Giants will accept instead of Freia; and when he enters he
confesses to failure--there is nothing, in the estimation of an
earth-born creature, that is equal to a woman. But he tells of the
theft of the gold; the Giants listen greedily, and they agree to take
it, if Wotan can get it, instead of Freia. Wotan has a double motive:
he does not want all the gold, or, indeed, any of it, save the Ring
shaped by the Nibelung; that he determines to grasp, else the Nibelung
will become _his_ master. He has trusted to lies and trickery, and has
been swindled; but so overpowering is his thirst for universal rule
that he again trusts himself to Loge. The Giants hold Freia as a
hostage; presently all the gods begin to lapse into a comatose
state--they have not eaten of her apples that day--and in desperation
Loge and Wotan set out for the Nibelung's abode. The Nibelungs are the
slaves and sons of toil; they labour incessantly for Alberich; him
only does Wotan fear: he must get the Ring from them at all costs. The
pair descend into the Nibelung's cave. The Ring is already forged, and
the Tarnhelm--the cap of invisibility--is made which enables him to
render himself invisible or to change himself into any animal he
wishes. By a trick Wotan gets Alberich into his power, carries him to
the upper earth, and only lets him go free after he has surrendered
Tarnhelm, Ring and all the hoard of gold. Then the turn of the Giants
comes. The pile of gold they demand must hide Freia from sight; and in
the end she can still be seen, and Wotan must sacrifice the one thing
precious to him, the Ring. That is accursed, and no sooner have Fafner
and Fasolt got it than they quarrel; Fafner kills Fasolt, and goes off
with all to change himself into a dragon and to hide himself in a
cavern with his treasure. Wotan, in his extremity, has summoned Erda,
the wisdom of the earth, and she has counselled him to give up the
Ring, and it is with horror that he sees how wise she was. But his
ambition is boundless; he cannot give up the idea of reigning supreme;
and when things seem at their worst he has a sudden inspiration--that,
already mentioned, of raising up a hero who will freely take the Ring
from Fafner, and, by letting Wotan have it, free of treaties, enable
him to reign supreme. The thought is told us only in the music, and
in the music only in the light of the later operas of the series. Then
the gods cross a rainbow bridge, somewhat hastily thrown up by D