der ring des nibelungen - Fantasy Castle Books

More documents

Recommendations

Info

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
that the river's maidens their ruddy mate, the gold, back may be given; for so as I said they will beg. WOTAN. The river's maidens? What mean they to me? FRICKA. Of the trickling breed bring me no tidings; for many men, with loss to me already they reft from the light. (Wotan stands in silent conflict with himself; the other gods, in speechless anxiety, fix their eyes on him. Meanwhile, Fafner, aside, has consulted with Fasolt.) FAFNER. Mark that more than Freia fits us the glittering gold; and endless youth is as good, though by spell of gold it be got. (They come near again.) Hear, Wotan, A word while we halt! Live with Freia in freedom; lighter rate find I of ransom; for greedless giants enough is the Nibelung's ready gold. WOTAN. Wander your wits? What is not my wealth, to askers like you can I yield? FAFNER. Long work uplifted thy walls; light were it, by warier ways than our hatred happened to know, to fetter the Niblung fast WOTAN. For such now to seize on the Niblung? For such fight with the foe ? Unabashed and overbearing I think you under my thanks ! FASOLT (suddenly seizes Freia and takes her with Fafner aside). To me, Maid! For home we make! In pledge rest for our toil, till thy ransom is paid. (Freia shrieks; all the gods are in the greatest alarm.) FAFNER. Fast along let her be led! Till evening hear me out her we pin as a pledge; we back will bring her; but if it be that we find ready no ransom of Rhinegold fit and red FASOLT. We wrangle no further, Freia, as forfeit, for ever follows us off! FREIA. Sister! Brother! Save me, both! (The giants hurriedly drag her off: the troubled gods hear her cries of distress die away in the distance.) FROH. Up, to her aid! DONNER. Bar me not any! (They question Wotan -with their looks.) LOGE (looking after the giants). Over stump and stone they heave hence like a storm; through the river's forded reach fiercely they flounder; Freia seems far from sweetly to sit the shape of their shoulders! Heia! Hei! How bluster the blockheads along! In the land hang not their heels; nought but Riesenheim's bound now will bring them to rest! (He turns to the gods.) Why left is Wotan so wild? How goes the luck of the gods? (A pale mist with increasing thickness fills the stage; in it the gods soon put on a look of growing whiteness and age; all stand looking with trouble and expectation at Wotan, - who fixes his eyes on the ground in thought. ) LOGE. Mocks me a dream, or drowns me a mist? How sick and sad you suddenly seem! In your cheeks the light is checked; the cheer of your eyes is at end! Up, my Froh, yet early it is! In thy hand, Donner, what deadens the hammer? Why grieved is Fricka? Wotan. Fricka. so that thou may'st render the ruddy dross, the gold once more to the maidens, for therefor pray they to thee. The river maidens? What boots me that rede? Of the watery brood let nought be spoken; to my distress, many a man they lured to their watery lair. WOTAN stands silently struggling with himself. The other gods fix their eyes on him in mute suspense. — Meanwhile FAFNER has been conferring aside with FASOLT. Fafner. Trust me, more than Freia boots the glittering gold: and endless youth would be won if the golden charm were our own. (FAFNER and FASOLT approach WOTAN again.) Wotan. Fafner. Wotan. Hear, Wotan, our word as we wait! Free with you leave we Freia; guerdon less great shall content us: for us rude giants enough were Nibelheims's ruddy gold. Are ye distraught? What is not mine own, how can I, ye shameless ones, grant you? Hard labour built yonder walls: light were't for thy cunning and force (what our spite e'er failed to achieve) to fetter the Niblung fast. For you shall I deal with the Niblung? for you fetter the foe? Insolent and greedy, ye dullards, are ye made by my debt! Fasolt (suddenly seizes FREIA and draws her with FAFNER to the side). To us, maid! We claim thee now! As pledge stay thou with us till thy ransom be paid! (FREIA screaming.) Fafner. Fasolt. Freia. Far from here let her be borne! Till evening, heed me well! held is she as a pledge; at night return we; but when we come, if at hand lie not the ransom, the Rhinegold fair and red — At end is her shrift then, Freia is forfeit: for ever dwell she with us! Sister! Brothers! Save me! Help! (She is borne away by the hastily retreating giants.) Froh. Donner. Up, to her aid! Perish then, all things! (They look at WOTAN enquiringly.) Loge (looking after the giants). Over stock and stone they stride down to the vale: through the water heavily wade now the giants. Sad at heart hangs Freia, so roughly borne on their shoulders! — Heia ! hei I the churls, how they lumber along! Now they tramp up through the vale. First at Riesenheim's bound their rest will they take. (He turns to the gods.) How darkly Wotan doth brood? Alack, what aileth the gods? A pale mist fills the stage, gradually growing denser. In it the god's appearance becomes increasingly wan and aged. All stand in dismay and expectation looking at Wotan, who fixes his eyes on the ground in thought. Loge. Mists, do ye trick me? mocks me a dream? Dismayed and wan ye wither so soon! From your cheeks the bloom dies out; and quenched is the light of your eyes! — Courage Froh! day is at dawn! — From thy hand, Donner, escapeth the hammer! What grief hath Fricka? perverse," the god answers Loge, when he delivers their appeal. "You find me in straits myself, how should I help others?" (4) Loge’s diplomacy is beginning to bear results. Fafner tells Fasolt that he deems the possession of the gold more important than Freia. Notice here how the Freia motive, so prominent when the Giants insisted on her as their compensation, is relegated to the bass, and how the Rhinegold Motive breaks in upon the Motive of Eternal Youth as Fafner and Fasolt again advance toward Wotan, for they now request Wotan to wrest the gold from