Siegfried
The Missing Mimi
The cunning Mimi secretly longed to steal out into the world and find that magic ring.
One night when all the other little Nibelungs were asleep, he slipped stealthily to his forge.
He gathered up his best tools.
Making sure that all were soundly sleeping, he stole quietly out.
What surprise and excitement there must have been the next morning when the little black Nibelungs found that Mimi had run away and had taken all of his best tools with him!
How they must have rushed about, each anxious to tell another the news of the missing Mimi!
Of course, Alberich guessed very quickly for what purpose his brother had gone.
And how Alberich must have raged when he thought of what a sad day it would be for him should Mimi become owner of that ring!
Mimi was strangely clever.
He said to himself: "That ring is hidden somewhere in the forest. I will go there and search until I know who has it. Then I will find some way of getting it."
On he went, until he came to the darkest place in the woods.
The boughs overlapped each other, so much that almost no sunshine could get through.
Mimi liked this place. It was soothing to his eyes, so used to the darkness of the Nibelungs' cavern.
The Dragon
Mimi had found the very forest which he sought to find.
This was the one in which the dragon lay guarding the hoard.
The sly dwarf caught a glimpse of the huge monster lying at the door of its cave.
Its great yawning jaws and sharp teeth filled him with terror.
Mimi darted into the underbrush. How glad he was that the monster had not seen him.
He shook and trembled with fear as he peeped at the loathsome creature.
Its body was covered with green scales. Poison breath came from its nostrils.
Its awful snake-like tail twisted and lashed about. In the end of the tail was a deadly sting.
"Alberich's ring is in that cave," thought Mimi. "Now close to this forest I must find a good little cavern in which to live.
"Then I can come often to watch the dragon.
"Some day I shall find a hero to slay this fierce monster. Then I shall slink into the cave and snatch the ring.
"Ho! ho! my brother Alberich! We shall see who shall be master and who shall be slave!"
A Baby In The Forest
Mimi found a cavern in a rocky cleft. It was just the kind of place he liked.
In it was just the right kind of rock for a forge.
There he hammered at weapons or chains or whatever happened to be his need.
Daily he sneaked about in the underbrush, watching the dragon, and daily he became more anxious to gain the gold.
He was such a coward that he was frightened at almost every animal he saw in the woods and startled by every sound.
One day, when he had ventured farther from his cave than usual, he was startled by a strange little cry.
He listened a moment and thought:--
"It sounds like the cry of a little child. I shall run to my cave."
But as he heard the cry again, something made him want to see what it was.
He slipped cautiously through the bushes, in the direction from which the sound came.
When he reached the place he found a little baby boy.
This was the same forest to which Brunhilde had fled, bearing the broken sword to Siegmund's wife.
But now the mother had died, and Siegmund's child was left alone in the woods.
Mimi And The Baby
Mimi was mean and selfish.
He would not even have cared for a little child alone in the woods had he not thought that by so doing he might gain something for himself.
As he looked at the baby he heard a strange voice saying:--
"Siegfried is his name, and only he who knows no fear can mend the sword."
"The sword? The sword?" questioned Mimi. "What does the voice mean?"
Going nearer to the child, he saw close beside it the broken pieces of Siegmund's sword.
Mimi picked up the pieces and looked at them.
"The finest piece of steel I ever saw," he chuckled, as he ran his fingers carefully along the keen edges.
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."
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.
When the boy had grown large enough to play about in the woods, Mimi made for him a little silver horn.
Siegfried loved all the birds and the wild animals.
He knew they were his best friends, for something in Mimi's face always showed him that the dwarf was false.
Siegfried would wander out into the forest with his silver horn swinging from his shoulder.
He would blow his little horn song, and his forest friends would hear the call and come to play with him.
He watched the birds as they built their nests.
He listened to the father bird as he warbled his pretty little love songs.
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.
But it was when he watched the love-light in the eyes of the mother deer that he would shut his eyes and try to dream that he too had a loving mother.
The Broken Sword
Mimi always pretended to be Siegfried's father, and he pretended to love Siegfried.
But Siegfried knew there was no love in Mimi's heart.
Daily Siegfried grew larger and stronger.
Mimi continually boasted of his work at the forge.
