The Wagner Story Book | Page 6

droop; the sky is dull and the grass is dingy; the castle looks
grim and heavy, and no longer bright and graceful; the faces of the
gods themselves grow pale and haggard; they feel that they are
suddenly older. They have not eaten the apples of youth to-day, and
nobody can get them but the one goddess who has gone. They know
that they will grow older every hour and will soon die if they do not get
her back, and the only way is to find the dwarf's treasure for the giants.
"'Come quickly,' says the Father of the Gods, 'and let us get this
treasure; let us hasten down under the ground where the dwarfs live, for
we must have it to-night, when the giants come.'
"There, where the dirty yellow smoke is pouring out between the sticks

of wood at the top of the pile, I see a crevice in the rocks. The Father of
the Gods and the Fire God go down into it, and the smoke comes
thicker and blacker, and hides everything but those two, and I see them
climbing down and down over the rough, sharp rocks, toward the
caverns of the dwarfs, while the little tongues of flame shoot out at
them from the fissures, as if they were trying to catch and burn and
sting them, just as they shoot out from between the black, charred
sticks here before our eyes.
"It is a deep, dark cave that I see now, with little spots of light here and
there, like forges, and there is the sound of anvils. The dwarfs live here,
and they are all working hard, as they must now, for the dwarf who
stole the gold and made the ring from it. I see him too, and he is
scolding and beating another dwarf, who is his brother. It is all about a
piece of fine metal work that he has set his brother to do, and now the
brother wants to keep what he has made. But he drops it on the ground
and the dwarf king, for a king he really is now, picks it up and claps it
on his head. It is a helmet, made of delicate rings of steel linked
together. It is a magic helmet, and anybody who wears it can disappear
from sight whenever he likes, or can take any shape he chooses. In a
minute the dwarf is no more to be seen, and in his place there is only a
cloud of smoke. But he can still beat his brother, and presently he
leaves him whining and crying on the ground, and the cloud floats
away.
"You are not to suppose because this dwarf is treated in this cruel way
that he is any better than his brother who beats him. One of them is just
as wicked as the other, and he deserves all he gets. So here, lying upon
the ground and groaning, the two gods find him, as they come down
into the cave. 'What is the matter?' they ask, and he tells them about the
magic helmet. Then back comes the other dwarf, who wears the helmet
and the ring, driving before him a crowd of his fellows, all laden down
with gold and gems, and they throw them in a pile. They are so rich and
dazzling, and there is such a quantity of them that the fire actually
burns brighter there in the corner where they have heaped them up. The
dwarf drives all his workmen away, and then sulkily asks the gods what
they want here, for with his ring and his helmet he thinks that he is just
as good as any of the gods.
"The Fire God tells him that they have heard so much about his great

wealth that they have come to see it, and now they find his treasure
greater and finer than anything they ever saw before. At that the dwarf
is flattered and begins to boast. 'This that you see is nothing,' he says; 'I
shall soon have much more, and by the magic of my ring I mean to rule
the whole world and you gods too.'
"'But suppose,' says the Fire God, 'that some one should steal the ring
from you while you were asleep?'
"'That shows how little you know about it,' the dwarf answers. 'Why,
do you see this magic helmet of mine? With this I can make myself
invisible, or I can take any form I like, and so nobody can find me
while I am asleep to steal the ring.'
"'Oh, now you are telling us too big a story,' says the Fire God; 'it is
nonsense to say you can take any form you like, helmet or no helmet;
you