“Götterdämmerung” by Richard Wagner libretto (English)

Contents: Characters; Prelude; Act One; Act Two; Act Three; Glossary

Prelude

(The curtain rises slowly. The scene is the same as
at the close of the second day [Die Walküre], on the
Valkyries' rock: Night. Firelight shines up from the
valley at the back.)
(The three Norns, tall women in dark, veil-like
drapery. The first (oldest) lies in the foreground on the
right, under the spreading fir tree; the second
(younger) is stretched on a rock in front of the cave;
the third (youngest) sits in the center at back on a
rock below the peak. Gloomy silence and stillness.)

First Norn
What light shineth there?

Second Norn
Dawneth the day so soon?

Third Norn
Loge's host glows in flame around the fell.
Still 'tis night.
Why spin we and sing we not now?

2nd Norn
(to the first)
While we are spinning and singing,
whereon stretch we the rope?
(The first Norn unwinds a golden rope from herself
and ties one end of it to a branch of the pine tree.)

1st Norn
Be good or ill the song,
winding the rope thus sing I.
At the world-ash-tree once I wove
when far and wide from the stem outbranched
a wondrous verdant wood.
In its cooling shadow rose a spring:
whisp'ring wisdom rippled its waves;
of holy things I sang.
A dauntless god came to drink at the well;
as eternal tribute paid was the light of an eye.
From the world-ash-tree Wotan's hand a branch did break;
from the bough he shaped the mighty shaft of his spear.
The wound, as time grew old,
wasted the life of the wood;
sere, leafless and stricken, fast faded the tree;
sadly then failed the fountain's flow:
darksome meaning filled all my song.
Today I weave at the world-ash-tree no more,
now must the pine tree serve me to fasten the rope.
Sing, o sister; wind thou the rope:
know' st thou what will hap?
(The second Norn winds the rope thrown to her
around a projecting rack at the entrance of the cave.)

2nd Norn
Runes of treaties deeply pondered
graved Wotan in the shaft of the spear:
he holds it to sway the world.
A hero bold in fight has broken the spear;
in splinters shivered the treaties' hallowed haft.
Then bade Wotan Walhall's heroes
to hew down the world-ash's stem
and the withered boughs to cut in pieces:
the ash tree sank;
spent then for aye was the spring.
Now round the sharp-edged rock I bind the rope.
Sing, o sister; wind the rope:
know'st thou, what will hap?

3rd Norn
(catching the rope and throwing the end
behind her)
The castle stands by giants upraised:
with the gods and the hallowed host of the heroes
sitteth Wotan on high.
The lofty pile of riven boughs
like a wall standeth round Walhall:
the world-ash-tree was this once!

When its wood burnetii, glowing and bright,
then shall flames feed on the glittering halls:
the end of all godhood dawneth
then forever and aye.
Know ye yet more?
Then wind ye the rope once again;
from northward now I cast it to thee.
(She throws the rope to the second Norn. The
second Norn throws it to the first, who loosens the
rope from the bough and fastens it on another.)
Spin, o sister, and sing thou!

1st Norn
(looking toward the back)
Dawneth the day? Is it fire that flickers?
My sight sorrow has dimmed;
the holy vision of old time fadeth,
when Loge long since blazed forth in glowing flame.
Know' st thou what happed to him?

2nd Norn
(winding the rope thrown to her again
around the rock)
By the spear's enchantment
Wotan enthralled him;
help he gave to the god.
From his galling fetters freedom to win,
he gnawed the runes of the shaft:
then with the mighty spell of the spear-point
Wotan confined him,
flaming round Brünnhilde's fastness.
Know'st thou what will befall?

3rd Norn
(catching the rope again and throwing it
behind her)
With the shattered spear-shaft's piercing splinters
Wotan woundeth the burning one deep in the
breast:
ravaging flames flare from the wound
and seize the shaft, which the god casts
'mid the heaped up boughs of the ash tree.
(She throws the rope back; the second Norn winds
it up and throws it back again to the first.)

2nd Norn
What befalleth, would ye know?
Wind then, sisters, the rope!

1st Norn
(fastening the rope again)

The night wanes; dark are my senses:
I feel no more the strands of the rope;
unwound and loose are its threads.
A hideous sight wounds and vexes mine eyes:
the Rhine-gold robbed by Alberich once:
know'st thou what came thereof?

(The second Norn with busy haste winds the rope
around the jagged rock at the cave's mouth.)

2nd Norn
The rope is parting, cut by the crag,
no more fast is its hold on the rock;
it hangs raveled and frayed:
through wrath and wrong
rises the Nibelung's ring:
a curse of revenge
gnaws at the moldering strands.
Know'st thou what comes thereof?

3rd Norn
(hastily catching the rope thrown to her)
Too slack is the rope, it reaches not.
If to the north its end shall be cast,
yet straighter must it be stretched!
(She pulls hard at the rope, which breaks.)
It breaks!

