d been enough. He then reveals to Siegfried
its magical properties, and asks him what he has done with the
hoard, and especially with the ring, which he vainly seeks on
his hand. Siegfried carelessly replies that the gold is still in
the Neidhole, guarded by the body of the dragon, while the ring
now adorns a woman's fair hand. As he finishes this statement,
Gutrune timidly draws near, and offers him a drinking horn,
the draught of welcome, in which, however, the magic potion of
forgetfulness has been mixed.

Siegfried drains it eagerly, remarking to himself that he drinks
to Brunhilde alone. But no sooner has he partaken of it than
her memory leaves him, and he finds himself gazing admiringly
upon Gutrune. Gunther then proceeds to tell Siegfried the story
of Brunhilde, whom he would fain woo to wife. Although the hero
dreamily repeats his words, and seems to be struggling hard to
recall some past memory, he does not succeed in doing so. Finally
he shakes off his abstraction, and ardently proposes to pass
through the fire and win Brunhilde for Gunther in exchange for
Gutrune's hand:--

'Me frights not her fire;
I'll woo for thee the maid;
For with might and mind
Am I thy man--
A wife in Gutrun' to win.'

The two heroes now decide upon swearing blood brotherhood
according to Northern custom,--an inviolable oath,--and,
charging Hagen to guard the hall of the Gibichungs, they
immediately sally forth on their quest.

Brunhilde, in the mean while, has remained on the Walkuerenfels
anxiously watching for Siegfried's return, and spending long
hours in contemplating the magic ring, her lover husband's last
gift. Her solitude is, however, soon invaded by Waltraute, one
of her sister Walkyries. She informs her that Wotan has been
plunged in melancholy thought ever since he returned home from
his wanderings with a shattered spear, and bade the gods pile
the wood of the withered world-ash all around Walhalla. This
he has decided shall be his funeral pyre, when the predicted
doom of the gods overtakes him.

Waltraute adds also that she alone has found the clue to his
sorrow, for she has overheard him mutter that, if the ring
were given back to the Rhine-daughters, the curse spoken by
Alberich would be annulled, and the gods could yet be saved
from their doom:--

'The day the River's daughters
Find from her finger the ring,
Will the curse's weight
Be cast from the god and the world.'