curse’s punishment on those who have co-opted its power. Religious faith’s stranglehold on freedom of inquiry has kept man’s potential for attaining Alberich’s objective, scientific, nature- oriented consciousness at bay for thousands of years.
[S.2.1: B]
As Wotan, still disguised as the Wanderer, arrives on horseback, Alberich is startled by the stormwind and strange bluish light Wotan’s dramatic entrance produces. Alberich first confuses this newcomer with the dragon-killer, by whom he means Siegfried:
Alberich: (#19 vari?:) Dreaded day, are you fitfully dawning already? Are you breaking through the darkness there (:#19 vari?)?
(A stormwind blows up in the wood on the left; a bluish light also begins to glow there. #91/#83 vari >>:)
Alberich: What gleam is glittering yonder? A shining light comes shimmering closer; racing along like a luminous steed, it breaks through the wood with a roar. (:#91/#83 vari) (#?: [possibly a hint of music, #15 vari &/or #150 &/or #141 vari &/or #143, associated with Bruennhilde’s telling Hagen and Gunther, in T.2.5, that she protects only Siegfried’s front, not his back, with magic, of which he remains unconscious]) Is the dragon killer already coming? Is it he who’ll lay Fafner low (:#?)?
(The stormwind dies down again. The light goes out. #51)
Alberich: The light dies out – (#48 or #101 vari?; #126) the glow’s disappeared from sight: it’s night once again. –
(The Wanderer emerges from the woods and stops opposite Alberich. #51)
Alberich: (#50:) Who’s coming closer, shimmering in the shadows (:#50)?
Wotan: (#99 frag: [this music seems to foreshadow the atmosphere of Twilight of the Gods]) to
