He
catches sight of Mime pottering with the cooking utensils. "There
is a wise smith come to shame," the old man answers the youth's
mocking inquiry; "the teacher receives lessons from his pupil;
all is up with art for the old one, he will serve the young one
as cook! While the young one makes iron into broth, the old one
will prepare a dish of eggs!" With impish relish of the inwardness
of the situation, he stirs the mixture in the pot.

"Hoho! Hahei! Hoho!" Siegfried proceeds with his work and his singing;
"shape, my hammer, a hard sword! Blood once dyed your pallid blue,
its trickling red brightened you, you laughed coldly, you cooled
off the hot liquid. Now the fire has made you glow red, your soft
hardness yields to the hammer; you dart angry sparks at me, because
I have tamed you, stubborn! The merry sparks, how they delight
me! Anger adorns the brave. You are gaily laughing at me, though
you feign to be angry and sullen. Hoho! Hahei! By means of heat
and hammer I have achieved it, with stalwart blows I have shaped
you; now let the red shame vanish, become as hard and cold as you
can...."

Mime is meanwhile revelling in dreams of the greatness which is
to follow upon his acquisition of the Ring. He fairly skips up
and down as he thinks of it all: Brother Alberich himself reduced
to subjection, the whole world bowing at the nod of his, Mime's,
head. No more toil, others to toil for him.... "Mime is king, Prince
of the Nibelungen, lord over all! Hei, Mime! who would have thought
it of you?"

"Nothung! Nothung! Notable sword!" harmoniously bellows Siegfried;
"now you are fast in your hilt. You were in two, I have forced you
into one. No blow after this shall break you. In the dead father's
hand the steel snapped, the living son forged it anew; now its
bright gleam flashes like laughter, its sharp edge cuts clean.
Nothung! Nothung! Young and renewed! I have brought you back to
life. You lay dead there, in fragments; now you flash lightning,
defiant and brave! Show caitiffs your gleam! Strike the traitor!
Fell the villain!" He waves over his head the finished sword: "Look,
Mime, you smith--thus cuts Siegfried's sword!" He brings it down
upon the anvil, which falls apart, cleft from top to bottom. Mime
tumbles over with amazement.

II

The next scene shows the woods before Fafner's cave. It is night.
Alberich is dimly distinguishable, lurking among the rocks, brooding
his dark thoughts, as he keeps covert watc