der ring des nibelungen - Fantasy Castle Books

Wretched and ravening rogues!
(To himself.)
Yet let me but hold the ring,
the hoard without risk I can lose;
for again it shall gather
and sweetly shall grow
in the might of the mastering gold;
and the trick were a way
of turning me wise,
no further than fittingly paid,
if for it I part with the pile.
WOTAN.
The hoard shall we have?
ALBERICH.
Loosen my hand and let it be here.
(Loge unties his right hand.)
ALBERICH
(touches the ring with his lips and mutters the command).
And now the Nibelungs hastily near;
my behest they bend to;
hark how they bring
from the deepness the hoard into day.
Now free me from press of the bonds!
WOTAN.
No bit till first thou hast paid.
(The Nitelungs rise out of the cleft laden with the treasure
of the hoard.)
ALBERICH.
O withering wrong
that the wary rascals
should see me suffer such woe!
Settle it here! Hark what I say!
Strait and high stow up the hoard!
Move it not lamely,
and look not at me!
Downwards deep
at once from the daylight!
Back to the work
that waits in your burrows!
Harm to him that is faint,
for I fast shall follow you home!
(The Nibelungs, after they have piled up the hoard, slip
eagerly down again into the cleft.)
ALBERICH.
The gold I leave you;
now let me go;
and the helm at least
that Loge withholds,
again you will give me for luck?
LOGE (throwing the tarn-helm on the hoard).
By rights it belongs to the ransom.
ALBERICH.
The cursed thief!
But comes a thought!
Who aided in one,
he welds me another;
still hold I the might
that Mime must heed.
Yet ill it feels that eager foes
should have such a harbouring fence.
But lo! Alberich all has left you;
so loose the bite of his bonds!
LOGE (to Wotan).
Now is he needless,
here in his knots?
WOTAN.
A golden hoop
behold on thy finger;
hear'st thou, dwarf?
Without it the hoard is not whole.
ALBERICH (horrified).
The ring?
WOTAN.
Along with the ransom's
rest thou must leave it.
ALBERICH.
My life ere I lose the ring!
WOTAN.
The ring I look for;
thou art welcome well to thy life!
ALBERICH.
Rendered, with breath and body,
the ring must be to the ransom;
hand and head, eye and ear,
are my own no rather
than here is this ruddy ring!
WOTAN.
Thy own thou wilt reckon the ring?
Ravest thou openly of it?
Soundly here to me
Wotan.
Thievish and ravenous gang!
(Aside.)
But if only I keep the ring,
the hoard I may lightly let go;
for anew were it won,
and right merrily fed
were it soon by the spell of the ring;
and a warning 'twould be
to render me wise;
not dearly the lesson were paid,
though for its gain I lose the gold.
Dost yield up the hoard?
Alberich.
Loosen my hand to summon it here.
(LOGE unties the rope from his right hand.)
Alberich (touches the ring with his lips and secretly
murmurs a command).
Behold, the Nibelungs hither are called!
By their lord commanded,
now from the dark
to the daylight they bring up the hoard;
then loosen these torturing bonds!
Wotan.
Not yet, till all hath been paid.
The NIBLUNGS ascend from the cleft, laden with the treasures
of the hoard.
Alberich.
O shame and disgrace!
that my shrinking bondsmen
themselves should see me in bonds!
There let it lie, as I command!
In a heap pile up the hoard!
Dolts, must I help you?
Nay, look not on me!
Haste, there! haste!
Then hence with you homeward,
straight to your work!
off to your smithing!
Woe, if idlers ye be!
At your heels I follow you hard!
He kisses his ring and stretches it out commandingly. As if
struck with a blow, the NIBLUNGS rush cowering and
terrified towards the cleft, into which they quickly
disappear.
Alberich.
Here lies ransom;
now let me go:
and the tarnhelm there,
that Loge yet holds;
that give me in kindness again!
Lege (throwing the tarnhelm on the hoard)
The plunder must pay for the pardon.
Alberich.
Accursed thief!
But, wait awhile!
He who forged me the one
makes me another;
still mine is the might
that Mime obeys.
Sad it seems that crafty foes
should capture my cunning defence!
Well then! Alberich all has given;
now loose, ye tyrants, his bonds!
Loge (to WOTAN).
Art thou contented?
Shall he go free?
Wotan.
A golden ring
gleams on thy finger:
hear'st thou, dwarf?
that also belongs to the hoard.
Alberlch (horrified).
The ring?
Wotan.
To win thee free,
that too must thou leave us.
Alberich.
My life, but not the ring !
Wotan.
The ring surrender;
with thy life do what thou wilt.
Alberich.
If but my life be left me,
the ring too must I deliver;
hand and head, eye and ear
are not mine more truly
than mine is this golden ring!
Wotan.
Thine own thou callest the ring?
Ravest thou, impudent Niblung?
Truly tell how thou gottest the gold,
attempt is vain, and proves at best but a delaying of the doom. In
Alberich’s hand the Ring was an emblem of material might, the Hoard
and the Helm were the means of his mastery:—egoism, desire of
wealth, hypocrisy, are the tools wherewith the Evil Spirit fortifies
himself in the heart of man. But with these in the possession of the
Gods the case is widely different; they are then no longer a source of
strength, but of destruction. Alberich’s curse is on them. To none but
him shall they bring profit, but wherever they come the curse shall
cling, until either the Devil regain his hold, or the Ring be purified and
restored to its original sinlessness in the waters of the Rhine.
