GUNTHER
'Twould please me much.
[All lie down close to Siegfried, who alone sits upright.
HAGEN
Sing, hero, sing!
SIEGFRIED
Mime was
A surly old dwarf
Who because of greed
Reared me with care,
That when the child
Grew sturdy and bold
He might slay a dragon grim
That guarded treasure in the wood.
He taught me to forge
And the art of fusing,
But what the craftsman
Could not achieve
The scholar did
By skill and by daring—
Out of the splinters of a weapon
Fashioned featly a sword.
My father's blade
Forged was afresh;
Strong and true
Nothung was tempered,
Deemed by the dwarf
Fit for the fight.
The wood then we sought, and there
The dragon Fafner I slew.
Listen and heed
Well to my tale;
I have marvels to tell you.
From the dragon's blood
My fingers were burning,
And these I raised to my lips;
And barely touched
Was the blood by my tongue,
When what a bird was saying
Above me I could hear.
On a bough it sat there and sang:
"Hei! Siegfried now owns
All the Nibelung hoard!
Oh! could he the hoard
In the cave but find!
Tarnhelm, if he could but win it,
Would help him to deeds of renown;
And could he discover the ring,
It would make him the lord of the world!'
HAGEN
Didst thou take
The Tarnhelm and ring?