1.
Arthur Rackham
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Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator. Rackham was born in Lewisham, then part of Kent as one of 12 children. In 1884, at the age of 17, he was sent on a voyage to Australia to improve his fragile health. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office, in 1892, he left his job and started working for the Westminster Budget as a reporter and illustrator. Book illustrating then became Rackhams career for the rest of his life and this was developed further through the austere years of the Boer War with regular contributions to childrens periodicals such as Little Folks and Cassells Magazine. In 1901 he moved to Wychcombe Studios near Haverstock Hill, edith suffered a miscarriage in 1904, but the couple had one daughter, Barbara, in 1908. M. Barries Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, published by Hodder & Stoughton. Income from the books was greatly augmented by annual exhibitions of the artwork at the Leicester Galleries, Rackham won a gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition in 1906 and another one at the Barcelona International Exposition in 1912. His works were included in exhibitions, including one at the Louvre in Paris in 1914. From 1906 the family lived in Chalcot Gardens, near Haverstock Hill, until moving from London to Houghton, in 1929 the family settled into a newly built property in Limpsfield, Surrey. Arthur Rackham died in 1939 of cancer at his home, during that period, there was a strong market for high quality illustrated books which typically were given as Christmas gifts. Many of Rackhams books were produced in a de luxe limited edition, often vellum bound and sometimes signed, as well as a larger and this was often followed by a more modestly presented octavo edition in subsequent years for particularly popular books. The onset of the war in 1914 curtailed the market for such quality books, arthur Rackhams works have become very popular since his death, both in North America and Britain. His images have been used by the greeting card industry. His original drawings and paintings are keenly sought at the international art auction houses. Rackhams illustrations were based on robust pen and India ink drawings. He would first lightly block in shapes and details of the drawing with a soft pencil, over this he would then carefully work in lines of pen and India ink, removing the pencil traces after the drawing had begun to take form. For colour pictures, he would begin painting by building up multiple thin washes of watercolour creating translucent tints. He would also go on to expand the use of cuts in illustration work, particularly in the period after the First World War, as exemplified by his Sleeping Beauty
2.
Dwarf (mythology)
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In Germanic mythology, a dwarf is a being that dwells in mountains and in the earth, and is variously associated with wisdom, smithing, mining, and crafting. Dwarfs are often described as short and ugly, although some scholars have questioned whether this is a later development stemming from comical portrayals of the beings. The concept of the dwarf has had influence in popular culture. The modern English noun dwarf descends from the Old English dweorg and it has a variety of cognates in other Germanic languages, including Old Norse dvergr and Old High German twerg. According to Vladimir Orel, the English noun and its cognates ultimately descend from Proto-Germanic *đwerȝaz, beyond the Proto-Germanic reconstruction, the etymology of the word dwarf is highly contested. Competing etymologies include a basis in the Indo-European root *dheur-, the Indo-European root *dhreugh, modern English has two plurals for the word dwarf, dwarfs and dwarves. Dwarfs remains the most commonly employed plural, regarding the plural, Tolkien wrote in 1937, I am afraid it is just a piece of private bad grammar, rather shocking in a philologist, but I shall have to go with it. Norse mythology provides different mythical origins for the beings, as recorded in the Poetic Edda, the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá details that the dwarfs were the product of the primordial blood of the being Brimir and the bones of Bláinn. The Prose Edda, however, describes dwarfs as beings similar to maggots that festered in the flesh of Ymir before being gifted with reason by the gods. The Poetic Edda and Prose Edda contain over 100 dwarf names, while the Prose Edda gives the four dwarfs Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri a cosmological role, they hold up the sky. In addition, scholars have noted that the Svartálfar appear to be the same beings as dwarfs, one dwarf named Alvíss claimed the hand of Thors daughter Þrúðr in marriage, but he was kept talking until daybreak and turned to stone, much like some accounts of trolls. After the Christianization of the Germanic peoples, tales of dwarfs continued to be told in the folklore of areas of Europe where Germanic languages were spoken, in the late legendary sagas, dwarfs demonstrate skill in healing as well as in smithing. In the early Norse sources, there is no mention of their short, in the legendary sagas, however, they are small. Anatoly Liberman suggests that dwarfs may have originally been thought of as supernatural beings. Old Norse dwarf names include Fullangr and Hár, whereas Anglo-Saxon glosses use dweorg to render Latin terms such as nanus and pygmaeus, dwarfs in folklore are usually described as old men with long beards. Female dwarfs are hardly ever mentioned, however, in the Swedish ballad Herr Peder och Dvärgens Dotter, the role of supernatural temptress is played by a dwarfs daughter. The Anglo-Saxon charm Wið Dweorh appears to relate to sleep disturbances, in the Old English Herbal, it translates Latin verrucas, warts. Lotte Motz theorized that the Germanic dwarfs, particularly as smiths and gatekeepers, there were seven dwarfs in the Brothers Grimms fairy tale Snow White
3.
