Page:MU KPB 001 The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie - Illustrated by Artur Rackham.pdf/56

	Stealing the Rhinegold they guard. He thinks it now A thing beyond price, Greater than woman’s grace. For their glittering toy Thus torn from the deep The sorrowful maids lamented. They pray, Wotan, Pleading to thee, That thy wrath may fall on the robber The gold too They would have thee grant them To guard in the water for ever. Loge promised The maidens to tell thee, And, keeping faith, he has told.
Wotan	Dull thou must be Or downright knavish! In parlous plight myself, What help have I for others?
Fasolt Who has been listening atten­tively, to Fafner.	The Niblung has much annoyed us; I greatly grudge him this Rhinegold; But such his craft and cunning, He has never been caught.
Fafner	Other malice Ponders the Niblung; Gains he might from gold Listen, Loge! Tell us the truth. What wondrous gift has the gold, That the dwarf desires it so?
Loge	A plaything, In the waves providing Children with laughter and sport,

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