Siegfried - Page 2

devices of the kingdom of the fears of the
unheroic. As fast as Mimmy makes swords, Siegfried Bakoonin
smashes them, and then takes the poor old swordsmith by the
scruff of the neck and chastises him wrathfully. The particular
day on which the curtain rises begins with one of these trying
domestic incidents. Mimmy has just done his best with a new sword
of surpassing excellence. Siegfried returns home in rare spirits
with a wild bear, to the extreme terror of the wretched dwarf.
When the bear is dismissed, the new sword is produced. It is
promptly smashed, as usual, with, also, the usual effects on the
temper of Siegfried, who is quite boundless in his criticisms of
the smith's boasted skill, and declares that he would smash the
sword's maker too if he were not too disgusting to be handled.

Mimmy falls back on his stock defence: a string of maudlin
reminders of the care with which he has nursed the little boy
into manhood. Siegfried replies candidly that the strangest thing
about all this care is that instead of making him grateful, it
inspires him with a lively desire to wring the dwarf's neck.
Only, he admits that he always comes back to his Mimmy, though he
loathes him more than any living thing in the forest. On this
admission the dwarf attempts to build a theory of filial
instinct. He explains that he is Siegfried's father, and that
this is why Siegfried cannot do without him. But Siegfried has
learned from his forest companions, the birds and foxes and
wolves, that mothers as well as fathers go to the making of
children. Mimmy, on the desperate ground that man is neither bird
nor fox, declares that he is Siegfried's father and mother both.
He is promptly denounced as a filthy liar, because the birds and
foxes are exactly like their parents, whereas Siegfried, having
often watched his own image in the water, can testify that he is
no more like Mimmy than a toad is like a trout. Then, to place
the conversation on a plane of entire frankness, he throttles
Mimmy until he is speechless. When the dwarf recovers, he is so
daunted that he tells Siegfried the truth about his birth, and
for testimony thereof produces the pieces of the sword that broke
upon Wotan's spear. Siegfried instantly orders him to repair the
sword on pain of an unmerciful thrashing, and rushes off into the
forest, rejoicing in the discovery that he is no kin of Mimmy's,
and need have no more to do with him when the sword is mended.

Poor Mimmy is now in a worse plight than ever; for he has long
ago found that the sword utterly defies his skill: the steel will
yield neither to his hammer nor to his furnace. Just then there
walks into his cave a Wanderer, in a blue mantle, spear in hand,
with one eye concealed by the