The first part of the opera takes place in a forest where the giant Fafner lives. He has used the magic tarn helmet to change himself into a dragon so that he can guard the treasure of the gold and the ring (we saw how he got the treasure in the first opera, "Das Rheingold"). Siegfried, who was not yet born at the end of the second opera, "Die Walküre", is now a young lad. He has been brought up by the dwarf Mime, Alberich's brother. Mime is just as horrible as his brother.