power, to wipe out love forever from his heart. At this point Wotan shows his true colors, and refuses to yield the Ring of power to the Giants, even if this means he must forfeit Freia.
The reason for this is simple. Though Freia represents mankind’s hope for transcendent value and eternal life, the imaginary things promised by religious faith, man’s longing for transcendent value and immortal life has a physical basis. And the power which the Ring can grant is the sole authentic basis for satisfying man's physical needs in the real world. Wotan therefore grasps reality when he has the opportunity, disavowing for the moment his emotional attachment to the illusion of satisfaction which religion’s promises provide. This is no surprise: after all, when Wotan went in search of Alberich’s Hoard of Treasure in order to redeem Freia, he did it not for her sake as the goddess of love, but because the gods, if deprived of the taste of her golden apples, were facing destruction. He did it out of fear, not love.
[R.4: H]
But Wotan’s insistence on trading the illusion of transcendent value and immortal life for concrete power in the real world, his insistence that he will not relinquish the Ring now he possesses it, calls up from the depths the World Soul, if you will, Erda, Mother Nature. Nature, in other words, now fully wakes in Wotan. Her rising is heralded by an orchestral explosion of #19/#20a, which musically dramatizes the underlying identity of Wotan’s quest for divine power in Valhalla, and Alberich’s quest for actual power on earth, a quest which is the basis for Wotan’s power:
(#hybrid of #19 and #20a: [perhaps as heard when Wotan and Loge ascended out of Nibelheim with Alberich in tow?] Fafner prevents Fasolt from hurrying away. All stand dismayed. Wotan turns away in anger. The stage has grown dark again: [[ #53: ]] a bluish light breaks forth from a rocky fissure at one side and in it Erda suddenly appears, rising up to half her height.)
Erda: (Stretching out her hand to wotan in a gesture of remonstration: [[ #53: ]] Yield, Wotan! Yield (:#53)! Flee the curse on the ring! To irredeemably dark destruction its gain will ever ordain you.
Wotan: (#53?:) What woman are you that warns me thus?
Erda: [[ #53: ]] How all things were – I know; (#53:) how all things are, (#53 modulating:) how all things will be, I see as well (:#53 modulating): [[ #53: ]] the endless earth’s (:#53) primeval Wala, Erda, bids you beware. [[ #53: ]] Ere the world was, (#53 modulating?:) my womb brought forth (#53 modulating?:) three daughters: what I see (:#53 modulating) [[ #53: ]] the Norns unfold each night (:#53).
