The Ring of the Niblungs (Rackham)/The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie/The Rhinegold/Act 2

by Richard Wagner

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SECOND SCENE

The waves have gradually changed into clouds which, becoming lighter and lighter by degrees, finally disperse in a fine mist. As the mist vanishes upwards in light little clouds an open space on a mountain height becomes visible in the dim light which precedes dawn. At one side Wotan with Fricka beside him, both asleep, lie on a flowery bank. The dawning day illumines with increasing brightness a castle with glittering pinnacles which stands on the summit of a cliff in the background. Between this and the foreground a deep valley is visible through which the Rhine flows.

Fricke	Wotan! My lord! Awaken!
Awakes; her gaze falls on the castle, which has become plainly visible; alarmed.
Wotan Continuing to dream.	The happy hall of delight Is guarded by gate and door: Manhood’s honour, Power for aye, Rise to my lasting renown!
Fricka Shakes him.	Up from deceitful Bliss of a dream! My husband, wake and consider!
Wotan Awakes and raises himself slightly. His glance is immediately arrested by the view of the castle.	The walls everlasting are built! On yonder summit The Gods’ abode Proudly rears Its radiant strength! As I nursed it in dream And desired it to be, Strong it stands, Fair to behold, Brave and beautiful pile!
Fricka	While thou rejoicest, Joyless am I. Thou hast thy hall; My heart fears for Freia, Heedless one, hast thou forgotten The price that was to be paid? The work is finished, And forfeit the pledge: Hast thou then no care for the cost?
Wotan	My bargain well I remember With them who built the abode, ’Twas a pact tamed them, The obstinate race, So that this hallowed Hall they have built me, It stands—the strong ones’ doing:— Fret not thou, counting the cost.
Fricka	O laughing, insolent lightness! Mirth how cruel and callous! Had I but known of thy pact, The trick had never been played; But far from your counsels Ye men kept the women, That, deaf to us and in peace Alone ye might deal with the giants, So without shame Ye promised them Freia, Freia, my beautiful sister, Proud of playing the thief, What remains holy Or precious to men Once grown greedy of might?
Wotan Calmly.	From such greed Was Fricka then free Herself when the castle she craved?
Fricka	I was forced to ponder some means To keep my husband faithful, True to me when his fancy Tempted him far from his home. Halls high and stately, Decked to delight thee, Were to constrain thee To peaceful repose, But thou hadst the work designed Intent on war alone; It was to add More to thy might still, To stir up to tumult still fiercer That built were the towering walls
Wotan Smiling.	Wouldst thou, O Wife! In the castle confine me, To me, the god, must be granted, Faithful at home, The right to wage war And conquer the world from without. Ranging and changing All men love: That sport at least thou must leave me.
Fricka	Cold, hard-hearted, Merciless man! For the idle baubles, Empire and sway, Thou stakest in insolent scorn Love and a woman’s worth!
Wotan	When I went wooing, to win thee I staked ungrudging Gladly one of my eyes: What folly now then to scold!
	Women I honour Beyond thy desire! I will not abandon Frei, the fair : Such never was my intent.
Fricka Anxiously look- ing towards a point not on the stage.	Then succour her now: Defenceless, in fear, Hither she hastens for help!
Freia Enters as if flying from some one.	Help me, sister! Shield me, O brother! From yonder mountain Menaces Fasolt: He comes to bear me off captive.
Wotan	Let him come! Sawest thou Loge?
Fricka	To this tricky deceiver O why wilt thou trust? He always snares thee anew, Though from his snares thou hast suffered.
Wotan	I ask for no aid Where simple truth suffices; But to turn the spite Of foes to profit, Craft and cunning alone Can teach, as by Loge employed. He whose advice I obeyed Has promised ransom for Freia: On him my faith I have fixed.
Fricka	And art left in the lurch. The giants come. Lo I hither they stride: Where lingers now thine ally ?
Freia	Where tarry ye, my brothers, When help ye should bring me, Weak and bartered away by my kin? O help me, Donner! Hither! Hither! Rescue Freia, my Froh!
Fricka	Now the knaves who plotted and tricked thee Abandon thee in thy need. Fasolt and Fafner, both of gigantic stature, enter, armed with stout clubs.
Fasolt	Soft sleep Sealed thine eyes While we, both sleepless, Built the castle walls: Working hard Wearied not, Heaping, heaving Heavy stones. Tower steep, Door and gate Keep and guard Thy goodly castle halls. [Pointing to the castle. There stands What we builded, Shining fair Beneath the sun. Enter in And pay the price!
Wotan	Name, Workers, your wage. What payment will appease you?
Fasolt	We made the terms That seemed to us meet.
	Hast thou forgot so soon? Freia, the fair one, Holda, the free one— The bargain is We bear her away.
Wotan Quickly.	Ye must be mad To moot such a thing! Ask some other wage; Freia I will not grant.
Fasolt Stands for a space speechless with angry surprise.	What is this? Ha! Wouldest deceive?—— Go back on thy bond? What thy spear wards Are they but sport, All the runes of solemn bargain?
Fafner	O trusty brother! Fool, dost now see the trick?
Fasolt	Son of light, Light, unstable, Hearken! I Have a care! In treaties keep thou troth! What thou art Thou art only by treaties, For, built on bonds, There are bounds to thy might. Though cunning thou, More clever than we: Though we once freemen, Are pledged to peace, Cursèd be all thy wisdom;—— Peaceful promises perish!—— Wilt thou not open, Honest and frank