Nibelungenlied
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The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, the Nibelungenlied is based on pre-Christian Germanic heroic motifs, which include oral traditions and reports based on historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries. Old Norse parallels of the legend survive in the Völsunga saga, the Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda, the Legend of Norna-Gest, in 2009, the three main manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied were inscribed in UNESCOs Memory of the World Register in recognition of their historical significance. The poem in its various forms was lost by the end of the 16th century. There are thirty-five known manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied and its variant versions, eleven of these manuscripts are essentially complete. The oldest version seems to be the one preserved in manuscript B, twenty-four manuscripts are in various fragmentary states of completion, including one version in Dutch. The text contains approximately 2,400 stanzas in 39 Aventiuren, the title under which the poem has been known since its discovery is derived from the final line of one of the three main versions, hie hât daz mære ein ende, daz ist der Nibelunge liet. Liet here means lay, tale or epic rather than simply song, the manuscripts sources deviate considerably from one another. This categorization derives from the signatures on the *A, *B, the Nibelungs lament, a sort of appendix to the poem proper, mentions a Meister Konrad who was charged by a bishop Pilgrim of Passau with the copying of the text. This is taken as a reference to Saint Pilgrim, bishop of Passau from 971–991, the search for the author of the Nibelungenlied in German studies has a long and intense history. Among the names suggested were Konrad von Fußesbrunnen, Bligger von Steinach, none of these hypotheses has wide acceptance, and mainstream scholarship today accepts that the authors name cannot be established. The original version began with the introduction of Kriemhild, the protagonist of the work. The second part deals with Kriemhilds marriage to Etzel, her plans for revenge, the journey of the Burgundians to the court of Etzel, the first chapter introduces the court of Burgundy. Kriemhild has a dream of a falcon that is killed by two eagles and her mother interprets this to mean that Kriemhilds future husband will die a violent death, and Kriemhild consequently resolves to remain unmarried. The second chapter tells of the background of Siegfried, crown prince of Xanten and his youth is narrated with little room for the adventures later attributed to him. In the third chapter, Siegfried arrives in Worms with the hopes of wooing Kriemhild, Siegfried leaves his treasure in the charge of a dwarf named Alberich. After killing the dragon, Siegfried then bathed in its blood, in spite of Hagens threatening stories about his youth, the Burgundians welcome him, but do not allow him to meet the princess. Disappointed, he remains in Worms and helps Gunther defeat the invading Saxons
4.
Ortnit
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Ortnit, or Otnit, a Nordic and German hero of romance, was originally Hertnit or Hartnit, the elder of two brothers known as the Hartungs, who correspond in Germanic mythology to the Dioscuri. Ortnits seat was at Holmgard, according to the Thidrekssaga, later on his city of Holmgard became Garda, and in ordinary German legend he ruled in Lombardy. Hartnit won his bride, a Valkyrie, by fighting against the giant Isungs. His younger brother, Hardheri, avenged Ortnit by killing the dragon, Ortnits wooing was corrupted by the popular interest in the Crusades to an Oriental Brautfahrtsaga, bearing a very close resemblance to the French romance of Huon of Bordeaux. Both heroes receive similar assistance from Alberich, who supplanted the Russian Ilya as Ortnits epic father in Middle High German romance, haddingjar This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Ortnit. Endnotes, Heldenbuch Lindhausen, J. L. Edlen von, Ortnit and Wolfdietrich, Tübingen Müllenhoff, Karl, articles in, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum xii. pp. 344–354,1865, xiii. pp. 185–192
5.
Old Norse
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Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during about the 9th to 13th centuries. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century, Old Norse was divided into three dialects, Old West Norse, Old East Norse and Old Gutnish. Old West and East Norse formed a continuum, with no clear geographical boundary between them. For example, Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway, although Old Norwegian is classified as Old West Norse, most speakers spoke Old East Norse in what is present day Denmark and Sweden. Old Gutnish, the more obscure dialectal branch, is included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations. It developed its own features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes spoke the same language, another term used, used especially commonly with reference to West Norse, was norrœnt mál. In some instances the term Old Norse refers specifically to Old West Norse, the Old East Norse dialect was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, settlements in Kievan Rus, eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language, in Kievan Rus, it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod, probably lasting into the 13th century there. Norwegian is descended from Old West Norse, but over the centuries it has heavily influenced by East Norse. Old Norse also had an influence on English dialects and Lowland Scots and it also influenced the development of the Norman language, and through it and to a smaller extent, that of modern French. Various other languages, which are not closely related, have heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman dialects, Scottish Gaelic. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi, of the modern languages, Icelandic is the closest to Old Norse. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system, contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the phonemes, has changed at least as much as in the other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, although Swedish, Danish and the Norwegian languages have diverged the most, they still retain asymmetric mutual intelligibility. Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, the languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders
6.
Old French
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Old French was the Gallo-Romance dialect continuum spoken from the 9th century to the 14th century. In the 14th century, these came to be collectively known as the langues doïl. The mid-14th century is taken as the period to Middle French. The areal of Old French in contemporary terms corresponded to the parts of the Kingdom of France, Upper Burgundy. As part of the emerging Gallo-Romance dialect continuum, the langues doïl were contrasted with the langue doc, in these examples, we notice a clear consequence of bilingualism, that sometimes even changed the first syllable of the Latin words. Pope estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources, at the third Council of Tours in 813, priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language, since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin. The second-oldest document in Old French is the Eulalia sequence, which is important for reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling. The Capetians langue doïl, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France, however, until after the French Revolution. In the Late Middle Ages, the Old French dialects diverged into a number of distinct langues doïl, during the Early Modern period, French now becomes established as the official language of the Kingdom of France throughout the realm, also including the langue doc-speaking territories in the south. Old French gives way to Middle French in the mid-14th century, the earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, but very few texts before the 11th century have survived. The first literary works written in Old French were saints lives, the Canticle of Saint Eulalie, written in the second half of the 9th century, is generally accepted as the first such text. The first of these is the area of the chansons de geste. More than one hundred chansons de geste have survived in three hundred manuscripts. The oldest and most celebrated of the chansons de geste is The Song of Roland, a fourth grouping, not listed by Bertrand, is the Crusade cycle, dealing with the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath. Jean Bodels other two categories—the Matter of Rome and the Matter of Britain—concern the French romance or roman, around a hundred verse romances survive from the period 1150–1220. From around 1200 on, the tendency was increasingly to write the romances in prose, the most important romance of the 13th century is the Romance of the Rose which breaks considerably from the conventions of the chivalric adventure story. The Occitan or Provençal poets were called troubadours, from the word trobar to find, lyric poets in Old French are called trouvères. By the late 13th century, the tradition in France had begun to develop in ways that differed significantly from the troubadour poets
7.
