SIEGFRIED

Sieglinda, when she flies into the forest with the hero's son
unborn in her womb, and the broken pieces of his sword in her
hand, finds shelter in the smithy of a dwarf, where she brings
forth her child and dies. This dwarf is no other than Mimmy, the
brother of Alberic, the same who made for him the magic helmet.
His aim in life is to gain possession of the helmet, the ring,
and the treasure, and through them to obtain that Plutonic
mastery of the world under the beginnings of which he himself
writhed during Alberic's brief reign. Mimmy is a blinking,
shambling, ancient creature, too weak and timid to dream of
taking arms himself to despoil Fafnir, who still, transformed to
a monstrous serpent, broods on the gold in a hole in the rocks.
Mimmy needs the help of a hero for that; and he has craft enough
to know that it is quite possible, and indeed much in the
ordinary way of the world, for senile avarice and craft to set
youth and bravery to work to win empire for it. He knows the
pedigree of the child left on his hands, and nurses it to manhood
with great care.

His pains are too well rewarded for his comfort. The boy
Siegfried, having no god to instruct him in the art of
unhappiness, inherits none of his father's ill luck, and all his
father's hardihood. The fear against which Siegmund set his face
like flint, and the woe which he wore down, are unknown to the
son. The father was faithful and grateful: the son knows no law
but his own humor; detests the ugly dwarf who has nursed him;