KRIEMHILD.

  So be it!  For the measure’s over full!

  [She turns toward SIEGFRIED’S body and falls upon the bier.]

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 1:  Siegfried’s wonderful sword is named Balmung.]

[Footnote 2:  The reference is to a passage in the Chanson de Roland.  Roland was in command of a rear guard and was warned of the approach of a large force of Saracens.  His comrade Oliver begged him to sound his horn and summon Charlemagne and his forces.  Roland would not blow the horn until nearly all his men were slain.  At last, however, the Saracens learned of Charlemagne’s approach and fled.  Roland then blew his horn once more and died alone on the field as he heard Charlemagne’s battle cry.—­TRANSLATOR.]

[Footnote 3:  Balmung is the name of Siegfried’s magical sword.]

[Footnote 4:  The Mandrake is a plant growing in the Mediterranean region and belonging to the potato family.  It was early famed for its poisonous and narcotic qualities.  Love philtres were also made from its roots, and an old High German story tells of little images made from the root, thus endowed with the power of prophecy and respected as oracles.  Probably Hebbel refers to the German tradition, as he is speaking of the dwarfs who are both small and wise.  The German name of the plant is Alraune.—­TRANSLATOR.]

[Footnote 5:  The translator finds that authorities and versions of the tale differ as to Siegfried’s "Kappe." In Maurice Grau’s Goetterdaemmerung libretto it is called in the English translation “Tarnhelm,” and Siegfried hangs it to his belt when not in use.  Dippold in his account of the Nibelung tale speaks of the Tarn kappe or magic cap of darkness which renders the wearer invisible. But the Encyclopaedia Britannica speaks of the “cape of darkness” and Heath’s Dictionary gives cap first, but calls Tarn kappe “hiding cape.”  In either case invisibility was obtained.—­TRANSLATOR.]

ANNA (1836)

BY FRIEDRICH HEBBEL

TRANSLATED BY FRANCES H. KING

  “Mild the air, and heaven blue,
  Fragrant flowers full of dew,
  And at even dance and play,
  That is quite too much, I say.”

Anna, the young servant maid, was gaily singing this song one bright Sunday morning, while busily engaged in washing up the kitchen and dairy crockery.  At that moment Baron Eichenthal, in whose service she had been for the last six months, passed by, wearing a green damask dressing-gown.  He was a decrepit young man, full of spleen and whims.  “What’s the meaning of this yodelling!” he demanded haughtily, pausing in front of her—­“You know that I cannot bear frivolity.”