Oberon
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Oberon is a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream, in which he is Consort to Titania, Oberons status as king of the fairies comes from the character of Alberich, a sorcerer in the legendary history of the Merovingian dynasty. In the legend, he is the brother of Merowech, whose name is the eponym of the Merovingians. Alberich wins for his eldest son, Walbert, the hand of a princess of Constantinople, in the Nibelungenlied, a Burgundian poem written around the turn of the 13th century, Alberich guards the treasure of the Nibelungen, but is overcome by Siegfried. Huon, son of Seguin count of Bordeaux, passed through the forest inhabited by Oberon and he was warned by a hermit not to speak to Oberon, but his courtesy had him answer Oberons greetings, and so gain his aid in his quest. Huon had killed Charlot, the Emperors son, in self-defense and he succeeds only with Oberons aid. This elf is dwarfish in height, though very handsome and he explains that, at his christening, an offended fairy cursed him to dwarfish height, but relented and gave him great beauty as compensation. Alberich features as a dwarf in the Nibelungen, the height was thus explained. The real Seguin was Count of Bordeaux under Louis the Pious in 839, Charles lEnfant, a son of Charles the Bald, died in 866 of wounds inflicted by a certain Aubouin in the circumstances of an ambush similar to the Charlot of the story. Thus, Oberon appears in a 13th-century French courtly fantasy that is based on a shred of 9th century fact and he is given some Celtic trappings, such as a magical cup that is ever full for the virtuous. The magic cup supplied their evening meal, for such was its virtue that it afforded not only wine, in this story, he is said to be the child of Morgan le Fay and Julius Caesar. Shakespeare saw or heard of the French heroic song through the c. 1540 translation of John Bourchier, Lord Berners, in Philip Henslowes diary, there is a note of a performance of a play Hewen of Burdocize on December 28,1593. Oberon is the king of all of the fairies in William Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream who is feuding with his wife Titania and they are fighting over a changeling child whom Oberon wants to raise as his henchman. Titania wants to keep the child because he is the child of Titanias mortal follower who died, because Oberon and Titania are powerful fairies, their arguments affect the weather. Titania describes what happens to nature when Oberon tricks Titania into loving Bottom, the flower was accidentally struck by Cupids arrow when he attempted to shoot a young maiden in a field, instead infusing the flower with love. Oberon sends his servant, Puck, to fetch the flower, furious that Titania will not give him the child, he puts juice from a magical flower into her eyes while she is asleep. The effect of the juice will cause Titania to fall in love with the first live thing she sees. Titania awakens and finds herself madly in love with Bottom, an actor in the Mechanicals whos head was just transformed into that of a donkeys, thanks to a curse from Puck
8.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
9.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
10.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
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Der Ring des Nibelungen, WWV86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas, the composer termed the cycle a Bühnenfestspiel, structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend. It is often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagners Ring, Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The first performance as an opened the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, beginning with Das Rheingold on 13 August. Wagners title is most literally rendered in English as The Ring of the Nibelung, the Nibelung of the title is the dwarf Alberich, and the ring in question is the one he fashions from the Rhine Gold. The title therefore denotes Alberichs Ring, Nibelungen is occasionally mistaken as a plural, but the Ring of the Nibelungs is incorrect. The cycle is a work of extraordinary scale, the first and shortest work, Das Rheingold, typically lasts two and a half hours, while the final and longest, Götterdämmerung, takes up to five hours, excluding intervals. The cycle is modelled after ancient Greek dramas that were presented as three tragedies and one satyr play, the Ring proper begins with Die Walküre and ends with Götterdämmerung, with Rheingold as a prelude. Wagner called Das Rheingold a Vorabend or Preliminary Evening, and Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung were subtitled First Day, Second Day and Third Day, respectively, the scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods, heroes, and several mythical creatures over the magic ring that grants domination over the entire world. The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung, the music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba, bass trumpet and contrabass trombone. Remarkably, he uses a chorus only relatively briefly, in acts 2 and 3 of Götterdämmerung and he eventually had a purpose-built theatre constructed, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, in which to perform this work. The theatre has a stage that blends the huge orchestra with the singers voices. The result was that the singers did not have to strain themselves vocally during the long performances. The plot revolves around a ring that grants the power to rule the world. Wotans schemes to regain the ring, spanning generations, drive much of the action in the story, Hagen is drowned as he attempts to recover the ring. In the process, the gods and Valhalla are destroyed, details of the storylines can be found in the articles on each music drama
11.
