Siegfried: Act Two, Scene Two - Outside Fafner's lair: Mime, Siegfried, the Woodbird, and Fafner (transformed into a serpent)
[S.2.2: A]
As the dawn is coming up Mime arrives with Siegfried outside Fafner’s lair, Envy-Cave (“Neidhoehle”). As Siegfried expresses his doubt that he’ll actually learn fear there, we again hear motifs such as #98 and #34 in association with Mime’s assertion that Siegfried can learn fear from Fafner, reminding us that Loge’s ring of fire protects the sleeping Bruennhilde from all men except the fearless hero Siegfried, who will not learn the meaning of fear from Fafner, but instead, while preparing to wake Bruennhilde, will learn the meaning of fear from her:
(Prelude: #48 vari; #120; #104; #120/#41 frag; #98; #120?: As day breaks, Siegfried and Mime enter. Siegfried is wearing the sword in a belt made of rope. Mime reconnoitres the place; finally he investigates the backstage area, which remains in deep shadow while the knoll in the middle foreground is later lit by the sun with increasing brightness; he then beckons to Siegfried.)
Mime: We’ve reached the place: wait here! (#98)
Siegfried: sitting down beneath the lime-tree and looking round) So this is where I’ll learn what fear is? – (#98; #98 vari) Far indeed have you led me; a whole night in the forest the two of us have wandered: now, Mime, you must leave me! If I don’t learn here what I’m meant to learn, I’ll go on my way alone (#92c or 71 vari “Hero” or #57 vari?:) and be rid of you then at last (:#92c or #71 vari “Hero,” or #57 vari?)!
Mime: (#34) Believe you me, dear boy, if you don’t learn the meaning of fear here today, you’re unlikely to find out what it is at any other place and any other time. – (#34?) Do you see over there the mouth of that gloomy cave? Within it dwells a fearsomely savage dragon: (#126) grim beyond compare he is, and huge; awesome jaws gape open; (#126 tympani) hide and hair, at a single gulp, the brute may bolt you down.
Siegfried: (still sitting beneath the lime-tree) A good thing, then, to stop up his gullet, and so I’ll avoid his teeth.
