modeled on Zeus’ punishment of Prometheus by exposing him on a mountaintop. This has long been part of the received wisdom of Wagner scholarship, but its implications seem never to have been adequately explored.
We can now begin to grasp the meaning of Alberich’s proclamation that thanks to Loge’s treacherous nature, which Alberich can count on to undermine the gods’ rule, Alberich can now safely defy the gods and assure himself of his victory over them. This echoes Alberich’s prior claim that his egoistic Ring-power is behind all human actions everywhere, even where least expected. And we’re reminded that Loge’s Motif #35 produces the Tarnhelm motifs #42 and #43, and ultimately Hagen’s Potion Motif #154. Indeed, not only Hagen’s potion, but the Tarnhelm, will play key roles in Hagen’s plot to engineer Siegfried’s betrayal of his love for Bruennhilde (this love being Wotan’s sole remaining hope to redeem the gods from suffering the consequences of Alberich’s curse on this ring), and to restore Alberich’s Ring to Hagen (and by extension to Alberich, since Hagen will become the agent of Alberich’s curse on the Ring).
The Serpent Motif #48 (which occurs first here in embryo), will recur in the definitive form which Fafner inherits from Alberich, when he, like Alberich, transforms himself (using the Tarnhelm’s magic) into a serpent to guard the Ring and Nibelung Hoard. #48 will become the musical incarnation of fear, i.e., that existential fear which is not only the price we pay for our foresight of our inevitable death, but is the basis of unquestioning religious faith, the fear of objective knowledge of the truth which would undermine religious faith were it conscious. Loge - as the representative of the imagination, and in this sense linked not only musically but conceptually with the Tarnhelm which #35 produces - once served Alberich’s quest for the power which only the human mind can acquire, but as a servant of the gods, i.e., of man’s religious illusions, Loge has become the archetype of the artist-hero, who helps man redeem himself from the truth by lying to himself, substituting a consoling illusion for unbearable knowledge which is consigned to oblivion. In other words, man’s imagination (Loge exploiting Alberich’s and Mime’s Tarnhelm to serve the gods) is about to betray Alberich into giving up the truth for the sake of a more consoling illusion, the illusion that the gods rule our lives, and give them transcendent meaning, in Valhalla. This is what is behind Loge’s conspiracy with Wotan to co-opt the power of Alberich’s Ring, Tarnhelm, and Hoard of Treasure, so that Alberich’s power will serve feeling (the Giants) instead of objective knowledge (Alberich’s active employment of the Ring power), allowing Wotan to enjoy the benefits of power without having to sacrifice love. Loge, as the artistic imagination, now serves the gods, and the gods’ rule is predicated not only on fear of death but fear of the truth. Wotan is, after all, actually here in Nibelheim seeking to steal Alberich’s powers at the behest of Fafner, of the two giants the one that represents the self-preservation instinct, the existential fear which according to Feuerbach gave birth to the gods and sustains their power in our minds. It is to Fafner that Siegfried will turn to learn the meaning of fear.
Alberich can be sure of overthrowing the gods because the objective truth, for which he alone has the stomach (i.e., to acknowledge that the world is loveless), will always, in the end, trump man’s dependence on illusion for his happiness. Therefore the gods’ dependence on the liar Loge will be their downfall. And of course, in the twilight of the gods it will be Loge himself, the fire god, representative of illusion, the veil of Maya, which will burn Valhalla and the gods up.
