Page:The Spirit of French Music.djvu/184

 In vain Wotan presents himself before him to bar the road with his lance. Siegfried cuts it in two, even as Wotan had done to Siegmund.

I hasten over the last part of the story. Siegfried devotes himself to his mission of liberation, and leaves Brünnhilde, to whom he will return from time to time to rest after his exploits. He reaches the court of the princes of the Rhine. One of them, Hagen, the bastard son of Alberich, gives him to drink a philtre of forgetfulness. Brünnhilde fades at once from his memory, and he marries Gutrune, sister of the king Gunther. The latter has heard of the divine maid shut in by a circle of fire, and dreams of making her his wife. Siegfried offers to win her for him and bring her to his court; he will borrow Gunther's features, using the magical power of disguise which the helm gives him. This is accomplished and produces a domestic tragedy. Brünnhilde, Gutrune and Gunther believe themselves betrayed by Siegfried—for he alone (with Hagen) knows his good faith. Hagen slays him out hunting by striking him on the only vulnerable spot in his body, which has been revealed to him by Alberich. Then the truth is divulged to all, and Brünnhilde climbs on to the pyre prepared for the body of her first and true husband. I must not forget to mention that Siegfried strolling on the banks of the Rhine had been importuned by the water-spirites to return to them their treasure, and had readily done so. Thus he had finally made amends for the original iniquity. And that I suppose is the reason why there was nothing left for him but to die. With him die the gods, Valhalla falls, and all are hurled into the waters of the river. Siegfried has existed for no other purpose than