der ring des nibelungen - Fantasy Castle Books

Be Flosshild’ floated to heaven!
At thy shape like a toad,
To the shriek of thy tongue,
O let me in answerless spell,
Look and hearken alone!
(Woglinde and Wellgunde have dived down close to them
and now break out into ringing laughter.)
ALBERICH (staring in alarm out of Flosshilde’s arms).
Make you laughter at me?
FLOSSHILDE (breaking suddenly from him).
We send it as last of the song.
(She darts upwards with her sisters and joins in their
laughter.)
ALBERICH (with shrieking voice).
Woe! Ah, Woe! O grief! O grief!
The third to my trust is treacherous too?—
You giggling, gliding
Gang of unmannerly maidens!
Feel you no touch,
You truthless Nodders, of faith?
THE THREE RHINE-DAUGHTERS.
Wallala! Lalaleia! Lalei!
Heia! Heia! Haha!
Lower thy loudness!
Bluster no longer!
Learn the bent of our bidding!
What made thee faintly free in the midst
The maid who fixed thy mind?
True finds us and fit for trust
The wooer who winds us tight.
Freshen thy hope, and hark to no fear;
In the flood we hardly shall flee.
(They swim away from each other, hither and thither, now
higher and now lower, to provoke Alberich to chase them.)
ALBERICH.
How in my body blistering heat
Upheaves the blood!
Lust and hate with heedless longing
Harrow my heart up!
Laugh and lie as you will,
Wide alight is my want
Till ease from one of you end it!
(With desperate efforts he begins to pursue them, with
fearful nimbleness he climbs ridge after ridge, springs from
one to the other, and tries to seize now this maiden, now
that, who always escape from him with mocking laughter;
he stumbles, falls into the depth below, and then climbs
hastily up again—till at last he loses all patience;
breathless, and foaming with rage, he stops, and stretches
his clenched fist up towards the maidens.)
ALBERICH (almost beside himself).
This fist on one to fix!
(He remains looking upwards in speechless rage till his
attention is suddenly caught and held by the following
spectacle:
Through the flood from above a gradually brighter light
has penetrated, which now, at a high spot in the middle
peak, kindles into a blinding golden glare; a magical
yellow light breaks thence through the water.)
WOGLINDE.
Look, sisters! The wakener’s laugh is below.
WELLGUNDE.
Through the grassy gloom
The slumberer sweetly it greets.
FLOSSHILDE.
Now kisses its eye and calls it to open;
Lo, it smiles in the smiting light;
Through the startled flood
Flows the stream of its star.
THE THREE (gracefully swimming round the peak)
Heiayaheia! Heiayaheia!
Wallalallalala leiayahei!
Rhinegold! Rhinegold! Burning delight,
How bright is thy lordly laugh!
Holy and red the river behold in thy rise!
Heiayahei! Heiayaheia!
Waken, friend, fully wake!
Gladdening games around thee we guide;
Flames are aflow, floods are on fire;
With sound and with song,
With dives and with dances,
We bathe in the depth of thy bed.
Rhinegold! Rhinegold!
Heiayaheia! Wallalaleia yahei!
ALBERICH (whose look is strongly attracted by the light,
and remains fixed on the gold).
What’s that, you gliders,
That there so gleams and glows?
THE THREE MAIDENS (by turns).
Where is the wonderer’s home,
Who of Rhinegold never has heard?
He guessed not aught of the golden eye
That wakes and wanes again?
But float round Flosshilde ever!
And thy shape like a toad
And the croak of thy voice,
O might I, dazzled and dumb,
See and hear nothing but these!
(WOGLINDE and WELLGUNDE have dived down close to
them and now break out into ringing laughter.)
Alberich (starting up, alarmed).
Wretches, laugh ye at me?
Flosshilde (suddenly darting from him).
As fits at the end of the song!
(She swims quickly up with her sisters and joins in their
laughter.)
Alberich (in a wailing voice).
Woe’s me! Ah woe’s me! Alas! Alas!
The third one, so dear, doth she too betray?
Ye shameless, shifting,
Worthless and infamous wantons!
Feed ye on falsehood,
Treacherous watery brood?
The Three Rhine-Maidens.
Wallala! Lalaleia! Lalei!
Heia! Heia! Haha!
Shame on thee, imp!
