and he learns the truth. He softens
into something approaching manhood as he hears of his mother's death;
and finally rushes off into the forest, leaving Mime again to his
task. Then follows a scene to be accounted for in only one way. First,
the scene: Mime sits in despair, and there enters an old man with his
slouch-hat drawn down over one eye, wearing a dark blue cloak (it
ought to be dotted with stars), and carrying a spear or staff in his
hands. He gains the sacred hearth, converses with Mime, and finally
bets him his head that he cannot answer three questions. Much to my
surprise when I first saw the score of _Siegfried_, these form merely
an excuse for going again over the ground covered in the _Rhinegold_
and the _Valkyrie_. The Scandinavian hegemony is expounded, and other
matters are gracefully touched on; the only point is made when the
last question is propounded and Mime cannot answer: Who is it shall
forge the sword, slay Fafner, take the hoard, pass through the fire
and take Bruennhilda for his wife? The old man laughs, leaves Mime his
head, but tells him it will fall to the hero who can do all these
things, the hero who knows not fear. He goes off; thunder is heard;
strange lights flicker amongst the trees; and Mime falls into an
ecstasy of terror, suffering all the agonies of a waking nightmare,
until the spell is abruptly broken by the entry of Siegfried. Why we
should have the two previous dramas of the _Ring_ told again in this
way is the puzzle. In the letter to Uhlig (p. 227) Wagner had plainly
given his reasons for writing the _Rhinegold_ and the _Valkyrie_--to
set before the audience clearly and vividly the events leading up to
_Siegfried's Death_, in action, not in narrative. We have seen them in
action, and lo! we get them in narrative! Wagner's idea must have been
to show us Wotan, realising how matters had passed beyond his control,
going about the world as the Wanderer, watching the development of
things and awaiting the inevitable day. He gives us the very awe and
thrill of our Scandinavian forbears with the apparition of the
grey-bearded man in his cloak coloured like deep night--the terrible
god that they believed walked the earth and might enter their
homesteads at any moment. Of course, as we shall see presently, the
answer to the third question prepares the next stage of the drama. But
as to why the whole story of the _Ring_ should be repeated--well, even
gods must have something to tal