Often he said: "No one in this world can make such marvelous swords as Mimi."
Siegfried urged him to make one sword after another, but as fast as they were made the boy would shatter them to bits with one blow on the dwarf's forge.
Then he would cry in disgust: "Nonsense, Mimi. Your swords are mere toys. Just like little switches.
"Either make me a good strong sword or quit your bragging."
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.
About the face fell a wealth of waving, sunny hair.
One day, as he studied this reflection and thought of the blinking, sneaking little black Mimi, he said:--
"I will endure his falsehoods no longer. I know he is not my father. This very day I am going to make him tell me who I am!"
Lifting his silver horn, he blew a loud blast.
Out of the woods came one of his good friends, a great brown bear.
"Come, Bruin," said Siegfried.
And he put a rope around Bruin's neck.
"We will go to Mimi's cave and we will make him tell us all we want to know."
Siegfried led the big bear to the mouth of Mimi's cave.
When the cowardly Mind saw the bear, he crouched behind the forge and screamed:--
"Take him away! Oh, Siegfried, take him away!"
"Eat him, Bruin," laughed Siegfried, as Mimi trembled with fear.
The bear growled at Mimi.
"Oh! keep him off!" gasped Mimi.
"I shall," said Siegfried, "if you will promise to answer all I ask."
"I will! I will! I will tell you anything you want to know," stammered Mimi.
Siegfried untied the rope.
"Good-bye, Bruin," he said, as he gave him a friendly slap on the back, and the big bear trotted off to the woods.
Siegfried And Mimi
Mimi and Siegfried sat down upon the rocks in the cave, and Mimi told how he had found the baby in the woods and how he had brought him to the cave.
Mimi put in many words of how much Siegfried owed for all this care and trouble.
"Thou givest me always trouble and pain,
I wear to shreds poor foolish me!
Now, for my care, this is my gain,--
Only abuse and hate from thee."
Siegfried looked straight into Mimi's eyes.
He tried to see if Mimi were telling the truth.
"How did you know my name was Siegfried?" he asked.
Then Mimi told of the strange voice which said:--
"Siegfried is his name."
But not once did the dwarf mention the sword.
"You cowardly little wretch!" cried Siegfried. "You have told me so much that is not true that I can never believe you.
"How do I know that this is not another of your miserable falsehoods?
"Prove to me that this is true, or I shall make you sorry that you ever saw me. Prove it to me, I tell you!" cried Siegfried, as he grasped the shrinking dwarf by the shoulders.
"I will! I will!" gasped the frightened Mimi; and he brought out the broken sword.
Siegfried Mends His Father's Sword
Siegfried looked at the sword.
Then handing it back to Mimi, he said:--
"Mend it for me, Mimi! Mend it! Now is your chance to prove your skill!"
"I cannot! Oh, I cannot!" groaned Mimi; and he gasped out the rest of what the voice had told him:--
"Only he who knows no fear can mend the sword."
Siegfried took the broken pieces to the forge and began filing them to dust.
"Stop, Siegfried, stop!" cried Mimi. "You will ruin that blade!"
But Siegfried kept on filing.
He sang as he worked, until the pieces were filed to dust.
Then he melted the dust and poured the hot liquid into a mould the shape of a blade.
When it had hardened, he took it out and sharpened it.
Then he welded the blade to its hilt.
"Ha! ha!" chuckled Mimi. "At last the sword is mended.
"Now I will show Siegfried the dragon. He will not know a ring is in the dragon's cave.
"When the dragon is dead, the ring shall be Mimi's.
"Mimi, you are no longer the despised little Nibelung. You are the king of the earth."
Joyously Siegfried waved the bright blade above his head.
He brought it down with all his strength upon the forge, and with a mighty crash the huge rock fell in pieces.
Mimi sank in terror to the ground.
Siegfried Goes To Fight The Dragon
"Get up, you coward!" cried Siegfried.
"Now tell me what that thing is that I do not know. Fear? What is fear? Why did you not teach it to me?"
The wicked dwarf slipped to Siegfried's side.
"I will teach you. Come with me. I will show you a horrible serpent, lying at the door of Hate Cavern.
"There you will learn what fear is, if you can learn it any place in this world.
"Have you never seen anything that made you shiver from head to foot and made your heart beat fast?"
