SIEGFRIED
SIEGFRIED
MIME
THE WANDERER
ALBERICH
FAFNER
ERDA
BRÜNNHILDE
SCENES OF ACTION
I. A CAVE IN A WOOD
II. DEPTHS OF THE WOOD
III. WILD REGION AT THE FOOT OF A ROCKY MOUNTAIN; AFTERWARDS: SUMMIT OF "BRÜNNHILDE'S ROCK"
THE FIRST ACT
A rocky cavern in a wood, in which stands a naturally formed smith's forge, with big bellows. Mime sits in front of the anvil, busily hammering at a sword.
MIME
[Who has been hammering with a small hammer, stops working.
Slavery! worry!
Labour all lost!
The strongest sword
That ever I forged,
That the hands of giants
Fitly might wield,
This insolent urchin
For whom it is fashioned
Can snap in two at one stroke,
As if the thing were a toy!
[Mime throws the sword on the anvil ill-humouredly, and with his arms akimbo gazes thoughtfully on the ground.
There is one sword
That he could not shatter:
Nothung's splinters
Would baffle his strength,
Could I but forge
Those doughty fragments
That all my skill
Cannot weld anew.
Could I but forge the weapon,
Shame and toil would win their reward!
[He sinks further back his head bowed in thought.
Fafner, the dragon grim,
Dwells in the gloomy wood;
With his gruesome and grisly bulk
The Nibelung hoard
Yonder he guards.
Siegfried, lusty and young,
Would slay him without ado;
The Nibelung's ring
Would then become mine.
The only sword for the deed
Were Nothung, if it were swung
By Siegfried's conquering arm;
And I cannot fashion
Nothung, the sword!
[He lays the sword in position again, and goes on hammering in deep dejection.
Slavery! worry!
Labour all lost!
The strongest sword
That ever I forged
Will never serve
For that difficult deed.
I beat and I hammer
Only to humour the boy;
He snaps in two what I make,
And scolds if I cease from work.
[He drops his hammer.
SIEGFRIED
[In rough forester's dress, with a silver horn hung by a chain, bursts in boisterously from the wood. He is leading a big bear by a rope of bast, and urges him towards Mime in wanton fun.
Hoiho! Hoiho!
[Entering.
Come on! Come on!
Tear him! Tear him!
The silly smith!
[Mime drops the sword in terror, and takes refuge behind the forge; while Siegfried, shouting with laughter, keeps driving the bear after him.
MIME
Hence with the beast!
I want not the bear!
SIEGFRIED
I come thus paired
The better to pinch thee;
Bruin, ask for the sword!
MIME
Hey! Let him go!
There lies the weapon;
It was finished to-day.
SIEGFRIED
Then thou art safe for to-day!
[He lets the bear loose and strikes him on the back with the rope.
Off, Bruin!
I need thee no more.
[The bear runs back into the wood.
MIME [Comes trembling from behind the forge.
Slay all the bears
Thou canst, and welcome;
But why thus bring the beasts
Home alive?
SIEGFRIED
[Sits down to recover from his laughter.
For better companions seeking
Than the one who sits at home,
I blew my horn in the wood,
Till the forest glades resounded.
What I asked with the note
Was if some good friend
My glad companion would be.
From the covert came a bear
Who listened to me with growls,
And I liked him better than thee,
Though better friends I shall find.
With a trusty rope
I bridled the beast,
To ask thee, rogue, for the weapon.
[He jumps up and goes towards the anvil.
MIME
[Takes up the sword to hand it to Siegfried.
I made the sword keen-edged;
In its sharpness thou wilt rejoice.
[He holds the sword anxiously in his hand; Siegfried snatches it from him.
What matters an edge keen sharpened,
Unless hard and true the steel?
[Testing the sword.
Hei! What an idle,
Foolish toy!
Wouldst have this pin
Pass for a sword?
[He strikes it on the anvil, so that the splinters fly about. Mime shrinks back in terror.
There, take back the pieces,
Pitiful