2nd Norn
It breaks!

1st Norn
It breaks!
(They take hold of the pieces of the broken rope
and bind their bodies together with them.)

The Three Norns
No more speaketh our wisdom!
The world now shall hear us no more.

3rd Norn
Descend!

2nd Norn
To Erda!

1st Norn
Descend!
(They vanish.)
(Dawn. The red glow of sunrise grows; the light of
the fire from below gradually fades.)
(Sunrise.)
(Broad daylight. Siegfried and Brünnhilde enter
from the cave; he is fully armed; she leads her horse
by the bridle.)

Brünnhilde
Beloved hero, forth must I send thee,

love helpeth not holding thee here!
One only doubt yet makes me linger,
that all thy winning hath little worth.
What gold have shewn me gave I thee:
holiest runes in richest hoard;
but all my maidhood's hallowed strength
stole he from me, who is now my hero.
In wisdom weak, but strong in will:
in love so rich, so poor in power,
her scanty worth thou wilt disdain not,
who all has granted and nought more can give.

Siegfried
Wonder of women,
more gav'st thou than I can ward.
O chide not, if thy lessons have left me still
untaught.

One rede yet I well have read:
(with fire) that for me Brünnhild' lives;
one lesson well I learned:
Brünnhilde to remember!

Brünnhilde
Wilt thou with love ever bless me;
remember only thyself:
thy dauntless deeds remember:
remember the flaming fire
that fearless thou defiedst,
when around the rock it burned!

Siegfried
Brünnhilde so to win me.

Brünnhilde
Forget not the shield-hidden maid
whom in slumber deep thou foundest,
and whose fastened helm thou didst break.

Siegfried
Brünnhilde to awaken.

Brünnhilde
Those oaths remember
that have bound us;
the troth remember that we plighted;
the love we live for aye remember:
Brünnhilde then will burn forever
deep in thy breast.
(She embraces Siegfried.)

Siegfried
Love, I leave thee alone
in thy fastness guarded by fire;
(He has drawn Alberich's ring from his finger and
now holds it out to Brünnhilde.)
for all thy runes I give thee
now as guerdon this ring.
Of the deeds my hand performed
the virtue there doth lie.
With my sword a dragon I slew,
who long had watched it in hate.
Now guard thou surely the gold
as witness true of my love!

Brünnhilde
(putting on the ring in rapture)
Ne'er shall it be reft from my hand!
For the ring take thou now my horse!

Though he once did fly
with me through the heavens,
with me he lost all his magic power;
over clouds afar, mid lightning and thunder,
no more boldly aloft will he fly;
yet where'er thou shalt lead,
e'en through the fire,
fearlessly Grane will follow:
for henceforth, hero, shall he obey thee.
Oh, ward him well; he knows thy voice:
Oh, speak to Grane oft Brünnhilde's name!

Siegfried
Then through thy virtue alone
will shine my deeds of valor!
All my battles thou wilt choose,
all my triumphs thou wilt achieve!
If with thy shield I ward me,
if on thy steed I fight,
then Siegfried am I no more,
I am but Brünnhilde's arm.

Brünnhilde
O were but Brünnhilde thy spirit!

Siegfried
Through her my valor doth burn.

Brünnhilde
Then thou wert Siegfried and Brünnhild'!

Siegfried
Where I am both are together.

Brünnhilde
(with animation)
Then my rock home deserted lies?

Siegfried
Made one, both there abide!

Brünnhilde
(in highest excitement)
O heavenly rulers! Race of eternals!
Turn now your eyes on this hallowed pair!
Apart, who shall divide us?
Divided, ne'er will we part!

Siegfried
Hail, o Brünnhilde, radiant star!

Brünnhilde
Hail, o Siegfried, conquering light!

Siegfried
Hail, rapture of loving!
Hail, gladdening star!
Hail, Brünnhild'!
Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!

Brünnhilde
Hail, rapture of living!
Hail, conquering light!

Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!
(Siegfried leads the horse quickly toward the edge
of the slope; Brünnhilde follows him.)
(Siegfried has disappeared with the horse down
behind the projecting rock so that he is no longer visi-
ble to the audience; Brünnhilde stands thus suddenly
alone at the edge of the slope and follows Siegfried
with her eyes as he descends.)
(Brünnhilde's demeanor shows that Siegfried now
vanishes from her sight. Siegfried's horn is heard from
below. Brünnhilde listens.)
(She steps further out on the slope. Now she again
catches sight of Siegfried in the valley: she greets him
with a gesture of delight. Her joyful smiles seem a
reflection of the gay demeanor of the departing
hero.)
(Here the curtain must be quickly lowered.)
(During the last four bars the curtain is raised
again.)

libretto by Frederick Jameson

Contents: Characters; Prelude; Act One; Act Two; Act Three; Glossary