"I never have," calmly answered Siegfried. "Take me quickly, Mimi. I am ready to learn."
At every step Mimi chuckled to himself:--
"The ring is mine! At last the ring is mine! Now all the world shall kneel at my feet!"
"When he had gone as far as he dared, he pointed out the rest of the way to Siegfried.
"Just through here," he said. "And I shall go back now. When the dragon sees you it will be a terrible struggle! I shall wait anxiously for you, my Siegfried!"
But as Siegfried vanished from sight, he rubbed his black hands together and laughed:--
"Ah, it will be luck for Mimi if Siegfried and the dragon kill each other!"
A Wood-Bird'S Song
When Siegfried had gone on a little way, he stretched himself upon a grassy mound beneath a tree to rest and think.
Looking up through the branches at the clear sky, he cried:--
"I am free! Free! Never again will I go back to that loathsome Nibelung."
A bird in the tree began singing its sweet wood-song.
"How do you do, my little feathered friend!" said Siegfried. "I am sure what you are singing is very sweet, but I cannot understand your words."
Then Siegfried cut a reed near by, and putting it to his lips, tried to whistle answers to the little bird's notes.
His music did not sound much like the song of a bird.
"I give it up, my little friend," he said, and threw away the reed.
Siegfried And The Dragon
"I will blow you a song on my silver horn," said Siegfried to the bird.
"I often blow this little song. It is my call for a comrade. I long for one. None better have ever come to me than the bears and foxes."
Loudly he blew his horn.
Soon there was a great crackling in the underbrush. The huge dragon came, lashing its deadly tail, gaping its red jaws, and blowing out poison fumes.
"Ho!" laughed Siegfried. "What a fair comrade I have charmed from his cave! You savage brute, are you going to teach me what fear is?"
"I am going to eat you!" hissed the dragon, glaring at Siegfried and thrusting out its long forked tongue.
Siegfried quickly drew his sword.
Snorting fire and smoke from its nostrils, the monster raised to strike a deadly blow.
Siegfried sprang forward; a flash of steel, and his blade sank to the monster's heart.
A Change Comes Over Siegfried
As Siegfried drew his blade from the breast of the dying dragon, a drop of its black blood fell on his finger.
It burned like fire.
Siegfried quickly put his finger in his mouth.
The instant the dragon's blood touched his lips, a change came over him.
He could understand the words of the little bird singing in the tree:--
"Now the gold is Siegfried's!
Now all the gold is Siegfried's!
Go into the cave, Siegfried!
Go in! Go in!
Find the helmet and the ring!
The helmet and the ring are Siegfried's!
Take them! Take them! Take them!"
Siegfried went through the brush in the direction from which the monster had come.
When he found the cave, he peered in.
All was deep, dreary darkness, but Siegfried had not learned fear.
He went in and found the gold, the helmet, and the ring.
But he did not need the gold. Its weight would only hinder him.
He looked upon the wishing-cap, but surely no one could turn into anything better than a hero, and Siegfried was already a hero.
What use could he have for a wishing-cap?
A hero does not try to make believe he is something which he is not.
He is brave enough to be just himself.
But the little bird fluttered at the door of the cave.
"Take the helmet and the ring, Siegfried! Take the helmet and the ring!"
"I will obey my little friend," said Siegfried.
Mimi Has A Surprise
The sly, wicked Mimi came slinking to the place where the dragon lay.
When he saw it lying dead under the trees, he looked about for Siegfried, but Siegfried was nowhere to be seen.
"Now I shall rush in and snatch the ring! At last I shall have my pay for all these years of trouble with that rogue I hate!"
But scarcely had Mimi turned toward the dragon's cave when suddenly Alberich sprang before him.
"You sly, crafty rascal!" cried Alberich. "What do you want here? 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?"
Mimi And Alberich Stop To Quarrel Too Long
While Mimi and Alberich quarreled, Siegfried came from the dragon's cave, bearing the helmet and the ring.
He heard no sound save the rustling of the leaves and the song of the bird.
Again he sat down in the shadow of a tree.
"Little bird, can you not help me to find a true friend?" asked Siegfried.
"Each year you have your mate and your little birdlings in the nest. You sing songs with the other birds.
