he ever has wrought us,
but slyly still the dwarf
has slipped away from our hands.
Fafner.
Loge.
Wotan.
Fricka.
Loge.
Fricka.
Wotan.
Loge.
Donner.
Wotan.
Froh.
Loge.
Wotan.
Still the Niblung
broods on new ill
if gold but grant him power. —
Listen Loge! say without lie:
what glory lies in the gold
which the Niblung holds so dear?
A toy 'tis
in the waters sleeping,
serving for children's delight;
but if to a rounded
ring it be fashioned,
measureless might it grants
and wins the world for its lord.
Rumours came to me of the Rhinegold:
runes of booty hide in its ruddy glow;
might and wealth
unmeasured a ring would gain.
Serves as well the golden trinket's
glittering dross
to deck forth a woman's grace?
Her husband's faith were fixed by the wife
who ever bore the glist'ning charm
that busy dwarfs are forging
toiling in thrall to the ring.
O, might but my husband win him the gold?
Methinks it were wise now
sway o'er the ring to ensure me. —
But say Loge, what is the art
by which the trinket is shaped?
A rune of magic makes the gold a ring ;
no one knows it;
but he can use the spell
who blessed love forswears.
(WOTAN turns away in ill-humour.)
That likes thee not; too late, too, cam'st thou:
Alberich did not delay.
Fearless the might of the spell he won;
and rightly wrought was the ring!
Slaves should we be all to the dwarf,
were not the ring from him wrested.
The ring I must win me!
Lightly now without curse of love were it won.
Right well,
without art, as in children's play!
Then counsel, how?
Now Loge, who had been tamed by the conquering spear, hated his
tamer. He craved back his liberty, and, as the Norn tells us later in
“Goetterdaemmerung,” "tried to free himself by gnawing at the runes
on the shaft of the spear." He gave counsel to Wotan which followed
must create difficulties from which the god could deliver himself only
by an injustice; and this injustice Loge seems clearly to have
recognised from the first as the beginning of the end of the strength of
the gods. The subtle Loge is more widely awake than Wotan to the
"power not ourselves which makes for righteousness." He counselled
him to buy the giants' labor by the promise of Freia, knowing that the
gods could never endure to let the amiable goddess go. He led them
to believe that when the time came he would give them further
counsel by which to retain her. And his word Wotan chose to trust,
and gave his heart over to the untroubled enjoyment of his plans'
completion. (4)
Loge recites his long search for a ransom for Freia—
something that man will take as a substitute for woman’s love,
“her worth and delights.” Now for the first time we hear
Freia’s Motive, the motive of eternal youth, as its full value.
Several motives reappear in the course of this recital; the
Rhine Gold, Praise of the Rhine Gold, the Rhine Maidens, the
Ring, Loge, and Renunciation (upon which he seems to harp
with special pleasure). He rouses everybody’s cupidity, the
Giants, Wotan’s, Fricka’s; and in explaining the work of the
dwarfs in thrall to Alberich, he brings up the Smithy Motive,
but in a reversed rhythm, later to appear in its proper form.(2)
Loge next tells how Alberich stole the gold. All through this
portion of the narrative are heard, in the accompaniment,
reminiscences of the motives of the first scene. It should be
noticed that when Loge gives Wotan the message of the
Rhine-Daughters, that the chief of the gods wrest the gold
from Alberich and restore it to them, the Rhinegold Motive
rings out brilliantly in a major key. Loge has already excited
the curiosity of the Giants, and when Fafner asks him what
power Alberich will gain through the possession of the gold,
he dwells upon the magical attributes of the ring shaped from
Rhinegold. As Wotan ponders over Loge’s words the Ring
Motive is heard, for Wotan is planning how he may possess
himself of the ring.
