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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.

(#18b basis of #37; #37 seems to influence a large number of subsequent motifs)

[[#19ab]] Alberich's “Ring” of World-Power (The Limitless Power of the Human Mind)

Alberich’s forging of the Ring of power, and renunciation of love, represents man’s evolutionary transition from an animal dependent on instinct (the life of feeling) into the fully human being, gifted with that reflective thought which grants him worldly power.

(#19ab based on #17ab, which in turn is based on music characterizing the Rhinedaughters’ joy; basis of #20a; #19's chords basis of #50, #19a basis of #68 and #159; #19a's inversion basis of #51; #19b basis of #46; #19's harmony heavily influences many motifs, particularly under special dramatic circumstances)

[[#20abcde]] “Valhalla” (the Gods’ heavenly abode)

The Gods' heavenly abode, a refuge from Alberich's Host of Night: A symbol for human civilization predicated on religious faith, the belief in gods, a waking dream through which collective, historical man involuntarily and unconsciously invented the gods

(#20a based on #19ab, which in turn is produced by #17ab, derived in its turn from a transformation of music characteristic of the Rhinedaughters’ delight in the Rhinegold; #20b may be basis for #113; related through its basis #19 to all the #19-based motifs such as #46, #50, #51, #68, and #159)

[[#21]] Wotan's “Spear” of Divine Authority and Law (the Social Contract)

Wotan’s Spear, inscribed with the Social Contract, represents the prudence of egoism: this is an agreement whereby man’s egoistic motives, represented by the Giants, give authority to actual leaders and laws, or to products of the imagination like gods, to restrain each individual’s ego, to force each man to do good, for the sake of security and quiet for the majority, the common good.

(#21 basis for #28, #32b; #60, #62, #81AB, #96AB, #137, #164, and perhaps #115; #21's inversion basis for #47 and #82; one of three motifs comprising #83)