Nearer came the call:--
"Heiho! hoyotoho! heiho!"
And a battle-maiden came in sight.
Brunhilde was very happy to see her sister again, but the battle-maiden looked sad.
She brought bad news from Valhalla.
She and Brunhilde sat down upon the rock, and the battle-maiden told the sad story of the last days of the giants.
"Brunhilde," she said, "Wotan does not know that I have come. Valhalla is in deepest gloom.
"Wotan has never sent us to a battlefield since that day when we last saw you.
"Not long ago he came home with his magic spear broken into splinters.
He sat down and buried his face in his hands, and there he sits day after day.
"He tell us the giants are pa.s.sing from the earth. A little while and Valhalla shall be no more.
"He refuses all of Freya"s golden fruit. He has grown very old and very sad.
"Yesterday I heard him say, "Oh! if Brunhilde would only give the ring back to the Rhine-daughters, and release the world from the terrible curse of gold!"
"And, Brunhilde, I have come to beg of you, will you not give the ring back to the Rhine-daughters?"
Brunhilde clasped the ring close to her breast.
"Give the ring to the Rhine-daughters?" she cried.
Then she looked far away toward the valley----and Siegfried.
"This ring of mine is Siegfried"s pledge of love!"
LOVE
The next morning Brunhilde stood upon Walkuere Rock and watched the glorious sunrise.
Suddenly she heard the glad notes of Siegfried"s silver horn.
"Siegfried! Siegfried!" she cried in joy, and hurried down the mountain to greet him.
All the earth seemed as glad as at that glad time when Siegfried came to Walkuere Rock to claim Brunhilde for his bride.
But Brunhilde was not altogether happy.
She could not forget the sorrowful news which her sister had brought, of the gloom at Valhalla.
So, after their first glad greeting, they sat down upon the rocks, and Brunhilde told Siegfried the sad story of the ring, from the time when Alberich s.n.a.t.c.hed it from the Rhine-daughters, until the day Siegfried took it from Hate Cavern.
Then, hand in hand, they went, the valiant Siegfried and the n.o.ble Brunhilde, to the banks of the Rhine.
They called to the Rhine-daughters and the Rhine-daughters came out upon the rocks.
With a glad shout, Brunhilde flung the ring into the water.
The Rhine-daughters darted after it.
In a moment they came again to the surface of the water.
At last they held their precious, glittering gold.
The happiest song that ever echoed along the banks of the Rhine was sung by the Rhine-daughters on that glad morning.
Once more gold had become as harmless as a sunbeam.
Hurry, worry, falsehood, greed, and envy vanished from the earth.
Anxiety disappeared from the brows of the tired fathers.
A new happiness came into the eyes of the loving mothers.
A greater power than gold or giant strength had come to rule the world, and that power was Love.
MORE ABOUT THE STORIES
The author would not have you think that when you have read this little book you know all that Richard Wagner told about Siegfried.
When you are older, do not fail to read _The Rhine-Gold, The Walkuere, Siegfried_, and _Goetterdaemmerung,_ as Richard Wagner told them.
You will enjoy them more because of having read these little stories.