pledged to peace,Cursèd be all thy wisdom;—
Peaceful promises perish!—
Wilt thou not open,
Honest and frank
Stand fast by a bargain once fixed.
A stupid giant
Tells thee this:
O wise one, take it from him!
Freia, the fair one
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