Sigurd
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Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving. As Siegfried, he is one of the heroes in the German Nibelungenlied, as Sivard Snarensven he was the hero of several medieval Scandinavian ballads. The name Sigurðr is not the name as the German Siegfried. The Old Norse form of Siegfried would have been Sigfroðr, Sivard is a variant form of Sigurðr. These name forms all share the first element Sig-, which means victory, in the Völsunga saga, Sigurd is supposedly the posthumous son of Sigmund and his second wife, Hiordis. Sigmund dies in battle when he attacks Odin, and Odin shatters Sigmunds sword, dying, Sigmund tells Hiordis of her pregnancy and bequeaths the fragments of his sword to his unborn son. Hiordis marries King Alf, and then Alf decides to send Sigurd to Regin as a foster, Regin tempts Sigurd to greed and violence by first asking Sigurd if he has control over Sigmunds gold. When Sigurd says that Alf and his control the gold and will give him anything he desires. Sigurd replies that he is treated as an equal by the kings, then Regin asks Sigurd why he acts as stableboy to the kings and has no horse of his own. Sigurd then goes to get a horse, an old man advises Sigurd on choice of horse. In this way Sigurd acquires Grani, a directly descended from Odins own horse. Finally, Regin tries to tempt Sigurd by telling him the story of the Otters Gold, Regin explains to Sigurd that his father is Hreidmar, a powerful magician, and that his two brothers are Ótr and Fafnir. Regin explains that he is a master at smithing and he also describes how his brother, Ótr possesses many magical talents. Regin tells a story of how Ótr enjoys taking the form of an otter and swimming at a waterfall, Andvari often assumes the form of a pike and swims in the same pool as well. One day, the Æsir see Ótr in the form of an otter carrying a fish in his mouth on the banks, loki kills him for his pelt. They take the pelt to the home of Hreidmar to display their catch. Hreidmar, Fafnir, and Regin promptly seize the Æsir and demand compensation for the death of Ótr, loki acquires a net from the sea giantess, Rán
12.
Cloak of invisibility
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A cloak of invisibility is a fictional theme and a device under some scientific inquiry. In folklore, mythology and fairy tales, a cloak of invisibility appears either as an item used by duplicitous characters or an item worn by a hero to fulfill a quest. It is a theme in Welsh and Germanic folklore. The motif falls under D1361.12 magic cloak of invisibility in the Stith Thompson motif index scheme, cloaks of invisibility are magical items found in folklore and fairy tales. Such cloaks are common in Welsh mythology, a Mantle of Invisibility is described in the tale Culhwch, the mantle is described again, and in more detail, in the Breuddwyd Rhonabwy, and is later listed as one of the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain. A similar mantle appears in the Second Branch of the Mabinogi, in which it is used by Caswallawn to assassinate the seven stewards left behind by Bran the Blessed and usurp the throne. In the English fairy tale Jack the Giant Killer, the hero is rewarded with several magical gifts by a giant he has spared, the counterpart in Japan is the kakuremino, a magical straw cape or raincoat of invisibility. In the folktale of the Peach Boy Momotarō, one of the booty the hero collects from the ogres is a cape of invisibility, paralleling the story of Jack the giant-slayer. Although occurrences in fairy tales are rare, the cloak of invisibility appears in the German tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses and in The King of the Golden Mountain in Grimms Fairy Tales. The cloak in German fairy tales may be traceable to the tarnkappe, the Grimms clarify that Sîfrits kappe is a cape that covers not just the head but enshrouds the body, though in later times tarnkappe came to be regarded as a cap of invisibility. The tarnkappe is also owned by the king who is the title character in Laurin. In different passages or variant manuscripts of works, the tarnkappe is also referred to as the tarnhût or hehlkappe. In the original epic Nibelungenlied, the heros cloak not only grants him invisibility, in Richard Wagners opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, the cloak becomes a magic helmet called the Tarnhelm, which also imparts the ability to transform upon its wearer. When Fritz Lang adapted Nibelungenlied for the screen in his 1924 film Die Nibelungen. Another film from the year to use a cloak of invisibility was Raoul Walshs The Thief of Bagdad. Edgar Rice Burroughs uses the idea of an invisibility cloak in his 1931 novel A Fighting Man of Mars, the movie Erik the Viking humorously depicts the title character using a cloak of invisibility, which he does not realize apparently works only on elderly men. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodos elven cloak camouflaged him so that the enemy could see nothing more than a boulder where the Hobbits were, camouflaging cloaks form a central plot element in Samuel R. Delanys 1975 novel Dhalgren. In the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K, rowling, Harry Potter uses a Cloak of Invisibility, that was passed down to him by his father, to sneak into forbidden areas of his school and remain unseen
13.
