ods and world would
be redeemed from that stage curse off Alberic's in The Rhine Gold. On
this she has rushed on her warhorse through the air to beg Brynhild to
give the Rhine back its ring. But this is asking Woman to give up love
for the sake of Church and State. She declares that she will see them
both perish first; and Valtrauta returns to Valhalla in despair. Whilst
Brynhild is watching the course of the black thundercloud that marks her
sister's flight, the fires of Loki again flame high round the mountain;
and the horn of Siegfried is heard as he makes his way through them.
But the man who now appears wears the Tarnhelm: his voice is a strange
voice: his figure is the unknown one of the king of the Gibichungs. He
tears the ring from her finger, and, claiming her as his wife, drives
her into the cave without pity for her agony of horror, and sets Nothung
between them in token of his loyalty to the friend he is impersonating.
No explanation of this highway robbery of the ring is offered. Clearly,
this Siegfried is not the Siegfried of the previous drama.

The Second Act

In the second act we return to the hall of Gibich, where Hagen, in the
last hours of that night, still sits, his spear in his hand, and his
shield beside him. At his knees crouches a dwarfish spectre, his father
Alberic, still full of his old grievances against Wotan, and urging his
son in his dreams to win back the ring for him. This Hagen swears to
do; and as the apparition of his father vanishes, the sun rises and
Siegfried suddenly comes from the river bank tucking into his belt the
Tarnhelm, which has transported him from the mountain like the enchanted
carpet of the Arabian tales. He describes his adventures to Gutrune
until Gunther's boat is seen approaching, when Hagen seizes a cowhorn
and calls the tribesmen to welcome their chief and his bride. It is most
exhilarating, this colloquy with the startled and hastily armed clan,
ending with a thundering chorus, the drums marking the time with mighty
pulses from dominant to tonic, much as Rossini would have made them do
if he had been a pupil of Beethoven's.

A terrible scene follows. Gunther leads his captive bride straight into
the presence of Siegfried, whom she claims as her husband by the ring,
which she is astonished to see on his finger: Gunther, as she supposes,
having torn it from her the night before. Turning on Gunther, she says
"Since you took that ring from me, and married me wit