Alberich and give it to them as ransom for Freia. Wotan refuses, and the Giants, having proclaimed that they will give Wotan until evening to determine upon his course, seize Freia and drag her away. Here the music is highly descriptive. Pallor settles upon the faces of the gods; they seem to have grown older. Alas, they are already affected by the absence of Freia, the Goddess of Youth, whose motives are but palely reflected by the orchestra, as Loge, with cunning alarm, explains the cause of the gods’ distress; until Wotan proclaims that he will go with Loge to Nibelheim. (1) The giants have been listening to this talk about Alberich, an ancient enemy of theirs. The cleverer brother asks Loge, "What great advantage is involved in the possession of the gold, that the Nibelung should find it all-sufficient?" Loge explains. There drift back to Wotan's memory runes of the Ring, and the thought readily arises that it would be well he possessed the ring himself. "But how, Loge, should I learn the art to shape it?" At the reply that he who would practise the magic by which it could be shaped must renounce love, the god turns away in conclusive disrelish. Loge informs him that he would in any case have been too late: Alberich has already successfully forged the ring. This alters the face of things. "But if he possesses a ring of such power," says simple Donner, "it must be taken from him, lest he bring us all under its compulsion!" Wotan hesitates no more. "The ring I must have!" "Yes, now, as long as love need not be renounced, it will be easy to obtain it," says simple Froh. "Easy as mocking—child's-play!" sneers Loge. "Then do you tell us, how?..." Wotan's fine majestic simplicity has no false pride. The Serpent gleefully replies, "By theft! What a thief stole, you steal from the thief! Could anything be easier? Only, Alberich is on his guard, you will have to proceed craftily if you would overreach the robber... in order to return their treasure to the Rhine-daughters, who earnestly entreat you." "The Rhine-daughters?" chafes Wotan. "What do you trouble me with them?" And the goddess of Wisdom,—more sympathetic on the whole in this exhibition of weakness than in her hard justice later—exposing the core of her feminine being, breaks in: "I wish to hear nothing whatever of that watery brood. Many a man, greatly to my vexation, have they lured under while he was bathing, with promises of love." The giants have been listening and have taken counsel together. Fafner now approaches Wotan. "Hear, Wotan.... Keep Freia.... We have fixed upon a lesser reward. We will take in her stead the Nibelung's gold." Wotan comes near losing his temper. "What I do not own, I shall bestow upon you shameless louts?" Fafner expresses a perfect confidence in Wotan's equipment for obtaining the gold."For you I shall go to this trouble?" rails the irritated god, "For you I shall circumvent this enemy? Out of all measure impudent and rapacious my gratitude has made you clowns!..." Fasolt who has only half-heartedly accepted his brother's decision in favor of the gold, stays to hear no more, but seizes Freia. With a warning that she shall be regarded as a hostage till evening, but that if when they return the Rhinegold is not on the spot as her ransom, they will keep her forever, the giants hurry her off. Her cry for help rings back. Her brothers, in the act of rushing to the rescue, look at Wotan for his sanction. No encouragement is to be gathered from his face. He stands motionless, steeped in perplexity, in conflict with himself. Loge has now a few moments' pure enjoyment in safely tormenting his superiors. He stands, with his fresh, ingenuous air, on a point overlooking the valley, and describes the giants' progress, as does the music, too. "Not happy is Freia, hanging on the back of the rough ones as they wade through the Rhine...." Her dejected kindred wince. The heavy footsteps die away. Loge returning his attention to the gods, voices his amazement at the sight which meets him: "Am I deceived by a mist? Am I misled by a dream? How wan and fearful and faded you do look! The glow is dead in your cheeks, the lightening quenched in your glances. Froh, it is still early morning! Donner, you are dropping your hammer! What ails Fricka? Is it chagrin to see the greyness of age creeping over Wotan?" Sounds of woe burst from all, save Wotan, who with his eyes on the ground still stands absorbed in gloomy musing. The solution of the puzzle suddenly, as he feigns, flashes upon Loge: This is the result of Freia's leaving them! They had not yet that morning tasted her apples. Now, of necessity, those golden apples of youth in her garden, which she alone could cultivate, will decay and drop. "Myself," he says, "I shall be less inconvenienced than you, because she was ever grudging to me of the exquisite fruit, for I am only half of as good lineage as you, Resplendent Ones. On the other hand, you depended wholly upon the rejuvenating apples; the giants knew that and are plainly practising against your lives. Now bethink yourselves how to provide against this. Without the apples, old and grey, a mock to the whole world, the dynasty of the gods must perish!" With sudden resolution, Wotan starts from his dark study. "Up,
Page 2 and 3: DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN (“The Rin
Page 4 and 5: (With merry cries they swim away fr
Page 6 and 7: Be Flosshild’ floated to heaven!
Page 8 and 9: (By degrees the waves change into c
Page 10 and 11: My trusty brother! Tells the blockh
Page 14 and 15: Greets she so faintly the grayness
Page 16 and 17: MIME. LOGE. MIME. LOGE. MIME. But,
Page 18 and 19: have fall'n to my might, shall your
Page 20 and 21: Wretched and ravening rogues! (To h
Page 22 and 23: FRICKA (hurrying anxiously to Wotan
Page 24 and 25: Keep not what is cursed! Soon is se
Page 26: What sense is inside it? The name t

der ring des nibelungen - Fantasy Castle Books

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?