ring she shall serve him as Walkyrie no longer,
but shall be banished to earth, where she will have to live as
a mere mortal, and, marrying, to know naught beyond the joys
and sorrows of other women:--

'Heard you not how
Her fate I have fixed?
Far from your side
Shall the faithless sister be sundered;
Her horse no more
In your midst through the breezes shall haste her;
Her flower of maidenhood
Will falter and fade;
A husband will win
Her womanly heart,
She meekly will bend
To the mastering man
The hearth she'll heed, as she spins,
And to laughers is left for their sport.'

Brunhilde, hearing this terrible decree, which degrades her
from the rank of a goddess to that of a mere mortal, sinks to
her knees and utters a great cry of despair. This is echoed
by the Walkyries, who, however, depart at Wotan's command,
leaving their unhappy sister alone with him.

Passionately now Brunhilde pleads with her father, declaring
she had meant to serve him best by disobeying his commands,
and imploring him not to banish her forever from his beloved
presence. But, although Wotan still loves her dearly, he cannot
revoke his decree, and repeats to her that he will leave her
on the mountain, bound in the fetters of sleep, a prey to the
first man who comes to awaken her and claim her as his bride.

All Brunhilde's tears and passionate pleadings only wring from
him a promise that she will be hedged in by a barrier of living
flames, so that none but the very bravest among men can ever
come near her to claim her as his own.

Wotan, holding his beloved daughter in a close embrace, then
gently seals her eyes in slumber with tender kisses, lays her
softly down upon the green mound, and draws down the visor of
her helmet. Then, after covering her with her shield to protect
her from all harm, he begins a powerful incantation, summoning
Loge to surround her with an impassable barrier of flames. As
this incantation proceeds, small flickering tongues of fire
start forth on every side; they soon rise higher and higher,
roaring and crackling until, as Wotan disappears, they form a
fiery barrier all around the sleeping Walkyrie:--

'Loge, hear!
Hitherward listen!
As I found thee at first--
In arrowy flame
As thereafter thou fleddest--
In fluttering fire;
As I dealt with thee once,
I wield thee to-day!
Arise, billowing blaze,
And fold in th