Page:The Spirit of French Music.djvu/182

 is now going to make himself the abettor of incest, and ruin by his divine authority the old morality. In vain poor Wotan groans and protests. The Runes are there, he must obey. Inhuman though this task may appear to him, he must accomplish it. At the very moment when Hunding is about to succumb to the blows of Siegmund who is covered by Brünnhilde's shield, he joins the fray, and with the shock of his lance breaks the magic spear of his grandson, and Hunding then deals him a mortal blow. But the clown in turn falls stricken by a glance from the god; it now only remains for the latter to chastise the rebellion of his daughter. She as we understand was only rebellious in having conformed to the real wish of her father, in having acted according to Wotan's will. He prepares to banish her from the race of immortals. But at her entreaties he consents to a modification of the punishment. He will send her to sleep in the midst of the forest and will surround her slumber with a barrier of fire. Brünnhilde shall belong to none but the man who is bold enough to come through the fire, to the man "Who knows not fear." Will he not indeed deserve such a conquest? And will it not be worth while, for the love of this gay fellow, to become a mere mortal?

The unfortunate Sieglinde forsaken in the woods dies while bringing into the world Siegmund's child: Siegfried. She has had the help of the dwarf Mime, a skilful blacksmith, a brother of Alberich; he is still smaller and uglier than he, but far more mischievous. On her death-bed she has entrusted to Mime, with her son, the fragments of the wonderful sword collected beside Siegmund's corpse. Sigefried is reared by Mime, that is to say he is not reared; he grows