Page:MU KPB 002 Siegfried & the Twilight of the Gods.pdf/15

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THE FIRST ACT

A rocky cavern in a wood, in which ſlands a naturally formed smith’s forge, with big bellows. Mime ſits in front of the anvil, buſily hammering at a sword.

Mime Who has been hammering with a small hammer, stops working.

Slavery! worry! Labour all lost! The strongest sword That ever I forged, That the hands of giants Fitly might wield, This insolent urchin For whom it is fashioned Can snap in two at one stroke, As if the thing were a toy! [Mime throws the sword on the anvil ill-humouredly, and with his arms akimbo gazes thoughtfully on the ground. There is one sword That he could not shatter: Nothung’s splinters Would baffle his strength, Could I but forge Those doughty fragments That all my skill Cannot weld anew. Could I but forge the weapon, Shame and toil would win their reward! [He ſinks further back, his head bowed in thought.

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