der ring des nibelungen - Fantasy Castle Books

Greets she so faintly the grayness Wotan has got,
to warn him all must be old?
FRICKA.
Sorrow! Sorrow! Why are we so?
DONNER.
My hand is stayed.
FROH.
LOGE.
My heart is still.
Behold it! Hark what has happened!
On Freia's fruit I doubt if you feasted to-day ;
the golden apples out of her garden
have yielded you dower of youth,
ate you them every day.
The garden's feeder in forfeit is guarded;
on the branches frets and browns the fruit
and rots right to its fall.
My need is milder; to me never Freia has given
gladly the fostering food;
for barely half so whole I was bred as you here!
But your welfare you fixed
on the work of the fruit,
and well were the giants ware;
a trap they laid to tangle your life,
which look how to uphold!
Without the apples, old and hoar
hoarse and helpless
worth not a dread to the world,
the dying gods must grow.
FRICKA.
Wotan! Husband! Where is thy hope?
Own that thy laughing lightness has ended
in wrong and wreck for all
WOTAN (starting up—with, sudden decision).
Up, Loge! And let us be off!
To Nibelheim now together!
At hazards I'll have the gold.
LOGE.
The Rhine-maidens moan for their rights
and may they not hope for thy hearing?
WOTAN (impetuously).
Tush, thou talker! Freia befriending
Freia rests for her ransom.
LOGE.
Fast as thou like let it befall;
right below nimbly
I lead through the Rhine.
WOTAN.
Not through the Rhine!
LOGE.
Then come to the brim
of the brimstone cleft,
and slip inside with me so!
(He goes first and. disappears sideways in a cleft, out of
which, immediately lows a sulphurous mist.)
WOTAN.
You others, halt till evening here;
for faded youth
the fresh'ner is yet to be found!
(He goes down after Loge into the cleft; the mist that rises
out of it spreads itself over the whole scene and quickly
fills it with a thick cloud. Already those who stay behind
have become invisible.)
DONNER.
Farewell, Wotan!
FROM.
Good luck! Good luck!
FRICKA.
O soon again be safe at my side!
(The mist darkens till it becomes a perfectly black cloud,
which moves from below upwards: this changes itself into
a firm dark chasm of rock, that still moves in an upward
direction, so that it seems as if the stage were sinking
deeper and deeper into the earth.
SCENE III.
At length from different directions in the distance dawns a
dusky red light : a vast far-stretching
SUBTERRANEAN CAVERN.
becomes visible, which on all sides seems to issue in
narrow passages.
Alberich drags the shrieking Mime by the ear out of a sidecleft.)
ALBERICH.
Hihi! Hihi! To me! To me!
Try not thy tricks!
Lustily now
look to be lashed,
Fricka.
Donner.
Froh.
Loge.
Fricka.
is she in sorrow for Wotan, gloomy and grey,
who seems already grown old?
Woe's me! Woe's me! What has befall'n?
My hand doth sink!
My heart stands still!
I see now! hear what ye lack!
Of Freia's fruit not yet have ye eaten to-day.
The golden apples that grow in her garden
have made you all doughty and young,
ate ye them day by day.
The garden's keeper in pledge now is granted;
on the branches droops and dies the fruit,
decayed soon it will fall.
It irks me little; for meanly ever Freia to me
stinted the sweet tasting fruit:
but half as godlike am I, ye great ones, as you!
But ye set your fortune
on the youth-giving fruit:
that wotted the giants well;
and at your lives this blow now is aimed:
to save them be your care!
Lacking the apples old and grey,
worn and weary, withered,
the scoff of the world,
dies out the godly race.
Wotan, my lord! unhappy man!
See how thy laughing-lightness has brought us
all disgrace and shame!
Wotan (starting up with a sudden resolve).
Up, Loge! descend with me!
To Nibelheim go we together:
for I will win me the gold.
Loge.
The Rhinedaughters called upon thee:
ah, may they then hope for a hearing?
Wotan (violently).
Peace, thou babbler, Freia, the fair one,
Freia needs must be ransomed!
Loge.
Wotan.
Loge.
At thy command, swiftly we go:
down the steeps shall we
make way through the Rhine?
Not through the Rhine!
Then swing we ourselves
through the sulphur-cleft:
down yonder slip in with me!
He goes first and disappears at the side in a cleft from
which immediately afterwards a sulphurous vapour arises.
Wotan.
Ye others wait till evening here:
the golden ransom
to win back our youth will I gain!
He descends after Loge into the cleft. The sulphurous
vapour issuing therefrom spreads over the whole stage and
quickly fills it with thick clouds. Those remaining on it are
soon hidden.
Donner.
Froh.
Fricka.
Fare thee well, Wotan!
Good luck! Good luck!
O soon return to thy sorrowing wife!
The vapour thickens to a quite black cloud which rises
from below upwards; this then changes to a dark rocky
chasm which continues to rise so that the theatre seems to
be gradually sinking into the earth.
THIRD SCENE.
A ruddy glow shines from various places in the distance,
increasing clamour as from smithing is heard on all sides.
Anvils behind the scene. — The clang of the anvils dies
away.
A subterranean chasm appears, which fills the whole scene
and seems to open into narrow clefts on all sides.
ALBERICH drags the shrieking MIME from a side cleft.
Alberich.
Hehe! hehe! to me! to me!
mischievous imp!
Prettily pinched,
now shalt thou be,
Loge! Down with me to Nibelheim! I will conquer the gold!"
"The Rhine-daughters, then," speaks wicked Loge, "may look to
have their prayer granted?"
Wotan harshly silences him. "Be still, chatterer!... Freia the good,
Freia must be ransomed!"
Loge drops the subject and offers his services as guide. "Shall we
descend through the Rhine?"
The Rhine, with its infesting nymphs?...
