Act II
Relayed from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

In the old Norse mythology from which Wagner took the long and involved story of his Nibelung's Ring, Wotan, the father of the gods, takes the place which the old Greeks assigned to Zeus, and his spouse Fricka is looked to as the guardian of the hearth and home and upholder of the domestic virtues.
The race of Walsungs, Siegmund and Sieglinde, Wotan's children by an earthly alliance, is thus hateful to her, and in a long duet with Wotan she insists that in the coming fight with Hunding, Siegmund must have no protection from the gods. Wotan would fain shield his son, and tries to make it clear to the wrathful Fricka that through the Walsungs alone can the race of gods be protected; but Fricka is adamant, and in the end
Wotan must give way. Before that, however, Wotan has met his favourite warrior maiden Brunnhilde and told her to protect Siegmund in the fight. The whole of the music of this first part of the scene is stormy and vivid, like the wild mountain height on which the Valkyr maidens have their home. Then, at the end of the duet with Fricka, Wotan, dejected and forlorn, tells Brunnhilde that now it is Hunding she must shelter and that Siegmund must die. He leaves her, and Siegmund and Sieglinde approach - Sieglinde wearied with her long flight from Hunding. She falls fainting, and then there is an impressive moment when Brunnhilde appears to Siegmund and he asks her of his fate and Sieglinde's. Touched by his heroism and the love of the two, Brunnhilde decides to disobey Wotan and to fight for Siegmund.
Hunding's horn is heard, and through the darkness of storm clouds which roll down over the mountain, he and Siegmund meet and do battle, Brunnhilde protecting the Walsung. Wotan appears suddenly, in a glow of light, and holds his spear in front of Hunding's breast as Siegmund is about to slay his enemy. The sword breaks in two, and Hunding stabs the defenceless Siegmund with his spear. Brunnhilde catches up Sieglinde, and, seizing the broken pieces of the sword, flings herself upon her horse and rides away from the wrath of Wotan towards her own rocky fastness.