Legends about Theoderic the Great
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The Gothic King Theoderic the Great was remembered in Germanic legend as Dietrich von Bern. Dietrich figures in a number of surviving works, and it must be assumed that these draw on long-standing oral tradition, the majority of poems about Dietrich/Theoderic are composed in Middle High German, and are generally divided by modern scholars into historical and fantastical. The fantastical poems concern his battles with dwarfs, dragons, giants, in addition to these two categories of poems, he appears as a supporting character in some poems such as the Nibelungenlied and Biterolf und Dietleib. Despite the identification of Dietrich von Bern with Theoderic the Great throughout the entire Middle Ages, as the Encyclopædia Britannica states, the legendary history of Dietrich differs so widely from the life of Theoderic that it has been suggested that the two were originally unconnected. The most noticeable differences are, Dietrich is portrayed as an exile from an Italian kingdom which is rightfully his, Theoderic, in contrast, was an invader. The historical Theoderics capital was Ravenna, not Verona, Ravenna does, however, Theoderics historical opponent Odoacer is replaced by Dietrichs uncle Ermenrich in all poems except for the Hildebrandslied. Odoacer is also mentioned in one version of the Eckenlied, Dietrich is the contemporary of Etzel and of Ermenrich. The assumed real Theoderic was born shortly after Attilas death and well after Ermanarics, Theoderic the Great was an Arian and despised by the Church for a persecution resulting in the deaths of Boethius, Symmachus, and Pope John I. Dietrich has many features, he fights against supernatural beings. Numerous theories have proposed to explain these differences. The change from invader to exile is sometimes explained as an attempt to justify Theoderics taking possession of Italy, attila and Ermanaric as contemporaries is part of synchronization, a phenomenon frequently encountered in oral traditions. This can also be seen in the way that other such as Wayland. Ritter-Schaumburg proposed that their narration relates instead to a contemporary of the famous Goth, moreover, he identified Berne as Bonn to which was ascribed, in the medieval age, an alternative name Verona of unknown origin. According to Ritter-Schaumburg, Dietrich lived as a Frankish petty king in Bonn and this theory has found much opposition by other scholars. Another modern author, Rolf Badenhausen, starts from Ritter-Schaumburgs approach and he claims Berne, where Thidrek/Didrik started his rise, to be identical with Varne, in the district of the northern Rhine/Eiffel lands. Thidrek/Didrik could be identified with Theuderich son of Clovis I, a royal Frank mentioned with approval by Gregory of Tours and this theory is rejected by the majority of scholars, who see both theories as based on an overestimation of the exactness of history as preserved in oral traditions. One of the earliest mentions of Theoderic in legend is the Rök Stone, there he is mentioned in a stanza in Eddic meter, Þjóðríkr the bold, chief of sea-warriors, ruled over the shores of the Hreiðsea. Now he sits armed on his Goth, his shield strapped, alternatively, Otto Höfler has proposed that Theoderic on the horse may be connected in some way to traditions of Theoderic as the Wild Huntsman, Heinzle rejects this interpretation
14.
Nibelung
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The vast wealth of the Burgundians is often referred to as the Niblung or Niflung hoard. In Richard Wagners opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, Nibelung denotes a dwarf, the earliest probable surviving mention of the name is in the Latin poem Waltharius, believed to have been composed around the year 920. In lines 555–6 of that poem Walter, seeing Guntharius and his men approaching says, Nōn assunt Avarēs hīc, the translation is, These are not Avars, but Frankish Nivilons, inhabitants of the region. The other texts have nebulones worthless fellows instead of nivilones, a replacement for an obscure proper name. In medieval Latin names, b and v often interchange, so Nivilones is a reasonable Latinization of Germanic Nibilungos and this is the only text to connect the Nibelungs with Franks. Since Burgundy was conquered by the Franks in 534, Burgundians could loosely be considered Franks of a kind, the name Nibelunc became a Frankish personal name in the 8th and 9th centuries, at least among the descendants of Childebrand I. Yet, in this poem, the center of Gunthers supposedly Frankish kingdom is the city of Worms on the Rhine, in the eddic poem Atlakviða, the word Niflungar is applied three times to the treasure or hoard of Gunnar. It is also applied once to Gunnars warriors and once to Gunnar himself, the variant form Hniflungr also occurs as the name of Högnis son in the eddic poem Atlamál, and as a term for the children born by Gunnars sister Gudrún to Atli. It appears to be a term for warrior in Helgakviða Hundingsbana I. Hniflungar might be of separate origin, meaning descendants of Hnef, however h was early dropped initially before other consonants in Norwegian dialects which might lead to the adding of h to names in other dialects where it did not originally belong. In the Lex Burgundionum, issued by the Burgundian king Gundobad, it is decreed that those who were free under the kings Gibica, Gundomar, Gislaharius, and Gundaharius will remain free. But as will be seen below, legendary tradition often makes Gibiche or Gjúki the father of Gunther/Gunnar, in Norse tradition another brother is named Gutthorm which looks like a slight garbling of Gundomar. German tradition provides instead a third brother named Gernot, which may be a substitution of a familiar name for an unfamiliar one. In the Nibelungenlied, all three brothers are called kings, but if so, the order of the names here is puzzling. One would expect Gundaharius to be named immediately after Gibica, another king called Heriricus rules the Burgundians and is father of Hiltgunt, the heroine of the tale. The only other kinsman of Gunther who appears here is Hagano, but Haganos exact familial relation to Guntharius is not given. The Old Norse Þiðrekssaga is a translation of German legendary material into Norwegian. Here Gunther and his brothers are sons and heirs of Irung or Aldrian by Aldrians wife Ode, the sons are named Gunnar, Gernoz, and Gisler
15.
