Götterdämmerung

The events of this opera begins immediately after the end of Siegfried. Brünnhilde and Siegfried have spent the night in a cave on the mountainside, consummating their relationship.

Act One

The three Norns, Erda’s daughters, have the responsibilities of weaving the rope of wisdom, which records everything Erda sees happening in the world. They do this every night, but tonight something unusual is happening. They appear on the mountainside where Brünnhilde and Siegfried met the previous night, and day begins to dawn before they have started their weaving (“Welch Licht leuchtet dort?”).

As they weave, the First Norn recalls when she used to weave at the World Ash Tree, which stood next to the Spring of Knowledge. One day, a god came to drink at the spring nearby, and gave up his eye as payment for drinking at the spring. This god, Wotan, then took a branch from the World Ash Tree, and made himself a spear. The tree never recovered from the damage Wotan did, and eventually withered.