[Transcriber's Note: Anglicized variants of German character names have been retained as they are in the original (e.g., Rhinegold for Rheingold, Logi for Loge, Friea for Freia). Obvious printer errors have been corrected without note. Some full-page illustrations have been moved to the nearest paragraph break for better readability.] [Illustration: [Page 58 WOTAN AND BRÜNNHILDE] THE STORY OF THE RHINEGOLD (_DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN_) Told for Young People BY ANNA ALICE CHAPIN ILLUSTRATED [Illustration] NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1900 Copyright, 1897, by HARPER & BROTHERS. _All rights reserved._ TO THE MASTER’S DAUGHTER EVA WAGNER WITH HEARTFELT GRATITUDE FOR HER KINDNESS AND ENCOURAGEMENT THIS BOOK Is Dedicated PREFACE _The Story of the Rhinegold_ contains the four operas of Richard Wagner’s “Nibelungen Ring,” arranged for young people. The “Nibelungen Ring,” or “Nibelungen Cycle,” is built upon a colossal foundation: a number of the great Teutonic myths, welded together with the most masterly skill and consistency. It is evident that Wagner, like William Morris and other writers, has taken from the fragmentary mythological tales such material as would serve his purpose, adapting such incidents as he chose and as he considered appropriate to his work. But there are so many different versions of these old stories that it is very difficult to trace Wagner’s plot to its original birthplace. The various tales contained in the ancient sagas are so seemingly contradictory that anything connectedly authoritative appears impossible to trace. The one thing which seems to remain the same in almost all versions of the stories, ancient and modern, is the background of mythology, that great, gloomy cycle of gods, with the ever-recurring note of Fate which seems to have impressed all searchers in myths alike, and which inspired Wagner when he formed his mystical, solemn Fate motif. Odin, Wuotan, Wodin, or Wotan, according to the different names given him in the old legends, is the central figure in the framework. If I read the story aright, the Norns, or more properly Nornir, are next in importance. They and their mother, the Vala, are the medium through which the relentless something behind the gods made itself felt in the world. The three sisters are named respectively _Urðr_, _Verðandi_, and _Skuld_—freely translated Past, Present, and Future; or, as they were once styled, as correctly perhaps, Was, Is, and Shall Be. It is a question whether Erda and Urðr, the oldest Norn, might not originally have been identical. Dr. Hueffer speaks of Erda as the “Mother of Gods and Men,” but though “the Vala” is often found in mythology, the name Erda is rarely mentioned, whereas the titles for the three Norns seem to be unquestionably correct. The term _Vala_ is usually translated as Witch, or Witch-wife, but, though a Vala was indeed a sorceress, she was a prophetess as well.