Das Rheingold
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Das Rheingold, WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen, or in English, The Ring of the Nibelung. Das Rheingold premiered at the National Theatre Munich on 22 September 1869, with August Kindermann in the role of Wotan, Heinrich Vogl as Loge, and Karl Fischer as Alberich. Wagner wanted this work to premiere as part of the entire cycle, the work was first performed as part of the complete cycle on 13 August 1876, in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Although Das Rheingold comes first in the sequence of Ring operas, so in August 1851, Wagner wrote in Eine Mittheilung an meine Freunde, I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas. However, by October, he had decided that this required a prelude. To the sentence quoted above he added the words, which will be preceded by a great prelude, a letter Wagner wrote to Theodor Uhlig confirms that at this time the opera was intended to have three acts. Wagner continued to develop the text and storyline of the prelude in parallel with those of Die Walküre, the prose draft of Das Rheingold was completed between 21 March and 23 March 1852 and its verse draft between 15 September and 3 November. A fair copy of the text was finished by 15 December, during the early years of the 1850s Wagner produced some musical sketches for parts of the Ring and noted down various motifs that were to be used in the work. There also exist three sets of isolated musical sketches for Das Rheingold which were composed between 15 September 1852 and November 1853. The first of these was entered into the draft of the text, the second into Wagners copy of the 1853 printing of the text. All three were used by Wagner. Proper sequential development of the score started on 1 November 1853, by 14 January, Wagner had completed the first draft of the opera on between two and three staves. The next stage involved the development of a detailed draft that indicated most of the vocal and instrumental details. This was completed by 28 May, in parallel with this, Wagner started work on a fair copy of the score on 15 February, a task he completed on 26 September 1854, by which time he had also started work on the sketches of Die Walküre. Das Rheingold was first performed at Munich on 22 September 1869 and its first performance as part of the complete Ring cycle took place at Bayreuth on 13 August 1876. It continues to be performed on a regular basis both in Bayreuth and elsewhere, Das Rheingold, considerably shorter than its three successors, consists of four scenes performed without a break. It has been noted as one of the best-known drone examples in the concert repertory, the curtain rises to show, at the bottom of the Rhine, the three Rhine maidens, Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde, playing together. The key shifts to A flat as Woglinde begins an innocent song whose melody is used to characterise the Rhine maidens later in the cycle
16.
Tarnhelm
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Tarnhelm is a magic helmet in Richard Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen. It was crafted by Mime at the demand of his brother Alberich and it is used as a cloak of invisibility by Alberich in Das Rheingold. It also allows one to change form, Alberich changes to a dragon and then a toad in Das Rheingold. Fafner changes to a dragon at the end of Das Rheingold, Siegfried changes to Gunthers form in Götterdämmerung Act I, Scene 3. Finally, it one to travel long distances instantly, as Siegfried does in Götterdämmerung Act II. The 1957 Warner Bros. cartoon Whats Opera, Doc, a comedy on opera in general and Wagners Ring Cycle in particular, has Elmer Fudd wearing a magic helmet that is meant to suggest Tarnhelm. The Dungeons & Dragons game includes an item called the helm of teleportation. In Marvels Thor an adaption was done of the Ring Cycle, the Tarnhelm is an integral part of Michael Scott Rohans Winter of the World trilogy, which repurposes many Norse myths. The main character in Brenda Cloughs novel How Like a God can psionically obstruct other people seeing him. The Tarnhelm is a found in the PC game Diablo II. Operation Tarnhelm is the name of the pack for the PC strategy game Naval War, Arctic Circle. Huliðshjálmr of Norse dwarves Fafnirs helmet Aegis
17.
Fafnir
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In Norse mythology, Fáfnir or Frænir is a son of the dwarf king Hreidmar and brother of Regin, Lyngheiðr, Lofnheiðr and Ótr. After being affected by the curse of Andvaris ring and gold, in the Icelandic Volsunga Saga, Fáfnir is a dwarf with a powerful arm and fearless soul. He guards his fathers house of glittering gold and flashing gems and he is the strongest and most aggressive of the three brothers. Regin recounts to Sigurd how Odin, Loki and Hœnir were traveling when they came across Ótr, Loki killed the otter with a stone and the three Æsir skinned their catch. The gods came to Hreidmar’s dwelling that evening and were pleased to show off the otters skin. Loki fulfilled the task by gathering the cursed gold of Andvari as well as the ring, Andvaranaut, Fáfnir then killed Hreidmar to get all the gold for himself. He became very ill-natured and greedy, so he went out into the wilderness to keep his fortune, Fáfnir also breathed poison into the land around him so no one would go near him and his treasure, wreaking terror in the hearts of the people. Regin plotted revenge so that he could get the treasure and sent his foster-son Sigurd to kill the dragon, Regin then ran away in fear, leaving Sigurd to the task. The earth quaked and the ground shook as Fafnir appeared. Sigurd, undaunted, stabbed Fafnir in the shoulder as he crawled over the ditch he was lying in. As the creature lies dying, he speaks to Sigurd and asks for his name, his parentage. Fafnir figures out that his own brother, Regin, plotted this, Sigurd tells Fafnir that he will go back to the dragons lair and take all his treasure. Regin then returned to Sigurd after Fafnir was slain, corrupted by greed, Regin planned to kill Sigurd after Sigurd had cooked Fafnirs heart for him to eat and take all the treasure for himself. Sigurd then ate some of Fafnir’s heart and kept the remainder, some versions are more specific about Fáfnirs treasure hoard, mentioning the swords Ridill and Hrotti, the helm of terror and a golden coat of chainmail. Fafnir appears – as Fafner – in Richard Wagners epic opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, Fasolt is in love with her, while Fafner wants her as without her golden apples the Gods will lose their youth. The Giants, mainly Fafner, agree to accept a massive hoard of treasure stolen from the dwarf Alberich instead, the treasure includes the magic helmet Tarnhelm and a magic ring of power. As they divide the treasure, the brothers argue and Fafner kills Fasolt, the Giants are thought to represent the working class. However, while Fasolt is a revolutionary, Fafner is a more violent and jealous figure
18.
