Mime: (pusillanimously to himself) How can I rid myself of this intruder? (#101
) My questions I must couch with care.
(#101
: He pulls himself together, as if determined to show strictness.)
Mime: (aloud: #21
) As pledge for my hearth, I accept your head: (#112
Fragment) Take care to redeem it with thoughtful reply! [[ #114
a ]] Three are the questions I freely ask.
Wanderer: (#96
?; #21
/#41
) Thrice I must hit the mark.”
[[#115
]] Former “Power of the Gods,” and future destruction of the Gods
(#115
’s motival links uncertain; Cooke describes #115
as a #21
variant based on its inversion, and transformation into a stepwise form; Millington considered it a relative of the Valhalla Motif #20
; however, it sounds very like #1
– could it be a #53
variant, with perhaps #20
harmony?)
[Having already asked Wotan rhetorical questions (because Mime already knew their answer) about his knowledge of the earth’s [i.e., Erda’s] Navel-nest [“Erde Nabelnest” – Umbilical Nest], i.e., of black-Alberich’s realm Nibelheim, and of the earth’s [i.e., Erda’s) broad-back, the realm of Giants, Mime now poses his last question to Wotan the Wanderer:]
“Mime: (#41
/#17
; #101
) … now tell me truly, which is the race that dwells on cloud-covered heights?
Wanderer: (#21
vari) On cloud-covered heights, there dwell the gods: (#20
a >>) Valhalla is their hall. Light-elves they are; Light-Alberich, Wotan, rules their host. (#2
/#53
) From the World-Ash’s holiest bough he made himself a shaft: (#21
) though the trunk may wither, [[ #115
]] the spear shall never fail; (#21
) with the point of that weapon [[ #115
]] Wotan governs the world. (#21
) [[ #116
]] Hallowed treaties’ binding runes (#26
a?) he whittled into its shaft: [[ #115
]] he who wields the spear (#21
) that Wotan’s fist still spans [[ #115
]]; #45
) holds within his hand control over all the world. (#5
?) Before him bowed (#17
) the Nibelung Host; (#45
) The brood of Giants was tamed by his counsel: [[ #115
]]; #112
) forever they all obey the mighty lord of the spear!
(#21
: In an apparently spontaneous gesture he strikes the ground with his spear; a distant role of thunder can be heard, causing Mime to jump violently.)
In T.P.A, a more Definitive version of #115
which heralds the fated burning up of the gods in their hall, Valhalla, is heard: