Scene four

An open space on the mountaintops

Loge
Sit tight there, kinsman!
Look, my dear, there lies the world that you wanted to win for yourself, you loafer.
What spot, tell me, will you allow me for my sty?

Alberich
Rascally robber!
Rogue! Ruffian!
Loosen my bonds and set me free, or you’ll rue this outrage, you wretch!

Wotan
You are captured, caught in my chains; as you fancied the world, with all that in it lives and moves, lay in your power, you lie in fetters before me.
Wretch, you cannot deny it!
Now to set you free a ransom is demanded.

Alberich
Dolt that I am!
Dreaming idiot!
How stupid to trust this thievish trick!
Terrible vengeance I vow for this wrong!

Loge
If revenge is to avail you, first you must set yourself free: to a fettered man no free soul makes amends.
So if you relish thoughts of revenge, quick, without delay first think about the ransom!

Alberich
Then say what it is you want.

Wotan
The treasure and your gleaming gold.

Alberich
Greedy gang of rogues!
But if I keep only the ring, I could easily spare the treasure: for to win new wealth and joyfully increase it would soon be done at the ring’s command.
It would be a warning to make me wise: I shall not pay too dear for my education if the lesson costs me only these baubles.

Wotan
Will you yield the treasure?

Alberich
Loosen my hand and I’ll summon it.





Well then, I’ve called the Nibelung to me: obedient to their master, I hear them hauling the hoard from the depths to the daylight.
Now loosen my burdensome bonds!

Wotan
Not until all has been paid.

(The Nibelung climb out of the cleft)

Alberich
O shameful humiliation, that my trembling slaves should see me captive myself!

(To the Nibelung)
Bring it in there as I command!
Pile the hoard into a heap!
Shall I help you cripples?
Don’t glance over here!
Quick there, quick!


Then get out of here, back to your labor for me!
Off to your pits!
Woe betides you if I find you idle!
I am following hard at your heels.



I have paid: now let me depart.
And the wrought helmet that loge is holding there, now kindly give it back to me.

Loge
This trophy too belongs to the ransom.

Alberich
Accursed thief!

But patience!
He who made the old one can make me another: mine is still the might that Mime obeys.
Yet it’s hard to leave my most cunning weapon to my crafty foes!

Well now!
Alberich has left you everything: now, bullies, loosen my bonds!

Loge
(to Wotan)
Are you satisfied? Shall I untie him?

Wotan
A golden ring rests upon your finger: do you hear, dwarf?
That, in my view, belongs to the hoard.

Alberich
The ring?

Wotan
To be free you must forfeit it.

Alberich
My life, but not the ring!

Wotan
I require the ring: with your life does what you will!

Alberich
I lose limb and life, if I must lose the ring too; hand and head, eye and ear are not more my own than this shining ring!

Wotan
You call the ring your own?
Are you raving, shameless dwarf?

Tell me truly, from whom did you take the gold from which you made the ring?
Was it your own, that you wickedly stole it from the water’s depths?
Ask the Rhine’s daughters whether they gave you for your own their gold that you robbed for the ring.

Alberich
Base trickery, vile deceit!
Thief, do you throw on me the blame for what you so dearly desired?
How gladly you yourself would have robbed the Rhine of its gold had you so easily found the way to forge it!


Hypocrite, how well it worked for you that I the Nibelung, in shame and distress, maddened by fury, gained the terrible magic whose work now gaily gladdens you!
Must this fatal, fearful deed of one most wretched and wracked with fear lightly serve you as a royal toy, my curse serve but for your pleasure?


Take heed, haughty god!
If I sinned, I sinned only against myself: but you, immortal one, sin against all that was, is and shall be if recklessly you seize my ring!

Wotan
Surrender the ring!
No right to it can your prattle prove.




Alberich
Ah!

Crushed! Shattered!
Of wretches the wretchedest slave!・・

Wotan
Now I possess what will make me the mightiest of lords!

Loge
Is he to go free?

Wotan
Set him free!

Loge
Slink off home!
No knot holds you: go you’re way freely!

Alberich
Am I free now?
Truly free?
Then thus I give you my freedom’s first greeting!
Since by curse it came to me, accursed is this ring!
Since its gold gave me measureless might, now may its magic bring death to whoever wears it!

It shall gladden no happy man; its bright gleam shall light on no one lucky!
Whoever possesses it shall be consumed with care, and whoever has it not be gnawed with envy!
Each shall itch to possess it, but none in it shall find pleasure!
Its owner shall guard it profitlessly, for through it he shall meet his executioner!
Forfeit to death, faint with fear shall he be fettered; the length of his life he shall long to die, the ring’s master to the ring a slave, until again I hold in my hands what was stolen!
Thus, in direst distress, the Nibelung blesses his ring!
Keep it now, guard it well; my curse you cannot escape!


Loge
Did you heed his fond farewell?

Wotan
Let him give vent to his fury!

Loge
From afar Fasolt and Fafner are approaching; they are bringing Freia back.

Froh
They have returned

Donner
Welcome, brother!

Fricka
Do you bring good tidings?

Loge
By craft and force we carried out the task: there lies what will free Freia.

Donner
From the giants’ grasp our fair one approach.

