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TITLE: OPERA STORIES FROM WAGNER
AUTHOR: FLORENCE AKIN
EBOOK: E06849 (O'Briens Book Cellar)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

OPERA STORIES FROM WAGNER

BY

FLORENCE AKIN

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

1915

[Illustration: SIEGFRIED]

NOTE:  The verses printed in this book are quoted from Dr. Oliver
       Huckel's translations of _The Rhine-Gold_, _The Walkuere_,
       _Siegfried_, and _Goetterdaemmerung_, by the kind permission
       of the publishers, Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. An
       occasional sentence in several of the stories is borrowed
       from the same source.

CONTENTS

THE RHINE-GOLD
  THE HAPPY RHINE-DAUGHTERS
  ALBERICH
  THE CARELESS RHINE-DAUGHTERS
  THE THEFT
  THE SAD RHINE-DAUGHTERS
  A CASTLE ON THE RHINE
  THE MORNING
  THE PAYMENT
  LOKI
  YOUTH OR AGE?
  NIBELHEIM
  THE BEST SMITH IN NIBELHEIM
  THE MASTER
  THE BOASTER
  THE WISHING-CAP
  THE TRICK
  THE CURSE
  THE GREEDY FAFNER
  A SLAVE TO GOLD
  THE BEAUTIFUL VALHALLA

THE WALKUERE
  A MATCHLESS SWORD
  THE VALIANT SIEGMUND
  HUNDING'S WIFE
  HUNDING
  THE WAR-MAIDENS
  WOTAN'S WIFE
  WOTAN AND BRUNHILDE
  OFF TO THE BATTLEFIELD
  THE FLIGHT
  THE PUNISHMENT
  THE SLEEP
  THE MAGIC FIRE

SIEGFRIED
  THE MISSING MIMI
  THE DRAGON
  A BABY IN THE FOREST
  MIMI AND THE BABY
  SIEGFRIED AND HIS FRIENDS
  THE BROKEN SWORD
  A BIG BROWN BEAR
  SIEGFRIED AND MIMI
  SIEGFRIED MENDS HIS FATHER'S SWORD
  SIEGFRIED GOES TO FIGHT THE DRAGON
  A WOOD-BIRD'S SONG
  SIEGFRIED AND THE DRAGON
  A CHANGE COMES OVER SIEGFRIED
  MIMI HAS A SURPRISE
  MIMI AND ALBERICH STOP TO QUARREL TOO LONG
  SIEGFRIED REACHES THE MOUNTAIN
  SIEGFRIED LEARNS WHAT FEAR IS
  THE AWAKENING

GOETTERDAEMMERUNG
  A SONG OF THE PAST
  A SONG OF THE PRESENT
  A SONG OF THE FUTURE
  A PLEDGE OF LOVE
  THE DOOM OF VALHALLA
  LOVE

MORE ABOUT THE STORIES

ILLUSTRATIONS

SIEGFRIED
THE RHINE-MAIDENS AND ALBERICH
WOTAN
HE TUGGED IN VAIN
WALKUERE CARRYING HEROES TO VALHALLA
"EAT HIM, BRUIN," LAUGHED SIEGFRIED
"I AM GOING TO EAT YOU," HISSED THE DRAGON
THREE NORNS CAME TO THE MOUNTAIN CREST TO SPIN

_From drawings by E. Pollak-Ottendorff_

TO THE GIRLS AND BOYS

In these stories you will find some wonderful giants.

You will find beautiful maidens who lived in a river.

You will find a large family of little black dwarfs who lived under the
river, and you will find a splendid hero.

The little children of Germany used to curl up in their mothers' arms,
when bedtime came, and listen to the stories of these strange people.

When these little children grew up, they told the same stories to their
children.

So it went for many, many years.

The stories have been put together by a man named Richard Wagner. He put
them together in such a way that they make one long and wonderful story.

After he had told these stories in words, he told them again in a more
beautiful way. He told them in music.

Sometime you will hear this music, and you will think of beautiful
water-maidens, singing and dancing in the sunshine.

You will think of great giants walking over mountains.

You will think of the little black dwarfs under the river, and you will
hear them hammering, hammering upon their anvils.

OPERA STORIES FROM WAGNER

THE RHINE-GOLD

THE HAPPY RHINE-DAUGHTERS

In the Rhine River there lived three beautiful maidens. They were called
the Rhine-daughters.

They had long, golden hair, which floated upon the waves as they swam
from rock to rock.

When their father went away, he left in their care a great lump of pure
gold.

This gold was on the very top of the highest rock in the river.

Every morning the beautiful Rhine-daughters would dance and sing about
their gold.

They sang a happy song:--

  "Heigh-ho! hither, ye waters!
  Waver and waft me to sleep on your breast!
  Heigh-ho! hither, ye waters!
  Weave me sweet dreams on your billowy crest!"

ALBERICH

One morning, when the sun was shining very brightly, the Rhine-daughters
were startled by a strange sound in the depths of the water.

"Look!" whispered one. "What is that scowling at us from the rocks
below?"

There, stealing along the river-bed, they saw a hideous little black
dwarf.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" asked the Rhine-daughters.

"I am Alberich," answered the dwarf as he tried to climb up on the
slippery rocks. "I came from the kingdom of the Nibelungs, down under
the earth."

"What!" said the Rhine-daughters. "Surely you do not live down in the
dark earth where there is no sunshine?"

"Yes," answered Alberich. "But I have come up to frolic in the sunshine
with you"; and he held out his ugly, misshapen little hands to take the
hands of the Rhine-daughters.

They only laughed at him and darted away to a higher rock.

Alberich hurried after them.

He blinked and scowled in the sunshine, because his eyes were not used
to the light.

The maidens laughed and shouted in their play.

They called to Alberich and teased him.

They went very close to him, pretending that they would take his hand,
that he, too, might play in the sunshine. Then they would quickly dart
away, mocking him, and laughing at him more loudly than ever.

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