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Das Rheingold begins with the persistent sounding of the E flat chord, swelling and rolling for 136 bars to suggest the timeless motion of the River Rhine. First scene is set on the bottom of the Rhine where three maidens, swimming around by a pulley and cable arrangement,* are guarding a hoard of gold in the rocks. Alberich, a horrid, hairy dwarf of the Nibelung race, has first eyes for the maidens but greed possesses him when he learns that one who will forswear love can fashion from the gold a ring which will make him master of the world. On love he cries a curse, snatches the gold, takes it away to his cave where he gets his sniveling brother Mime to make him the ring and a Tarnhelm (a magic helmet the wearer of which can either become invisible or take on any shape he chooses). Greed's fatal effect is the moral of the Ring. The great god Wotan becomes one of the pawns. He has hired the giants Fasolt and Fafner to build him the castle Valhalla, pledged them in payment his sister-in-law Freia, goddess of youth and beauty. Loge, the treacherous fire god, tells Wotan of the gold Alberich has stolen. Together they go to the Nibe- lung's cave, trick Alberich into putting on the Tarnhelm and turning himself into a toad, whereupon Wotan steps on him, gets the treasure, gives it to the giants as a means of saving Freia for the gods. Already the ring carries a curse. Fasolt and Fafner fight over it and Fasolt is killed. Every concert audience has heard the triumphant march which marks the gods' entrance into Valhalla. Fafner has clumped off by himself with the gold, the Tarnhelm and the ring.
Die Walkure. Das Rheingold lasts only two hours (without pause) but it lays the groundwork for the Ring. In Rheingold Wotan has two wives: shrewish Fricka, goddess of marriage who suggests Wagner's first wife Minna; and Erda, goddess of the earth and wisdom. By Erda, when Walkure begins, Wotan has had nine amazon daughters whose job is to collect the bodies of slain heroes, bring them into Valhalla where, reincarnated, they will help guard the fortress. By a mortal woman Wotan has also had Siegmund and Sieglinde. Wotan's aim has been to beget a hero who would be the guileless means of recovering the ring for the gods so that Wotan would not be guilty of breaking his word to Fafner.