affect to regard such a union as extraordinary, given the environment in which the characters of Wagner’s drama move.  It may be noted in passing that ’Die Walkuere’ is the latest of Wagner’s works in which the traces of his earlier manner are still perceptible.  For the most part, as in all his later works, the score is one vast many-coloured web of guiding themes, ‘a mighty maze, but not without a plan!’ Here and there, however, occur passages, such as the Spring Song in the first act and the solemn melody which pervades Bruennhilde’s interview with Siegmund in the second, which, beautiful in themselves as they are, seem reminiscent of earlier and simpler days, and scarcely harmonise with the colour scheme of the rest of the work.

With ‘Siegfried’ the drama advances another stage.  Many years have elapsed since the tragic close of ‘Die Walkuere.’  Sieglinde dragged herself to the forest, and there died in giving birth to a son, Siegfried, who has been brought up by the dwarf Mime in the hope that when grown to manhood the boy may slay the dragon and win for him the Nibelung treasure.  The drama opens in Mime’s hut in the depths of the forest.  The dwarf is engaged in forging a sword for Siegfried, complaining the while that the ungrateful boy always dashes the swords which he makes to pieces upon the anvil as though they were toys.  Siegfried now comes in, blithe and boisterous, and treats Mime’s new sword like its predecessors, blaming the unfortunate smith for his incompetence.  Mime reproaches Siegfried for his ingratitude, reminding him of the care with which he nursed him in childish days.  Siegfried cannot believe that Mime is his father, and in a fit of passion forces the dwarf to tell him the real story of his birth.  Mime at length reluctantly produces the fragments of Siegmund’s sword, and Siegfried, bidding him forge it anew, rushes out once more into the forest.  The dwarf is settling down to his task, when his solitude is disturbed by the advent of a mysterious stranger.  It is Wotan, disguised as a wanderer, who has visited the earth to watch over the offspring of his Volsung son, and to see how events are shaping themselves with regard to the Nibelung treasure.  The scene between him and Mime is exceedingly long, and, though of the highest musical interest and beauty, does very little to advance the plot.  The god and the dwarf ask each other a series of riddles, each staking his head upon the result.  Mime breaks down at the question, ‘Who is to forge the sword Nothung anew?’ Wotan tells him the answer, ‘He who knows not fear,’ and departs with the contemptuous reminder that the dwarf has forfeited his head to the fearless hero.  Siegfried now returns, and is very angry when he finds that Mime has not yet forged the sword.  The frightened dwarf confesses that the task is beyond his powers, and finding that Siegfried does not know what fear is, tells him to forge his sword for himself.  Siegfried then proceeds to business.  He files the pieces to dust and melts them in a melting-pot, singing a wild song as he fans the flames with a huge bellows.  Next he pours the melted steel into a mould and plunges it into water to cool, heats it red-hot in the furnace, and lastly hammers it on the anvil.  When all is finished he brandishes the sword, and, to the mingled terror and delight of Mime, with one mighty stroke cleaves the anvil in twain.