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Loge's reply to Alberich's, "I know you well enough, you and your kind!" is perhaps, with its cheerful dancing flicker, his prettiest bit of self-description. "You know me, childish elf? Then, say, who am I, that you should be surly? In the cold hollow where you lay shivering, how would you have had light and cheering warmth, if Loge had never laughed for you?..."

The greatest prize of all was a wishing-rod of gold. He who knew its nature, might well be master over any man in all the world. Many of Alberich's kinsmen journeyed with Gernot hence. When they stored away the hoard in Gunther's land and the queen took charge of everything, chambers and towers were filled therewith. Never did men hear tales told of such wondrous store of goods.

As Mime reaches him the treacherous drink, Siegfried, moved by an impulse of overpowering disgust, with a sudden swift blow of Nothung strikes him down. Alberich's laugh of glee and derision rings out from his hiding-place.

In an instant he was gone, and there was only a cloud of smoke where he had stood. "Now, Mimi!" he called, "look sharp! Can you see me?" "No," gasped Mimi. "I cannot see you at all." The cloud of smoke moved down the gloomy cave and Alberich's cruel voice laughed: "Ha! ha! Now I shall make you black slaves work! Now you dare not be idle, for when you do not see me I shall be watching you!"

Alberich's nominal reason for indulging his present passion for hurting he is haling Mime by the ear is that the latter is overslow with certain piece of work which, with minute instructions, he has been ordered to do. Mime, under pressure, produces the article, which he had in truth been trying to keep for his own, suspecting in it some mysterious value.

As the second Norn took the thread in her worn hands, she crooned a sorrowful song about the present. She sang of Alberich and the stolen gold. Of the love that he had given up in order to make the ring. She sang of Wotan and how he grasped the ring and carried it into the world, bringing with it Alberich's curse. Then she told of Fafner. Mournfully she sang:

Practising on Alberich's not completely outlived simplicity, he by the ruse of feigning himself very stupid and greatly impressed by his cleverness, now induces him to show off for their greater amazement the power of the Tarnhelm, which it appears has not only the trick of making the wearer at will invisible, but of lending him whatever shape he may choose.

Then, by Alberich's orders, the elves carried the Hoard back into the cavern, and there kept faithful watch and ward over it. And they buried the starved bodies of the two princes on the top of the mist-veiled mountain; and heralds were sent to all the strongholds in Nibelungen Land, proclaiming that Siegfried, through his wisdom and might, had become the true lord and king of the land.

She knows nothing of the future, and Wotan professes himself resigned to hand over his sovereignty to the youthful Siegfried, who shall deliver the world from Alberich's curse. Erda sinks once more into her cavern, and Siegfried appears, led by the faithful bird. Gaily singing, he passes up through the fire, and finds Brünnhilde asleep upon her rock.

Loki, called upon to provide a substitute, tells of Alberich's magic ring and other treasure. Wotan goes with Loki, and they steal the ring and the golden hoard from Alberich, who curses the ring and lays the curse on all who shall henceforth possess it. The gods give the ring and the treasure to the giants as a substitute for Freya. The curse at once begins.