Wagner Siegfried

In a deep forest clearing, near the cave of the dragon Fafner, the air stands still. In the distance, the beast’s breath can be heard. Three figures meet: Siegfried, the young hero who knows no fear; Mime, the dwarf blacksmith who raised him; and a mysterious Wanderer, none other than Wotan, the god condemned to witness the end of his own world. 

Mime: Siegfried! Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you all day! Where’s the sword — have you finished reforging it yet? 

Siegfried: Always the sword, Mime… always the dragon, the treasure, the ring. Tell me the truth: why do you want that ring so badly? 

Mime (hesitant): Because with it, I will finally be free! All my life I have been scorned by the gods, crushed by giants, deceived by men, humiliated by my own brother. With the ring, no one will ever command over me again. 

The Wanderer: You are mistaken, Mime. The ring does not grant freedom. It grants power. And power binds you more firmly than fear. 

Mime (suspicious): You… I recognise you. You are the one who knows everything and speaks in riddles. Who are you, really? 

The Wanderer: A man who sought too hard to understand the world… and now watches it slip away from him. 

Siegfried: I want to understand too. But no one will tell me who my parents were. No one will tell me where I come from. They only want me to kill a dragon I have never even seen. 

Mime (irritated): Because it is your destiny! 

Siegfried: Everyone talks about my destiny. But no one ever asks what I want. 

The Wanderer: And what do you want, Siegfried? 

Siegfried: I want to know who I am. I want to discover the world. I want to encounter what people call fear. Everyone says I should tremble, but I don’t even know what that means. 

Mime (scoffing): Trust me, you’ll learn quickly when you face the dragon. 

The Wanderer: Perhaps. But he will learn fear when he encounters love. 

Siegfried (surprised): Love? What has fear to do with love? 

The Wanderer: To love is to fear loss. To fear suffering. To fear death. Men call that love. The gods call it the end. 

Siegfried: Then perhaps fear is not a weakness. Perhaps it is what makes us alive. 

Mime (impatient): Very well, philosophise if you must — but first kill the dragon! Afterwards, you can think about all this! 

Siegfried (laughing): Everyone lives for “after”. After the dragon, after the treasure, after the victory… I want to live now. 

The Wanderer (fixing him with his gaze): Then you are truly free. And that is why you are dangerous. 

Siegfried: Dangerous? To whom? 

The Wanderer: To those who have built their power on fear. To the gods. To me. 

(A silence. The wind rises. The dragon’s breath can be heard in the distance.) 

Siegfried (taking up the sword): I do not yet know who I am. But I will find out. 

Mime (aside): Yes… go on. And I will take the ring. 

The Wanderer (aside): Yes… and with it will come the end of the gods. 

Siegfried (turning back one last time): Old man, if the world must end, then someone must build a new one. 

The Wanderer: Perhaps. But those who build worlds are not those who seek power. They are those who do not know fear. 

Siegfried: Then I will go to the very end. 

(Siegfried disappears into the forest towards the cave. The Wanderer watches him go.) 

The Wanderer (softly): Go, Siegfried. You are innocence, freedom… and the end of our story. 

(In the distance, the dragon roars. But for the first time, it is not the dragon that inspires fear. It is the future.) 
 

© Siegfried und Brunnhilde, Charles Ernest Butler