der ring des nibelungen - Fantasy Castle Books

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Keep not what is cursed! Soon is sent darkly and downwards he who saves the hoop. WOTAN. What warning woman is here? ERDA. How all has been, count I; how all becomes, and is hereafter, tell I too; the endless world's ere-Wala, Erda, bids thee bethink. Thrice of daughters, ere-begotten, my womb was eased, and so my knowledge sing to thee Norns in the night-time. But dread of thy harm draws m in haste hither to-day; hearken! hearken! hearken! Nothing that is ends not; a day of gloom dawns for the gods; be ruled and wince from the ring! She sinks slowly up to the breast, while the bluish light begins to darken. WOTAN. With hiding weight is holy thy word; wait till I more have mastered! ERDA (as she disappears). I warned thee now thou know'st enough; brood, and the rest forebode! (She disappears completely.) WOTAN. Fear must sicken and fret me? Not if I seize thee, and search to thy knowledge. (He attempts to follow Erda into the cleft to hold her; Donner, Froh, and Fricka throw themselves before him and prevent him.) FRICKA. What mischief maddens thee? FROH. Beware, Wotan! Hallow the Wala, hark to her word! DONNER (to the giants). Heed, you giants! Withhold your hurry; the gold have, that you gape for. FREIA. How shall I hope it? Was then Holda rightly her ransom's worth? (All look with anxiety at Wotan.) WOTAN (has sunk in deep thought and now collects himself with force to a decision). To me, Freia! I make thee free; yield us again the youth that thy going had reft! You giants, joy of your ring! (He throws the ring' on the hoard.) (The giants let Freia go; she hastens joyfully towards the gods, who for some time caress her by turns in greatest delight.) (Fafner spreads out an immense sack and attacks the hoard to pack it in it.) FASOLT (throwing himself in his brother's way). Softly, hungerer! Some of it hither! Both for a wholesome half were the better. FAFNER. More to the maid than the gold hadst thou not given thy heart? With toil I brought thy taste to the bargain. Would'st thou have wooed but half of Freia at once ? Halve I the hoard, rightly I hold the roundest sack for myself. FASOLT. Slandering rogue! Rail at me so? (To the gods.) Try the matter between us; halve for us meetly here the hoard! LOGE. (Wotan turns contemptuously away.) The rest leave to Fafner; light with thy fist on the ring! FASOLT (falls upon Fafner, who meanwhile has been vigorously packing his sack). Withhold, thou meddler! Mine is the hoop; I got it for Freia's glance. (He grasps sharply at the ring.) FAFNER. Forth with thy fist! My right is first! Wotan. Erda. Flee the ring's dread curse! Hopeless and darksome disaster lies hid it its might. What woman warneth me thus? All that e'er was — know I; how all things are, how all things will be — see I too: the endless world's allwise one, Erda, warneth thee now. Ere the world was, daughters three of my womb were born; what mine eyes see, nightly the Norns ever tell thee. But danger most dire calleth me hither to-day. Hear me! Hear me! Hear me! All that e'er was endeth! A darksome day dawns for your godhood; be counselled, give up the ring! ERDA sinks slowly as far as the breast. The bluish light begins to fade. Wotan. With mystic awe fills me thy word: go not till more thou teilest! Erda (disappearing). I warned thee; thou know'st enough: brood in care and fear! (She completely disappears.) Wotan. If then care shall torment me, thee must I capture, all must thou tell me! WOTAN tries to go into the chasm to stay ERDA. FROH and FRICKA throw themselves in his way and hold him back. Fricka. Froh. What wouldst thou, raging one? Go not, Wotan ! Touch not the Wala, heed well her words! Donner (turning to the giants with resolution). Hear, ye giants! come back, and wait ye! the gold shall be your guerdon. Freia. Dare I then hope it? Deem ye Holda truly such ransom worth? (All look attentively at Wotan.) Wotan (rousing himself from deep thought, grasps his spear and brandishes it in token of a bold decision). To me, Freia! Thou shalt be freed. Bought with the gold, bring us our youth once again! Ye giants, take now your ring! (He throws the ring on the hoard.) The giants let FREIA go: she hastens joyfully to the gods, who for some time caress her in turn, with the greatest delight. Fafner spreads out an enormous sack and sets himself to pack the hoard into it. Fasolt (opposing Fafner). Stay, thou greedy one! Something give me too! Justice in sharing fits us brothers. Fafner. Fasolt. Loge. More for the maid than the gold hungered thy love-sick look; I scarce could bring thee, fool, to the bargain; as, without sharing, Freia thou wouldst have wooed, if now I share, trust me to seize on the greater half for myself! Shame on thee, thief! Tauntest thou me? — (to the gods): You call I as judges: say how the hoard shall justly be halved! (WOTAN turns contemptuously away.) The hoard let him ravish; hold but thou fast to