the ring and so be master of the hoard (:#48 orch; :#voc? [music associated with, or related to, #89 or #90?). Which is the sword that Siegfried must wield if Fafner’s death is to follow?
Mime: (increasingly forgetful of his present situation and rubbing his hands with pleasure: #41?:; #117>>:) Nothung’s the name of a fearsome sword (#57); (#?: [music heard elsewhere?]) Wotan drove it into an ash-tree’s trunk (:#? [music heard elsewhere?]): (#?: [music reminiscent of Sieglinde’s describing to Siegmund how the stranger thrust the sword into Hunding’s house-ash in V.1.3?]) it was meant for the man who could draw it forth from the trunk (:#?). (#41?) (#117:) Of the strongest heroes none succeeded: Siegmund the valiant (#57) alone could do so; (#21?:) fighting, he bore it in battle (:#21?) until it was splintered by Wotan’s spear. (#41>>:) A wily dwarf now keeps the fragments; (#57?) he knows that only with Wotan’s sword (#92/#117:) can that foolish and foolhardy child, Siegfried, harm the dragon (:#92/#117). (#57/#117: well pleased with himself) [Wotan laughs as we hear #117.] (#117:) Do I, the dwarf, keep my head a second time, too (:#117)?
Wanderer: (laughing: in the rhythm of #41?) (#117:) You’re the wittiest of the wise: who could match you in cunning? (#117:) But if you’re so sly as to use the childish hero (#41?) to further your dwarfish ends (:#117), I threaten you now with the third of my questions! – (#41>>:) Tell my, you wily weapon-smith, (#41) who do you think will forge (#92) Nothung, the sword, out of these mighty fragments?
(Mime starts up in utter terror.)
Mime: (in a screeching tone of voice: #104>>>>:) The fragments! The sword! Alas! My head’s swimming! – Whatever have I started! Whatever am I thinking of? (#103 vari or frag?: [possibly heard in S.1.3 before Siegfried begins his “forging song”?]) Accursed steel, alas that I ever stole you! (#5/#104>>:) It has trapped me in torment and need [“Noth”]; it remains unyielding, I cannot hammer it: rivets and solder fail me completely (:#103 vari?)! (Like a man no longer in possession of his wits, he throws his tools around and breaks out in sheer despair: #41 duple vari:) The wisest of smiths is now at a loss: (#102 vari:) who’ll forge the sword if I cannot do so? How should I know of this wonder (:#102 vari)? (#112)
