The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: story from him, breaking into fatherly delight when Siegfried,
describing the mending of the sword remarks, that all he knew
about the business was that the broken bits of Nothung would be
of no use to him unless he made a new sword out of them right
over again from the beginning. But the Wanderer's interest is by
no means reciprocated by Siegfried. His majesty and elderly
dignity are thrown away on the young anarchist, who, unwilling to
waste time talking, bluntly bids him either show him the way to
the mountain, or else "shut his muzzle." Wotan is a little hurt.
"Patience, my lad," he says: "if you were an old man I should
treat you with respect." "That would be a precious notion," says
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