Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course
In the depths of a mighty forest stood a hut, and there dwelt a brave, strong, handsome youth in company with a mean little dwarf. Every day the dwarf was busy forging a sword.
The dwarf was Mime, brother of Alberich, the king of the Nibelungs; and the youth was Siegfried, the son of Siegmund and Sieglinde. After Brünnhilde had been cast into slumber by Wotan, Mime took upon himself the care of Sieglinde. When she died, he brought her son up to manhood. This was not kind heartedness on the part of Mime, but crafty wisdom. He knew that Siegfried was destined to be a mighty hero, and he hoped that the youth might slay Fafner, the dragon, and recover the ring for the Nibelungs.
Sieglinde had entrusted to Mime the pieces of the sword Nothung, and although the dwarf knew that no other weapon would serve for the slaying of Fafner, he also realized that he was unequal to the task of forging the pieces together again. Therefore he kept trying to make other swords for Siegfried to use, but the youth broke them all.
One day Siegfried, angry at Mime’s continued failure to make him a suitable sword, rushed out of the cabin in anger. Then a stranger, who was none other than Wotan himself, in the guise of a Wanderer, appeared to Mime, and in a contest of riddles, forced from Mime the confession of his failure, and then revealed to him that Nothung could only be forged anew by one to whom fear was unknown. When Siegfried returned, Mime admitted his inability to forge the sword, and told the youth to try it himself. As Siegfried knew no fear, he was successful. Then Mime told Siegfried that he would lead him to the dragon Fafner.
Siegfried, led by Mime, came to the dragon’s cave, and, in a wood-scene of great beauty, sat listening to the song of birds, and replied to them joyously with his horn. Fafner, the dragon, was finally roused by Siegfried’s horn, and came out of his cave breathing threats and fiery blasts. After a mighty battle, Siegfried slew him.
Siegfried’s hand was scorched by the fiery blood of the dragon, and he placed it to his lips to cool it. On tasting the blood, he was able to understand the song of a bird that told him to take possession of both the ring and the helmet, and to be on guard against Mime. Consequently, when the dwarf attempted to give him a poisoned drink, Siegfried killed him.
Then the bird told Siegfried of Brünnhilde, who could only be wakened from her slumber by one who knew no fear, and who could penetrate the ring of magic fire. Siegfried said that he had never known what fear was, and he followed the bird to where the Valkyr maiden slumbered.
In the meantime, in his perplexity, Wotan summoned Erda and sought counsel with her. Could she tell him how to stop the rolling wheel of destruction? But Erda’s wisdom could avail him nothing now, and Wotan resigned himself to the downfall of the gods. Then he confronted Siegfried on his way to Brünnhilde and barred his way with a spear to test his courage and strength. Without hesitation, Siegfried cut the spear in two with his sword, and made his way through the flames to the summit of the mountain, where he found Brünnhilde sleeping on a rock under a fir tree. Siegfried gazed at the slumbering maiden in amazement. Then, removing Brünnhilde’s helmet, he woke her with a kiss. At first she shrank in terror from her fate. Then, recognizing Siegfried as the son of Siegmund and as the bravest hero in the world, whose coming she had herself foretold, she confessed her love for him, and yielded in ecstasy to his embrace.