’Guard the gold! 
    Father said
    That such was the foe.’

But all Alberich’s senses are fascinated by the water-nymphs’ beauty, and he soon falls madly in love with them, and makes almost superhuman efforts to overtake the mocking fair.  Hotly he pursues them from ridge to ridge, yielding to the blandishments of one after another, and is beside himself with rage as they deftly escape from his clasp just as he fancies he has at last caught them.  The fair nymphs, who know they have nothing to fear from so infatuated a lover, swim hither and thither, tantalising him by their nearness, and lure him up and down the rocky river-bed.

They have just exhausted his patience, and driven him wild with impotent rage, when the green waters are suddenly illumined by the phosphorescent glow of the Rhinegold, the treasure whose presence they hail with a rapturous outburst of song, and whose secret power they extol:—­

   ’The realm of the world
    By him shall be won
    Who from the Rhinegold
    Hath wrought the ring
    Imparting measureless power.’[2]

The dwarf, attracted by the brilliant light, hears their words at first without paying any attention to them; but when they repeat that he who is willing to forego love can fashion a ring from this gold which will make him master of all the world, he starts with surprise.  Fascinated at last by the glow of the treasure, and forgetting all thoughts of love in greed, he suddenly grasps the carelessly guarded gold and plunges with it down into the depths, leaving the three nymphs to bewail its loss in utter darkness.

Little by little the gloom lightens, however, and instead of the river bed the scene represents the green valley through which the Rhine is flowing.  In the gray dawn one can descry the high hills on either side, and as the light increases Wotan and Fricka, the principal deities of Northern mythology, are seen lying on the flowery slopes.

As they gently awaken from their peaceful slumbers, the morning mists entirely disappear, revealing in the background the fairy-like beauty of a wondrous palace which has just been completed for their abode.  This sight startles Fricka, for she knows that the assembled gods have promised that Fasolt and Fafnir, the gigantic builders, should have sun and moon and the fair Freya as fee.  To lose the bright luminaries of the world were bad enough, but Fricka’s dismay is still greater at the prospect of parting forever with the fair goddess of beauty and youth.  In her sorrow she bitterly regrets that the promise has been made and rendered inviolable by being inscribed on her husband’s spear, and reproves him for the joy he shows in viewing the completion of his future abode:—­

   ’In delight thou revel’st
    When I am alarmed? 
    Thou ’rt glad of the fortress,
    For Freya I fear. 
    Bethink thee, thou thoughtless god,
    Of the guerdon now to be given! 
    The castle is finished,
    And forfeit the pledge. 
    Forgettest thou what is engaged?’