(#109: He pours the red-hot contents of the crucible into a mould, which he holds aloft.)
Siegfried: soon I’ll wield you as my sword!
(He plunges the mould into a bucket of water: steam and loud hissing follow as it cools: #121 Chromatic Vari)
Siegfried: A river of fire flowed into the water: in furious anger it fiercely hissed. Searingly as it flowed, it flows no more in the water’s flood; [[ #122>> ]] rigid and stiff it’s become, lordly the tempered steel. (#57 or #109?) Soon it will flow with hot blood!
(#57 or #109?: He thrusts the blade into the forge fire and works the bellows vigorously; #120>>: Mime has leapt up gleefully; he fetches various containers and from them pours spices and herbs into a cooking-pot, which he tries to place on the hearth.)
Siegfried: (#120) Now sweat once again, so I can weld you, (#119; #103 Fragment) Nothung, you fearsome sword!
([[ #123 ]] While working, he observes Mime, who carefully places his pot over the flames at the other side of the hearth.)
Siegfried: (#122>[[ #123 ]] What’s that blockhead doing there with his pot? (#123) While I’m smelting steel, are you brewing slops?
Mime: (#123 End Fragment and Vari) A smith has been put to shame: a boy is teaching his teacher; the old man’s lost his art [“Kunst”], he serves the child as cook. While he smelts the iron to pulp, the old man cooks him broth from eggs. (He continues cooking)
Siegfried: (#121 Chromatic vari) Mime the artist [“der Kuenstler”] is learning to cook; (#41) he’s lost his taste for forging: (#103 Inverted Vari) I’ve shattered every one of his swords; what he’s cooking I’ll not savour.”
![[image]](images/online-ring-book-primary_1102/online-ring-book-primary_1102-1.jpg "online-ring-book-primary_1102-1.jpg")
[[#123]] Mime prepares his sleep-of-death potion for Siegfried, while Siegfried re-forges Nothung
A metaphor for Wotan’s egoistic aim, that Siegfried should martyr himself in order to redeem the gods (man’s metaphysical impulse) from Alberich’s curse on his Ring, the curse of consciousness
