Down there I learned how to fear,
That I might teach thee, dullard.
SIEGFRIED [With quiet wonder.
This fear then, what is it?
MIME
Thou knowest not that,
Yet wouldst from the forest
Forth to the world?
What help in the trustiest sword,
Hadst thou not learned to fear?
SIEGFRIED [Impatiently.
What absurd
Invention is this?
MIME
[Approaching Siegfried with more and more confidence.
'Tis thy mother's wish
Speaking through me.
I must fulfil
The promise I gave her:
That the world and its wiles
Thou shouldst not encounter
Until thou hadst learned how to fear.
SIEGFRIED [Vehemently
Is it an art?
Why was I not taught?
Explain: this fearing, what is it?
MIME
In the dark wood
Hast thou not felt,
When shades of dusk
Fall dim and drear,
When mournful whispers
Sigh afar,
And fierce growling
Sounds at hand,
When strange flashes
Dart and flicker,
And the buzzing
And clamour grow—
[Trembling.
Hast thou not felt grim horror
Hold every sense in its clutches?—
[Quaking.
When the limbs shiver,
Shaken with terror,
[With a quivering voice.
And the heart, filled with dismay,
Hammers, bursting the breast—
Hast thou not yet felt that,
A stranger art thou to fear.
SIEGFRIED [Musing.
Wonderful truly
That must be.
Steadfast, strong
Beats my heart in my breast.
The shiver and shudder,
The fever and horror,
Burning and fainting,
Beating and trembling—
Ah, how glad I would feel them,
[Tenderly.
Could I but learn this delight!
But how, Mime,
Can it be mine?
How, coward, could it be taught me?
MIME
Following me,
The way thou shalt find;
I have thought it all out.
I know of a dragon grim
That slays and swallows men:
Fear thou wilt learn from Fafner,
When I lead to where he lies.
SIEGFRIED
Where has he his lair?
MIME
Neidhöhl'
Named, it lies east
Towards the end of the wood.
SIEGFRIED
It lies not far from the world?
MIME
The world is quite close to the cave.
SIEGFRIED
That I may learn what this fear is,
Lead me there straightway;
Then forth to the world!
Make haste! Forge me the sword.
In the world fain I would swing it.
MIME
The sword? Woe's me!
SIEGFRIED
Quick to the smithy!
Show me thy work!
MIME
Accursèd steel!
Unequal my skill to the task;
The potent magic
Surpasses the poor dwarf's strength.
'Twere more easily done
By one who never felt fear.
SIEGFRIED
Artful tricks
The idler would play me;
He is a bungler;
He should confess,
And not seek to lie his way out.
Here with the splinters!
Off with the bungler!
[Coming to the hearth.
His father's sword
Siegfried will weld:
By him shall it be forged.
[Flinging Mime's tools about, he sets himself impetuously to work.
MIME
If thou hadst practised
Thy craft with care,
Thou wouldst have profited now;
But thou wert far
Too lazy to learn,
And now at need canst do nothing.
SIEGFRIED
Where the master has failed
What hope for the scholar,
Had he obeyed him in all?
[He makes a contemptuous grimace at him.
Be off with thee!
Meddle no more,
In case with the steel I melt thee.
[He has heaped a large quantity of charcoal on the hearth, and keeps blowing the fire, while he screws up the pieces of the sword in a vice and files them to shavings.
MIME
[Who