n Siegmund, his mortal son,
and Hunding, Wotan, who is up on a rocky mountain overlooking
the earth, summons Brunhilde the Walkyrie to his side, bidding
her saddle her steed and so direct the battle that Siegmund
may remain victor and Hunding only fall. Chanting her Walkyrie
war-cry, Brunhilde departs, laughingly calling out to Wotan
that he had best be prepared for a call from his wife, who is
hastening toward him as fast as her rams can draw her brazen
chariot. Brunhilde has scarcely passed out of sight when Fricka
comes upon the scene. After upbraiding Wotan for forsaking her
to woo the goddess Erda and a mortal maiden, she says that,
as father of the gods and ruler of the world, he is bound to
uphold religion and morality. She then dwells angrily upon
the immorality of the just consummated union between Siegmund
and Sieglinde, who are brother and sister, and finally forces
her husband, much against his will, to promise he will revoke
his decree, give the victory to the injured husband, Hunding,
and punish Siegmund, the seducer, by immediate death.

Wotan therefore summons Brunhilde once more, and sadly bids her
to shield Hunding in the coming fight. Brunhilde, who realizes
that the second command has been dictated by Fricka, implores
him to confide his troubles to her. She then hears with dismay
an account of the way in which Wotan has been beguiled into
wrongdoing by Loge, of his attempts to gather an army large
enough to oppose to his foes when the last day should come,
and of his long cherished hope that Siegmund would recover the
fatal ring which he feared would again fall into the revengeful
Alberich's hands. Finally, however, Wotan repeats his order to
her to befriend Hunding, and Brunhilde, awed by his despair,
slowly departs to fulfil his commands.

The god has just vanished amid the mutterings of thunder,
expressive of his wrath if any one dare to disobey his behests,
when Siegmund and Sieglinde suddenly appear upon the mountain
side. They are fleeing from Hunding, and Sieglinde, who has
discovered when too late that Siegmund is her brother, is so
torn by remorse, love, and fear that she soon sinks fainting
to the ground. Siegmund, alarmed, bends over her, but, having
ascertained that she has only fainted, makes no effort to revive
her, deeming it better that she should remain unconscious during
the encounter which must soon take place, for the horn of the
pursuing Hunding is already heard in the dista