Page:MU KPB 001 The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie - Illustrated by Artur Rackham.pdf/48

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The Rhinegold

Stand fast by a bargain once fixed.

A stupid giant
Tells thee this:

O wise one, take it from him!

Wotan

How sly to judge us serious
When plainly we were but jesting!

The beautiful Goddess
Light and bright—

For churls what charm could she have?

Fasolt
Jeerest thou?
Ha! how unjust!

Ye who by beauty rule,
Proud and radiant race!

How foolish, striving
For towers of stone,

Woman’s love to pledge——
Price of walls and of halls!
We dolts, despising ease,
Sweating with toil-hardened hands,

Have worked, that a woman
With gentle delight

In our midst might sojourn
And ye call the pact a jest?

Fafner

Cease thy childish chatter;
No gain look we to get.

Freia’s charms
Mean little;
But it means much,

If from the Gods we remove her.

Golden apples

Ripen within her garden;

She alone

Grows the apples and tends them.

The goodly fruit

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