Why chid’st thou down yonder!
Hear the words that we sing thee!
Say wherefore, faintheart, didst thou not hold
The maiden thou dost love?
True are we, free from all guile,
To him who holds us fast.
Gaily to work, and grasp without fear;
In the floods not fleet is our flight.
(They swim apart hither and thither, now deeper now
higher, to incite ALBERICH to chase them.)
Alberich.
Through all my frame what passionate fire
Now burns and glows.
Rage and longing, fierce and mighty,
Lash me to madness!
Though ye may laugh and lie,
Yearning masters my heart,
And one to me now shall yield her!
He begins the chase with desperate exertions. With terrible
agility he climbs the rocks, springs from one to the other
and tries to catch first one then another of the maidens who
always elude him with mocking laughter. He staggers and
falls into the abyss, then clambers hastily aloft again to
renew the chase. They let themselves sink a little. He
almost reaches them, falls back again, and again tries to
catch them. Foaming with rage, he pauses breathless and
stretches his clenched fist up towards the maidens.
Alberich.
Could I but capture one!
He remains in speechless rage gazing upwards, when
suddenly he is attracted and chained by the following
spectacle.
Through the water from above breaks a continuously
brightening glow which on a high point of the middle rock
kindles to a blinding, brightly-shining gleam. A magical
light streams from this through the water.
Woglinde.
Look, sisters! The wakener laughs to the deep.
Wellgunde.
Through the waters green
The radiant sleeper he greets.
Flosshilde.
He kisses her eyelids, so to unclose them.
Look, she smiles in the shining light.
Through the floods afar
Flows her glittering ray!
The Three (together swimming round the rock).
Heiajaheia! Heiajaheia!
Wallalallalala leiajahei!
Rhinegold! Rhinegold! Radiant joy,
Thou laughest in glorious light! Glistening beams
Thy splendor shoots forth o’er the waves!
Heiajahei! Heiajaheia!
Waken, friend! Wake in joy!
Games will we play so gladly with thee;:
Flasheth the foam, flameth the flood,
As, floating around,
With dancing and singing,
We joyously dive to thy bed!
Rhinegold! Rhinegold!
Heiajaheia! Wallalaleia jahei!
Alberich (whose eyes, strongly attracted by the gleam, are
fixed on the gold).
What is’t, ye sleek ones,
That there doth gleam and glow?
The Three Maidens (alternately).
Where hast thou, churl, ever dwelt,
Of the Rhinegold ne’er to have heard?
Knows not the elf of the gold’s bright eye, then,
That wakes and sleeps in turn?
When after Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde have in turn
gamboled almost within his reach, only to dart away again, he
curses his own weakness, you hear the MOTIVE OF THE
NIBELUNG’S SERVITUDE. Swimming high above him the
Rhine-daughters incite him with gleeful cries to chase them.
Alberich tries to ascend, but always slips and falls back.
Finally, beside himself with rage, he threatens them with
clenched fist. The music accompanying this threat is in the
typical rhythm of the Nibelung Motive. (1)
In the study of the legends which lie at the basis of the series of
immortal works which Wagner has bequeathed to the world, we
should place in the forefront the great Siegfried legend, the
primæval heritage of the German people. For, in spite of the
fascinating garb in which, through the darkness of the long
Northern nights and sunless Northern days, the skill of Icelandic
bards has clothed the story, the home of the legend was originally
the home of the German Folk, the Rhine-land. How old the
legend is we cannot tell; we only know that it comes to us fraught
with dim reminiscences and hints of a time when the worlds of
sense and of spirit were not so far apart as now we hold them;
when the gods, clad in the likeness of men, walked the earth, and
visibly turned and guided as they would the lives of mortals; a time
when the sons of God beheld the daughters of men, and saw that
they were fair. (5)
4. Motive of the Rhine Gold
We come now to an object upon which turns the entire tragic
development of the fateful story, and which gives its title to the
preliminary drama. This object is the Rhinegold, the wondrous
treasure whose lustre illumines the gloom of the watery depths.
