fident as he is about his luck, has no
misgivings as to his strength and destiny. He gives her his affection at
once, and abandons himself to the charm of the night and the season; for
it is the beginning of Spring. They soon learn from their confidences
that she is his stolen twin-sister. He is transported to find that the
heroic race of the Volsungs need neither perish nor be corrupted by a
lower strain. Hailing the sword by the name of Nothung (or Needed), he
plucks it from the tree as her bride-gift, and then, crying "Both bride
and sister be of thy brother; and blossom the blood of the Volsungs!"
clasps her as the mate the Spring has brought him.

The Second Act

So far, Wotan's plan seems prospering. In the mountains he calls his
war-maiden Brynhild, the child borne to him by the First Mother, and
bids her see to it that Hunding shall fall in the approaching combat.
But he is reckoning without his consort, Fricka. What will she, the Law,
say to the lawless pair who have heaped incest on adultery? A hero may
have defied the law, and put his own will in its place; but can a god
hold him guiltless, when the whole power of the gods can enforce itself
only by law? Fricka, shuddering with horror, outraged in every instinct,
comes clamoring for punishment. Wotan pleads the general necessity of
encouraging heroism in order to keep up the Valhalla bodyguard; but his
remonstrances only bring upon him torrents of reproaches for his own
unfaithfulness to the law in roaming through the world and begetting
war-maidens, "wolf cubs," and the like. He is hopelessly beaten in the
argument. Fricka is absolutely right when she declares that the ending
of the gods began when he brought this wolf-hero into the world;
and now, to save their very existence, she pitilessly demands his
destruction. Wotan has no power to refuse: it is Fricka's mechanical
force, and not his thought, that really rules the world. He has to
recall Brynhild; take back his former instructions; and ordain that
Hunding shall slay the Volsung.

But now comes another difficulty. Brynhild is the inner thought and will
of Godhead, the aspiration from the high life to the higher that is its
divine element, and only becomes separated from it when its resort to
kingship and priestcraft for the sake of temporal power has made it
false to itself. Hitherto, Brynhild, as Valkyrie or hero chooser, has
obeyed Wotan implicitly, taking her work as the holiest and bravest in
hi