[Illustration: BRUNHILDE DISCOVERING SIEGMUND AND SIEGLINDE.]


THE WALKYRIE.


Wotan--made secretly uneasy by Erda's dark prediction that

'Nothing that is ends not;
A day of gloom
Dawns for the gods;--
Be ruled and waive from the ring'--

relinquishes the ring which he had wrested from Alberich, as
has been seen. His restlessness however daily increases, until
at last he penetrates in disguise into the dark underground
world and woos the fair earth goddess. So successfully does
he plead his cause, that she receives him as her spouse and
bears him eight lovely daughters. She also reveals to him the
secrets of the future, when Walhalla's strong walls shall fall,
and the gods shall perish, because they have resorted to fraud
and lent a willing ear to Loge, prince of evil.

Notwithstanding this fatal prediction Wotan remains
undismayed. Instead of yielding passively to whatever fate may
befall him, he resolves to prepare for a future conflict, and to
defend Walhalla against every foe. As the gods are few in number,
he soon decides to summon mortals to his abode, and in order
to have men trained to every hardship and accustomed to war,
he flings his spear over the world, and kindles unending strife