"I have never known a father or a mother, a sister or a brother. I am lonely.
"Is there nowhere in all this world some one whom I may love? Some one who will love me?"
Then the wood-bird began to sing a pretty love-song of a maiden sleeping on the crest of a mountain, encircled by fire.
Sweetly he sang:--"Only he who knows no fear may claim her for his bride."
Siegfried sprang to his feet. "I do not know fear. I have tried with all my might to learn it. Oh, help me to find the mountain where she sleeps!"
The little bird flew away in the opposite direction from where the wicked Nibelungs stood quarreling, and Siegfried joyously hurried after.
Siegfried Reaches The Mountain
A heavy storm arose as Siegfried and the bird neared the foot of the mountain where Brunhilde slept. There were peals of deep thunder.
The sky grew very dark. The great boughs of the trees swayed with the wind.
Siegfried took shelter under a low spreading fir.
The storm did not last long, and as the light again broke through the clouds, Siegfried looked about for his little guide, but all in vain. The bird had fled.
Siegfried started on up the mountain, when suddenly the giant Wotan stood before him.
"What are you doing here?" demanded Wotan.
Siegfried replied:--
"I am going to the top of this mountain. There a maiden lies sleeping. I will awaken her, and she shall be my bride."
"Go back to your forest!" commanded Wotan. "This mountain is encircled by fire."
And stretching forth his arm, he barred the path with his mighty spear.
Siegfried quickly drew his sword from its sheath.
"This is the magic spear that rules the world!" said Wotan. "Put away that sword, or the spear that once shattered it will shatter it again!"
"Ha!" cried Siegfried, "then you were my father's foe!"
There was a flash of Siegfried's blade, then a crash that echoed over mountains and valleys, and Siegfried had shattered Wotan's spear. It lay in splinters on the ground.
Wotan stepped aside and sadly bowed his head upon his breast.
He knew this meant the downfall of the giants. No longer would the earth be ruled from fair Valhalla's heights.
Siegfried Learns What Fear Is
Siegfried hurried up the mountain-side.
The fierce flames leaped as if to meet him.
They grew redder, and lapped their fiery tongues.
Siegfried bounded toward them with joy.
Lifting his silver horn to his lips, and blowing his Comrade Call so sweet and clear, he plunged into their depths.
The maddened flames leaped and crackled as if to devour him.
But on he went, blowing his horn, until at length the sea of flames slowly sank to earth.
The redness of the sky gave way to blue, and all grew clear and beautiful.
Siegfried looked upon the sleeping figure.
All the world seemed wrapped in silence. Not a leaf moved on the trees.
There was not a sound to mar that perfect sleep.
Siegfried looked in wonder at the shining coat of mail.
"It is some valiant knight," he whispered.
"How heavy seems the armor. It should be lifted so that he may rest better."
Carefully Siegfried lifted the glittering shield and laid it to one side.
Eagerly he raised the helmet. There fell a mass of waving golden hair. "A burst of glorious sunshine," whispered Siegfried.
Then he sought to loosen the rings that held the coat of mail.
Finding it difficult, he drew his sword and cut them.
The shining armor fell jingling to the ground.
The soft white folds of her woman's gown fell loosely about her.
Siegfried started back and stared in silence.
He trembled from head to foot.
He pressed his hand to his fast-beating heart.
"At last!" he cried. "At last! I know what fear is."
The Awakening
At length Siegfried went softly to Brunhilde's side.
He stood and looked upon her sweet, heroic face, and love came into his heart.
Bending low, he tenderly kissed her.
Brunhilde slowly opened her eyes.
She looked up at the blue sky and the smiling sun, and cried:--
"All hail to thee, thou glorious sun in heaven!"
The flowers slowly opened their petals, the birds began to sing.
Brunhilde's horse awoke and neighed his glad call.
Brunhilde looked upon Siegfried.
Slowly her memory returned.
As she remembered Wotan's words: "Only he who knows no fear may claim you for his bride," she knew at last her hero had come.
She looked into Siegfried's strong, brave face, and as he told her of his love, she no longer wished to go back to Valhalla.
She knew that she loved Siegfried with all her heart, and she promised to be his bride.
She told him that she would always be happy when she was by his side.