Wanderer: Haggle with Mime, not with me: (lightly) your own brother’s bringing you danger; he’s leading a youngster here who’s meant to kill Fafner for him. Of me he knows nothing; the Nibelung is using him for his own ends. And so I say to you, comrade, act in whatever way suits you!
(#101 Fragment: Alberich’s gesture shows his violent curiosity)
Wanderer: (#114 vari) Mark me well and be on your guard: the boy doesn’t know of the Ring but Mime’s found out about it.
Alberich: (forcefully: #101 frag) And would you withhold your hand from the hoard?
Wotan: Him whom I love I leave to his own devices; [[ #127 ]] let him stand or fall, his own master is he: heroes alone can help me. (#47 or #82?)
Alberich: With Mime alone would I vie for the Ring?
Wotan: Save you alone, only he desires the gold.”
[There is a crucial recurrence of #127 near the end of this scene:]
Wotan: [to Alberich] This one thing – I advise you – heed it well: (approaching him confidingly: #2 >>) All things go their different ways [“Alles is nach seiner Art”]; you can alter nothing [“an ihr wirst du nichts aendern”]. I leave the field to you: stand firm! Try your luck with your brother, Mime; his kind you understand better. (Turning to go: #83’s segment based on #81?; [[ #127 Horns ]] as for the rest, learn that, too!”
![[image]](images/online-ring-book-primary_1106/online-ring-book-primary_1106-1.jpg "online-ring-book-primary_1106-1.jpg")
[[#128ab]] The First “Woodbirdsong” – music as man’s artificial bid to restore his lost innocence
(both #128 and #129 based on #4. #174abc, as a loose inversion of #4, is also related to #128 and #129. All of these pentatonic motifs are in the same family as #98.)
[I have reproduced the dramatic context for both #128 and #129 at greater length than normal below because these two motifs and the libretto text with which they are associated in S.2.2. and S.2.3 are of crucial importance in grasping the allegorical subject of the Ring:]
