Florence Akin

“ Ha! I have caught you at your sneaking tricks! Long have I guarded here! You shall not steal my gold! Get back to your murky cave."
But Mimi screamed:--
"You shall not have the gold! 'T is mine! Long years have I toiled and waited! The gold is mine, I say!" "Yours?" Alberich snarled in scorn. "Yours? You snatched it from the Rhine-daughters, did you? You paid the price to mould that ring?"
And Mimi raved:
"Who made the helmet, that wondrous cap that in a flash can change a man into anything he wants to be?" ”

“ Suddenly Alberich saw the giants.
"Who is this that dares come into my cave?" he cried. "Mimi, get back to your work!"
Then to all the other slaves he called:--
"Get below, every one of you! Crawl into your dingy shafts and dig the gold! Begone, I say! You must obey the master of the ring!"
As soon as the black swarm had crept away, Alberich spoke angrily to Wotan and Loki. "What do you want in here?"
"We just came to see you," said Wotan. "We hoped you might be glad to have us. We think you must be a very clever man. We have heard a great deal about the wonderful things you can do." ”

“ The giants lived on in their beautiful Valhalla.
But their king was sad.
He could not forget Alberich's curse. What if Alberich should in some way gain possession of the ring again! He would destroy Valhalla.
"Oh, why was I not brave enough to give the ring back to the Rhine-children!" sighed Wotan.
"If only it might again be a mere thing of beauty to gladden their hearts, but so long as it is in the world, how many more will it not rob of their happiness.
"Surely, some great hero must come who will be brave enough to slay the dragon and give the ring back to its rightful owners." ”

“ Then Loki spoke. "The ring belongs to the Rhine-maidens, and Wotan is going to return it to them. Already we have given you more than you should expect, all that shining heap and the helmet besides."
"I will not give you any more!" roared Wotan. "Not all the mighty world shall take this ring from my finger!"
"Then I shall be gone," said Fafner. "I was afraid you would not give me enough gold. Freya is mine forevermore."
Wotan's family began to plead for Freya. "She is worth more to us than all the gold in this world! Without her we must all wither and die!" ”

“ He heaped it up in a cave in the forest. Then he put on the helmet and changed himself into a fierce, ugly dragon.
For the love of mere gold he was willing to give up being a splendid giant, who roamed freely over the beautiful mountains, and to become a hideous, twisting, squirming monster.
The rest of his life he would lie at the door of the cave and guard the treasure. The treasure should lie there useless to all the world.
Fafner,--a slave to gold! ”

“ How sweetly he sang to the mother bird while she sat upon the nest!
And when the little eggs had told their secret, both the father and the mother birds carried food to the babies.
Siegfried saw how tenderly the mother foxes, wolves, and bears cared for their babies.
From these friends in the forest he learned what love is.
Never for all the world would he have stolen one baby from its mother. ”

“ The Wishing-Cap
Loki was very sly and cunning. While Alberich boasted, he was planning how he might trick the dwarf and take his gold.
To Alberich he said: "Surely, you will be the mightiest of men. But suppose that while you sleep, one of your slaves should creep upon you and steal your ring?"
Alberich smiled. "There is no danger of that," he said. "I will show you a trick or two. Do you see this helmet? It is a magic helmet. With it I can make myself so no one can see me, or I can change myself, quick as a flash, into anything I wish to be. So, you see, I am perfectly safe." ”

“ Wotan spoke in solemn tones:--
"Never again shall you see the beautiful Valhalla. Never shall you carry another hero to your king.
"You shall lie down upon this mountain peak, and here you shall sleep until some wanderer in passing shall awaken you, and his wife you shall be."
"You cannot mean it, Father! Anything but this! Never to see Valhalla? Never to ride with the Walküre? Father! Father! Take back these words of doom!" Brunhilde's sisters began to plead for her. ”

“ He lifted the little baby as gently as he knew how, and started toward his cave.
Again he heard the same strange voice:--
"Siegfried is his name, and only he who knows no fear can mend the sword."
"Ha! ha!" chuckled Mimi. "That voice does not know what a skillful smith Mimi is.
"I will mend the sword and Siegfried shall use it to slay the dragon."
He folded the baby close in his rough, black little arms.
"A few more years, a few more years," he gurgled in glee, "and Mimi's hands shall clutch the precious gold."
Siegfried And His Friends
Mimi took good care of Siegfried. ”

“ Perhaps you could help them."
"I have no time for the Rhine-daughters now," said Wotan. "I have trouble of my own. Tell me how I can save poor Freya!"
For many years Fafner had heard of this lump of gold. So he listened to all that Loki told. Then he asked: "Why does Alberich want the gold?"
"Because," replied Loki, "the gold can be made into a magic ring; if the one who would make the ring will forever give up all love, the magic ring will make its owner master of the whole wide world. Alberich declared that love was nothing to him if he could have all the gold he wanted." ”

“ Mimi always kept the pieces of Siegmund's sword carefully hidden. While Siegfried roamed through the woods, the dwarf would work for hours trying to mend the magic blade, but its hard steel would never yield either to his fire or his hammer.
Mimi grew tired and discouraged.
"I can never mend it," he groaned.
A Big Brown Bear
Siegfried grew to be a young man.
Often he saw his reflection in the water, and he said:--
"I am not Mimi's son. The babes in the forest all look like their parents. I do not look like Mimi."
Siegfried's reflection showed him a fearless face with large, honest eyes. ”

“ Then he cried aloud in joy.
"At last I have found the hero! This little baby is the son of some valiant warrior. These are the broken pieces of the warrior's sword. Such luck for Mimi!
"The boy will be a warrior like his father. I shall take him to my cave and take good care of him.
"When he is grown up I will make him pay me for my care and pains. He shall slay the dragon. Then I will take the ring." ”

