Prelude Twilight Op. 69

[Armonia Bunda]

Thearc of Northern Lights starting a show in the deep twilight over Prelude Lake on the Ingraham Trail near Yellowknife, NWT. This was September 9, 2019. Light from the waxing gibbous Moon behind the camera also illuminates the scene. The autumn colours make for a good contrast with the sky colours. This was from the lookout point above the lake and main parking area and boat launch.

The "Prelude of Light" (光のプレリュード, Hikari no Pureryūdo?) is a song from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It transports Link to the Triforce Pedestal in the Temple of Time whenever he plays the song on his Ocarina of Time, presumably because the Temple of Time is the means of reaching the Sacred Realm and, from there, the Temple of Light, although it is not possible to travel to this location in the game. The song also appears in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, as one of the songs used for one of the Howling Stones.

After completing the Forest Temple and awakening Saria as the Sage of Forest, Link returns to the Temple of Time and meets Sheik. The mysterious Sheikah tells him that the Master Sword and the Pedestal of Time function as a sort of time travel device, with which Link can return to his childhood form of seven years prior. To aid him in returning to the Temple of Time more efficiently, Sheik teaches Link the "Prelude of Light".

In Termina Field, near Snowhead, a music bar engraved in stone depicts multiple warp songs from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, including "Prelude of Light". When played correctly on the Ocarina, Link is awarded Rupees.

As part of her Harp moveset, when Sheik's Harp is imbued with Light Affinity (caused by performing a specific combo) and uses her Strong Attack, she will play the Prelude of Light to create a Square of Light that allows her to regenerate her SP gauge while inside the square.

A prelude is a song that introduces another. This is fitting because it is the first learned in a series of magical songs. Its name could be taken literally to mean "Introduction of Light". This song teleports Link to the first temple he officially visited.

When I was a babe

Thou wert my nurse,

Made the mite clothing

To keep him warm;

But tell me, whence

Did the tiny mite come?

Could babe without mother

Be born to thee?

He storms away!

And I sit here:

To crown my cares

Comes still this new one;

My plight is piteous indeed!

How help myself now?

How hold the boy here?

How lead the young madcap

To Fafner's lair?

And how weld the splinters

Of obstinate steel?

In no furnace fire

Can they be melted,

Nor can Mime's hammer

Cope with their hardness.

Accursd light!

The air is on fire!

What flickers and flashes?

What buzzes and whirs?

What sways there and swings

And circles about?

What glitters and gleams

In the sun's hot glow?

What rustles and hums

And rings so loud?

With roll and roar

It crashes this way!

It bursts through the wood,

Making for me!

[During the pauses in Mime's song has beenfiling and sharpening the sword and hammering itwith the small hammer. He flattens the rivetsof the hilt with the last strokes, and now graspsthe sword.

[He strikes the anvil and splits it in two from top to bottom,so that it falls asunder with a great noise. Mime,who has mounted a stool in great delight, falls in terrorto a fitting position on the ground. Siegfried holds thesword exultantly on high. The curtain falls.

Quite in the background the entrance to a cave. The ground rises towardsa flat knoll in the middle of the stage, and slopes down again towardsthe back, so that only the upper part of the entrance to the cave isvisible to the audience. To the left a fissured cliff is seen throughthe trees. It is night, the darkness being deepest at the back, whereat first the eye can distinguish nothing at all.

What comes yonder, gleaming bright?

Nearer shimmers

A radiant form;

It runs like a horse and it shines;

Breaks through the wood,

Rushing this way.

Is it the dragon's slayer?

Can it mean Fafner's death?

As the day dawns Siegfried and Mime enter. Siegfried carries his sword ina sword-belt of rope. Mime examines the place carefully. At lasthe looks towards the background, which remains in deep shadow,whilst the rising ground in the middle becomes, after a time, moreand more brightly illuminated by the sun.

[He sighs softly, and leans still further back.Deep silence. Louder murmuring of the wood.His attention is at last caught by the song ofthe birds. He listens with growing interestto one singing in the branches above him.

[He blows into the pipe, breaks off, and cutsit again to improve it. He resumes hisblowing, shakes his head, and cuts the pipeonce more. After another attempt he getsangry, presses the pipe with his hand,and tries again. He ceases playing andsmiles.

[He takes the silver hunting-horn and blowson it. During the long-sustained notes hekeeps his eyes expectantly on the bird. Amovement in the background. Fafner, inthe form of a monstrous lizard-like dragon,has risen from his lair in the cave. Hebreaks through the underwood and dragshimself up to the higher ground, so thatthe front part of his body rests on it, whilehe utters a loud sound, as if yawning.

