fabric of guiding themes, which
is the sure foundation upon which the score of 'Siegfried' is built. Had
Wagner trusted merely to the casual inspiration of the moment, it is
possible that the new work would have harmonised but ill with the old;
as it was, he had but to gather up the broken threads of his unfinished
work to find himself once more under the same inspiration as before. His
theory still held good; his materials were the same; he had but to work
under the same conditions to produce work of the same quality as before.

In 'Goetterdaemmerung' we leave the cool forest once more for the haunts
of men, and exchange the sinless purity of youth for envy, malice, and
all uncharitableness. The prologue takes us once more to the summit of
Bruennhilde's rock. There, in the dim grey of early dawn, sit the three
Norns, unravelling from their thread of gold the secrets of the
present, past, and future. As the morning dawns the thread snaps, and
they hurry away. In the broadening light of day Siegfried and Bruennhilde
appear. The Valkyrie has enriched her husband from her store of hidden
wisdom, and now sends him forth in quest of new adventures. She gives
him her shield and Grane, her horse, and he in turn gives her his ring,
as a pledge of his love and constancy. He hastens down the side of the
mountain, and the note of his horn sounds fainter and fainter as he
takes his way across the Rhine.

The first act shows the hall of the castle of the Gibichungs near the
Rhine. Here dwell Gunther and his sister Gutrune, and their half-brother
Hagen, whose father was the Nibelung Alberich. Hagen knows the story of
the ring, and that its present possessor is Siegfried, and he devises a
crafty scheme for getting Siegfried into his power. Gunther is still
unmarried, and, fired by Hagen's tale of the sleeping Valkyrie upon the
rock of fire, yearns to have Bruennhilde for his wife. Hagen therefore
proposes that Gutrune should be given to Siegfried, and that the latter,
who is the only hero capable of passing through the fire, should in
return win Bruennhilde for Gunther. In the nick of time Siegfried
arrives. Hagen brews him a magic potion, by virtue of which he forgets
all his former life, and his previous love for Bruennhilde is swallowed
up in a burning passion for Gutrune. He quickly agrees to Hagen's
proposal, and assuming the form of Gunther by means of the Tarnhelm, he
departs once more for Bruennhilde's rock. Meanwhile Bruennh