(#97 based on #32b “Godhead Lost”, with perhaps some influence of #33b. Cooke notes #97 also contains some #19 harmony.)
[Bruennhilde has begged Wotan not to let any unworthy man wake and win her, and has hinted that the Waelsung twins’ child Siegfried would the one hero worthy of her, but Wotan disavows any interest in her future, acknowledging only the need to carry out his sentence for her disobedience:]
“Wotan: (#87) Don’t strive, o maiden, to alter my mind! Await your fate, as the lot has been cast: I cannot choose it for you! (#87) But now I must leave you and fare far from here. Too long I’ve already delayed. From the turncoat I turn aside in turn; I may not know what she wants: the sentence alone I must see carried out.
Bruennhilde: What have you planned that I should suffer? (#87 plus drums)
Wotan: [[ #97 ]] I’ll seal you in soundest sleep. (#20c) He who wakes the defenseless woman shall take her, awakened, as wife.
Bruennhilde: [[ #97 ]] If fettering sleep is to bind me fast, as easy prey to the basest of cowards, [[ #98 ]] this one thing alone you must grant me that holy fear entreats of you. [[ #98 ]] Shield the sleeper with hideous terrors (resolutely: #92) that only a fearlessly free-born hero shall find me on the fell!
Wotan: [[ #98 ]] Too much you beg for – too great a boon!
Bruennhilde: This one thing you must allow me! Crush your child who clasps your knee, trample your favourite underfoot and dash the maid to pieces; (#5 Vari?) let your spear destroy all trace of her body: (#21) but, pitiless god, don’t give her up to the shamefullest of fates! (with wild inspiration: #77) At your behest (#35) let a fire flare up; let its flames encircle the fell; (#33b) its tongue shall lick, its tooth consume the coward who dares to draw near to the fearsome rock in his rashness. (#77 Vari)
Wotan: (Overcome and deeply stirred, turning impetuously towards Bruennhilde, raising her from her knees and gazing with emotion into her eyes: #77; [[ #98 ]] Fare well [“Leb wohl”] you valiant, glorious child! In my heart’s most hallowed price, fare well! Fare well! Fare well! (very passionately: #Independent aria based partly on #98) If I must shun you, if no loving greeting may evermore greet you, if you may nevermore ride beside me nor serve me at table; if I must lose you whom I loved, you laughing delight of my eye: (#97 plus #34) a bridal fire shall burn for you such as never blazed for a bride! (#35) Fiery flames shall encircle the fell; (#97) with withering fears let them fright the faint-hearted; (#77) the coward shall flee from Bruennhilde’s fell: - (#92) for one man alone shall woo the bride, one freer than I, the god!”
