“Das Rheingold” by Richard Wagner libretto (English)

Contents: Characters; Prelude And Scene One; Scene Two; Scene Three; Scene Four; Glossary

Scene Three

Nibelheim
(Alberich drags the shrieking Mime
from a side cleft.)

Alberich
Hehe! hehe! to me! to me!
mischievous imp!
Prettily pinched, now shalt thou be,
if in a trice, thou forgest me not
the work as I did command.

Mime
(howling)
Ohe! Ohe! Au! Au!
Let me alone! Forged it is, as thou did'st bid,
with moil and toil all is now done:
take but thy (shrilly) nails from my ear!

Alberich
Why waitest thou then,
and shew'st it not?

Mime
I only faltered lest aught were failing.

Alberich
What then was not finished?

Mime
(embarrassed)
Here ... and there ...

Alberich
What here and there? Give me the thing!
(He tries to catch his ear again. Mime, in his terror,
lets fall a piece of metal work which he held con-
vulsively in his hand. Alberich picks it up quickly and
examines it carefully.)
See, thou rogue! All has been forged
as I gave my command, finished and fit.
Ah, would then the dolt cunningly trick me?
and keep the wonderful work for himself,
that which my craft alone taught him to forge?
Known art thou, foolish thief?
(He places the Tarnhelm on his head.)
The helm fitteth the head:
now will the spell also speed?
(very softly)
"Night and darkness. Nowhere seen!"
(His form vanishes;
in its place a column of mist is seen.)
Seest thou me, brother?

Mime
(looks about him in astonishment)
Where art thou? I see thee not.

Alberich
(invisible)
Then feel me instead, thou lazy rogue!
Take that for thy thievish thought!
(Mime writhes under the blows he receives, whose
sound is heard without the scourge being seen.)

Mime
Ohe! Ohe! Au! Au! Au!

Alberich
(laughing, invisible)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
I thank thee, blockhead,
thy work is true and fit!
Hoho! Hoho!
Nibelungs all, bow ye to Alberich!
Everywhere over you waits he and watches;
peace and rest now have departed;
aye must ye serve him, unseen though he be;
unaware he is nigh ye still shall await him!
Thrall to him are ye forever!
(harshly) Hoho! Hoho! hear him, he nears:
the Nibelungs' lord!
(The column of vapor disappears in the back-
ground. The sounds of Alberich's scolding become
fainter in the distance. Mime cowers down in pain.)
(Wotan and Loge come down from a cleft in the rock.)

Loge
Nibelheim here. Through pallid vapors
there glisten bright sparks from the smithies.

Mime
Au! Au! Au!

Wotan
One groans aloud: what lies on the ground?

Loge
(bends over Mime)
Say, wherefore moanest thou here?

Mime
Ohe! Ohe! Au! Au!

Loge
Hei, Mime! merry dwarf!
What plagues and pinches thee so?

Mime
Leave me in quiet!

Loge
That will I surely, and more yet, hark!
help I promise thee, Mime.
(He raises him with difficulty to his feet.)

Mime
What help for me!
I must obey the behests of my brother,
who makes me bondsman to him.

Loge
But, Mime, to bind thee,
what gave him the power?

Mime
By evil craft molded Alberich,
from yellow gold of the Rhine, a ring:
at its mighty spell we tremble in wonder;
by that now he enthralls us,
the Nibelungs' darksome host.
Blithely we smiths once worked at our anvils,
forged for our women
trinkets so fair, delicate Nibelung toys:
we lightly laughed at our toil.
The wretch now compels us
to creep into caverns,
for him alone we ever must toil.
Through the ring of gold his greed still descries
where'er new treasure lies hid in the clefts:
there must we all seek it, trace it and dig it,
to melt the booty, to forge him the gold,
with no peace nor rest
for him to heap up the hoard.

Loge
Just now, then, an idler wakened his ire!

Mime
Poor Mime,
ah! my fate was the hardest.
A helm of mail had I to forge him;
with care he gave commands for its making.
My wit conceived the mighty power
that lay in the work I had forged of steel;
the helm I fain had held for my own;
to use the spell to free me from Alberich's sway:
perchance ... yes, perchance,
the tyrant himself to o'ermaster,
and place him by guile in my power;
the ring then had I ravished,
that, as a slave now I serve him,
(harshly) in thrall he should then be to me!

