GUTRUNE
[Breaking out in sudden despair.
Accursèd Hagen,
Why didst thou give the poison
That stole her husband away?
O sorrow!
Mine eyes are opened:
Brünnhild' was the true love
Whom through the draught he forgot.
[She turns from Siegfried in shame and fear, and, dying, bends over Gunther's body; remaining motionless in this position until the end. Hagen stands defiantly leaning on his spear and shield, sunk in gloomy thought, on the opposite side. Brünnhilde stands alone in the middle. After long and absorbed contemplation of Siegfried she turns with solemn exaltation to the men and women.
BRÜNNHILDE
Let great logs
Be borne to the shore
And high by the Rhine be heaped;
Fierce and far
Let the flames mount
That consume to ashes
Him who was first among men!
His horse lead to me here,
That with me his lord he may follow.
For my body longs
To have part in his glory
And share his honour in death.
Obey Brünnhild's behest.
[The young men, during the following, raise a great pyre of logs before the hall, near the bank of the Rhine; women decorate this with rugs, on which they strew plants and flowers.
BRÜNNHILDE
[Absorbed anew in contemplation of Siegfried's dead face. Her expression brightens and softens as she proceeds.