Opera Stories from Wagner
By Florence Akin

Presented by
Authorama
Public Domain Books

The Beautiful Valhalla

As Fafner carried away his treasure, a great storm gathered over the mountain crest.

The sky grew black. The thunder rolled. Its echoes bounded on from cloud to cloud, from peak to peak, then rumbled down the valleys to the sea.

Then the clouds drifted away. The setting sun shot its long rays into the deep valley.

There, arching over the river and reaching from the flowery mountain-side to the very door of the gleaming castle, stood a shining rainbow bridge.

“Lo! our castle! Our beautiful Valhalla!” cried the king. “Let us cross over. It shall be our dwelling-place forevermore.”

One by one they stepped upon the bridge.

As Wotan walked slowly and sadly over, he heard the wailing of the Rhine-maidens in the river below:–

  “Rhine-gold! Rhine-gold!
  We long for your light!”

“I shall never be happy again,” thought Wotan. “I have given my honor for Valhalla. What an awful price I have paid!”

More About the Stories • The Rhine-Gold • 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 • 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 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 Present • A Song of the Future • A Pledge of Love • The Doom of Valhalla • Love