FAFNER
Hear, Wotan,
Our word while we wait;
Freia we will restore you,
And will take
Paltrier payment:
The Niblung's red-gleaming gold
Will guerdon us giants rude.
WOTAN
Ye must be mad!
With what I possess not
How can I, shameless ones, pay you?
FAFNER
Hard labour
Went to those walls;
How easy
With fraud-aided force
(What our malice never achieved)
The Niblung to break and bind!
Fasolt suddenly seizes Freia and drags her to one side with Fafner
WOTAN [More quickly.
Why should I make
War on the Niblung?—
Fight, your foe to confound?
Insolent
And greedily grasping
Dolts you grow through my debt!
FASOLT
[Suddenly seizes Freia and drags her to one side with Fafner.
Maiden, come!
We claim thee ours!
As pledge thou shalt be held
Till the ransom is paid.
FREIA [Screaming.
Woe's me! Woe's me! Woe!
FAFNER
From your midst
We bear her forth!
Till evening—mark it well!—
As a pledge she is ours.
We will return then.
But when we come,
If the Rhinegold be not ready,
The Rhinegold bright and red—
FASOLT
The respite is ended,
Freia is forfeit
And bides among us for aye!
FREIA
Sister! Brothers!
Save me! Help!
[The giants hasten off, dragging Freia with them.