Loge: In whatever you will: only strike me dumb with amazement!
Alberich: (#43?: Putting on the helmet) ‘Giant dragon, wind in coils!’ (He immediately disappears and in his place [[ #48 ]] an enormous giant serpent writhes on the ground; it rears up and snaps at Wotan and Loge.)
[Loge feigns fear of the Serpent and Wotan finds it all amusing]
(Alberich now reappears in his own shape)
Alberich: Hihi! You know-alls, do you believe me now?
Loge: (with a quavering voice) My trembling may prove it to you. You turned yourself swiftly into a giant serpent: since I saw it myself, (#20a?/#33b) I’m willing to believe the wonder. But, just as you grew, can you also make yourself tiny and small? That would seem the cleverest way of cunningly fleeing from danger … ! (…)
Alberich: How small shall I be? (#33b)
Loge: (#42) So small that the finest crack can hold you, in which a frightened toad might hide.
Alberich: (#42) Pah! Nothing simpler! Look over here! (He puts on the helmet.) (#43?) ‘Crooked-legged and grey, creep, you toad! (He disappears: [[ #49 ]] the gods become aware of a toad creeping towards them over the stones.)
Loge: There, the toad! Grab it quickly! (Wotan places his foot on the toad: Loge seizes it by the head and takes the Tarnhelm in his hand.)
Alberich: Oh! Curse it! I’m caught! (Alberich has suddenly become visible in his own form, writhing beneath Wotan’s foot.)
Loge: Hold him fast until I’ve bound him. ((#5) Loge binds his hands and feet with a length of rope.) Quickly up now! There he’ll be ours!”
(#@: B) “Arrogance of Power Motif”
Loge (the archetypal artist-hero) and Wotan mock Alberich’s claim to the Ring-power. This power really belongs to Alberich alone, since only he has the ‘ courage to pay the price for it, acknowledgment of the world’s lovelessness. Therefore the gods, who can only sustain their rule through self-deception, are hypocrites in co-opting Alberich’s Ring-power
((#@: B) “Arrogance of Power” is a compound motif comprised of #20b/#33b.)
