il. His will is broken, and he desires the end which threatens from
afar. And now what he had but just desired occurs. The free, fearless
man appears. He is created supernaturally, and they who gave birth to
him pay the penalty of a union contrary to nature. They are destroyed,
but Siegfried lives.

"In the sight of his splendid growth and development the loathing
vanishes from the soul of Wotan. He follows the hero's fate with the
eye of the most fatherly love and anxiety. How Siegfried forges the
sword, kills the dragon, secures the ring, escapes the most crafty
intrigues, and awakens Brunhilde; how the curse that rests upon the
ring does not spare even him, the innocent one, but comes nearer and
nearer; how he, faithful in faithlessness, wounds out of love the most
beloved, and is surrounded by the shadows and mists of guilt, but at
last emerges as clear as the sun and sinks, illuminating the heavens
with his fiery splendor and purifying the world from the curse--all
this the god, whose governing spear has been broken in the struggle
with the freest and who has lost his power to him, holds full of joy
at his own defeat, fully participating in the joy and sorrow of his
conqueror. His eye rests with the brightness of a painful serenity
upon all that has passed. 'He has become free in Love, free from
himself.'"

These are the profound contents of a work that reveals to us the
tragic nature of the world!

At the close of the Cycle, there arose in the enthusiastic assemblage
a demand to see at such a great and grand moment the noble artist
whose eyes had rested for so many years upon the spirit of his great
nation "with the brightness of a painful serenity." He could not evade
the persistent, stormy demand, and had to appear. His features bore an
expression that seemed to show a whole life lived again, an entire
world embraced anew, as he came forward and uttered the significant
yet simple words: "To your own kindness and the ceaseless efforts of
my associates, our artists, you owe this accomplishment. What I have
yet to say to you can be put into a few words, into an axiom. You have
seen now what we can do. It remains for you to will! And if you will,
then we have a German art!"

Yes, indeed we have such an art--a "Baireuth."

O, done is the deathless deed;
On mountain-top the mighty castle!
Splendidly shines the structure new.
As in dreams I did dream it,
As my will did wish it,