Loge
And wherefore, wise one,
didst thou not thrive?

Mime
Ah! though the work I fashioned,
the magic that lurks therein,
the magic I guessed not aright:
he who planned the work which then he seized,
he taught me, alas, but now all too late,
what a spell lay in the helm.
From my sight he vanished;
but, lurking unseen, sharp strokes he showered on me.
(crying and sobbing)
Such pay for my pains I, fool, did win.
(He rubs his back. Wotan and Loge laugh.)

Loge
(to Wotan)
Confess, not light will be our task.

Wotan
But the foe will fall, if thou but help!
(Mime observes the gods more attentively.)

Mime
What mean all your questions?
Who are ye then, strangers?

Loge
Friends to thee; from all their need
the Niblungen folk we shall free!
(Mime, on hearing Alberich's approach, shrinks
back frightened.)

Mime
Look to yourselves; Alberich nears.
(He runs to and fro in terror.)

Wotan
(seating himself quietly on a stone)
We wait for him here.
(Alberich, who has removed the Tarnhelm from his
head and hung it on his girdle, drives before him,
with brandished whip, a host of Nibelungs from the
caverns below. They are laden with gold and silver
handiwork, which, under Alberich's continuous
abuse and scolding, they heap together so as to form
a large pile.)

Alberich
Hither! Thither! Hehe! Hoho!
Lazy herd! There in a heap pile up the hoard!
Thou there, go up! Wilt thou get on?
Indolent folk! Down with the treasure!
Shall I then help you? Here with it all!
(He suddenly perceives Wotan and Loge.)
Hey! who is there? What guests are these?
Mime, to me! Pestilent wretch!
Pratest thou here with the vagabond pair?
Off, thou sluggard!
Back to thy smelting and smithing!
(He drives Mime with blows of his whip into the
crowd of Nibelungs.)
Hey! to your labor!
Get ye hence straight-way! Quickly below!
From the new-made shafts go get me the gold!
Who slowly digs shall suffer the whip!
That no one be idle, Mime be surety,
or scarce shall he scape from my scourge's
lashes!
That I ev'rywhere wander when no one is ware,
that wots he; think I full well!
Linger ye still? Loiter ye then?
(He draws his ring from his finger, kisses it and
stretches it out threateningly.)
Tremble in terror, ye vanquished host!
All obey the ring's great lord!
(With howls and shrieks the Nibelungs, among
whom is Mime, separate and slip into different clefts
in all directions.)
(Alberich looks long and suspiciously at Wotan
and Loge.)
What seek ye here?

Wotan
Of Nibelheim's darksome land
strange tidings have reached our ears:
great the wonders worked here by Alberich;
on these now to feast us,
greed has made us they guests.

Alberich
Led hither by envy ye came:
such gallant guests, believe, well I know!

Loge
Know'st thou me well, ignorant imp?
Then say, who am I? why dost so bark?
In chilly caves when crouching thou lay'st,
where were thy light and comforting fire then,
had Loge not on thee laughed?
What boots thee thy forging,
be not thy forge lit by me?
Kin to thee am I, and once was kind:
not warm, methinks, are thy thanks!

Alberich
On light-elves laughs now Loge, the crafty rogue?
Art thou, false one, their friend,
as my friend once thou wert:
haha! I laugh!
from them, then, nought need I fear.

Loge
Methinks, then, me may'st thou trust.

Alberich
In thy untruth trust I,
not in thy truth!
(taking a defiant attitude)
Undismayed now I defy you.

Loge
Courage high thy might doth confer;
grimly great waxes thy power!

Alberich
Seest thou the hoard,
by my host heaped for me there?

Loge
A goodlier never was seen.

Alberich
It is today but scanty measure!
Proud and mighty shall the hoard be hereafter.

Wotan
But what can boot thee the hoard,
in joyless Nibelheim,
where treasure nothing can buy?

Alberich
Treasure to gather,
and treasure to bury,
serves me Nibelheim's night.
But with the hoard, that in caverns I hide,
shall wonders be worked by the Niblung;
and by its might
the world as my own I shall win me!

Wotan
How beginn'st thou that, then, good friend?

