- Mime: You must believe what I tell you: I am both your father and your mother.
- Siegfried: You're lying, you loathsome loon!
- Mime: I have learned the art of fear, in order to teach it to you, dummy.
- Siegfried: What is fear?
- Mime: You don't know what fear is, but you want to venture out of the forest into the world? The mightiest sword will be useless to you if you don't know what fear is.
- Siegfried: Are you lying again?
- Mime: It was your mother's advice, which I promised to tell you: never to venture out into the tricky world until you have learned to fear.
- Siegfried: If it's a skill, why don't I know it? Speak up now: what is fear?
- Siegfried: Shall I learn what fear is here? Now leave me. If I can't learn here what I need to know, I'll go on alone.
- Mime: Believe me, my dear, if you can't learn fear here, you'll never learn it anywhere. Do you see that dark cave? A grim, fearsome dragon lives there. He is gruesome and huge; his jaws open wide and he can swallow you in one gulp...
- Siegfried: ...Does the dragon have a heart?
- Mime: Yes. A powerful, hard heart.
- Siegfried: And does it sit where all men and beasts keep their hearts?
- Mime: Of course, my boy, he keeps his heart there too. Now are you starting to feel frightened?
- Siegfried: I'll stab him though his heart with my sword Notung! Is that what you mean by fear?
- Siegfried: [Looking at Brünnhilde's sleeping body] That is no man! Burning enchantment pierces my breast; fiery spells dazzle and blind me: my heart falters and faints! Whom can I call for help? Mother! Mother! Remember me!... Can this be what fear is? O mother! mother! Your fearless child! A sleeping woman has taught him to fear! How can I vanquish the fear? How steel my heart? To awaken myself, I must wake her.