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Table of Contents

Title Page
Dedication Page
General Table of Contents
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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Siegmund: (#24 & #25 or #40?) No one but I shall touch the pure woman as long as she lives: If I’m fated to die, I shall kill her first as she lies here, dulled by sleep.

Bruennhilde: (with growing emotion) Waelsung! Madman! Hear my plan: commend me your wife (#40; #64; #88) for the sake of the pledge [Siegmund’s and Sieglinde’s yet unborn child Siegfried] (#40; #64; #88) she received from you in her bliss.

 

Siegmund: (#57ab: drawing his sword) This sword – which a traitor gave to one who is true; this sword which betrays me fey to my foe: (#21 Vari or #60?) if it cannot prevail against that foe, then let it prevail against a friend! (#57: He aims the sword at Sieglinde) (#5 Varis) Two lives smile upon you here: - take them, Nothung, envious [“Neidischer”] steel! Take them at a stroke!

 

Bruennhilde: (#87; #5; [[ #90a ]]: in the most passionate and tempestuous show of sympathy) Stay your hand, Waelsung! Hark to my word! Sieglinde shall live – and Siegmund with her! My mind is made up; I’ll change the course of the battle: Siegmund, on you both blessing and victory I bestow. [Horns] Do you hear the call? Now arm yourself, hero! Trust in the sword and wield it securely: the weapon will ever be steadfast, just as the Valkyrie steadfastly shields you! (#77 Vari?) Fare you well, Siegmund, most blessed of heroes! I’ll see you again on the battlefield.”

 

[#90b comes into play later when Bruennhilde escapes with Sieglinde and the two halves of Nothung to the Valkyrie mountaintop, where Bruennhilde begs her sisters to help her protect herself and Sieglinde from Wotan’s wrath:]

 

“Bruennhilde: [to her 8 Valkyrie sisters] [[ #90b ]] Shield me and help me in direst need [“hoechster Noth”]!”

 

[[#91]] A Ride of the Valkyries Motif (illustrating their riding horses through the air)

A motif, purely descriptive, which represents the Valkyrie-sisters riding on horseback through the air to gather a host of slain heroes whom the Valkyries – as muses and angels of death – have inspired to martyrdom in unwitting service of Wotan’s futile longing to redeem the gods from Alberich’s curse on his Ring.

(#91’s motival links, if any, not yet ascertained; it is perhaps best understood as one of the Motions of Nature)

[Heard during the famous Prelude to Act Three of The Valkyrie popularly known as the ‘Ride of the Valkyries’; Other typical Valkyrie tunes heard during this Prelude are #77 and #78 – The Prelude presents a vivid picture of Bruennhilde’s eight sisters (also presumably daughters of Wotan and Erda) gathering a host of the slain, whom the Valkyrie muses have inspired to martyrdom on the battlefield, to take to Valhalla to aid the gods in the final battle between the gods and Alberich’s Nibelung host of night.]