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Title Page
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Acknowledgments
Abbreviations for key references
Guide to abbreviations used in text
Allen Dunning's numbered Guide to the Ring's Musical Motifs
Detailed Table of Contents

The Ring

Introduction


References
Appendix I
Appendix I I

Key Colour Coding

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I would be grateful for donations of any size, small or large, to help defray the cost (1) of maintaining this website, (2) and to finance my past and present research which produced my book posted here, Volume One of "The Wound That Will Never Heal," and my forthcoming revision of Volume One (to be submitted for publication), and completion of Volume Two on Wagner's six other canonic operas and music-dramas. I sacrificed at least seven years of paid employment and incurred debts to complete this project, and am currently unemployed, so I thank you in advance for any financial help you can provide. Your friend, Paul Heise.

 

Fricka: Don't shelter him today then; take away the sword you bestowed upon him.

 

Wotan: (#57) The sword?

 

Fricka: Yes – the sword, the magically mighty, flashing sword which you, a god, gave your son.

 

Wotan: (vehemently) Siegmund won it himself (with suppressed trembling) in his need ["Noth"].

 

([[ #81A ]]: From this point onwards, Wotan's whole demeanor expresses increasing gloom and deep dejection)

Fricka: (Continuing vehemently:[[ #81A ]] You fostered that need ["Noth"] no less than you fashioned the fearsome sword [Nothung]: [[ #81A ]] would you deceive me who, day and night, follows hard on your heels? (#81A) For him you thrust the sword in the tree trunk; (#81A) (#68?) You promised him the noble weapon: (#81A) will you deny that your cunning alone lured him to where he might find it?”

 

[#81B is introduced much later, when Wotan prepares to punish Bruennhilde for remaining loyal to Wotan’s hero Siegmund (i.e., loyal to Wotan’s hope for redemption through the Waelsungs) after Wotan had confessed to her that Siegmund is only a reflection of Wotan’s own loathsome egoism and fears, so that he must abandon him. Wotan has challenged Bruennhilde to step forward and face her punishment:]

 

"Bruennhilde: Here I am father, [[ #81B ]] dictate my punishment!”

[[#82]] Wotan's repression of his unbearable hoard of knowledge – that his hope for redemption is futile - into his unconscious mind, Bruennhilde

Commonly known as “Wotan’s Revolt Motif” – Wotan represses intolerable knowledge of his true identity and corrupt history into his unconscious mind by confessing it to Bruennhilde, his “Will.”

(#82 is an inversion of the Definitive #21, based mostly therefore on #47; through #21 related to #28, #32b, #60, #62, #81AB, #96AB, #137, #164, and perhaps #115)

“Bruennhilde: The quarrel, I fear, must have ended badly, if Fricka laughed at the outcome. (#81A) What is it, father (#81A) your child must learn? Sad you seem and downhearted! (#81A)