Before the opera begins: Sieglinde escaped into the forest, carrying the shattered remains of Notung, Siegmund's sword, and pregnant with his child. Exhausted and weak, the Nibelung Mime finds her and takes her into his cave. She dies in childbirth and Mime raises the boy, calling him Siegfried as his mother wished. Siegfried has grown into a strapping youth, afraid of nothing. Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Fafner has used the Tarnhelm to appear as a fearsome dragon, and stands guard over the Ring and the rest of the Nibelung treasure.
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