When thou speakest to me?
What am I
If I am not thy will?
Brünnhilde slowly and silently leads her horse down the path to the cave
WOTAN [Very softly.
What never to any was spoken
Shall be unspoken now and for ever.
Myself I speak to,
Speaking to thee.
[In a low, muffled voice.
When young love grew
A waning delight,
'Twas power my spirit craved;
By rash and wild
Desires driven on,
I won myself the world.
Unknown to me
Dishonest my acts were;
Bargains I made
Wherein hid mishap,
Craftily lured on by Loge,
Who straightway disappeared.
Yet I could not leave
Love altogether;
When grown mighty still I desired it.
The child of night,
The craven Nibelung,
Alberich, broke from its bond.
All love he forswore,
And procured by the curse
The gleaming gold of the Rhine,
And with it measureless might.
The ring that he wrought
I stole by my cunning,
But I restored it not
To the Rhine;
It paid the price
Of Walhall's towers:
The home the giants had built me,
From which I commanded the world.
She who knows all
That ever was,
Erda, the holy,
All-knowing Wala,
Warned me touching the ring:
Prophesied doom everlasting.
Of this doom I was fain
To hear further,
But silent she vanished from sight.
Then my gladness of heart was gone,
The god's one desire was to know.
To the womb of the earth
Downward then I went:
By love's sweet magic
Vanquished the Wala,
Troubled her wisdom proud,
And compelled her tongue to speak.
Tidings by her I was told;
And with her I left a fair pledge:
The world's wisest of women
Bore me, Brünnhilde, thee.
With eight sisters
Fostered wert thou,
That ye Valkyries
Might avert the doom
Which the Wala's
Dread words foretold:
The gods' ignominious ending.
That foes might find us
Strong for the strife,
Heroes I got ye to gather.
The beings who served us
As slaves aforetime,
The men whose courage
Aforetime we curbed:
Who through treacherous bonds
And devious dealings
Were bound to the gods
In blindfold obedience—
To kindle these men
To strife was your duty,
To drive them on
To savage war,
That hosts of dauntless heroes
Might gather in Walhall's hall.
BRÜNNHILDE
And well filled surely thy halls were;
Many a one I have brought.
We never were idle,
So why shouldst thou fear?
"Father! Father!