(#53 Vari [a free Vari or translation]; #5; #64 or #80 Embryo?: The closer she comes, the more she moderates her pace and at last places herself with dignity before Wotan.)”
[as #79’s initial “meaning” isn’t established until some moments later, after Fricka has complained that Hunding’s honor has been besmirched by his protegees, the adulterous Waelsung twins, and Wotan has defended their love as spontaneous and authentic in the face of his wife Fricka’s unreflective conservatism, and #79’s logical pairing with #80 isn’t established until then, I provide this dramatic context below:]
“Fricka: If you think breach of wedlock worthy of praise, then go on boasting and deem it holy that incest springs from the bond of a twin-born pair! My heart is quaking, my brain is reeling: as bride a sister embraced her brother! When was it witnessed that natural siblings loved one another?
Wotan: (#73 Orch) Today you have witnessed it happen: (#73 Orch) Learn thus that a thing might befall of itself though it never happened before. (#64?) That those two are in love is as plain as the day: so hear my honest advice! If sweet delight shall reward your blessing, then, smiling on love, bestow that blessing (#75) on Siegmund’s and Sieglinde’s bond.
Fricka: (Breaking out in the most violent indignation: [[ #79 ]]) So this is the end of the blessed immortals, since you begot those dissolute Waelsungs? I’ve said it now – have I caught your meaning? (#7 Vari [possibly #86 Embryo?]) The gods’ hallowed kin mean nothing to you; you cast away everything that you once cared for, … severing ties that you yourself forged, laughingly loosen heaven’s hold (#57) that this impious twin-born pair, your falsehood’s wanton fruit, might obey the dictates of pleasure and whim! (#41?; [[ #80a ]]) Oh why do I wail over [[ #80b ]] wedlock and vow, when you were the first to infringe them! You’ve always played false with your true-hearted wife. Where the hollow, where the height [[ #79 ]] where your lustful look didn’t pry in seeking out ways of indulging your fondness for change and of tauntingly wounding my heart! (#79 Varis and fragments; #80 Varis and fragments) In sadness of spirit I had to stand by, (#77?) while you fared to the fray with those ill-mannered girls [Bruennhilde and her 8 Valkyrie sisters, Wotan’s children by Erda], who were born of a dissolute love; (#86 Embryo Bass Clarinet) for you still held your wife in sufficient awe that the Valkyrie band, and Bruennhilde herself, the bride of your wishes, you gave to me to obey as their mistress. (#86 Embryo?) But now new names have taken your fancy, wolf-like you roam through the forest as Waelse; (#79 &/or #80?; #86 Embryo) now that you’ve fallen to fathomless shame and fathered a couple of common mortals, would you then fling your wife at the feet of the she-wolf’s litter? (#79; #86 Embryo) Then finish your work and fill the measure: now you’ve betrayed me, trample me underfoot as well. (#40 or #64?)”
