Götterdämmerung
A Song Of The Past
One very dark night, three Norns came to the mountain crest to spin.
If you had seen them, you would have called them witches.
They spun the thread of fate.
They were very, very old. The eldest was almost as old as the world.
They were tall and gaunt, and wore long black gowns.
Their faces and hands were deep-wrinkled with age, and their hair was as white as the snow.
They had come up from the great, dark earth-hole, where they lived, and now they crouched upon the rocks to spin their thread.
The eldest was the first to spin the thread, and as she spun, she sang a song about the past, when Wotan and his happy family lived out of doors upon the mountain-side.
She sang of the time when he split from the world's ash tree the piece of wood from which he made the magic spear, which had ruled the world for so many hundreds of years.
She sang of Freya's apples, and of the strength and youth of the giant family.
At length her voice wavered, the strange, weird song ceased, and she tossed the thread to the second Norn.
A Song Of The Present
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!" she wailed.
Her long, gaunt fingers pulled and worked at the knots, but all in vain.
She could not straighten out the snarls.
"Sing, oh, my Sister, sing!" she cried. "You know what the end will be."
And she tossed the snarled threads to the third Norn.
A Song Of The Future
The third Norn took up the thread.
Twisting and untying, she sang of the future.
She sang of the downfall of the giants.
She sang of the time when Wotan and his family would be no more, and bright Valhalla's halls would be only a ruin.
"But, Sisters, look!" she cried. "The day is dawning. We must make haste!"
She tugged at the thread. The knots grew tighter.
"Oh, see!" she cried. "I cannot make it reach."
Another pull, the thread snapped.
The three Norns wailed.
Then, snatching up the broken ends of their thread of fate, they vanished in the gloom.
A Pledge Of Love
The days went by. Siegfried and Brunhilde were perfectly happy upon the mountain.
One day they decided that Siegfried should go forth to do brave deeds in the world.
He would come back when he had won honor and fame.
He told Brunhilde how anxious he would be to get back to her, and that he would come just as soon as he could.
Brunhilde told Siegfried how lonely she would be without him, and how she would listen both day and night for the glad call of his silver horn.
Siegfried took Brunhilde's hand and put the ring upon her finger, saying:--
"This, Brunhilde, shall stay with you. It shall be a pledge of my love until I come again."
Brunhilde gave Siegfried her swift horse. On it he should ride to great victories.
Siegfried led the horse down the mountain.
Every little way he looked lovingly back at Brunhilde.
They called and waved to each other until he passed from sight.
And after that Brunhilde listened to the clear notes of his silver horn, until at length its last faint echo died away.
The Doom Of Valhalla
Siegfried had been away several days.
Brunhilde sat looking far out over the valley.
She was thinking of Siegfried and of how he was proving his courage to the world.
She lifted her hand to her lips and kissed the ring, Siegfried's pledge of love.
"Heiho! hoyotoho! heiho!" came from the valley below.
Brunhilde sprang to her feet with the answer:--
"Heiho! hoyotoho! heiho!"
Could it be that one of her sisters was coming to see her?
Was it possible that one of the Walküre would so far dare Wotan's wrath as to venture to the mountain's crest?
Nearer came the call:--
"Heiho! hoyotoho! heiho!"
And a battle-maiden came in sight.
Brunhilde was very happy to see her sister again, but the battle-maiden looked sad.
She brought bad news from Valhalla.
She and Brunhilde sat down upon the rock, and the battle-maiden told the sad story of the last days of the giants.
"Brunhilde," she said, "Wotan does not know that I have come. Valhalla is in deepest gloom.
"Wotan has never sent us to a battlefield since that day when we last saw you.
"Not long ago he came home with his magic spear broken into splinters. He sat down and buried his face in his hands, and there he sits day after day.
"He tell us the giants are passing from the earth. A little while and Valhalla shall be no more.
"He refuses all of Freya's golden fruit. He has grown very old and very sad.
"Yesterday I heard him say, 'Oh! if Brunhilde would only give the ring back to the Rhine-daughters, and release the world from the terrible curse of gold!'
"And, Brunhilde, I have come to beg of you, will you not give the ring back to the Rhine-daughters?"
Brunhilde clasped the ring close to her breast.
"Give the ring to the Rhine-daughters?" she cried.
Then she looked far away toward the valley----and Siegfried.
"This ring of mine is Siegfried's pledge of love!"
Love
The next morning Brunhilde stood upon Walküre Rock and watched the glorious sunrise.
Suddenly she heard the glad notes of Siegfried's silver horn.
"Siegfried! Siegfried!" she cried in joy, and hurried down the mountain to greet him.
All the earth seemed as glad as at that glad time when Siegfried came to Walküre Rock to claim Brunhilde for his bride.
But Brunhilde was not altogether happy.
She could not forget the sorrowful news which her sister had brought, of the gloom at Valhalla.
So, after their first glad greeting, they sat down upon the rocks, and Brunhilde told Siegfried the sad story of the ring, from the time when Alberich snatched it from the Rhine-daughters, until the day Siegfried took it from Hate Cavern.
Then, hand in hand, they went, the valiant Siegfried and the noble Brunhilde, to the banks of the Rhine.
They called to the Rhine-daughters and the Rhine-daughters came out upon the rocks.
With a glad shout, Brunhilde flung the ring into the water.
The Rhine-daughters darted after it.
In a moment they came again to the surface of the water.
At last they held their precious, glittering gold.
The happiest song that ever echoed along the banks of the Rhine was sung by the Rhine-daughters on that glad morning.
Once more gold had become as harmless as a sunbeam.
Hurry, worry, falsehood, greed, and envy vanished from the earth.
Anxiety disappeared from the brows of the tired fathers.
A new happiness came into the eyes of the loving mothers.
A greater power than gold or giant strength had come to rule the world, and that power was Love.