Froh
How soft the breeze which breathes on us again;
a feeling of bliss fills our senses.
It would be gloomy for us all to be forever separated from her
who gives us painless perpetual youth and joyous delight.

Fricka
Dearest sister, sweetest delight!
Are you restored to me?

Fasolt
Stop! Do not touch her!
She still belongs to us.
At Riesenheim’s towering boundary we stopped to rest: honorably we tended the pledge for the pact.
Much as I regret it, I am returning her for us brothers to be paid her ransom.

Wotan
The ransom lies ready: now the amount of gold shall be fully measured.

Fasolt
Know that to do without the woman saddens us sorely: if she is to be banished from my mind, the hoard of treasure must be heaped so high that it completely hides the lovely one from my sight!

Wotan
Then Freia’s form shall be the measure.

Fafner
These poles we’ve planted to the measure of the pledge:
now fill the space full with the hoard.

Wotan
Hurry with the work: it is repugnant to me!

Loge
Help me, froh!

Froh
I’ll hasten to put an end to Freia’s shame.

Fafner
Not so light and loosely packed!
Fill the measure firm and close!
I can still see through it here: stop up these chinks!

Loge
Stand back, clod!

Fafner
Here!

Loge
Keep your hand off!

Fafner
Here! Close these crevices!

Wotan
Deep in my breast burns my disgrace.

Fricka
See how our pure one stands humiliated and ashamed: her anguished look mutely pleads for release.
Wicked man, to ask this of a loved one!

Fafner
Still more! Yet more on here!

Donner
I can scarcely contain myself: boiling rage this shameless rogue rouses in my breast!
Come here, you cur!
If you want to measure, measure yourself against me!

Fafner
Down, Donner!
Roar where it helps: here your din avails you nothing.

Donner
Not even to crush a slanderer?

Wotan
Let’s have peace!
I think Freia is covered now

Loge
The hoard is used up.

Fafner
I still see the gleam of Holda’s hair: throw that wrought object on the pile!

Loge
What, the helmet too?

Fafner
Quick, here with it.

Wotan
Let it go then!

Loge
We’re finished then!
Are you satisfied?

Fasolt
Freia the fair I see no more: is she then released?
Must I let her go?

Ah, her gaze still gleams on me here; the stars of her eyes still shine on me: through a crack I cannot but see them!
So long as I see those lovely eyes I cannot tear myself away from the woman.

Fafner
Hey! I advise you, stop up this crack!

Loge
Insatiable!
Can’t you see that all the gold has gone?

Fafner
By no means, friend.
On Wotan’s finger still glints a ring of gold: give it here to fill the crack!

Wotan
What! This ring?

Loge
Listen to me!
This gold belongs to the Rhinemaidens: Wotan will give it back to them.

Wotan
What idle chatter is this?
What I won with such difficulty without a qualm I’ll keep for myself.

Loge
Then it goes badly with the promise, I gave the lamenting maidens.

Wotan
Your promise does not bind me: the ring remains with me as booty.

Fafner
But you must yield it here towards the ransom.

Wotan
Boldly ask what you will,
I will grant you everything; but for all the world I will not surrender the ring


Fasolt
It’s all over, then; our first bargain stands: Freia follows us forever!

Freia
Help! Help!

Fricka
Cruel god, give in to them!

Froh
Do not hold the gold back!

Donner
Give up the ring!

Wotan
Leave me in peace!
The ring I’ll not surrender.

(Erda appears)

Erda
yield, Wotan,yield!
Escape from the ring’s curse.
To dark destruction irredeemably its possession dooms you.

Wotan
Who is this woman who threatens?

Erda
I know whatever was; whatever is; whatever shall be I also see:
the eternal world’s first ancestress, Erda, warns you.

My womb bore three daughters, conceived before the start of time; what I see, the norns nightly tell you.
But direst danger today brings me in person to you.

Hear me! Hear me! Hear me!
All that is shall come to an end.
A dark day dawns for the gods: I charge you, shun the ring!

Wotan
Mysteriously impressive your words sound: stay that I may know more!

Erda
I have warned you, you know enough: reflect in fear and dread!
(Erda disappears)

Wotan
If I must fear and dread, I must seize you and learn all!

Fricka
What would you do, madman?

Froh
Desist, Wotan!
Touch not the noble one, heed her words!

Donner
Listen, you giants!
Come back and wait: you shall be given the gold.

Freia
Dare I hope so?
Do you think Holda truly worth this ransom?

Wotan
Came to me, Freia!
You are freed.
Brought back, restore to us our youth!


You giants, take your ring!



(Fafner he at once spreads out a huge sack and stands over the pile ready to stack it away)

Fasolt
Stop, greedy! Leave some for me too.
A fair division will be best for both of us.

Fafner
You longed more for the maid than for the gold, you lovesick loon: with difficulty I persuaded you, fool, to exchange her.
If you had won Freia you would not have shared her: so, as I am dividing the treasure, I rightly retain the greater half for myself.

Fasolt
You swindler!
Do you vilify me?

(to the god)
I call on you as judges: in justice divide the treasure fairly between us.

Loge Let him take the treasure: only keep control of the ring!