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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

Donations Welcome

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.

I fly from here and float away, wafting along like the wind over the woodland – nevermore, Mime, (#71 Vari “Hero”, #57 Vari, or #92c?) to see you again! (He runs into the forest)”

 

Mime: (in the utmost fear) Stop! Stop! Where are you going? Hey! Siegfried! Siegfried! Hey! (#110 Varis and Fragments; #111 Varis and Fragments: He gazes in astonishment as Siegfried rushes away.)”

 

[[#110]] Siegfried’s joyful feeling of emancipation from Mime and his abhorrent claims on Siegfried

Siegfried, having forced Mime to restore Siegfried’s lost heritage, the two pieces of Nothung, will now go forth from the forest and into the world with his newly re-forged sword.

(#110’s motival links, in any, not yet ascertained)

[See #109 for #110’s dramatic context]

 

[[#111]] Siegfried’s declaration of independence from Mime

Commonly known as “Siegfried’s Mission” – the fact that #111, which expresses Siegfried’s alleged freedom from Mime and his claims, is derived from Mime’s Starling Song #105, to which Mime sang of all that Siegfried owes Mime, suggests that Siegfried is not as freed from his debt to Mime as Siegfried feels.

(#111 is based on Mime’s Starling Song #105; it is the basis for #127)

[See #109 for #111’s dramatic context]

 

[[#112]] The First “Wanderer Motif”: Wotan accumulates a hoard of knowledge while wandering into and over the earth (Erda)

The god Wotan, Wagner’s metaphor for Feuerbach’s collective, historical, and religious man, gradually accumulates that very hoard of objective knowledge of the world (Erda), through historical experience, which will inevitably undermine man’s belief in the gods in the course of time