Sieglinde entering offers
him food and drink. Soon Hunding appears, and, after hearing his guest's
name and history, discovers in him a mortal foe. Nevertheless the rights
of hospitality are sacred. He offers Siegmund shelter for the night, but
bids him be ready at dawn to fight for his life. Left alone, Siegmund
muses in the dying firelight on the promise made him by his father, that
at the hour of his direst need he should find a sword. His reverie is
interrupted by the entrance of Sieglinde, who has drugged Hunding's
night draught, and now urges Siegmund to flee. Each has read in the
other's eyes the sympathy which is akin to love, and Siegmund refuses to
leave her. Thereupon she tells him of a visit paid to the house upon the
day of her marriage to Hunding by a mysterious stranger, who thrust a
sword into the stem of the mighty ash-tree which supports the roof,
promising it to him who could pull it out. Siegmund draws the sword
(which he greets with the name of Nothung) in triumph from the tree, and
the brother and sister, now united by a yet closer tie, fall into each
other's arms as the curtain falls.
The scene of the next act is laid in a wild, mountainous region. Wotan
has summoned his favourite daughter, the Valkyrie Bruennhilde, and
directs her to protect Siegmund in the fight with Hunding which is soon
to take place. Bruennhilde departs with her wild Valkyrie cry, and Fricka
appears in a car drawn by two rams.
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