Alberich
Lapped in gently wafting
breezes ye who now live, laugh and love:
with golden grasp, ye godly ones all shall be captured!
As love by me was once forsworn,
All that have life shall eke forswear it!
Enchanted by gold, the greed
for gold shall enslave you!
On glorious heights
abide ye in gladness, rocked in bliss;
the dark elves ye disdain in your revels eternal!
Beware! Beware!
For first your men shall bow to my might,
then your winsome women,
who my wooing despised,
shall yield to Alberich's force,
though love be his foe!
(laughing savagely)
Ha ha ha ha!
Hear ye my word? Beware!
Beware! of the hosts of the night,
when rises the Niblung hoard
from silent deeps to the day!

Wotan
(violently)
Away, impious wretch!

Alberich
What says he?

Loge
(stepping between them)
Lose not thy senses!
(to Alberich)
Who were not seized with wonder,
beholding Alberich's work?
If only thy craft can achieve
all thou dost hope of the treasure:
the mightiest then must I call thee,
for moon and stars
and the sun in his splendor,
could not then withstand thy power,
they too must be thy slaves.
Yet ... well 'twould seem before all things
that the host of the Niblungs,
who heap up thy hoard, should serve thee free from spite.
When thy hand held forth a ring;
then trembling cowered thy folk:
but in they sleep a thief might slink by
and steal slyly the ring.
How, crafty one, then wouldst thou speed?

Alberich
The deepest one Loge deems him;
others takes he ever for fools:
that e'er I should need him,
and dearly pay for word and aid,
that fain would the thief now hear!
This covering helm myself I conceived;
the cunningest smith,
Mime, forced I to forge it:
swiftly to change me,
into all shapes at my will
to transform me, serves the helm.
None can see me, though he may seek;
yet ev'rywhere am I, though hidden from sight.
So, free from care, not even thy craft need I fear,
thou kind, provident friend!

Loge
Many wonders oft have I looked on,
but such a marvel ne'er met my eyes.
This work without equal
none would believe in;
couldst thou but work this wonder,
thy might then were unending!

Alberich
Think'st thou I lie
and boast me like Loge?

Loge
Till it is proved,
I trust not, dwarf, thy word.

Alberich
Art puffed up with prudence, fool, well
nigh to bursting!
Then envy me now!
Command, and say in what shape
I shall presently stand?

Loge
Be shaped as thou wilt;
but make me dumb with amaze!

Alberich
(puts the Tarnhelm on his head)
"Dragon dread, wind thee and coil thee!"
(He immediately disappears. In his place a huge
serpent writhes on the floor; it lifts its head and
stretches its open jaws toward Wotan and Loge.)

Loge
(pretends to be seized with terror)
Ohe! Ohe!
Terrible dragon, oh, swallow me not!
Spare his life but to Loge!

Wotan
(laughing) Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha!
Good, Alberich! Good, thou rascal!
How quickly grew the dwarf to the dragon so dread!
(The dragon disappears and immediately Alberich
is seen in his place.)

Alberich
Hehe! ye doubters! trust ye me now?

Loge
(in a trembling voice)
My trembling truly may prove it!
A giant snake thou straight didst become:
now I have seen, surely must I believe it.
But, as thou grewest,
canst also shape thee quite small and slender?
The shrewdest way were that,
methinks, all danger to escape:
that, truly, would be too hard.

Alberich
Too hard for thee, dull as thou art!
How small shall I be?

Loge
That the smallest cranny could hold thee,
where a frightened toad might be hid.

Alberich
Pah! nought simpler! Look at me now!
(He puts on the Tarnhelm again.)
"Crooked toad, creep thou hither!"
(He disappears. The gods perceive a toad on the
rocks, crawling toward them.)

Loge
(to Wotan)
There, grasp quickly!
Capture the toad!
(Wotan places his foot on the toad. Loge makes
for his head and holds the Tarnhelm in his hand.
Alberich becomes suddenly visible in his own form,
writhing under Wotan's foot.)

Alberich
Ohe! Accurst! Now am I captive!

Loge
Hold him fast till he is bound.
(Loge binds his hands and feet with a rope.)
Now swiftly up: there he is ours!
(Both seize the prisoner, who struggles violently,
and drag him to the shaft by which they came down.
They disappear, mounting upward.)

(The scene changes as before, only in reverse
order. The scene in changing again passes near the
smithies. Continuous change of scene upward.)
(Wotan and Loge, bringing with them Alberich
bound, come up out of the chasm.)

libretto by Frederick Jameson

Contents: Characters; Prelude And Scene One; Scene Two; Scene Three; Scene Four; Glossary