Valhalla
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In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those who die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyjas field Fólkvangr. In Valhalla, the join the masses of those who have died in combat known as Einherjar and various legendary Germanic heroes and kings. Before the hall stands the golden tree Glasir, and the ceiling is thatched with golden shields. Various creatures live around Valhalla, such as the stag Eikþyrnir, the Modern English noun Valhalla derives from Old Norse Valhöll, a compound noun composed of two elements, the masculine noun valr the slain and the feminine noun höll hall. Valr has cognates in other Germanic languages such as Old English wæl the slain, slaughter, carnage, Old Saxon wal-dād murder, Old High German battlefield, all of these forms descend from the Proto-Germanic masculine noun *walaz. Among related Old Norse concepts, valr also appears as the first element of the nouns valkyrja chooser of the slain, valkyrie and Valfreyja, the second element, höll, is a common Old Norse noun. It is cognate to Modern English hall and has the same meaning, both developed from Proto-Germanic *xallō or *hallō, meaning covered place, hall, itself from the Proto-Indo-European root *kol-. In stanzas 8 to 10 of Grímnismál, the god Odin states that Valhalla is located in the realm of Glaðsheimr, Odin describes Valhalla as shining and golden, and that it rises peacefully when seen from afar. From Valhalla, every day Odin chooses from those who have died in combat. Valhalla has spear-shafts for rafters, a roof thatched with shields, coats of mail are strewn over its benches, a wolf hangs in front of its west doors, and an eagle hovers above it. Within Valhalla exists Thors hall Bilskirnir, and within it exist five hundred and forty rooms, in stanzas 25 through 26, Odin states that the goat Heiðrún and the hart Eikþyrnir stand on top of Valhalla and graze on the branches of the tree Læraðr. Heiðrún produces vats of mead that liquor cannot be compared to, in stanza 38 of the poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, the hero Helgi Hundingsbane dies and goes to Valhalla. Prose follows after this stanza, stating that a burial-mound was made for Helgi, in stanzas 40 to 42, Helgi has returned to Midgard from Valhalla with a host of men. An unnamed maid of Sigrún, Helgis valkyrie wife, sees Helgi, the maid asks if she is experiencing a delusion, if Ragnarök has begun, or if Helgi and his men have been allowed to return. In the stanzas that follow, Helgi responds that none of things have occurred. The maid tells Sigrún that the mound has opened up, and that Sigrún should go to Helgi there, as Helgi has asked her to come and tend his wounds. Sigrún goes into the mound, and finds that Helgi is drenched in gore, filled with joy at the reunion, Sigrún kisses him before he can remove his coat of mail, and asks how she can heal him
19.
Freyja
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In Norse mythology, Freyja is a goddess associated with love, sex, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death. Along with her brother Freyr, her father Njörðr, and her mother, stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya, Freyia, and Freja. Freyja rules over her heavenly afterlife field Fólkvangr and there receives half of those that die in battle, whereas the other half go to the god Odins hall, within Fólkvangr is her hall, Sessrúmnir. Freyjas husband, the god Óðr, is frequently absent and she cries tears of red gold for him, and searches for him under assumed names. Freyja has numerous names, including Gefn, Hörn, Mardöll, Sýr, Valfreyja, Freyjas name appears in numerous place names in Scandinavia, with a high concentration in southern Sweden. Various plants in Scandinavia once bore her name, but it was replaced with the name of the Virgin Mary during the process of Christianization, rural Scandinavians continued to acknowledge Freyja as a supernatural figure into the 19th century, and Freyja has inspired various works of art. The name Freyja is transparently lady and ultimately derives from Proto-Germanic *frawōn, Freyja is cognate with, for example, Old Saxon frūa lady, mistress and Old High German frouwa. The theonym Freyja is thus considered to have been an epithet in origin, in the Poetic Edda, Freyja is mentioned or appears in the poems Völuspá, Grímnismál, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Oddrúnargrátr, and Hyndluljóð. Völuspá contains a stanza that mentions Freyja, referring to her as Óðs girl, Freyja being the wife of her husband, the stanza recounts that Freyja was once promised to an unnamed builder, later revealed to be a jötunn and subsequently killed by Thor. In the poem Grímnismál, Odin tells the young Agnar that every day Freyja allots seats to half of those that are slain in her hall Fólkvangr, while Odin owns the other half. In the poem Lokasenna, where Loki accuses nearly every female in attendance of promiscuity and/or unfaithfulness, the introduction to the poem notes that among other gods and goddesses, Freyja attends a celebration held by Ægir. Loki tells her to be silent, and says that he knows all about her—that Freyja is not lacking in blame, for each of the gods and elves in the hall have been her lover. She says that Loki is lying, that he is just looking to blather about misdeeds, and since the gods and goddesses are furious at him, he can expect to go home defeated. Loki tells Freyja to be silent, calls her a malicious witch, Njörðr interjects—he says that a woman having a lover other than her husband is harmless, and he points out that Loki has borne children, and calls Loki a pervert. The poem Þrymskviða features Loki borrowing Freyjas cloak of feathers and Thor dressing up as Freyja to fool the lusty jötunn Þrymr, in the poem, Thor wakes up to find that his powerful hammer, Mjöllnir, is missing. Thor tells Loki of his hammer, and the two go to the beautiful court of Freyja. Thor asks Freyja if she will lend him her cloak of feathers, Freyja agrees, Loki flies away in the whirring feather cloak, arriving in the land of Jötunheimr. He spies Þrymr sitting on top of a mound, Þrymr reveals that he has hidden Thors hammer deep within the earth and that no one will ever know where the hammer is unless Freyja is brought to him as his wife
20.