Freia, the fair one
Page 22

	Stand fast by a bargain once fixed. A stupid giant Tells thee this: O wise one, take it from him!
Wotan	How sly to judge us serious When plainly we were but jesting! The beautiful Goddess Light and bright— For churls what charm could she have?
Fasolt	Jeerest thou? Ha! how unjust! Ye who by beauty rule, Proud and radiant race! How foolish, striving For towers of stone, Woman’s love to pledge—— Price of walls and of halls! We dolts, despising ease, Sweating with toil-hardened hands, Have worked, that a woman With gentle delight In our midst might sojourn And ye call the pact a jest?
Fafner	Cease thy childish chatter; No gain look we to get. Freia’s charms Mean little; But it means much, If from the Gods we remove her. Golden apples Ripen within her garden; She alone Grows the apples and tends them. The goodly fruit
	Gives to her kinsfolk, Who eat thereof, Youth everlasting. Sick and pale, Their beauty would perish, Old and weak, Wasting away, Were not Freia among them. [Roughly. From their midst, therefore, Freia must forth!
Wotan Aside.	Loge lingers long!
Fasolt	We wait for thy word!
Wotan Ask some other wage!
Fasolt	No other: Freia alone!
Fafner	Thou there, follow us! [Fafner and Fasolt press towards Freia. Froh and Donner enter in haste.
Freia	Help! Help from the harsh ones!
Froh Clasping Freia in his arms.	To me, Freia! [To Fafner. Back, overbold one! Froh shields the fair one!
Donner Confronting the giants.	Fasolt and Fafner, Have ye not felt With what weight my hammer falls?
Fafner	What means thy threat?
Fasolt	What wouldst thou here? No strife we desire; We want but our due reward.
Donner	Oft I’ve doled out Giants their due: Come, your reward is here Waiting, full measure and more! He swings his hammer.
Wotan Stretching out his spear between the combatants.	Hold, thou fierce one! Nothing by force! All bonds and treaties My spear protects; Spare then thy hammer’s haft!
Freia	Woe’s me! Woe’s me! Wotan forsakes me!
Fricka	Can such be thy thought, Merciless man?
Wotan Turns away and sees Loge coming.	There comes Loge! Hot is thy haste Smoothly to settle Thy sorry, badly-made bargain!
Loge Has come up out of the valley in the background.	What is this bargain That I am blamed for?—— The one with the giants That thou thyself didst decide? O’er hill and o’er hollow Drives me my whim; House and hearth I do not crave. Donner and Froh, They dream but of roof and room: Wedding, must have A home in which to dwell, A stately hall, A fortress fast.
	It was such Wotan wished. Hall and house, Castle, court, The blissful abode Now stands complete and strong. I proved the lordly Pile myself; In fear of flaws, Scanning it close Fasolt and Fafner Faithful I found; Firm-bedded is each stone. I was not slothful Like many here: Who calls me sluggard, he lies!
Wotan	Cunningly Thou wouldst escape! Warned be, and wisely Turn from attempts to deceive. Of all the Gods I alone stood by thee As thy friend, In the gang that trusted thee not. Now speak, and to the point! For when the builders at first As wage Freia demanded, I gave way only, Trusting thy word When thou didst solemnly promise To ransom the noble pledge.
Loge	Perplexed to puzzle, Plans to ponder For its redeeming—— That promise I gave;
	But to discover What cannot be, What none can do, No man can possibly promise.
Fricka	See the treacherous Rogue thou didst trust!
Froh	Named art Loge, But liar I call thee!
Donner	Accursèd flame, I will quench thy fire!
Loge	From their shame to shelter, Foolish folk flout me. [Donner threatens to strike Loge.
Wotan Stepping between them.	Forbear and let him alone! Ye wot not Loge’s wiles. His advice, Given slowly, gains Both in weight and in worth.
Fafner	Do not dally; Promptly pay!
Fasolt	Long waits our reward.
Wotan Turns sternly to Loge.	Speak up surly one! Fail me not! How far hast thou ranged and roamed?
Loge	Still with reproach Is Loge paid! Concerned but for thee, Thorough and swift, I searched and ransacked To the ends of the earth
	To find a ransom for Freia Fair to the giants and just. In vain the search, Convincing at last That the world contains Nothing so sweet That a man will take it instead Of woman’s love and delight. [All seem surprised and taken aback. Where life moves and has being, In water, earth and air I questioned, Asking of all things, Where weak still is strength, And germs only stirring, What men thought dear—— And stronger deemed—— Than woman’s love and delight. But where life moves and has being My questions met But with laughter and scorn. In water, earth and air Woman and love Will none forego. [Varied gestures of amazement. One man, one only, I met who, renouncing love, Prized ruddy gold Above any woman’s grace. The Rhine’s pure-gleaming children Told me of their sorrow. The Nibelung, Night-Alberich, Wooed for the favour Of the swimmers in vain, And vengeance took,