the ring! Fasolt (throws himself on FAFNER, who has, meanwhile, been busily packing up). Fafner. Away! Thou rascal! mine is the ring, mine was it for Freia's glance! (He snatches hastily at the ring.) Touch thou it not! the ring is mine! words, throws the ring upon the hoard. Here the Freia Motive, combined with the Flight Motive, now no longer agitated but joyful, rings out gleefully. (1) But now unaccountable darkness invades the scene; from the hollow alcove in the rocks, letting down to the interior earth, breaks a bluish light; while all, breathless, watch the strange phenomenon, the upper half of a woman becomes discernible in it, wrapped in smokecoloured veils and long black locks. It is the Spirit of the Earth, the allknowing Erda, whose motif describes the stately progression of natural things, and is the same as the Rhine-motif, which describes a natural thing in stately progression. She lifts a warning hand to Wotan. "Desist, Wotan, desist! Avoid the curse on the ring... The possession of it will doom you to dark ruin...." Wotan, struck, inquires in awe, "Who are you, warning woman?" The one who knows all that was, is, and shall be, she tells him; the ancestress of the everlasting world, older than time; the mother of the Norns who speak with Wotan nightly. Gravest danger has brought her to seek him in person. Let him hear and heed! The present order is passing away. There is dawning for the gods a dark day.... At this prophesied ruin, the music reverses the motif of ascending progression, and paints melancholy disintegration and crumbling downfall, a strain to be heard many times in the closing opera of the trilogy, when the prophecy comes to pass and the gods enter their twilight. The apparition is sinking back into the earth. Wotan beseeches it to tarry and tell him more. But with the words, "You are warned.... Meditate in sorrow and fear!" it vanishes. The masterful god attempts to follow, to wrest from the weird woman further knowledge. His wife and her brothers hold him back. He stands for a time still hesitating, uncertain, wrapped in thought. With sudden resolve at last he tosses the ring with the rest of the treasure, and turns heart-wholly to greet Freia returning among them, bringing back their lost youth. (4) The Wala, who rises from a rocky chasm, to chaunt her mysterios warning to Wotan, occurs in several of the Eddaic poems. As in the Nibelung’s Ring she is introduced unher the name of Erda, so also in the Edda she appears as the slumbering Earth, who bears hidden in her womb the seeds of all life, and hence, as the wise Wala, she knows the secrets of futurity. The origin of the word Wala—or Völva— is unknown: it signifies prophetess, and, it has been suggested, is possibly connected with the Greek sibyl. Among the old Germans and Norsemen a belief in witchcraft, in incantations, and in the gift of second sight, was very prevalent. Wise-women or Valas were wont to fare the country round, from one homestead to another, working spells and foretelling the future. Such a one was the Veleda of Tacitus (Germania, 8), who was held as a divinity by the Germans. The most important poem of the Elder Edda, the Völuspá—Vala’s soothsaying—is placed by its author in the mouth of a Vala, who tells to the sons of men tidings of the dawn and dusk of the world. But the archetype of these soothsaying women, the Ur-Wala—primal Vala— of Wagner, was the Earth, from whom all life springs and unto whom all life returns, the dead woman whom Odin’s incantation calls up from the grave to reveal the secrets of the coming time (Elder Edda, Vegtamskvidha), the Gaia of the Greeks, to whom honours were paid as the “first prophetic power” (Æschylus, Eumenides, 2). As foretellers of fate the Valas held a position related to that of the Norns or Destines, the Moiræ of Northern Mythology, and Wagner has therefore appropriately represented the latter as the daughters of the Wala, Erda. Thus, too, we find, among the various traditions respecting the origin of the Moiræ, one in which they are regarded as the offspring of Earth and Ocean; while again, Themis, the Goddess of Law, who, in a passage of Hesiod, is described as their mother, may fitly be compared, as an Earth-born prophetic divinity, with the Erda of Wagner’s poem. (3) The curse of the ring is instantly operative; for, in a quarrel over its possession, Fafner slays his brother Fasolt. The Curse Motive is heard and the Nibelungs baleful syncopations. (2) While the gods are expressing tender rapture over the restoration of Freia, and she goes from one to the other receiving their caresses, Fafner spreads open a gigantic sack and in this is briskly stuffing the gold. Fasolt, otherwise preoccupied, had not thought to bring a sack. He attempts to stay Fafner's too active hand. "Hold on, you grasping one, leave something for me! An honest division will be best for us both!" Fafner objects, "You, amorous fool, cared more for the maid than the gold. With difficulty I persuaded you to