Quite a number of motifs stem from #53, but first, we need to remember that its basis #1 is also the basis for #57b, the second segment of the Sword Motif, which is also called the Motif of “Wotan’s Grand Idea” for redemption from the irredeemable fate which Erda foresees. A special motif which is closely related to #53, and follows directly after it in the extract from the Ring which follows, is #54. Where Cooke describes #54, the “Twilight of the Gods Motif,” as an inversion of #53, Dunning notes that it is not quite a true inversion. However, Cooke’s interpretation will suffice for our purposes. Cooke, I think, was wrong to say that #53 represents growth, and #54 decline, because #53 is itself associated in this and the following passage with the transient nature of the real world, that all forms come and go. #54, as we’ll see, is specifically associated with one special historical instance of the becoming and perishing of the things of this world, namely, the gods, which is to say, man’s belief in the gods. It is that which will inevitably end.
Cooke demonstrated that the last three notes of #53 constitute the opening segment of a special family of heroic motifs, most of which we can see are thematically linked. These motifs include #71, which in V.1.2 will be associated with the tragic fate of Wotan’s Waelsung heroes, whom he has brought into the world to redeem the gods from Alberich’s curse on the Ring. Another in this set is #77, the “Valkyrie Motif,” representing Bruennhilde and her eight Valkyrie sisters, to whom Erda (Mother Nature) gave birth from Wotan’s seed. Wotan brought the Valkyries into the world to inspire mortal heroes to martyrdom, so they can be gathered after death in Valhalla as a host who will protect the gods during the final armageddon with Alberich and his hosts of night, a battle whose inevitable ending in the gods’ destruction Erda has foreseen. #83, the “Need of the Gods Motif,” is a compound motif composed of #53 followed by #54, with an overlay of #81, and it expresses Wotan’s need for a free hero who can do what the gods cannot do, break the gods’ contract with the Giants, in order to redeem the gods from the fate Erda foretold, their demise at the hands of Alberich’s curse. #88, the motif to which Bruennhilde announces to the Waelsung Siegmund his fated doom, that he must go in death to Valhalla to serve Wotan, and sometimes known as the “Doom Motif,” is another. And, unsurprisingly, the motif representing Siegfried himself, #92, is of this set: Siegfried is the greatest hero to whom Wotan looks for redemption, the last of the Waelsungs. Finally, we have #95, the Valkyrie chorus in support of Bruennhilde against Wotan’s threat to punish her. He threatened to punish her for supporting his Waelsung heroes when he had determined to destroy them, because he had given up hope of redemption and expected Bruennhilde to renounce the Waelsungs and Wotan’s hopes. Dunning notes that it is a compound motif composed of two of those just mentioned, namely #88 (Bruennhilde’s annunciation of death to Siegmund) and #92 (Siegfried the fearless hero, in whose favor Bruennhilde decided to alter the fate Wotan had chosen for Siegmund, since Siegfried was Siegmund’s and Sieglinde’s as yet unborn child).
Cooke also regarded Gunther’s Motif #152 as belonging to this set. Though its first three notes are, Cooke notes, identical with #53’s last three, it is hard to grasp why Gunther’s personal motif should be included here among motifs which express Wotan’s hope for redemption and the role his Valkyrie daughters and Waelsung heroes play in realizing his hope. For Gunther is not heroic in any sense, and Bruennhilde herself will tell Gunther to his face how unworthy and craven he is. In any case, with this exception, this family of heroic motifs is unified conceptually because they represent various measures Wotan employs to escape the fate which Erda is now predicting, a fate identified here with #53 – the musical incarnation of the ephemeral, time-bound nature of the real