“The Rhine’s pure-gleaniing children
Told me of their sorrow ”
See p. 28

	Stealing the Rhinegold they guard. He thinks it now A thing beyond price, Greater than woman’s grace. For their glittering toy Thus torn from the deep The sorrowful maids lamented. They pray, Wotan, Pleading to thee, That thy wrath may fall on the robber The gold too They would have thee grant them To guard in the water for ever. Loge promised The maidens to tell thee, And, keeping faith, he has told.
Wotan	Dull thou must be Or downright knavish! In parlous plight myself, What help have I for others?
Fasolt Who has been listening atten­tively, to Fafner.	The Niblung has much annoyed us; I greatly grudge him this Rhinegold; But such his craft and cunning, He has never been caught.
Fafner	Other malice Ponders the Niblung; Gains he might from gold Listen, Loge! Tell us the truth. What wondrous gift has the gold, That the dwarf desires it so?
Loge	A plaything, In the waves providing Children with laughter and sport,
	It gives, when to golden Ring it is rounded, Power and might unmatched; It wins its owner the world.
Wotan Thoughtfully.	Rumours I have heard Of the Rhinegold; Runes of riches Hide in its ruddy glow; Pelf and power Are by the ring bestowed.
Fricka Softly to Loge.	Could this gaud, This gleaming trinket Forged from the gold, Be worn by a woman too?
Loge	The wife who wore That glittering charm Never would lose Her husband’s love—— That charm which dwarfs are welding, Working in thrall to the ring.
Fricka Coaxingly to Wotan.	O could but my husband Come by the ring!
Wotan As if falling more and more under the influence of a spell.	Methinks it were wisdom, Won I the ring to my service. But say, Loge, How shall I learn To forge and fashion it true?
Loge	A magic rune Can round the golden ring. No one knows it, Yet plain the spell to him Who happy love forswears. [Wotan turns away in annoyance.
	That suits thee not; Thou art too late too. Alberich did not delay; Fearless he mastered The potent spell, [Harshly. And wrought aright was the ring.
Donner To Wotan	We should all be Under the dwarf, Were not the ring from him wrested.
Wotan	The ring I must capture!
Froh	Lightly now, Without cursing love it were won.
Loge Harshly.	Just so =: Without guile, as in children’s games!
Wotan	Then tell us how.
Loge	By theft! What a thief stole Steal thou from the thief; How better could object be won? But with baleful arms Battles Alberich. Wary, wise Must be thy scheming, If the thief thou wouldst confound, [With warmth. And restore the ruddy And golden toy, The Rhinegold, to the maidens. For this they pray and implore.
Wotan	The river-maidens? What profit were mine?
Fricka	Of that billow-born brood Bring me no tidings, For they have wooed To my woe Full many a man to their caves. [Wotan stands silent, struggling with him­self. The other Gods gaze at him in mute suspense. Fafner, meanwhile, has been consulting aside with Fasolt.
Fafner To Fasolt	Worth far more than Freia Were the glittering gold. Eternal youth, too, were his Who could use the charm in its quest. [Fasolt's gestures indicate that he is being convinced against his will. Fafner and Fasolt approach Wotan again.
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
See p. 33

