he says: "leave me to sleep." Wotan, with a wise laugh, turns to
Alberic. "That shot missed," he says: "no use abusing me for it.
And now let me tell you one thing. All things happen according to
their nature; and you can't alter them." And so he leaves him
Alberic, raging with the sense that his old enemy has been
laughing at him, and yet prophetically convinced that the last
word will not be with the god, hides himself as the day breaks,
and his brother approaches with Siegfried.

Mimmy makes a final attempt to frighten Siegfried by discoursing
of the dragon's terrible jaws, poisonous breath, corrosive
spittle, and deadly, stinging tail. Siegfried is not interested
in the tail: he wants to know whether the dragon has a heart,
being confident of his ability to stick Nothung into it if it
exists. Reassured on this point, he drives Mimmy away, and
stretches himself under the trees, listening to the morning
chatter of the birds. One of them has a great deal to say to him;
but he cannot understand it; and after vainly trying to carry on
the conversation with a reed which he cuts, he takes to
entertaining the bird with tunes on his horn, asking it to send
him a loving mate such as all the other creatures of the forest
have. His tunes wake up the dragon; and Siegfried makes merry
over the grim mate the bird has sent him. Fafnir is highly
scandalized by the irreverence of the young Bakoonin. He loses
his temper; fights; and is forthwith slain, to his own great
astonishment.

In such conflicts one learns to interpret the messages of Nature
a little. When Siegfried, stung by the dragon's vitriolic blood,
pops his finger into his mouth and tastes it, he understands what