‘Siegfried,’ as has been happily observed, is the scherzo of the great Nibelung symphony.  After the sin and sorrow of ‘Die Walkuere’ the change to the free life of the forest and the boyish innocence of the youthful hero is doubly refreshing.  ‘Siegfried’ is steeped in the spirit of youth.  There breathes through it the freshness of the early world.  Wagner loved it best of his works.  He called it ’the most beautiful of my life’s dreams.’  Though less stirring in incident than ‘Die Walkuere,’ it is certainly more sustained in power.  It is singularly free from those lapses into musical aridity which occasionally mar the beauty of the earlier work.  If the poem from time to time sinks to an inferior level, the music is instinct with so much resource and beauty that there can be no question of dulness.  In ‘Siegfried,’ in fact, Wagner’s genius reaches its zenith.  In power, picturesqueness, and command of orchestral colour and resource, he never surpassed such scenes as the opening of the third act, or Siegfried’s scaling of Bruennhilde’s rock.  It is worth while remarking that an interval of twelve years elapsed between the composition of the second and third acts of ‘Siegfried.’  In 1857, although ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ was well advanced towards completion, Wagner’s courage give way.  The possibility of seeing his great work performed seemed so terribly remote, that he decided for the time being to abandon it and begin on a work of more practicable dimensions.  In 1869 King Ludwig of Bavaria induced him to return to the attack, and with what delight he did so may easily be imagined.  At first sight it seems strange that there should be such complete harmony between the parts of the work, which were written at such different times.  The explanation of course lies in the firm fabric of guiding themes, which is the sure foundation upon which the score of ‘Siegfried’ is built.  Had Wagner trusted merely to the casual inspiration of the moment, it is possible that the new work would have harmonised but ill with the old; as it was, he had but to gather up the broken threads of his unfinished work to find himself once more under the same inspiration as before.  His theory still held good; his materials were the same; he had but to work under the same conditions to produce work of the same quality as before.

In ‘Goetterdaemmerung’ we leave the cool forest once more for the haunts of men, and exchange the sinless purity of youth for envy, malice, and all uncharitableness.  The prologue takes us once more to the summit of Bruennhilde’s rock.  There, in the dim grey of early dawn, sit the three Norns, unravelling from their thread of gold the secrets of the present, past, and future.  As the morning dawns the thread snaps, and they hurry away.  In the broadening light of day Siegfried and Bruennhilde appear.  The Valkyrie has enriched her husband from her store of hidden wisdom, and now sends him forth in quest of new adventures.  She gives him her shield and Grane, her horse, and he in turn gives her his ring, as a pledge of his love and constancy.  He hastens down the side of the mountain, and the note of his horn sounds fainter and fainter as he takes his way across the Rhine.