With true knowledge of human, and especially of feminine
nature, Wagner makes Fricka ask if articles of jewelry could
be made of gold. As Loge tells her that the possession of the
ring will insure Wotan’s fidelity to her and that Alberich’s
Nibelungs are at that moment forging a ring of the Rhinegold,
he sings the Fricka Motive (Fricka being the guardian of
marriage-fidelity), while when he refers to the Nibelungs there
is heard for the first time the Nibelung Motive. Wotan is
evidently strongly bent on wresting the gold from Alberich and
retaining it in his own possession instead of restoring it to the
Rhine-Daughters, for, as he stands wrapt in meditation, the
Rhinegold Motive is heard in a minor key, and as he asks Loge
how he may shape the gold into a ring we have the Ring
Motive. Loge tells Wotan that Alberich has abjured love and
already forged the ring. Here the Motive of Renunciation is
sounded with a harsh power expressive of Alberich’s tyranny,
which we are soon to witness. (1)
He stands now upon the rock, a vivid, charming, disquieting
apparition, with his wild red hair and fluttering scarlet cloak. The archhypocrite
wears always a consummately artless air. He comes near
winning us by a bright perfect good-humour, which is as of the quality
of an intelligence without a heart. The love of mischief for its own
sake, which is one of his chief traits, might be thought to account
easily for his many enemies. He is related to the gods, a half-god, but
is regarded coldly by his kin. Wotan is his single friend in the family,
and with Wotan he preserves the attitude of a self-acknowledged
underling. He stands in fear of his immediate strength, while
nourishing a hardly disguised contempt for his wit, as well as that of
his cousins collectively. A secret hater of them all, and clear-minded
in estimating them. A touch of Mephistophelian there is in the
pleasure which he seems to find in the contemplation of the cankerspot
in Wotan's nature, drawing from the god over and over again, as
if the admission refreshed him, that he has no intention of dealing
justly toward the Rhine-maidens.
"Is this your manner of hastening to set aright the evil bargain
concluded by you?" Wotan chides, as he appears from the valley.
"How? What bargain concluded by me?..."
Pinned down to accounting for himself, "I promised," he says, "to
think over the matter, and try to find means of loosing you from the
bargain.... But how should I have promised to perform the
impossible?" Under the pressure of all their angers, he finally airily
delivers himself: "Having at heart to help you, I travelled the world
over, visiting its most recondite corners, in search of such a substitute
for Freia as might be found acceptable to the giants. Vainly I sought,
and now at last I plainly see that nothing upon this earth is so
precious that it can take the place in man's affection of the loveliness
and worth of woman."
Struck and uplifted by this thought, the gods, moved, look in one
another's faces, and the music expresses the sweet expansion of the
heart overflowing with thoughts of beauty and love. It is one of the
memorable moments of the Prologue.
"Everywhere," proceeds Loge, "far as life reaches, in water, earth,
and air, wherever is quickening of germs and stirring of nature's
forces, I investigated and inquired what there might be in existence
that a man should hold dearer than woman's beauty and worth?
Everywhere my inquiry was met with derision. No creature, in water,
earth, or air, is willing to renounce love and woman."
As he pauses, the gods again gaze at one another, with tender tearful
smiles, in an exalted emotion over the recognition of this touching
truth; and the music re-expresses that blissful expansion of the heart.
LOGE.
By theft! What a thief stole
thou steal'st from the thief;
could gain be more thankfully got?
But with artful foil fences Alberich ;
brisk and sly be in the business,
call'st thou the robber to claim,
Loge.
By theft! What a thief stole,
steal thou from the thief:
couldst better gain aught for thine own?
But with weapons dire fighteth Alberich;
deep and shrewd must be thy working,
if the thief thou wouldst o'erreach,
"Only one did I see," Loge says further—the light fading out of the
music—"who had renounced love; for red gold he had forsworn the
favor of woman." He relates Alberich's theft of the gold, as it had
been told him by the Rhine-daughters, who had made him their
advocate with Wotan, to procure its restitution.
But their plea meets with a deaf ear. "You are stupid, indeed, if not