“ Siegmund raised his sword to deal the deadly blow, when lo! Wotan dashed through a rift in the clouds and struck Siegmund's sword with his mighty spear.
The sword fell in pieces at the feet of Brunhilde. The victory belonged to Hunding.
Brunhilde, terrified by the angry Wotan, snatched up the broken pieces of the sword, and, springing to her saddle, dashed away.
Faster and faster she fled to the forest, bearing the broken blade to Siegmund's wife.
"Siegmund is slain!" she cried. "These are the pieces of his mighty sword. Keep them for your son, Siegfried. He will be brave like his father. ”

“ As the second Norn took the thread in her worn hands, she crooned a sorrowful song about the present.
She sang of Alberich and the stolen gold. Of the love that he had given up in order to make the ring.
She sang of Wotan and how he grasped the ring and carried it into the world, bringing with it Alberich's curse.
Then she told of Fafner.
Mournfully she sang:--
"It has robbed all who have had it of their freedom and happiness.
"It has brought envy and discontent to those who have struggled to gain it.
"Now Wotan's magic spear is splintered.
"Oh! How this gold has tangled all my threads!" ”

“ From Siegmund I withdraw my aid."
Wotan And Brunhilde
Now that Wotan's wife had gained his promise, she turned back to Valhalla.
Wotan buried his face in his hand and cried out in despair:--
"Oh, woe and shame upon the giants! What I love best I must give up. I lose the friend I hold most dear. All my hopes are vanishing. A short time and the giants will be no more."
Loudly he moaned: "This is the curse that clutched me when I snatched the glittering gold." ”

“ I warn you now a curse goes with it."
But Wotan drew the ring from the dwarf's finger, then set him free.
"Farewell, Alberich! Farewell!"
"Ha!" laughed Alberich in scorn. "It will never bring you happiness. Its owner shall always feel its curse of care, sorrow, and unrest."
Then, turning, he groped his way down the cavern, far poorer than the day he went stealing along the slippery bed of the river. Then, he had no gold. Now, he had no gold and no friends.
The Greedy Fafner
Wotan and Loki hurried back to the mountain-side with their treasure.
At the same time Fafner returned, bringing Freya. ”

“ The greatest of the giants was Wotan. He was the king.
They had always lived out of doors, because the king had never been able to find a giant who was large enough to build such a grand castle as he wanted for his family.
But one day there came to the mountainside the largest giant Wotan had ever seen.
His name was Fafner.
He was many times larger than Wotan.
Wotan told Fafner how much he wanted a wonderful castle.
Fafner said: "I will build such a castle for you if you will give me your sister, Freya." ”

“ At length all but one had reached the rock.
"Why does Brunhilde not come?" they asked of each other anxiously.
"What has happened that she should be so late?"
Loudly they called: "Heiho! hoyotoho! heiho!"
Looking toward the valley, they saw Brunhilde riding fast.
Her horse was flecked with foam.
"Heiho! hoyotoho! heiho!" they shouted; and "Heiho! hoyotoho! heiho!" came Brunhilde's answer.
She reached the peak and sprang from her saddle, crying:--
"Help me, Sisters! help me! I disobeyed our king!"
Even as she cried Wotan drew near.
"Where is Brunhilde?" he screamed in anger. ”

“ It is mine, all mine. Now I shall rule the world."
Poor foolish Alberich! He did not know that the best things in this world are the things which gold cannot buy.
The power of love is greater than the power of gold.
The maidens shrieked and screamed: "Our gold! Our gold! Our precious gold!"
Too late! Far, far below, they heard a laugh, the rough, rude laugh of Alberich, the dwarf.
The Sad Rhine-Daughters
After that, when the Rhine-daughters came to the rock where the gold had been, they could not sing their happy song. ”

“ Their faces were very sad now, and they said: "Oh, why did Alberich steal our beautiful gold? It cannot make him happy, for no one can ever be truly happy who does not know love."
They often sat upon the rocks in the dusk of the evening and cried as if their hearts would break because they had lost their gold.
"The black waves surge in sorrow through the depths, And all the Rhine is wailing in its woe."
A Castle On The Rhine
On a mountain-side, above the banks of the Rhine, lived a family of splendid giants. ”

“ Poor, frightened Freya wept and cried aloud as Fafner picked her up and carried her off over the mountain.
He called back to Wotan and Loki: "I will keep Freya until evening. Then I shall come again, and if you have that glittering Rhine-gold for me, then you may have your sister. If you do not give me the gold, then Freya is mine and I will keep her always."
Youth Or Age? ”

“ The chieftain grew dark with anger as he said: "Because it is the sacred law of my country that none shall be turned from the door who seek shelter from the night, this intruder may stay until the morning. ”

“ Sisters! See how Alberich is staring at our gold!" whispered one of the Rhine-daughters. "Perhaps this is the foe of which our father warned us. How careless we have been!"
"Nonsense," answered one. "Who would fear this little black fellow? He will do us no harm. Let him gaze upon the gold. Come, let us sing!"
The maidens joined hands and circled about the gold, singing:--
"Hail to thee! ”

“ There, arching over the river and reaching from the flowery mountain-side to the very door of the gleaming castle, stood a shining rainbow bridge.
"Lo! our castle! Our beautiful Valhalla!" cried the king. "Let us cross over. It shall be our dwelling-place forevermore."
One by one they stepped upon the bridge.
As Wotan walked slowly and sadly over, he heard the wailing of the Rhine-maidens in the river below:--
"Rhine-gold! ”