e hoard which
he has amassed by the unlimited sway which the ring enables
him to wield over all the underground folk, has so greatly
fascinated the giants, that, after a few moments' consultation,
they step forward, offering to relinquish all claim to the
previously promised reward, providing the hoard is theirs ere
nightfall. This said, they bear the shrieking and reluctant
Freya away as a hostage, and vanish in the distance.

As they depart, the light suddenly grows wan and dim. The goddess
who has just departed is the dispenser of the golden apples
of perennial youth according to Wagner, and, as she vanishes,
the gods, deprived of the substance which keeps them ever young,
suddenly lose all their vigour and bloom, and grow visibly old
and gray, to their openly expressed dismay:--

'Without the apples,
Old and hoar--
Hoarse and helpless--
Worth not a dread to the world,
The dying gods must grow.'

This sudden change, especially in his beloved wife Fricka,
determines Wotan to secure the gold at any price, and he bids
Loge lead the way to Alberich's realm, following him bravely
down through a deep cleft in the rock, whence rises a dense mist,
which soon blots the whole scene from view.

In the mean while, the dwarf Alberich has conveyed the gleaming
Rhinegold to his underground dwelling, where, mindful of the
nymphs' words, he has forced his brother and slave, the smith
Mime, to fashion a ring. No sooner has Alberich put on this
trinket than he finds himself endowed with unlimited power, which
he uses to oppress all his race, and to pile up a mighty hoard,
for the greed of gold has now filled all his thoughts. Fearful
lest any one should wrest the precious ring from him, he next
directs Mime to make a helmet of gold, the magic tarn-helm,
which will render the wearer invisible. Mime is at work at his
underground forge, and has just finished the helmet which he
intends to appropriate to his own use to escape thraldom, when
Alberich suddenly appears, snatches it from his trembling hand,
and, placing it upon his head, becomes invisible to all. The
malicious dwarf misuses this power to torture Mime with his whip,
and rushes off to lash the dwarfs in the rear of the cave as
Wotan and Loge suddenly appear. Of course their first impulse
is to inquire the cause of Mime's writhing and bitter cries, and
from him they hear how Alberich has become lord of the Nibelungs
by the might of his ring and magic