… the record left upon our own mind by a deeply moving dream is strictly nothing but an allegorical paraphrase [i.e., Valhalla], whose intrinsic disagreement with the original [Alberich’s Nibelheim] remains a trouble to our waking consciousness … .” [Wotan will be troubled by his debt to Alberich, and by Alberich’s curse, the price of that debt, throughout the entire Ring drama] [704W-{64-2/65} On State and Religion: PW Vol. IV, p. 27-28] [See also 767W]
But Fricka gives Wotan’s dreamy nature a jolt, waking him by reminding him bluntly that a forfeit is due the Giants for building Valhalla, accompanied by the Embryonic form of the Spear Motif #21. The Spear Motif #21 is one of the most important in the Ring, and its importance is indicated by its great power of generation, for it produces many other significant motifs. Stemming from it directly, Cooke and Dunning note, are #28 (often called the Irrevocable Treaty Motif), #32b (the second segment of Donner’s Hammer Motif), #60 (the Storm Motif), #62 (Siegmund’s Motif), #81AB (a very distorted variant of #21 often called the Motif of Wotan’s Frustration), #96AB (a motif which accompanies Bruennhilde’s successful effort to make Wotan relent in punishing her for disobedience), and #83 (the Gods’ Need Motif, comprised of #81, #53, and #54). While Cooke traces #137 (associated in S.3.3 with Siegfried’s fear of the sleeping Bruennhilde) and #164 (which will in T.1.3.1 be associated with Wotan’s loss of faith that Siegfried’s and Bruennhilde’s love can redeem gods and world from Alberich’s curse) from #21 via #81, Dunning disagrees. #21 inverted produces #47 (which Dunning calls Alberich’s Revolt), and what Cooke calls Wotan’s Revolt Motif #82.
I will argue in our next several sections that the Giants Fafner and Fasolt represent, respectively, our two fundamental animal instincts, namely, the self-preservation instinct and the instinct for sexual reproduction which, through natural evolution of species, gave birth to human civilization during that transitional period when evolving man had not yet attained fully human status, was not yet fully conscious. Figuratively speaking, man had been sleeping, impelled by preconscious instinct, but upon waking to full consciousness found himself already in possession of language and religion, as if he had always possessed them, just as Wotan and Fricka, having slept while the Giants built Valhalla, wake to find it an established fact, full and complete. But now a forfeit is due our instincts of self-preservation (Fafner) and sexual reproduction (Fasolt) for building our civilization modeled on the ideal realm of the gods, whose divine law guides human action on earth. In other words, religious faith in the gods, in the promises they make, has to satisfy instincts which are quite the opposite of divine, namely, fear (of death), and the longing for endless bliss, the latter of which stems, among other physical sources, from sexual desire and its attendant feeling of bliss, which bonds family members with each other and with outsiders, i.e., friends and associates.
[R.2: B]
Wotan’s retort to Fricka is that she herself begged him to make his contract with the Giants to build a heavenly abode for the gods, but Fricka is quick to respond that she did so for the very special purpose of ensuring Wotan’s fidelity:
Fricka: (#5?:) O laughingly wanton folly! Most loveless joviality! Had I known about your contract, I’d have hindered such deceit; but you mettlesome menfolk kept us women out of the
