"You can have all but the helmet and the Ring; and there's a lot of it—beautiful Gold!" whined Alberich.
"No, all of it!" said Wotan.
"You can have the helmet, too. Ough! you're smashing me!"
"The Ring and all, I tell you! Here, Loki, bind him with that rope!"
"Then take the Gold, the helmet and the Ring!" cried the dwarf despairingly.
They bound him, and let him up. As soon as he could catch his breath, he continued,
"Take the Ring and all! But listen well to what I say. My curse rests upon it for ever. Cursed be he who owns it, whether eating or sleeping or waking. Cursed be he and all his, whether god or devil. Sorrow and unhappiness shall go with this Gold through all the ends of the earth!"
Notwithstanding this dread curse, the gods seized the Ring from off his finger and lost no time in making off with the treasure, leaving the dwarf grovelling upon the floor and muttering fierce words against them. All their care now was to ransom their sister and drive away the mists of old age.
On their way up the mountain height they met the two giants bearing away the struggling Freia in their clutches.
"Hold!" commanded Wotan; "bear her no farther. We have brought the gold to ransom her."