otection of their sister. The giants are
prepared to fight for their rights, but the entrance of Loge fortunately
effects a diversion. He has searched throughout the world for something
to offer to the giants instead of the beautiful goddess, but has only
brought back the news of Alberich's treasure-trove, and his forswearing
of love in order to rule the world. The lust of power now invades the
minds of the giants, and they agree to take the treasure in place of
Freia, if Wotan and Loge can succeed in stealing it from Alberich. On
this quest therefore the two gods descended through a cleft in the earth
to Nibelheim, the abode of the Nibelungs. There they find Alberich, by
virtue of his magic gold, lording it over his fellow-dwarfs. He has
compelled his brother Mime, the cleverest smith of them all, to fashion
him a Tarnhelm, or helmet of invisibility, and the latter complains
peevishly to the gods of the overbearing mastery which Alberich has
established in Nibelheim. When Alberich appears, Wotan and Loge
cunningly beguile him to exhibit the powers of his new treasures. The
confiding dwarf, in order to display the quality of the Tarnhelm, first
changes himself into a snake and then into a toad. While he is in the
shape of the latter, Wotan sets his foot upon him, Loge snatches the
Tarnhelm from his head, and together they bind him and carry him off to
the upper air. When he has conveyed his prisoner in safety to the
mountain-top, Wotan bids him summon the dwarfs to bring up his treasures
from Nibelheim. Alberich reluctantly obeys. His treasure is torn from
him, his Tarnhelm, and last of all the ring with which he hoped to rule
the world. Bereft of all, he utters a terrible curse upon the ring,
vowing that it shall bring ruin and death upon every one who wears it,
until it returns to its original possessor. The giants now appear to
claim their reward. They too insist upon taking the whole treasure.
Wotan refuses to give up the ring until warned by the goddess Erda, the
mother of the Fates, who rises from her subterranean cavern, that to
keep it means ruin. The ring passes to the giants, and the curse at once
begins to work. Fafner slays Fasolt in a quarrel for the gold, and
carries off the treasure alone. Throughout this scene the clouds have
been gathering round the mountain-top. Donner, the god of thunder, now
ascends a cliff, and strikes the rock with his hammer. Thunder rolls and
lightning flashes, the dark clouds are