[Music: Thou, who this love within my breast inspired.]
_Brünnhilde_ is _Wotan's_ favourite daughter, but instead of the loving pride with which he always has been wont to regard her, his features are dark with anger at her disobedience of his command. He had decreed _Siegmund's_ death. She has striven to give victory to the Wälsung. Throwing herself at her father's feet, she pleads that he himself had intended to save _Siegmund_ and had been turned from his purpose only by _Fricka's_ interference, and that he had yielded only most grudgingly to _Fricka's_ insistent behest. Therefore, when she, his daughter, profoundly moved by _Siegmund's_ love for _Sieglinde_, and her sympathies aroused by the sad plight of the fugitives, disregarded his command, she nevertheless acted in accordance with his real inclinations. But _Wotan_ is obdurate. She has revelled in the very feelings which he was obliged, at _Fricka's_ behest, to forego--admiration for _Siegmund's_ heroism and sympathy for him in his misfortune. Therefore she must be punished. He will cause her to fall into a deep sleep upon the Valkyr rock, which shall become the Brünnhilde-rock, and to the first man who finds her and awakens her, she, no longer a Valkyr, but a mere woman, shall fall prey.
This great scene between _Wotan_ and _Brünnhilde_ is introduced by an orchestral passage. The Valkyr lies in penitence at her father's feet. In the expressive orchestral measures the Motive of Wotan's Wrath mingles with that of Brünnhilde's Pleading. The motives thus form a prelude to the scene in which the Valkyr seeks to appease her father's anger, not through a specious plea, but by laying bare the promptings of a noble heart, which forced her, against the chief god's command, to intervene for _Siegmund_. The Motive of Brünnhilde's Pleading is heard in its simplest form at _Brünnhilde's_ words:
and it may be noticed that as she proceeds the Motive of Wotan's Wrath, heard in the accompaniment, grows less stern, until with her plea,
_Wotan's_ feelings toward _Brünnhilde_ have softened for the time from anger to grief that he must mete out punishment for her disobedience. In his reply excitement subsides to gloom. It would be difficult to point to other music more touchingly expressive of deep contrition than the phrase in which _Brünnhilde_ pleads that _Wotan_ himself taught her to love _Siegmund_. It is here that the Motive of Brünnhilde's Pleading assumes the form in the notation given above. Then we hear from _Wotan_ that he had abandoned _Siegmund_ to his fate, because he had lost hope in the cause of the gods and wished to end his woe in the wreck of the world. The weird terror of the Curse Motive hangs over this outburst of despair. In broad and beautiful strains _Wotan_ then depicts _Brünnhilde_ yielding to her emotions when she intervened for _Siegmund_.