nce.

Siegmund has just pressed a tender kiss upon Sieglinde's fair
forehead, when Brunhilde, the Walkyrie, suddenly appears before
him, and solemnly warns him of his coming defeat and death. He
proudly tells her of his matchless sword, but she informs him
that his reliance upon it is quite misplaced, for it will be
wrenched from his grasp when his need is greatest. Then she
tries to comfort him by describing the glory which awaits him
in Walhalla, whither she will convey him after death.

Siegmund eagerly questions her, but, learning that Sieglinde
can never be admitted within its shining portals, passionately
declares he cannot leave her. He next proposes to kill her and
himself, so that they may be together in Hela's dark abode,
for he will accept no joys which she cannot share:--

'Then greet for me Valhall,
Greet for me Wotan;
Hail unto Waelse,
And all the heroes!
Greet, too, the graceful
Warlike mist-maidens:
For now I follow thee not.'

Brunhilde's heart is so touched by his love for and utter
devotion to Sieglinde, and she is so anxious at the same time
to fulfil Wotan's real wish, in defiance of his orders, that
she finally allows compassion to get the better of her reason,
and impulsively promises Siegmund that she will protect him in
the coming fray. At the same moment Hunding's horn is heard,
and Brunhilde disappears, while the scene darkens with the rapid
approach of a thunderstorm. Such is the darkness that Siegmund,
who has sprung down the path in his eagerness to meet his foe,
misses his way, while Sieglinde slowly rouses from her swoon,
muttering of the days of her happy childhood when she dwelt with
her family in the great wood. Suddenly, the lightning flashes,
and Hunding and Siegmund, meeting upon a ridge, begin fighting,
in spite of Sieglinde's frantic cries.

As the struggle begins, Brunhilde, true to her promise, hovers
over the combatants, holding her shield over Siegmund and warding
off every dangerous blow, while Sieglinde gazes in speechless
terror upon the combatants.

But in the very midst of the fray, when Siegmund is about
to pierce Hunding's heart with his glittering sword, Wotan
suddenly appears, and, extending his sacred spear to parry the
blow, he shivers the sword Nothung to pieces. Hunding basely
takes advantage of this accident to slay his defenceless foe,
while Brunhilde, fearing Wotan's wrath and Hunding's cruelty,
catches up the fainting S