We now enter upon the last scene of this preliminary drama, a scene
wherein the Deities, by a reluctant concession, secure a fancied
immunity, but in reality a brief respite, from their impending destiny. In
assuming Alberich’s scepter the Gods renounce their own; retaining
the treasures of the Nibelung, Freia is lost to them for ever. But the
possession of Freia is, as we have seen, essential to their very
existence. Nourished no longer by her golden fruit, they wither and
decay like sapless leaves, when autumn yields to winter: they have
no choice but to ransom her, even at the cost of their ill-gotten riches.
Now the giants also covet the evil treasure. They are opposed alike to
the Gods and to the Nibelungs, as ignorance is at war with both
spiritual and material knowledge. In the first place they aim at
extirpating the Spiritual by taking Freia from the Gods; but afterwards,
as material advantage seems always the more real to ignorance, they
willingly accept the treasure in exchange for her. The Gods thus gain
a new lease of life, but the curse, once incurred, clings to them in
spite of their renunciation, and, in the words of a German
commentator, “this deliverance is but in seeming; the Goddess of
Youth indeed, but not youth itself, is regained.” (3)
The Rhine-gold plays no conspicuous part in the story as told in
the Volsunga Saga, but in the Wagner version it is the subject
around which interest in the developments revolves. If we look
beyond the action of the drama for the true signification of the
mystical incidents so delightfully unfolded, we cannot fail to
perceive that gold is the curse-mark of ambition and that Alberich,
the swart, hairy, repulsive, but powerful dwarf, is the embodied
principle of lust for riches. Rape of the magic ring from the miserly
manikin, by which he is impoverished of his wealth-created power,
so infuriates him that he declares a curse shall overtake all who
possess the ring or the gold accumulated through its influence.
Wagner, departing from the earliest version of the legend,
represents the rape of the magic gold as having been made by the
dwarf from the three guardian water nymphs. (5)
Alberich now asks for his freedom, but Loge throws the
Tarnhelmet on to the heap. Wotan further demands that
Alberich also give up the ring. At these words dismay and
terror are depicted on Alberich’s face. He had hope to save the
ring, but in vain. Wotan tears it from the gnome’s finger. Then
Alberich, impelled by hate and rage, curses the ring, and the
MOTIVE OF THE CURSE follows. To it should be added the
syncopated measures expressive of the threatening and everactive
NIBELUNGS’ HATE. Amid the heavy thuds of the Motive
of Servitude Alberich vanishes in the cleft. (1)
Even the ring is forced from him, to his complete despair—for
with that left him, he could regain all the rest. The motive of
Compact is heard, and as the ring is seized, the Rhine Gold
Motive is launched with a blast, and then that of Renunciation.
Alberich is set free. He turns to his captors in deadly rage and
bitterness, and the motive of the Nibelung’s Work of
Destruction is heard, its chief characteristic being its
syncopated beat. Alberich curses the gold and its possessors
forevermore. It is the only power left to him; but, as Wolzogen
says, it is the power that won him the gold and the ring, the
power that can destroy the world and the gods. (2)
"Now I have paid, now let me go," says the humbled Nibelung-lord,
"and that helmet-like ornament which Loge is holding, have the
kindness to give it me back." But Loge flings the Tarnhelm on the
heap as part of the ransom. Hard to bear is this, but Mime can after
all forge another. "Now you have gotten everything; now, you cruel
ones, loose the thongs." But Wotan remarks, "You have a gold ring
upon your finger; that, I think, belongs with the rest." At this, a
madness of terror seizes Alberich. "The ring?..." "You must leave it
for ransom." "My life--but not the ring!" With that bitter coldness of the
aristocrat which in time brings about revolutions, Wotan replies, "It is
the ring I ask for--with your life do what you please!" The dull
Nibelung pleads still after that, and his words contain thorns which he
might reasonably expect to tell: "The thing which I, anguish-harried
and curse-crowned, earned through a horrible renunciation, you are
to have for your own as a pleasant princely toy?... If I sinned, I sinned
solely against myself, but against all that has been, is, or shall be,
do you, Immortal, sin, if you wrest this ring from me...."
Wotan without further discussion stretches out his hand and tears
from Alberich's finger the ring, which gives once more, under this
violence, the golden call, saddened and distorted. "Here, the ring!—
Your chattering does not establish your right to it!" Alberich drops to
earth, felled. Wotan places the ring on his hand and stands in
gratified contemplation of it. "I hold here what makes me the mightiest
lord of the mighty!"
Loge unties Alberich and bids him slip home. But the Nibelung is past
care or fear, and rising to insane heights of hatred lays upon the ring
such a curse as might well shake its owner's complacency. "As it
came to me through a curse, accursed be this ring! As it lent me
power without bounds, let its magic now draw death upon the wearer!
Let no possessor of it be happy.... Let him who owns it be gnawed by
care and him who owns it not be gnawed by envy! Let every one
covet, no one enjoy it!... Appointed to death, fear-ridden let its craven
master be! While he lives, let his living be as dying! The ring's master
be the ring's slave,--until my stolen good return to me!... Now keep it!
Guard it well! My curse you shall not escape!"
"Did you hear his affectionate greeting?" asks Loge, when Alberich
has vanished down the rocky cleft.