(#103 Fragments: Hagen appears on the cliff top, followed by Gunther.)
Hagen: (Catching sight of Siegfried: #103 Fragments [as heard during Siegfried’s re-forging of Nothung in S.1.3?]) At last we found where you fled?
Siegfried: Come below! It’s fresh and cool here!
(#103; #171; #103; #174a/#103; #103; #171?: The Vassals all arrive on cliff top and, together with Hagen and Gunther, descend into the valley.)
Hagen: (#40?; #67?) let’s rest here and prepare the meal. (The spoils of the hunt are placed in a pile.) Put down the bag (#176? [&/or an orchestral figure heard in R.4 when Loge was preparing to release, or releasing, Alberich from his bonds after he’d ransomed his life by giving Wotan his Hoard, Tarnhelm, and Ring?]) and hand round the wineskins!
(#103 >>: Wineskins and drinking horns are produced. All settle down. #126a Inversion [repeated and strongly emphasized!!!]; #176?)
Hagen: (#152 – [in a festive mood but perhaps with #19’s harmony?] He who scared away our game, you’ll now hear wondrous things of all that Siegfried hunted down.
Siegfried: (#152 Vari >>) I’m ill-provided for my meal: some of your spoils I must beg for myself.
Hagen: (#174a) You’re empty-handed?
Siegfried: (#103 Vari) I set out in search of Wood-game (#174a/#103 >>) but only waterfall showed itself: had I been better equipped, (#174b/#103 Fragment; #175 &/or #33b or #3?) I might have caught you three wild waterbirds, (#175; #174c) who sang to me there on the Rhine (#174a/#164) that I would be slain today.
(#164?: Gunther starts up and looks darkly at Hagen. Siegfried settles down between Gunther and Hagen.)
Hagen: (Giving instructions to one of the Vassals to fill a drinking-horn for Siegfried, which he then offers to the latter: (#170a; #152 Vari >>; #21 Voc?) It would be an ill-fated hunt if the luckless hunter himself were brought down by a lurking head of game!
Siegfried: (#154) I’m thirsty!
Hagen: [[ (#@: E or F?) Motif of Remembrance: #174c Inversion [or #139?, or something Siegfried sang to, or heard sung by, the Woodbird, in S.2.3?]] Siegfried, I’ve heard it said you can understand (#128b; #? [a hint of #104, #110, or#145, or referencing some music which accompanied, or was sung by, Mime when told Siegfried how his mother died giving him birth?]) the language of birdsong: can
