=The Motive of Fate=--so full of solemn import--is heard.
While her earnest look rests upon him, there is heard the =Motive of the Death-Song=, a tristly prophetic strain.
_Brünnhilde_ advances and then, pausing again, leans with one hand on her charger's neck, and, grasping shield and spear with the other, gazes upon _Siegmund_. Then there rises from the orchestra, in strains of rich, soft, alluring beauty, an inversion of the Walhalla Motive. The Fate, Death-Song and Walhalla motives recur, and _Siegmund_, raising his eyes and meeting _Brünnhilde's_ look, questions her and receives her answers. The episode is so fraught with solemnity that the shadow of death seems to have fallen upon the scene. The solemn beauty of the music impresses itself the more upon the listener, because of the agitated, agonized scene which preceded it. To the Wälsung, who meets her gaze so calmly, _Brünnhilde_ speaks in solemn tones:
"Siegmund, look on me. I am she whom soon you must prepare to follow." Then she paints for him in glowing colours the joys of Walhalla, where _Wälse_, his father, is awaiting him and where he will have heroes for his companions, himself the hero of many valiant deeds. _Siegmund_ listens unmoved. In reply he frames but one question: "When I enter Walhalla, will _Sieglinde_ be there to greet me?"
When _Brünnhilde_ answers that in Walhalla he will be attended by valkyrs and wishmaidens, but that _Sieglinde_ will not be there to meet him, he scorns the delights she has held out. Let her greet _Wotan_ from him, and _Wälse_, his father, too, as well as the wishmaidens. He will remain with _Sieglinde_.
Then the radiant Valkyr, moved by _Siegmund's_ calm determination to sacrifice even a place among the heroes of Walhalla for the woman he loves, makes known to him the fate to which he has been doomed. _Wotan_ desired to give him victory over _Hunding_, and she had been summoned by the chief of the gods and commanded to hover above the combatants, and by shielding _Siegmund_ from _Hunding's_ thrusts, render the Wälsung's victory certain. But _Wotan's_ spouse, _Fricka_, who, as the first among the goddesses, is guardian of the marriage vows, has heard _Hunding's_ voice calling for vengeance, and has demanded that vengeance be his. Let _Siegmund_ therefore prepare for Walhalla, but let him leave _Sieglinde_ in her care. She will protect her.