Those who are familiar with the Norse poetry will not have failed to
remark the continual metaphorical use of such phrases as “the
water’s flame,” “the ocean’s fire,” and the like, significative of gold;
and again, in the Edda, when Oegir, the sea-god, gives a banquet to
the deities, his hall beneath the waves is described as lighted with
gleaming gold in place of fire. The origin of these phrases is perhaps
connected with the ancient view of the cosmogony before alluded to,
which regards the sea as the parent and giver of all things. This belief
in the inexhaustible wealth of the sea is of frequent occurrence in
legends and folk-lore.”
In the Nibelung’s Ring the Rhinegold, sleeping by turns, and by turns
awakened by the Divine Intelligence (the “Wakener”), indicates the
activity of the human soul in its pristine purity. By its sleep is signified
the essential conjunction of the soul with its divine source, in which
aspect its activity is said to sleep as regards the lower plane of
existence; sleep here denoting transcendency. By its illumination of
the waters is intimated its essential and sinless activity upon the
lower plane, diffusing life and light in the material world. But into this
condition of innocence and tranquility enters a disturbing element. As
Evil from the darkness of Matter, rises Alberich the Nibelung from the
lowest depths of the Rhine. His efforts at first are futile: the universe,
as a whole, is exempt from the power of ill. It is only the individual
soul, involved in matter, that Evil, sprung from matter, is mighty to
degrade. This connection of the soul with matter is indicated by the
wakening of the Rhinegold within the waters. Its illumination of the
material world is an essential function, and of itself implies no
degradation. But when Alberich seizes the gold, and drags it down
from its rightful place, the universality of the soul is lost. The curse
which the Nibelung pronounces upon love severs, as far as it may be
severed, the bond which binds the soul to the highest Good; its pure
and universal energy, filling the world with light and joy, is now
perverted into base self-seeking Egoism—which becomes
henceforth, as embodies in the Ring, the type of material might and
mastery, although at the cost of spirituality and Divine Love. Thus the
light of innocence is withdrawn from the world, and replaced by the
darkness of guilt; nor shall the atonement be completed until
selfishness and sensualism be eradicated from the soul, and the light
of love and holiness re-illumine the realms of existence. Alberich’s
curse of love strikes the keynote of the whole poem, which becomes
a record of the strife between the two opposing principles, Love and
Self, which constitutes man’s mortal life. (3)
Alberich’s gaze is attracted and held by a glow which
suddenly pervades the waves above him and increases until
from the highest point of the central cliff a bright, golden ray
shoots through the water. Amid the shimmering
accompaniment of the violins is heard on the horn the
RHINEGOLD MOTIVE. (1)
5. The Rhine-Daughters’ Shout of Triumph
The Rhine Gold in the rock suddenly begins to glow with an
increasing brightness, sending out a magical golden light
through the water. As they see it, the maidens circle around
the rock, hymning a gracious melody to the rippling
accompaniment of the orchestra; and the “Motive of the Rhine
Gold” is intoned by the horns, thus, a sort of fanfare. The
Rhine Daughters break into joyous song in “Praise of the
Rhine Gold.” (2)
With shouts of triumph the Rhine-Daughters swim around the
rock. Their cry, “Rhinegold!” is a characteristic motive, heard
again later in the cycle, and the new accompanying figure on
the violins may also be noted, as later on further reference to it
will be necessary. THE RHINE-DAUGHTERS’ SHOUT OF
TRIUMPH and the accompaniment to it follows. (1)
He is glaring upward at them, speechless with fury, when his eyes
become fixed upon a brilliant point, growing in size and radiance until
the whole flood is illumined. There is an exquisite hush of a moment.
The sun has risen and kindled its reflection in the gold. The music
describes better than words the spreading of tremulous light down
through the deep. Through the wavering ripples of water and light
cuts the bright call of the gold, the call to wake up and behold. Again
and again it rings, regularly a golden voice. The Rhine-daughters
have quickly forgotten their victim. They begin their blissful
circumswimming of their idol, with a song in ecstatic celebration of it,
so penetratingly, joyously sweet, that you readily forgive them their
naughtiness: "Rhine-gold! Rhine-gold! Luminous joy! How laugh'st
thou so bright and clear!"... Alberich cannot detach his eyes from the
vision. "What is it, you sleek ones," he asks in awed curiosity,
"glancing and gleaming up there?" "Now where have you barbarian
lived," they reply, "never to have heard of the Rhine-gold?" They
mock his ignorance; returning to their teasing mood, they invite him to
come and revel with them in the streaming light. (4)