"Not through the Rhine!" says Wotan.
"Then through the sulphur-cleft slip down with me!" And Loge
vanishes down a cleft in the rock, through which Wotan, after bidding
his family wait for him where they are until evening, follows. (4)
Let us here permit ourselves a brief digression in order to consider
the reverent and appreciative sympathy which Wagner displays for
the faiths of mankind, as typified in Wotan. By these faiths are
begotten and nourished the noblest thoughts of man, until, hardening
at length within their self-imposed limits, they appear no longer as
aids to the development, but as barriers to the expansion, of his mind.
It is Wotan who, in conjunction with the all-knowing Earth-mother,
Erda—may we say Religious Belief in concert with the Law of the
Universe?—produces the race of Valkyries, in whom are symbolized
all noble passions and emotions which elevate the soul. It is Wotan
again who begets the Wälsungs, types of the heroic principle in man,
by whom he is himself finally overcome, when his ways have
wandered from truth, and Erda warns him no more. Here also I would
indicate a passage, replete with significance, from the last act of
Siegfried, wherein the poet gives clear expression to his belief that in
our creeds lies hidden the germ of the highest, although they are
unable to bring to perfection that which they have half unconsciously
nurtured. Brünnhilde, the Spirit of divine Truth and Love, is made to
say:— “by me alone was Wotan’s thought conceived. The thought
that never I dared to name; which I did not think, but only felt; for
which I fought, struggled and strove; for which I braved him who
thought it; for which I suffered, punishment bound me, since I did not
think it and only felt.” Wotan’s secret aim is, indeed, the redemption
and purification of the human soul, but the freedom to accomplish it is
denied him. It is Brünnhilde—Love—who “did not think it, and only
felt,” by whom the conception of the God is fulfilled, though at last in
opposition to his will. (3)
17. The Nibelung Motive (Smithy Motive)
Wotan having spurned the giants’ offer to take the gold instead
of Freia, they make off with her. A gloom comes upon the
scene and the gods begin to look old and wan, as the goddess
of youth is torn from them, and her motive is heard in
chromatic distortion. With Loge, Wotan starts off for
Nibelheim to gain the gold which the giants may be induced to
accept as a substitute for Freia. The scene changes behind a
black cloud, and we hear in the orchestra Loge’s flickering
motive, the motive of Renunciation, which suggests the fateful
outcome of Wotan’s plan; the motive of the Menial, leading
into the Flight Motive in dotted triple rhythm and into the Ring
Motive, also in triple rhythm—a rhythmic elaboration that has
prepared us for the Smithy Motive which now resounds, first in
the orchestra, in its proper form accompanied by the Rhine
Gold fanfare, then hammered furiously upon unseen anvils
behind the scene. With it the Flight Motive is combined, in the
bass. The hammering on the anvils gradually dies away; the
motive of the Menial becomes prominent; the whole merges
into the Ring Motive and the third scene, in Nibelheim, is
shown with Alberich belaboring the unfortunate Mime, above
the insistent repetition of the Menial’s Motive. (2)
Loge disappears down a crevice in the side of the rock. From it
a sulphurous vapor at once issues. When Wotan has followed
Loge into the cleft the vapor fills the stage and conceals the
remaining characters. The vapors thicken to a black cloud,
continually rising upward, until the rocky chasms are seen.
These have an upward motion, so that the stage appears to be
sinking deeper and deeper. During this transformation scene
there is an orchestral interlude. First is heard the Loge Motive,
four times interrupted by the Motive of Renunciation; the
Motive of Servitude is heard during four bars. Then, with a
molto vivace the orchestra dashes into the Motive of Flight.
Twice the Ring and Rhinegold motives are heard, the latter
appearing the second time with the typical NIBELUNG MOTIVE
expressive of the enslaved Nibelungs constantly working at the
forge. The motive accompanies for sixteen bars., during eight
of which the rhythm is emphasized by the anvils on the stage,
a broad expansion of the Flight Motive. Meanwhile from
various distant quarters ruddy gleams of light illumine the
chasms, and when the Flight Motive has died away, only the
increasing clangor of the smithies is heard from all directions.
Gladually the sound of the anvils grows fainter; and, as the
Ring Motive resounds like a shout of malicious triumph
(expressive of Alberich’s malignant joy at his possession of
power), there is seen a subterranean cavern apparently of
illimitable depth, from which narrow shafts lead in all
directions. (1)
Thick vapour pours forth from the sulphur-cleft, dimming and shortly
blotting out the scene. We are travelling downward into the earth. A
dull red glow gradually tinges the vapour. Sounds of diminutive
hammers upon anvils become distinct. The orchestra takes up their
suggestion and turns it into a simple monotonous strongly rhythmical
air—never long silent in this scene—which comes to mean for us the
little toiling Nibelungs, the cunning smiths. A great rocky
subterranean cave running off on every side into rough shafts is at
last clearly visible, lighted by the ruddy reflection of forge-fires.
This is where Alberich reigns and by the power of the ring compels
his enslaved brothers to labour for him. Renouncing love has not
been good for the disposition of Alberich. It is not only the insatiable
lust of gold and power now darkening the soul-face of the earlier fairly
gentle-natured Nibelung, it is a savage gloating cruelty, bespeaking
one unnaturally loveless; it is a sanguinary hatred, too, of all who still
can love, of love itself, a thirst and determination to see it completely
done away with in the world, exterminated—a sort of fallen angel's
sin against the Holy Ghost. A state, beneath the incessant excitement
of slave-driving and treasure-amassing, of inexpressible
unhappiness, lightened by moments of huge exaltation in the sense
of his new power. (4)
The red glow of furnaces and the ringing of anvils distinguish the third
scene as laid in the abode of the Dwarfs or Nibelungs. The Niflheim—