It is important to understand early on that Alberich’s threat to doom anyone to death who wears his Ring does not mean literally that the Ring’s owner will die the moment he takes possession of or wears it. It means that he will be troubled by the thought of the inevitability of his eventual death, and/or by the thought of the inevitability of the destruction of those ideals, values, and beliefs which are predicated on the illusion that man has transcendent value, or a special relationship with supernatural beings. Wagner borrows this concept from the Bible. In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve have been told that if they eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, they will surely die. Well, they do eat of this fruit, but God does not strike them dead. Instead, God punishes them with exile from paradise, the consequence of which is that they will no longer be able to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life which presumably grants them eternal youth. The point of all such origin myths’ explanations of man’s mortality (and Adam and Eve feeling ashamed of their nakedness stems from this awareness of mortality) as a divine punishment, is surely that the gift of human consciousness - granted man in actuality through the slow, natural process of the evolution of species - seems divine in its apparently infinite reach (the infinite power the Ring confers), but on the other hand makes man, unlike all his other animal brethren, fearfully conscious of the inevitability of his death. This is why it seems to be God’s punishment for man’s hubris in striving to attain God’s glory.
[R.4: E]
Alberich now spells out the other punishments which the Ring’s owner will suffer through its curse:
Alberich: (#19 vari:) No joyful man shall ever have joy of it; on no happy man shall its bright gleam smile (:#19 vari); (#50:) may he who owns it be wracked by care, and he who does not be ravaged by greed [“Neid”]! Each man shall covet its acquisition, but none shall enjoy it to lasting gain (:#50); (#19:) its lord shall guard it without profit and yet it shall draw down his bane upon him (:#19). [[ #52: ]] Doomed to die, may the coward be fettered by fear; as long as he lives, let him pine away, languishing [“… so lang’ er lebt, sterb’ er lechzend dahin” – could this be translated as something like: “… so long as he lives, he will long for death”?] (:#52), (#45:) lord of the ring, as slave of the ring (:#45): (#51?:) till the circlet I hold in my hand once again (:#51?)!– (#b minor: [key of Alberich’s curse on the ring]) And so in highest need [“hoechster Noth”] the Nibelung blesses his ring (:#b minor). Keep it now (laughing) and guard it well: (grimly: [#general descending shape of #37 without its harmony:]) you’ll not escape from my curse (:#37 vari?)! (He disappears quickly into the crevice. #5. The thick mists in the foreground slowly clear: #7)
Loge: Did you hear his fond farewell?
