(#88) Is the maiden to fade and grow wan with a man (:#95?)? Hear our entreaty! You terrible god, avert (#5?) this flagrant disgrace: such shame we should surely share with our sister! (#83?)
Wotan: [[ #144 embryo: ]] Did you not hear what I decreed (:#144 embryo)? (#21) From your host shall your faithless sister be sundered; (#21) with you she shall nevermore fly through the air on her steed; (#21) (#87 drum rhythm – “crisis”; #96a embryo voc with #94’s harmony:) the maid’s maidenly flower will fade; a husband will win her woman’s favours (:#87 drum rhythm; :#96a embryo voc with #94’s harmony); (#47 or #82 free vari on cellos; #5:) henceforth she’ll obey the high-handed man (:#47 or #82 free vari on cellos); (#21) she’ll sit by the hearth and spin (#21), (#21 vari in minor:) the butt and plaything of all who despise her (:#21 vari in minor).
(Bruennhilde sinks to the ground with a cry: #77; #81. Appalled, the Valkyries shrink from her side with a violent clatter of arms: #87)
Wotan: Does her fate affright you? Then flee your lost sister! Be gone from her side and keep well away! (#81:; #87:) If anyone dares to tarry here with her, if any defies me and helps the sad child – that fool shall surely share her fate … (:#81 & #87)! (#81) Now get you all gone! Keep clear of the crag! Swiftly speed on your way, else sorrow await you here!
The eight Valkyries: (#5?:) Alas! Alas! (:#5?)!
[The Valkyries scatter on horseback in storm and lightning accompanied by #77.]
(The tempest soon abates; the stormclouds gradually disperse. During the following scene, once the weather is calm, twilight descends and finally night.)
The Valkyries, as angels of death and muses who inspire Wotan’s chosen heroes to attain martyrdom, so they, resurrected from the dead, can serve him in Valhalla to forestall the twilight of the gods which Erda foretold Alberich’s son (Hagen) will bring about, pride themselves on their chastity. Though they are the heroes’ muses they presumably only inspire the heroes through action at a distance, like divine inspiration, because it is clear the Valkyries do not become the heroes’ lovers. Otherwise, neither they nor Bruennhilde would be so horrified by her fate. But Wotan’s punishment of Bruennhilde, compelling her to offer herself in marriage to the first hero who wakes
