time when Fricka wakes him. In that majestic burg he is to rule
with her and through her over the humble giants, who have eyes to
gape at the glorious castles their own hands have built from his
design, but no brains to design castles for themselves, or to
comprehend divinity. As a god, he is to be great, secure, and
mighty; but he is also to be passionless, affectionless, wholly
impartial; for Godhead, if it is to live with Law, must have no
weaknesses, no respect for persons. All such sweet littlenesses
must be left to the humble stupid giants to make their toil sweet
to them; and the god must, after all, pay for Olympian power the
same price the dwarf has paid for Plutonic power.

Wotan has forgotten this in his dreams of greatness. Not so
Fricka. What she is thinking of is this price that Wotan has
consented to pay, in token whereof he has promised this day to
hand over to the giants Fricka's sister, the goddess Freia, with
her golden love-apples. When Fricka reproaches Wotan with having
selfishly forgotten this, she finds that he, like herself, is not
prepared to go through with his bargain, and that he is trusting
to another great worldforce, the Lie (a European Power, as
Lassalle said), to help him to trick the giants out of their
reward. But this force does not dwell in Wotan himself, but in
another, a god over whom he has triumphed, one Loki, the god of
Intellect, Argument, Imagination, Illusion, and Reason. Loki has
promised to deliver him from his contract, and to cheat the
giants for him; but he has not arrived to keep his word: indeed,
as Fricka bitterly points out, why should not the Lie fail Wotan,
since such failure is the very essence of him?

The giants come soon enough; and Freia flies to Wotan for