creature as the dwarf would try to wrest it
from their grasp:--

'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 Frick