a wakes first, and is startled, not to say
horrified, by the apparition. The Giants, Fasolt and Fafner, have
built the castle, and the promised payment is Freia, Fricka's sister,
whose apples all gods and goddesses must eat every day, else they will
fade and perish. Fricka tries to awaken Wotan: in his dreams he talks
of endless, omnipotent power, and of his castle, to be peopled by
heroes to fight for him against the brute forces of the earth. When he
is aroused he gazes at the building in deepest joy: _now_ his ambition
will be gratified. In vain Fricka expostulates, repeating (in homely
phrase), "What about Freia?" Wotan smiles a superior smile: he has
arranged that matter, and all will be well.

This is the beginning of Wotan's tragedy, the huge drama of which the
others constitute the working out. From this scene to the end we are
to see Wotan gradually forced into a corner. He has to learn by slow
degrees that you cannot have anything without paying the price. It is
in vain he argues with Fricka. She stands for law--inexorable law. She
seems a disagreeable woman, and it would be much more pleasant for
everybody concerned if she could be induced to hold her tongue and let
things take their course. So is what we call the law of gravitation a
disagreeable thing; all the same, we know that if we fall off a
house-roof we shall break our necks. In the Scandinavian cosmogony
Wotan holds sway only by treaties, bargains struck with the powers
that only sustain him so long as he sticks to his word, and are
capable of thrusting him down if he breaks his word. Even omnipotence
may be bought too dearly, and Wotan is not destined to taste the
sweets of even a quarter of an hour's omnipotence. In vain he tries to
evade responsibility, to get something for nothing; and his tragedy is
consummated when in _Siegfried_ he realises that omnipotence can never
be his. Then he renounces it.

This is by way of being a digression; but, for a clear understanding
of this main drama of the _Ring_, it is absolutely necessary that we
should see the source of Wotan's troubles, and here it is: that Fricka
will not allow him, figuratively, to jump off a house-top without
breaking his neck. What she tells him swiftly proves true. Freia flies
in, pursued by the Giants, who demand to be paid. "You rule by
treaties alone," they say. Wotan looks anxiously round for Loge, the
treacherous god of fire and lies. He has promised to find something
that the