WOGLINDE
Weia! Waga!
Roll, O ye billows,
Rock ye our cradle!
Wagala weia!
Wallala, weiala, weia!
WELLGUNDE [From above.
Woglinde, watchest alone?
WOGLINDE
If Wellgunde came we were two.
WELLGUNDE [Dives down to the rock.
How keepest thou watch?
WOGLINDE [Swimming off, eludes her.
Wary of thee.
[They playfully tease and chase one another.
FLOSSHILDE [From above.
Heiaha weia!
Ho! ye wild sisters!
WELLGUNDE
Flosshilde, swim!
Woglinde flies:
Help me to hinder her flying.
FLOSSHILDE [Dives down between the two at play.
The sleeping gold
Badly ye guard;
Watch with more zeal
The slumberer's bed,
Or dear you'll pay for your sport!
[They swim asunder with merry cries. Flosshilde tries to catch first the one, then the other. They elude her, and then combine to chase her, darting like fish from rock to rock with jests and laughter. Meanwhile Alberich climbs out of a dark ravine on to a rock. He pauses, still surrounded by darkness, and watches the frolic of the Rhine-Maidens with increasing pleasure.
ALBERICH
Hey, hey! ye nixies!
Ye are a lovely,
Lovable folk!
From Nibelheim's night
Fain would I come,
Would ye be kind to me.
[The maidens, as soon as they hear Alberich's voice, stop playing.
WOGLINDE
Hei! Who is there?
WELLGUNDE
A voice! It grows dark!
FLOSSHILDE
Who listens below?
[They dive down and see the Nibelung.
WOGLINDE AND WELLGUNDE
Fie! the loathsome one!