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The Ring

Introduction


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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.

[[#89]] Siegmund’s resistance to the fated doom Bruennhilde heralded, for the sake of his love for his sister-bride, Sieglinde

Siegmund renounces the sorrowless youth eternal (Freia’s golden apples) which he would enjoy in the gods’ heavenly abode, Valhalla, in order to live and die for the sake of his earthly love for his mortal sister, Sieglinde. Siegmund knows instinctively that the heavenly abode of the gods possesses no value in itself, but is merely an imaginary projection of our earthly bliss.

(#89’s motival links, if any, not yet ascertained; but #89 seems to be musically kin to #177b)

[See #87 for #89’s dramatic context]

 

[[#90ab]] Bruennhilde’s sympathy for – and heroic rebellion against Wotan in the service of – the Waelsung race: Siegmund, Sieglinde, and the yet-to-be-born Siegfried

(#90’s motival links, if any, not yet ascertained)

[Having learned from Bruennhilde that he [Wotan] who gave Siegmund his sword has now taken its magical power away and decreed his death, Siegmund has expressed his contempt by threatening to go after death to hell [Nibelheim] rather than Valhalla:]

 

“Bruennhilde: (shaken: #87 Vari) You’re so little heedful of bliss everlasting? (hesitantly and cautiously) Is she all to you, this pitiful woman who, tired and sorrowful, lies there, faint, in your lap? (#89) Is there nothing else you hold dear?

 

Siegmund: (Gazing up at her bitterly: #40 Vari?) (#88 Vari) Young and fair though you shimmer before me: (#64 hint plus #88?) cold and hard my heart knows you to be! (#24; #40 Vari) Can you only scoff, then be on your way, you false, unfeeling maid! (#88) But if you must gloat at this grief of mine, (#64?) then let my anguish gladden you; may my “Noth” regale your spiteful [“Neidvolles”] heart: (#40; #88; [[#90 Fragment ]] but of Valhalla’s cold delights speak not, in truth, to me! (#24 & #25?; #40)

 

Bruennhilde: (#88) I can see the “Noth” that gnaws at your heart; I can feel the hero’s holy sorrow. Siegmund, commend your wife to me: (#40; #88; [[ #90 Hint ]];#64 Hint) Let my shelter shield her securely!