dispelled, revealing a rainbow
bridge thrown across the chasm, over which the gods solemnly march to
Valhalla, while from far below rise the despairing cries of the
Rhine-maidens lamenting their lost treasure.

'Das Rheingold' is conspicuous among the later works of Wagner for its
brevity and concentration. Although it embraces four scenes, the music
is continuous throughout, and the whole makes but one act. Wagner's aim
seems to have been to set forth in a series of brilliant pictures the
medium in which his mighty drama was to unfold itself. Human interest of
course there is none, but the supernatural machinery is complete. The
denizens of the world are grouped in four divisions--the gods in heaven,
the giants on the earth, the dwarfs beneath, and the water-sprites in
the bosom of the Rhine. 'Das Rheingold' has a freshness and an open-air
feeling which are eminently suitable to the prologue of a work which
deals so much with the vast forces of nature as Wagner's colossal drama.
There is little scope in it for the delicate psychology which enriches
the later divisions of the tetralogy, but, on the other hand, Wagner
has reproduced the 'large utterance of the early gods' with exquisite
art. Musically it can hardly rank with its successors, partly no doubt
because the plot has not their absorbing interest, partly also because
'Das Rheingold' is the first work in which Wagner consciously worked in
accordance with his theory of guiding themes, and consequently he had
not as yet gained that complete mastery of his elaborate material which
he afterwards attained. Yet some of the musical pictures in 'Das
Rheingold' would be difficult to match throughout the glowing gallery of
'Der Ring des Nibelungen,' such as the beautiful opening scene in the
depths of the Rhine, and the magnificent march to Valhalla with which it
closes.

Before the opening of 'Die Walkuere,' the next work of the series, much
has happened. Wotan has begotten the nine Valkyries (_Walkueren_, or
choosers of the slain), whose mission is to bring up dead heroes from
the battle-field to dwell in Valhalla, and, if need be, help to defend
it. He determines, too, since he may not possess the ring himself, to
beget a hero of the race of men who shall win it from Fafner (who has
changed himself into a dragon in order to guard the treasure more
securely), and so prevent it falling into the hands of an enemy of the
gods. For this purpose he descends to earth and, und