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They give Siegfried a draught which takes away his memory; he falls in love with Gutruna, and when they propose that he should take Gunther's shape and win Brunnhilda for him, he agrees at once. In the meantime, Waltraute, a Valkyrie, knowing Wotan's need of the ring, has come and tried in vain to get it; Brunnhilda refuses to part with it.

Hagen offers him drink which contains a powder which destroys his memory; he forgets all about Brünnhilda, but not, apparently, about the magic cap; he gazes in rapture at Gutruna, and in a few minutes the pact is made Siegfried shall take Günther's form and win Brünnhilda for him; in return he will have Gutruna, who is more than willing.

She is sending him to do heroic deeds, quite in the spirit of medieval chivalry; he presents her with the ring and goes, wearing her armour and taking her horse. He arrives at the hall of Gibichungs, where he finds Gunther, his sister Gutruna and Hagen, a son of Alberich.

If it symbolizes, as has been suggested, a sudden passion for Gutruna, then Siegfried is an out-and-out blackguard, and not the hero Wagner intended. Besides, if the loss of his memory leads to the sacrifice of Brunnhilda, afterwards its sudden return, due to another potion, leads immediately to his own death. We must accept these potions as part of the machinery.

She bids him go, and he goes; the flames immediately spring up again round her dwelling for what reason Wagner does not explain. Neither does he explain why Brünnhilda does not travel with her husband the explanation is made only too obvious afterwards. He travels to the Rhine, and there meets Hagen, Günther and Günther's sister Gutruna.

Gunther has pangs of remorse, but Hagen, only half-human, has none; the pair fall out, and Gunther is killed. Gutruna wails, as a woman will when she loses her husband and brother within a quarter of an hour; Hagen goes to take the ring from Siegfried's finger, but the corpse raises its hand menacingly and all draw back aghast.

Brunnhilda enters; all now has become clear to her, and she resolves that she, like Wotan, will renounce a loveless life a life based on fraud and tyranny. She tells Gutruna that Siegfried has never belonged to her is hers, Brunnhilda's; and on receiving this crushing blow, Gutruna creeps to her brother's side and lies there, miserable and hopeless.

He knows of Siegfried's "deed," and knows that Siegfried is coming that way; but he keeps the story to himself, and tells Günther and Gutruna of the fearless hero and of Brünnhilda sleeping on the mountain-top encircled by fire. Günther desires the woman, Gutruna the man. But only Siegfried can pass through the fire. Pat to the moment he arrives, and enters leading Grani.