nd Siegfried and Brynhild come, and have another
duet. He gives her his ring; and she gives him her horse. Away then he
goes in search of more adventures; and she watches him from her crag
until he disappears. The curtain falls; but we can still hear the
trolling of his horn, and the merry clatter of his horse's shoes
trotting gaily down the valley. The sound is lost in the grander rhythm
of the Rhine as he reaches its banks. We hear again an echo of the
lament of the Rhine maidens for the ravished gold; and then, finally, a
new strain, which does not surge like the mighty flood of the river, but
has an unmistakable tramp of hardy men and a strong land flavor about
it. And on this the opera curtain at last goes up--for please remember
that all that has gone before is only the overture.

The First Act

We now understand the new tramping strain. We are in the Rhineside hall
of the Gibichungs, in the presence of King Gunther, his sister Gutrune,
and Gunther's grim half brother Hagen, the villain of the piece. Gunther
is a fool, and has for Hagen's intelligence the respect a fool always
has for the brains of a scoundrel. Feebly fishing for compliments, he
appeals to Hagen to pronounce him a fine fellow and a glory to the
race of Gibich. Hagen declares that it is impossible to contemplate
him without envy, but thinks it a pity that he has not yet found a
wife glorious enough for him. Gunther doubts whether so extraordinary
a person can possibly exist. Hagen then tells him of Brynhild and her
rampart of fire; also of Siegfried. Gunther takes this rather in bad
part, since not only is he afraid of the fire, but Siegfried, according
to Hagen, is not, and will therefore achieve this desirable match
himself. But Hagen points out that since Siegfried is riding about
in quest of adventures, he will certainly pay an early visit to the
renowned chief of the Gibichungs. They can then give him a philtre which
will make him fall in love with Gutrune and forget every other woman he
has yet seen.

Gunther is transported with admiration of Hagen's cunning when he takes
in this plan; and he has hardly assented to it when Siegfried, with
operatic opportuneness, drops in just as Hagen expected, and is duly
drugged into the heartiest love for Gutrune and total oblivion of
Brynhild and his own past. When Gunther declares his longing for the
bride who lies inaccessible within a palisade of flame, Siegfried at
once offers to undertake the adve