CHARACTERS SIEGFRIED MIME THE WANDERER ALBERICH FAFNER ERDA BRÜNNHILDE SCENES OF ACTION A rocky cavern in a wood, in which stands a naturally formed smith's forge, with big bellows. Mime sits in front of the anvil, busily hammering at a sword. MIME [ Who has been hammering with a small hammer, stops working. Slavery! worry! Labour all lost! The strongest sword That ever I forged, That the hands of giants Fitly might wield, This insolent urchin For whom it is fashioned Can snap in two at one stro

CHARACTERS SIEGFRIED GUNTHER HAGEN ALBERICH BRÜNNHILDE GUTRUNE WALTRAUTE THE THREE NORNS THE RHINE-MAIDENS VASSALS WOMEN SCENES OF ACTION PRELUDE: ON THE VALKYRIES' ROCK The curtain rises slowly. The scene is the same as at the close of the second day, on the Valkyries' rock; night. In the background, from below, firelight shines. The three Norns, tall women in long, dark, veil-like drapery. The first (eldest) lies in the foreground, to the right, under the spreading pine-tree; the second (young