ngs try to think out for himself the safest course of action.
Only by one who has never known fear can Nothung, the indispensable,
be forged. "Too wise am I for such work!" he soliloquizes. On the
other hand, his wise head is forfeit to one who has never learned
fear. Of the two difficulties, the latter is obviously the one to
be first attended to. Siegfried fills the description dangerously
well of the foretold fatal enemy. "How shall I contrive to teach
him fear?" is Mime's nearest interest. Siegfried, irritated by
his continued hesitation, finally catches hold of him. "Ha? Must
I lend a hand? What have you forged and furbished to-day?" "With
no care but for your welfare," answers Mime, "I was sunk in thought
as to how I should instruct you in a thing of great importance."
"You were sunk quite under the seat," laughs Siegfried; "what of
great importance did you discover there?" "I there learned fear
for your sake, that I might teach it to you, dunce." "What about
fear?" Siegfried asks. "You know nothing about it, and you are
thinking of going from the woods out into the world? Of what use
to you would be the strongest sword, if you had no knowledge of
fear?... Into the crafty world I shall not let you fare before you
have learned fear." "If it is an art, why am I unacquainted with
it? Out with it! What about fear?" "Have you never felt,"--asks
Mime, in a voice which at the suggestion of his own words falls to
quaking, "have you never felt, in the dark woods, at twilight,... when
there are sounds in the distance of rustling, humming and soughing,
when wild muttering gusts sweep past, disorderly fire-wisps flicker
around you, a swelling confused sound surges toward you,--have
you not felt a shuddering horror seize upon your limbs? A burning
chill shakes your frame, your senses swim and fail; the alarmed
heart trembling in your breast hammers to the point of bursting?
If you have never felt these things, fear is unknown to you!" The
music of fear is a darkened and discoloured fire-music through
which we recognise, as if under a disguise veiling something of its
beauty, the motif of Bruennhilde's sleep. If one looks for reasons,
one can suppose the reference to be, as to a type of fearful things,
to the terror-inspiring barrier surrounding Bruennhilde; and imagine
a jesting intimation that fear, as Siegfried should eventually
learn it, is the sensation suspending the heart-beats at sight of
a beautiful woman in her sleep.