the exchange. You would have wooed Freia without thought of division, wherefore in the division of the spoil I shall still be generous if I keep the larger half for myself." Fasolt's anger waxes great. He calls upon the gods to judge between them and divide the treasure justly. Wotan turns from his appeal with characteristic contempt. Loge, the mischief-lover, whispers to Fasolt, "Let him take the treasure, do you but reserve the ring!" Fafner has during this not been idle, but has sturdily filled his sack; the ring is on his hand. Fasolt demands it in exchange for Freia's glance. He snatches at it, Fafner defends it, and when in the wrestling which ensues Fasolt has forced it from his brother, the latter lifts his tree-trunk and strikes him dead. Having taken the ring from his hand, he leisurely proceeds to finish his packing, while the gods stand around appalled, and the air shudderingly resounds with the notes of the curse. A long, solemn silence follows. Fafner is seen, after a time, shouldering the sack, into which the whole of the glimmering Hort has disappeared, and, bowed under its weight, leaving for home. "Dreadful," says Wotan, deeply shaken; "I now perceive to be the power of the curse!" Sorrow and fear lie crushingly upon his spirit. Erda, who warned him of the power of the curse, now proven before his eyes, warned him likewise of worse things, of old order changing, a dark day dawning for the gods. He must seek Erda, learn more, have counsel what to do. He is revolving such thoughts when Fricka, who believes all their trouble now ended, approaches him with sweet words, and directs his eyes to the beautiful dwelling hospitably awaiting its masters. "An evil price I paid for the building!" Wotan replies heavily. Soon these motives are interrupted by the Giant and Nibelung motives, there being added to these later the Motive of the Nibelungs’ Hate and the Ring Motive. Alberich’s curse is already beginning its dread work. The giants dispute over the spoils, their dispute waxes to strife, and at last Fafner slays Fasolt and snatches the ring from the dying giant. As the gods gaze horror-stricken upon the scene, the Curse Motive resounds with crushing force. Loge congratulates Wotan that he should have given up the curse-laden ring. His words are
(They struggle; Fasolt wrenches the ring from Fafner.) FASOLT. Mine wholly have I made it! FAFNER. Hold it fast! Might it not fall? (He strikes madly at Fasolt with his stake, and stretches him, with a blow on the ground; as he dies he snatches the ring from him.) Now freely at Freia blink; with the ring at rest I shall be! (He puts the ring in the sack, and then leisurely packs the whole hoard. All the gods stand horrified. Long solemn silence.) WOTAN. Fiercely comes before me the curse's force! LOGE. Thy luck, Wotan, will not be likened! Much was reaped when thou met'st with the ring: but its good is still greater since it is gone, for their fellows, see, slaughter thy foes for the gold that thou forego'st. WOTAN (deeply moved). Still misgivings unstring me! A threatening fear fetters my thought; how to end it Erda shall help me; to her down I must haste! FRICKA (pressing caressingly to hint). What weighs on Wotan? Sweetly await the soaring walls to draw with welcome wide and warmly their doors. WOTAN. I bought with blameful pay the abode! DONNER (pointing to the background, which is still veiled in mist). Harassing warmth hangs in the wind; ill for breath is the burdened air; its lowering weight shall lighten with scattering weather, to sweep the sky for me sweet. (He has mounted a high rock in the slope of the-valley, and begins to swing his hammer.) Heyda! Heyda! To me with you, mists! In crowd at my call! Hark how your lord hails for his host! At the hammer's swing sweep to me here! Heyda! Heyda! Deepen the dark! Donner hails for his host! (The clouds have drawn themselves round him together; he disappears entirely in a mass of storm-cloud that gradually becomes denser and darker. Then the blow of his hammer is heard falling heavily on the rock; strong lightning leaps from the cloud; a violent thunder-clap follows.) Brother, to me! Mark out its way for the bridge! (Froh has disappeared with him in the cloud. Suddenly it draws asunder; Donner and Froh become visible; from their feet, in blinding brightness, a rainbow bridge stretches over the valley to the castle, that now, lighted by the evening sun, shines in clearest splendour.) (Fafner, near his brother's corpse, having at last packed the whole hoard into the great sack, has, during Donner s storm-spell, put it on his back and left the stage.) FROH. Though built lightly looks it, fast and fit is the bridge; it helps your feet without fear to the hall! WOTAN. Evening eyelight aims the sun; its sinking stream strikes widely the walls; when they led the morning's look into laughter, lone and masterless, lost and luring they lay. From morning to evening, with easeless mind and might worked I to win them! The night is near; her