iving indefinitely, but
recognising himself as perishable, and passing at last, swallowed
in twilight.

A great warrior and leader of heroes, inciter of men to bold actions
and novel flights; some of his titles: Father of Hosts, Father
of Battles, Father of Victory; riding in the storm-clouds on his
_Luft-ross_, his air-horse, whose hoof-beats and neigh fill us with
excited delight. But his air-horse cannot overtake Bruennhilde's
air-horse, in his pursuit of her, and Grane reaching the goal falls
exhausted....

A great reveller: reference is repeatedly made to the light-minded,
light-hearted, careless humour of the gods, their glorious feasts
and joyous life in the light up there. Their tribe is qualified
as "laughing." Wotan's unshakable dignity indeed does not prevent
a quick easy laugh. And he shows the true aristocratic temper in
being little moved by the sorrows of those beneath and unrelated
to him: one of his laughs, which we witness, is for the howls of
a poor wee dwarf who had been savagely beaten.

And so this powerful clan-chief had had a fancy for a house to
live in worthy of their greatness. Fricka had fallen in with his
desire, but for reasons of her own. To him the citadel was a fresh
addition to his power. But Fricka had been "_um des Gatten Treu'
besorgt_," "ill at ease with regard to her consort's fidelity,"
and had thought the beautiful dwelling might keep him at home.
With her words, "_Herrliche Wohnung, wonniger Hausrath_," "Beautiful
dwelling, delectable household order," first occurs the winning
strain which afterward stands for Fricka in her love of domesticity,
or, separate from her, for the pure charm of home.

When the giants, however, had been subsidised for the great work
of building the house, the narrow-conscienced women had been kept
out of the way while an agreement was reached with the builders;
a grievance which Fricka remembers, and does not let her spouse
forget, when the evil consequences of his act are upon them. Fricka
constitutes something of a living reproach to her husband, though
a certain tender regard still exists between them through the
introductory Opera. A thankless part is Fricka's, like that of Reason
in opposition to Feeling and Genius.

Now Loge, who had been tamed by the conquering spear, hated his
tamer. He craved back his liberty, and, as the Norn tells us later
in _Goetterdaemmerung_, "tried to free himself by gnawing at the
runes on the shaft of the spea