own father Wälse?" and she answers, "The Volsung shall find his father
there." With passionate earnestness he asks, "Shall Siegmund there
embrace Sieglinde?" The Valkyre replies, "The air of earth she still
must breathe. Sieglinde shall not see Siegmund there." Then furiously
answers Siegmund, "Then farewell to Walhalla! Where Sieglinde lives,
in bliss or blight, there Siegmund will also tarry," and he raises his
sword over his unconscious sister. Moved by his great love and sorrow,
Brünnhilde for the first time is swayed by human emotions, and
exultantly declares, "I will protect thee." Hunding's horn sounds in
the distance, and soon is heard his defiant challenge to battle.
Siegmund rushes to the top of one of the cloudy summits, and the clash
of their arms resounds in the mists. A sudden gleam of light shows
Brünnhilde hovering over Siegmund, and protecting him with her shield.
As he prepares himself to deal a deadly thrust at Hunding, the angry
Wotan appears in a storm-cloud and interposes his spear. Siegmund's
sword is shivered to pieces. Hunding pierces his disarmed enemy, and
he falls mortally wounded. Brünnhilde lifts the insensible Sieglinde
upon her steed and rides away with her. Wotan, leaning upon his spear,
gazes sorrowfully at the dying Volsung, and then turning to Hunding,
so overcomes him with his contemptuous glance that he falls dead at
his feet. "But Brünnhilde, woe to the traitor. Punishment dire is due
to her treason. To horse, then. Let vengeance speed swiftly." And
mounting his steed he disappears amid thunder and lightning.

The last act opens in a rocky glen filled with the Valkyres calling to
each other from summit to summit with wild cries as they come riding
through the clouds after the combat, bearing the dead bodies of the
warriors on their saddles. The scene is preluded with an orchestral
number, well known in the concert-room as the "Ride of the Valkyres,"
which is based upon two motives, the Valkyre's call and the Valkyre