Die Walkure

When we last saw him, Wotan had just moved into Valhalla, having offered the Ring to the giants as payment. Fricka, his wife (goddess of marriage), learns that Wotan's illegitimate offspring, the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, are having an incestuous affair, and she wants Wotan to put an end to it. He doesn't have the heart to kill them, so he asks his favorite daughter, the Valkyrie Brunnhilde, to do it for him. Brunnhilde, confused by the mixed messages, lets them run away instead. Furious at her disobedience, Wotan punishes Brunnhilde by imprisoning her on a rocky mountaintop, surrounding it with impenetrable fire. To be continued...