Summary:

In the second part of Margaret Armour's translation of possibly Wagner's best-known work 'The Ring of the Nibelung', the last two opera's in the cycle, 'Siegfried' and 'The Twilight of the Gods', are reproduced with colour plates by Arthur Rackham. Rackham's hauntingly dark illustrations, are perfectly suited to the drama - an epic story that charts the struggles of gods, heroes and mythical creatures loosely based on characters from the Norse sagas. ‘Siegfried’, the third of the four operas, is primarily inspired by the story of the legendary hero Sigurd in Norse mythology. This narrative is followed by the finale, ‘Götterdämmerung’ – the title of which is a translation into German of the Old Norse phrase ‘Ragnarök’, which in Norse mythology refers to a prophesied war among various beings and gods that ultimately results in the renewal of the world.