[Illustration:  Brunhilde discovering Siegmund and sieglinde.]

THE WALKYRIE.

Wotan—­made secretly uneasy by Erda’s dark prediction that

   ’Nothing that is ends not;
    A day of gloom
    Dawns for the gods;—­
    Be ruled and waive from the ring’—­

relinquishes the ring which he had wrested from Alberich, as has been seen.  His restlessness however daily increases, until at last he penetrates in disguise into the dark underground world and woos the fair earth goddess.  So successfully does he plead his cause, that she receives him as her spouse and bears him eight lovely daughters.  She also reveals to him the secrets of the future, when Walhalla’s strong walls shall fall, and the gods shall perish, because they have resorted to fraud and lent a willing ear to Loge, prince of evil.

Notwithstanding this fatal prediction Wotan remains undismayed.  Instead of yielding passively to whatever fate may befall him, he resolves to prepare for a future conflict, and to defend Walhalla against every foe.  As the gods are few in number, he soon decides to summon mortals to his abode, and in order to have men trained to every hardship and accustomed to war, he flings his spear over the world, and kindles unending strife between all the nations.  His eight daughters, the Walkyries, are next deputed to ride down to earth every day and bear away the bravest among the slain.  These warriors are entertained at his table with heavenly mead, and encouraged to keep up their strength and skill by cutting and hewing each other, their wounds healing magically as soon as made.

But, in spite of these preparations, Wotan is not yet satisfied.  He still remembers the all-powerful ring which he has given to the giants, and which is still in the keeping of Fafnir.  In case this ring again falls into the hands of the revengeful Alberich, he knows the gods cannot hope to escape from his wrath.  He himself cannot snatch back a gift once given, so he decides to beget a son, who will unconsciously be his emissary, and who will, moreover, oppose the offspring which Erda has predicted that Alberich will raise merely to help him avenge his wrongs.  Disguised as a mortal named Waelse, or Volsung, Wotan takes up his abode upon earth, and marries a mortal woman, who bears him twin children, Siegmund and Sieglinde.  These children are still very young when Hunding, a hunter and lover of strife, comes upon their hut in the woods, and burns it to the ground, after slaying the elder woman and carrying off the younger as his captive.

On their return from the forest, Waelse and Siegmund behold with dismay the destruction of their dwelling, and vow constant warfare against their foes.  This vow they faithfully keep until Siegmund grows up and his father suddenly and mysteriously disappears, leaving behind him nothing but the wolf-skin garment to which he owes his name.