es the sleeping
maiden in her glistening armor. Mad with her beauty and his own
overpowering passion, he springs to her side and wakes her with a
kiss. The Volsung and the Valkyr gaze at each other a long time in
silence. Bruennhilde strives to comprehend her situation, and to recall
the events that led up to her penalty, while love grows within her for
the hero who has rescued her, and Siegfried is transfixed by the
majesty of the maiden. As she comes to herself and fully realizes who
is the hero before her and foresees the approaching doom, she
earnestly appeals to him:--

"Leave, ah, leave,
Leave me unlost,
Force on me not
Thy fiery nearness.
Shiver me not
With thy shattering will,
And lay me not waste in thy love."

What is preordained cannot be changed. Siegfried replies with growing
passion, and Bruennhilde at last yields, and the two join in an
outburst of exultant song:--

"Away, Walhalla,
In dust crumble
Thy myriad towers.
Farewell, greatness,
And gift of the gods.
You, Norns, unravel
The rope of runes.
Darken upwards,
Dusk of the gods.
Night of annulment,
Draw near with thy cloud.
I stand in sight
Of Siegfried's star.
For me he was,
And for me he will ever be."

With this great duet, which is one of the most extraordinary numbers
in the trilogy for dramatic power and musical expression of human
emotion, this division closes.

DIE GOETTERDAEMMERUNG.

The last division of the tragedy opens under the shade of a huge
ash-tree where the three Fates sit spinning and weaving out human
destinies. As they toss their thread from one to the other,--the
thread they have been spinning since time began,--they foresee the
gloom which is coming. Suddenly it snaps in their fingers, whereupon
the dark sisters crowding closely together descend to the depths of
the earth to consult with the ancient Erda and seek shelter near her.
Meanwhile as day breaks Siegfried and Bruennhilde emerge from the glen
where they have been reposing in mutual happiness. Bruennhilde has told
her lover the story of the gods and the secrets of the mystic runes,
but he is still unsatisfied. His mission is not yet fulfilled. He must
away to perform new deeds. Before he leaves her he gives her the ring
as his pledge of fidelity, and they part, after exchanging mutual vows
of love and constancy.

In his search for further exploits, Siegfried arrives at the dwelling
of