hatred now ward from my head the walls! So hail to the hall! Shelter from shame and harm! (To Fricka.) Follow me, wife! To Walhall find we the way! FRICKA. (He takes her hand.) (They struggle together. FASOLT wrests the ring from FAFNER.) Fasolt. Fafner. I have it, fast I hold it! Hold it fast lest it should fall! FAFNER strikes out with his staff and with one blow stretches FASOLT on the ground: from the dying man he then hastily wrests the ring. Now gloat thou on Freia's glance! For the ring see'st thou no more! He puts the ring into the sack and quietly goes on packing the hoard. All the gods stand horrified. A long solemn silence. Wotan. Lege. Fearful now, appeareth the curse's power! Thy luck, Wotan, where were its equal? Much was gained when the ring thou didst win; but that now thou hast lost it boots thee yet more: for thy foemen, see! murder their friends for the gold thou hast let go. Wotan (deeply stirred). What dark boding doth bind me? Care and fear fetter my soul — how I may end them, teach me, then, Erda! to her must I descend! Fricka (caressing him cajolingly). Where stray'st thou, Wotan? Lures thee not friendly the fortress proud? Now it awaits with kindly shelter its lord. Wotan. With evil wage paid was the work! Donner (pointing to the background which is still wrapped in a veil of mist). Sultrily mists float in the air; heavy hangeth the gloomy weight! Ye hovering clouds, come now with lightning and thunder and sweep the heavens clear! DONNER has mounted on a high rock by the precipice and now swings his hammer. Heda! Heda! To me, all ye mists! Ye vapours, to me! Donner, your lord, calleth his hosts! At his hammer's swing hitherward sweep! Heda! Heda! Vapours and fogs! Donner, your lord, calleth his hosts! During the following the mists collect round him. He disappears entirely in an ever-darkening and thickening thundercloud. The stroke of his hammer is heard to fall heavily on the rock. A vivid flash of lightning comes from the cloud; a violent clap of thunder follows. Brother, to me! Shew them the way o'er the bridge! FROH has also disappeared in the clouds. Suddenly the clouds disperse; DONNER and FROH become visible: from their feet a rainbow bridge stretches with blinding radiance across the valley to the castle which now glows in the light of the setting sun. Fafner beside his brother's corpse has at length packed up the whole hoard and with the great sack on his shoulders has left the stage during Donner's summons to the storm. Froh. The bridge leads you homeward, light yet firm to your feet: now tread undaunted its terrorless path! Wotan (and the other gods contemplate the glorious sight, speechless). Golden at eve the sunlight gleameth; in glorious light glow fastness and fell. In the morning's radiance, bravely it glistened, lying lordless there, proudly luring my feet. From morning till evening, in care and fear, unblest, I worked for its winning! The night is nigh: from all its ills shelter it offers now. So — greet I the home, safe from dismay and dread! (to FRICKA.) Follow me, wife! In Walhall dwell now with me. Fricka. accompanied by the Motive of the Nibelungs’ Hate. Yet even Fricka’s caresses, as she asks Wotan to lead her into Walhalla, cannot divert the god’s mind from dark thoughts, and the Curse Motive accompanies his gloomy, curse-haunted reflections. (1) 26. The Donner Motive (Thor’s Storm Magic) Mists are still hanging over the valley, clinging to the heights; nor have the clouds yet wholly lifted from their spirits. Donner, to clear the atmosphere, conjures a magnificent storm, by the blow of his hammer bringing about thunder and lightning. When the black cloud disperses which for a moment enveloped him and Froh on the high rock from which he directs this festival of the elements, a bright rainbow appears, forming a bridge between the rock and the castle now shining in sunset light. A bridge of music is here built, too; the tremulous weaving of it in tender and gorgeous colours is seen through the ear, and its vaulting the valley with an easy overarching spring. Froh, architect of the bridge, bids the gods walk over it fearlessly: It is light but will prove solid under their feet. (4) The first-fruits of Alberich’s curse appear when the Giant Fafner slays, for the Ring’s sake, his brother Fasolt. As Fafner departs from the scene, Donner, the Thunder-God, purifies with a violent storm the sultry, fog-laden atmosphere; then, as he calls on his brother, the Sun-God Froh, the sun bursts forth in its splendor, while its rays are reflected in the rainbow-bridge, over which the Gods now pass in solemn processon into their fastness. The conception of this bridge is derived from the Edda, and includes, I believe, a reference to the swift passing away of their glory and power. The Wala’s warning that a day of doom is impending over the Deities has sunk deep into Wotan’s mind, and has there given rise to a new resolve, which is for the present indicated only by a musical theme from the