[He springs towards Fafner and remains defiantlyconfronting him. Fafner drags himselffurther up the knoll and spits at Siegfried fromhis nostrils. Siegfried avoids the poison, springsnearer, and stands on one side. Fafner triesto reach him with his tail. Siegfried, whois nearly caught, springs over Fafner with onebound, and wounds him in the tail. Fafnerroars, pulls his tail angrily away, and raises thefront part of his body so that he may throw itsfull weight on Siegfried, thus offering his breastto the stroke. Siegfried quickly looks to seewhere his heart is, and thrusts his sword into itup to the hilt. Fafner raises himself still higherin his pain, and, when Siegfried has let go hissword and sprung aside, he sinks on the wound.

Mime steals up, looking about him timidly to assure himself of Fafner's death.At the same time Alberich comes out of the cleft on the opposite side.He observes Mime, rushes on him and bars his way, as the latterturns towards the cave.

[Siegfried's mien and gestures show that hehas understood the bird's song. He seesMime approaching, and remains withoutmoving, leaning on his sword, observantand self-contained, in his place on the knolltill the close of the following scene.

A wild spot at the foot of a rocky mountain which rises precipitously at the backon the left. Night, storm, lightning and violent thunder. The latterceases shortly, but the lightning continues to flash from the clouds forsome time. The Wanderer enters and walks resolutely towards acavernous opening in a rock in the foreground, and takes up hisposition there, leaning on his spear, while he calls the followingtowards the entrance to the cave.

[A dim bluish light begins to dawn in thecavern. In this light Erda, during thefollowing, rises very gradually from below.She appears to be covered with hoar-frost,which glitters on her hair and garments.

[He remains where he is without changinghis position. Siegfried's wood-bird flutterstowards the foreground. Suddenly the birdstops in his direct flight, flutters to and froin alarm, and disappears quickly towardsthe back.

[With one stroke he hews the Wanderer'sspear in two pieces. Lightning flashesfrom the spear up towards the rocks, wherethe light, until now dim, begins to flamebrighter and brighter. A violent thunder-clap,which quickly dies away, accompaniesthe stroke.

[He sets his horn to his lips and plungesinto the fiery billows, which, flowing downfrom the heights, now spread over theforeground. Siegfried, who is soon lost toview, seems, from the sound of his horn, tobe ascending the mountain. The flamesbegin to fade, and change gradually intoa dissolving cloud lit by the glow ofdawn.

The thin cloud has resolved itself into a fine rose-coloured veil of mist, which sodivides that the upper part rises and disappears, disclosing the brightblue sky of day; whilst on the edge of the rocky height, now becomingvisible (exactly the same scene as in the third Act of "TheValkyrie"), a veil of mist reddened by the dawn remains hanging,which suggests the magic fire still flaming below. The arrangementof the scene is exactly the same as at the end of "The Valkyrie."In the foreground, under a wide-spreading fir-tree, lies Brnnhildein full shining armour, her helmet on her head, and her long shieldcovering her, in deep sleep.

[He draws his sword and gently and carefullycuts through the rings on both sides of thebreastplate; he then lifts this off alongwith the greaves, so that Brnnhilde nowlies before him in a soft woman's robe.He draws back startled and amazed.

The curtain rises slowly. The scene is the same as at the close of the secondday, on the Valkyries' rock; night. In the background, frombelow, firelight shines. The three Norns, tall women in long,dark, veil-like drapery. The first (eldest) lies in the foreground,to the right, under the spreading pine-tree; the second (younger) isstretched on a shelving rock in front of the cave; the third (youngest)fits in the centre at the back on a rock near the peak. Motionless,gloomy silence.

Is it the dawn,

Or the firelight that flickers?

Grief-darkened is my gaze.

The holy past

I can scarce remember,

When Loge burst

Of old into burning fire.

Dost thou know how he fared?

[Siegfried leads the horse quickly to the edge of the slopingrock, Brnnhilde following him. Siegfried disappearswith the horse down behind the projecting rock, sothat he is no longer visible to the audience. Brnnhildeis thus suddenly left standing alone on the edge of theslope, and gazes down into the valley after Siegfried.Her gestures show that Siegfried has vanished fromher sight. Siegfried's horn is heard from below.Brnnhilde listens, and steps further out on the slope.She catches sight of Siegfried in the valley again, andwaves to him joyfully. Her happy smiles seem to reflectthe air of the merrily departing hero.

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