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.
Froh	Up! Follow fast!
Donner	Fall now the heavens! They look inquiringly at Wotan.
Freia In the distance.	Save me! Help!
Loge Looking after the giants.	Downward over stock and stone Striding they go; Through the ford across the Rhine Wade now the robbers. Sad at heart Hangs Freia, Thrown rudely over rough shoulders! Heia! hei! The louts, how they lumber along! Through the Rhine valley they reel. Not till Riesenheim’s march Is reached will they rest ! [He turns to the Gods. How darkly Wotan doth dream! What ails the high, happy Gods? [ A pale mist, gradually increasing in density, fills the stage. Seen through it the Gods look more and more worn and aged. All stand in dismay and apprehension regard­ing Wotan, whose eyes are fixed broodingly on the ground. Does a mist mock me? Tricks me a dream? Dismayed and wan, How swiftly ye fade! Lo! the bloom forsakes your cheeks, And quenched is the light of your eyes! Courage, Froh! Day’s but begun! From thy hand, Donner, The hammer is falling! And why frets Fricka ? Sees she with sorrow That Wotan’s hair, growing grey, Has made him gloomy and old?

The Gods grow wan and aged at the loss of Freia
See p. 34

Fricka	Woe’s me! Woe’s me! What does it mean?
Donner	My hand sinks down.
Froh	My heart stands still.
Loge	I have it: hear what ye lack! Of Freia’s fruit Ye have not partaken to-day. The golden apples Within her garden Restored you your strength and your youth, Ate ye thereof each day. The garden’s guardian In pledge has been given. On the branches dries And droops the fruit, To drop soon and decay. My loss is lighter, For still did Freia, Stingy to me, Stint the delectable fruit. Not half as godlike Am I, ye high ones, as you ! [Freely, but quickly and harshly. But ye trusted solely To the fruit that makes young, As well both the giants wist. Your life they played for, Plotted to take; Contrive so that they fail. Lacking the apples, Old and worn, Grey and weary,
	Wasting, the scoff of the world, The Gods must pine and pass.
Fricka Anxiously.	Wotan, alas! Unhappy man! See what thy laughing Lightness has brought us—— Scoff and scorn for all!
Wotan Coming to a sudden resolve, starts up.	Up, Loge, And follow me! To Nibelheim hastening downward, I go in search of the gold.
Loge	The Rhine-daughters Thy aid invoked: Not vainly they hoped for thy help then?
Wotan Angrily.	Fool, be silent! Freia, the fair one— Freia’s ransom we go for.
Loge	Where thou wouldst go Gladly I lead. Shall we dive Sheer through the depths of the Rhine?
Wotan	Not through the Rhine.
Loge	Then swift let us swing Through this smoky chasm. Together, come, creep we in! [He goes in front and vanishes at the side through a cleft, from which, immediately afterwards, sulphurous vapour streams forth.
Wotan	Ye others wait Till evening here;
	The golden ransom When got will again make us young. [He descends after Loge into the chasm. The sulphurous vapour which rises from it spreads over the whole stage and quickly fills it with thick clouds. Those who remain behind are soon hidden.
Donner	Fare thee well, Wotan!
Froh	Good luck! Good luck!
Fricka	O come back soon To thy sorrowing wife! [The sulphurous vapour darkens till it becomes a black cloud, which rises upwards from below. This then changes to a dark, rocky cavern which keeps rising, so that the stage seems to sink deeper and deeper into the earth.