orchestra, and by the introduction, for the first time into the text, of the name “Walhall.” This resolve, which hereafter we shall see carried out, is to strengthen the dominion of the Gods by the creation of the heroic principle in man, and by filling Walhall for its defence with the souls of the slain heroes (the word Walhall means the Hall of the Slain in battle); the souls, that is, of the brave of all ages, who have put their trust in, and striven to uphold, dogmatic creeds. (3) Fricka coaxes Wotan to the newly-built and dearly-bought castle (Motives of Enchantment of Love and Valhalla). Donner summons a thunder storm to clear the air and the gloom that hangs over all. With the gathering clouds is heard Donner’s Storm Magic. The storm clears; a bright rainbow is seen spanning the abyss between the cliff and the heights of Valhalla. The Rainbow is prefigured by an iridescent play of instrumental tone color in the orchestra. (2) Donner ascends to the top of a lofty rock to the crashing refrains of the DONNER MOTIVE. He gathers the mists about him until he is enveloped by a black cloud. He swings his hammer. There is a flash of lightning, a crash of thunder, and lo! the cloud vanishes. A rainbow bridge spans the valley to Walhalla, which is illumined by the setting sun. Wotan eloquently greets Walhall, and then, taking Fricka by the hand, leads the procession of the gods into the castle. (1) 27. The Rainbow Motive / 28. The Sword Motive The music of this scene is of wondrous beauty. Six harps are added to the ordinary orchestral instruments, and as the varietgated bridge is seen their arpeggios shimmer like the colors of the rainbow around the broad, majestic RAINBOW MOTIVE. Then the stately Walhalla Motive resounds as the gods gaze, lost in admiration, at the hall. It gives way to the Ring Motive as Wotan speaks of the day’s ills; and then as he is inspired by the idea of begetting a race of demi-gods to conquer the Nibelungs, there is heard for the first tiem the SWORD MOTIVE. (1) Wotan stands sunk in contemplation of the castle; his reflections, still upon the shameful circumstances of his bargain, are not happy. In the midst of them he is struck by a great thought, and recovers his courage and hardihood. The sharp, bright, resolute motif which represents his inspiration is afterward indissolubly connected with the Sword,—a sword aptly embodying his idea, which is one of defence for his castle and clan. A suggestion of his idea is contained, too, in the word which he gives to Fricka as the castle's name, when he now invites her to accompany him thither: Walhalla, Hall of the Slain in Battle, or, Hall of Heroes. (4) The gods gaze on the glorious sight, as the music increases in richness and intensity; Wotan apostrophizes the castle as the shelter of the gods from approaching night. Then he is as though seized by a great thought—and that thought is expressed by the brillian and energetic intonation by the orchestra of the Sword Motive. The thought is of a hero that he will beget to save the race of the gods, represented thus by his all-conquering sword. The score contains no stage directions at this point; the present day tradition at Bayreuth directs that Wotan shall stoop, pick up and brandish a sword that has been presumably left over from the Nibelung’s hoard (?), thus grossly materializing a poetic idea much better left to be suggested by the music. (2) Headed by Wotan and Fricka, the gods ascend toward the bridge. Loge looks after them in mingled irony and contempt. "There they hasten to their end, who fancy themselves so firmly established in being. I am almost ashamed to have anything to do with them...." And he resolves in his mind a scheme for turning into elemental fire again and burning them all up, those blind gods. He is nonchalantly adding himself to their train, when from the Rhine below rises the lament of the Rhine-daughters, begging that their gold may be given back to them. Wotan pauses with his foot on the bridge: "What wail is that?" Loge enlightens him, and, at Wotan's annoyed, "Accursed nixies! Stop their importunity!" calls down to them, "You, down there in the water, what are you complaining about? Hear what Wotan bids: No longer having the gold to shine for you, make yourselves happy basking in the sunshine of this new pomp of the gods!" Loud laughter from the gods greets this sally, and they pass over the bridge, Walhalla-ward, followed by the water-nymphs' wail for their lost gold, closing with the reproach, "Only in the pleasant water-depths is truth; false and cowardly are those making merry up there!" With Walhalla and rainbow shedding a radiance around them of which we are made conscious through the delighted sense of hearing, the curtain falls.
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 12 and 13: at last who had warred on love; for
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 26: What sense is inside it? The name t

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