Hagen (legend)
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Hagen or Högni is a Burgundian warrior in tales about the Burgundian kingdom at Worms. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half-brother of King Gunther, in the Nibelungenlied he is nicknamed from Tronje. Of the main manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied, the representatives of versions B and C use the spelling Tronege, from Tronege Hagene, Hagen of Tronege, geborn of Tronege. The A version usually writes Trony, Tronje is the appropriate modern German form. In the B and C versions, the name is in the case, with the nominative being Troneg, Tronje. All attempts to interpret Hagens name or home are highly speculative, although the Nibelungenlied has a historic center, it was written down only centuries later, in 1200, and therefore incorporated the authors Medieval knowledge and intentions. There are suggestions that the epithet refers to more or less similar-sounding place names, with this ascription, people could also connect themselves to the ancient Romans. Tronje could also be the Colonia Ulpia Traiana, a Roman city close to modern Xanten, and this would explain Hagens seemingly profound knowledge of incidents and deeds from Siegfrieds youth. The Belgian city of Drongen in Ghent was known in Latin as Truncinas and had various Romanesque spellings over the centuries, Truncinas, Truncinis. Today, its French name is Tronchiennes, which sounds almost like Tronje, dutch authors place the Kudrun saga here since it contains townscape and landscape names such as Wulpe Tenenbaums. According to this interpretation, Hagen of the Nibelungenlied could be identical with the Hagen of the Kudrun, not too far away, there are place names that hint at further figures from the Nibelungenlied, especially Hagens relative Ortwin of Metz and his colleagues Hunold and Volker von Alzey. Based on the castles around Dhronecken, Ortwin can be assigned to Metz, Hagen to Dhronecken, Hunold to Hunoldispetra and these are places that travelers coming from Xanten and over Metz and Worms to Passau, would pass along the way. In the Nibelungenlied, he is called Hagen of Tronje, some versions indicate he is the Oheim of the three kings, i. e. their mother Utes brother. In German tradition, Hagen is especially grim, implacable, and violent, according to the Thidreks saga, Hagen was Gunnars half-brother. Not fully human, though, as being fathered by an elf on the wife while the king was away. In these forementioned accounts, it is Hagen who kills the hero Siegfried during a hunt and this version of the character appears in Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen. In Norse tradition, Hagens counterpart Högni is less extreme and the slayer of Sigurd is Gutthorm. But Gutthorm does so when egged on by his elder brothers, in German accounts, Gunther and Hagen are the final casualties of the fall of the Nibelungs
21.
Siegfried (opera)
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Siegfried, WWV 86C, is the third of the four music dramas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen, by Richard Wagner. It premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring cycle, the musical composition was commenced in 1856, but not finally completed until 1871. Having grappled with his text for Siegfrieds Tod, and indeed having undertaken some musical sketches for it during 1851, at this point he conceived that the prefatory opera, Der junge Siegfried, could act as a comic foil to the tragedy of Siegfrieds Tod. Its all growing out of the ground as if it were wild, shortly afterwards he wrote to Uhlig that he was now planning to tell the Siegfried story in the form of three dramas, plus a prologue in three acts—a clear prefiguring of the Ring cycle. The composition of Acts 1 and 2 was completed by August 1857, Wagner then left off work on Siegfried to write the operas Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger. He did not resume work on Siegfried until 1869, when he composed the third act, the final revision of the score was undertaken in February 1871. Performance was withheld until the first complete production of the Ring cycle, elements of the plot of Siegfried come from a variety of sources. In a letter to Uhlig, Wagner recounted The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was and it concerns a boy so stupid he had never learned to be afraid. Wagner wrote that the boy and Siegfried are the same character, the boy is taught to fear by his wife, and Siegfried learns it when he discovers the sleeping Brünnhilde. Siegfrieds ability in Act Two to see through Mimes deceitful words seems to have derived from a 19th-century street theatre version of the story of Faust. Some elements of the story are derived from legends of Sigurd, notably the Völsunga saga, scene 1 of Act 3 has a parallel in the Eddic poem Baldrs draumar, in which Odin questions a völva about the future of the gods. A cave in rocks in the forest, as the curtain rises, Alberichs brother, the dwarf Mime, is forging a sword. Mime is plotting to obtain the ring of power created by his brother Alberich. Mime needs a sword for Siegfried to use, but the youth has contemptuously broken every sword Mime has made, Siegfried returns from his wanderings in the forest with a wild bear in tow, and immediately breaks the new sword. Mime is forced to explain how he took in Siegfrieds mother, Sieglinde and he shows Siegfried the broken pieces of the sword Nothung, which Mime had obtained from her. Siegfried orders him to reforge the sword, Mime, however, is unable to accomplish this, Siegfried departs, leaving Mime in despair. An old man arrives at the door and introduces himself as the Wanderer, in return for the hospitality due a guest, he wagers his head on answering any three questions of Mime. The dwarf asks the Wanderer to name the races that live beneath the ground, on the earth and these are the Nibelung, the Giants, and the Gods, as the Wanderer answers correctly
