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Title Page
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Abbreviations for key references
Guide to abbreviations used in text
Allen Dunning's numbered Guide to the Ring's Musical Motifs
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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.

[[#95]] The Valkyries’ protest against Wotan’s intent to leave Bruennhilde’s divine Valkyrie chastity, the womb of Wotan’s wishes, unprotected

By leaving the virgin Bruennhilde asleep, Wotan intends to leave her vulnerable to the shame of being wooed and won by a common mortal. The Valkyrie muses ostensibly inspire Wotan’s chosen heroes to martyrdom without having sexual union with them, so Wotan’s intended punishment of Bruennhilde will deprive her of her divine status as a Valkyrie.

(#95 is a compound motif comprised of #88 and #92; it one of the family of heroic motives stemming from the last three notes of #53, which also includes #71, #77, #88, and perhaps #152)

[See #94 for #95’s dramatic context]

 

[[#96ab]] Bruennhilde’s appeal to Wotan to refrain from debasing her for doing what he, in his innermost self, desired

Bruennhilde appeals to Wotan to refrain from debasing the ageless part of himself, Bruennhilde, by leaving her (and thus his unspoken secret, which she keeps) vulnerable to be won and wed by a common, unheroic man (i.e., by a man who is not, like Siegfried, an unconsciously inspired artist-hero)

(#96ab is in the family of motifs deriving either from #21’s Embryo, or the Definitive Motif #21, which includes #28, #32b, #60, #62, #81AB, part of #83, #137, and #164; through inversion of #21, it is indirectly related to #47 and #82)

[See #94 for #96a Embryo’s initial dramatic context; see below for #96ab’s more definitive form and dramatic context:]

[Frightened by Wotan’s threat to mete out Bruennhilde’s punishment to her sister Valkyries, they’ve flown off in a panic, leaving Wotan and Bruennhilde alone at twilight:]

 

“(#95, [[ #96a ]]; #81; #87: Wotan and Bruennhilde, who still lies at his feet, are left alone. A long, solemn silence: their positions remain unchanged.)

 

Bruennhilde: (Slowly beginning to raise her head a little; starting timidly, then with increasing intensity: [[ #96a ]] Was it so shameful what I did wrong, that you punish it in so shameful a way? [[ #96a ]] Was it so base what I did unto you that you seek