Stories from Wagner. Рихард Вагнер

couldn't," retorted the dwarf quickly. "See this helmet? That silly brother of mine yonder in the corner has just made it for me out of some more of this fine Rhine-Gold. With it I can change myself into any form I choose, and defy the slyest of robbers."

      "Oh, that cannot be!" replied Loki. "Only the gods can do such things. Unless I saw such a marvel with my own eyes, I never would believe it."

      Alberich looked with scorn upon this doubting fellow; then willing to prove his boast, he put the helmet upon his head and muttered a few words. Instantly he was gone, and in his stead a huge serpent came wriggling along the floor, stretching its hideous jaws toward Wotan and Loki. The latter fled in pretended terror, while Wotan laughed calmly. The snake then disappeared, and the dwarf once more stood before them.

      "Now do you doubt my power?" he asked proudly.

      "Oh, it was wonderful!" exclaimed Loki, rolling his eyes. "I couldn't have believed it possible! But I should think it would be a great deal harder to turn yourself into something small?"

      "Not at all," replied the Nibelung. "Watch this!"

      And before the gods were aware, he was gone again. They looked high and low, and there among the small stones a toad came hopping toward them.

      "Quick, put your foot on him!" exclaimed Loki.

      Wotan put his foot upon the toad, and instantly it was gone, and in its place Alberich lay struggling vainly to get out.

      "Let me up! You are crushing me!" screamed the dwarf.

      "Not until you give us every bit of the Rhine-Gold, the helmet and the Ring," said Wotan.

      "You can have all but the helmet and the Ring; and there's a lot of it—beautiful Gold!" whined Alberich.

      "No, all of it!" said Wotan.

      "You can have the helmet, too. Ough! you're smashing me!"

      "The Ring and all, I tell you! Here, Loki, bind him with that rope!"

      "Then take the Gold, the helmet and the Ring!" cried the dwarf despairingly.

      They bound him, and let him up. As soon as he could catch his breath, he continued,

      "Take the Ring and all! But listen well to what I say. My curse rests upon it for ever. Cursed be he who owns it, whether eating or sleeping or waking. Cursed be he and all his, whether god or devil. Sorrow and unhappiness shall go with this Gold through all the ends of the earth!"

      Notwithstanding this dread curse, the gods seized the Ring from off his finger and lost no time in making off with the treasure, leaving the dwarf grovelling upon the floor and muttering fierce words against them. All their care now was to ransom their sister and drive away the mists of old age.

      On their way up the mountain height they met the two giants bearing away the struggling Freia in their clutches.

      "Hold!" commanded Wotan; "bear her no farther. We have brought the gold to ransom her."

      "Is it the far-famed Rhine-Gold?" asked Fafner.

      "See for yourselves!" said Loki, casting the glittering heap upon the earth. "In all the world ye will not find its like."

      The giants gazed greedily upon the hoard, and drew near to parley.

      "'Tis indeed a wonderful treasure," they said; "but the mass must equal in height and breadth the stature of this comely goddess."

      "So be it," answered Wo-tan, and he commanded that staves be set upright in the ground and that the Gold be heaped between them. Thor and Fro and others of the gods had now arrived upon the scene—all overjoyed at the prospect of Freia's release; for already the blighting mist was beginning to lift, though it yet concealed the fair towers of Walhalla. Meanwhile Loki had been careful to withhold the Ring and the helmet from the rest of the hoard, which was now quickly heaped up between the upright staves.

      At last, just as the Gold was exhausted, the pile rose above the top of Freia's head.

      "Here, take the treasure," said Wotan, "and release our sister unto us."

      "Nay, not so," said Fafner. "I see a hole in the heap, and through it gleams the goddess's hair, brighter than any gold. You must fill the hole. Cast on the helmet which yonder Loki is bearing."

      Wotan could scarce restrain his rage at this rude bartering of his sister, while the impetuous Thor fingered his mighty hammer nervously. But Wotan saw it was useless to refuse. He made a sign of command to the unwilling Loki, and the latter cast the helmet on the heap.

      Fafner again walked around it looking closely on every side.

      "Ah!" he exclaimed. "Here is just one more little crack. But through it I can see the gleam of the goddess's lovely eyes. You must place the Ring here to make the ransom complete."

      "Never!" cried Wotan furiously.

      "Very well, then. We shall be forced to take the goddess with us."

      And once more Fasolt laid his rude hands upon the shrinking maiden.

      Thereupon a great tumult began. The voices of the gods rose in entreaty to Wotan to give up the Ring and save their sister and themselves. Thor sprang forward with uplifted hammer, while the hoarse voices of the giants bade defiance to them all. Again the dread mist crept up from the valleys, and darkness descended from the clouds. Still Wotan remained defiant. He was turning away in anger from the tumult, when out of a cleft in the rock a weird bluish light broke forth, and there emerged a woman of dignified and noble mien. Her long black hair swept upon the ground, and her flowing robe seemed made of all the leaves and growing things of the soil. She was Erda, the spirit of Mother-Earth, gifted with wisdom and foresight such as was not given even to the gods themselves.

      Erda stretched her hand out warningly toward Wotan.

      "Yield, O Wotan!" she cried. "Escape the curse of the Ring, and all the hopeless woe it entails!"

      "Who art thou, boding spirit?" demanded Wotan. And in a chanting voice came back the reply:

      "All that was I know,

      All that is I know,

      All that ever shall be done,

      This as well I know.

      Erda the name I bear,

      The Fates my daughters are,

      Danger threatens dire,

      This has drawn me near;

      Hearken! hearken! hearken!

      All that is shall end.

      Heed ye well, ere dawn of doom,—

      Beware the cursed Ring!"

      As the chant ended, the bluish light died away and with it vanished the warning figure.

      "O stay, dread spirit!" cried Wotan. "More would I learn!"

      But only silence answered him; and after gazing into the darkness in anxious thought, he turned suddenly and approached the giants.

      "Here is the Ring," said he sternly, drawing it from his finger and placing it upon the heap. "Begone, and leave us our sister! But a curse has fallen upon the Gold."

      And so it proved. The gods themselves were witness of the first-fruits of the curse. For as the two giants fell greedily to work gathering up the treasure, a dispute arose. Fasolt claimed that Fafner was taking more than his rightful share. They came to blows over it, when Fafner smote Fasolt to the ground with a blow so heavy that it killed him. Then the victor, unmindful of his deed, hastily gathered up all the wealth and departed, while the gods stood around silent and amazed that the curse should descend so swiftly. And Wotan foresaw in this tragic moment the awful doom which was one day to descend upon them all, because the Gold had not been restored to the Rhine-Daughters.

      But his gloomy thoughts were broken just then by a mighty crash,