Nature and of Man, we stand indebted for that copious store [Hoard?, i.e. Hort?] of literature whose kernel is the poetic musing (gedankenhaftes Dichten) which speaks to us in Human – and in Natural – History, and in Philosophy [i.e., Alberich’s and Wotan’s Hoard of knowledge of the world, Erda]. (…) But … Science … can only gain her perfect confirmation in the work of Art; in that work which takes both Man and Nature – in so far as the latter [Erda] attains her consciousness in Man [Wotan] – and shows them forth directly. Thus the consummation of Knowledge is its redemption into Poetry; into that poetic art, however, which marches hand in hand with her sister arts towards the perfect Artwork; -- and this artwork is none other than the Drama [i.e., the Wagnerian music-drama].” [439W-{9-12/49} The Artwork of the Future: PW Vol. I, p. 138-139]
[R.4: N]
While Wotan is lost in troubled thought, contemplating the compromises and subterfuge and self-deception in which he has had to engage in order to enter the gods’ abode Valhalla with the essential beliefs in transcendent value and immortality (Freia as goddess of love and immortality) intact, Fricka, wholly oblivious to these contradictions which exercise Wotan, suggests Wotan allay all doubts and enjoy the welcoming shelter of the as-yet-to-be-named fortress, accompanied by #23. #23, representing the domestic tranquility of Valhalla which Fricka hopes will sustain Wotan’s fidelity to her and to its beliefs and values, can be understood here as the musical expression of the domestic consolations of self-deception. But Wotan’s doubts are not allayed, for he notes he paid for Valhalla with evil wage, as we hear #19, reminding us again that #19 (Alberich’s Ring) gave birth to #20a (Valhalla):
Fricka: (nestling up to him, cajolingly: #23:) Your thoughts are elsewhere. Does the noble stronghold not beckon you gladly (:#23), (#20a modulation or #20b?:) awaiting its lord with its welcoming shelter (:#20a modulation or #20b?)? (#20a [seems to merge into #19?])
Wotan: (sombrely: #19:) With evil wage I paid for the building (:#19)! (#19)
Loge of course was lying when he pronounced judgment on Valhalla’s walls, saying that they are solid. It was egoism, man’s selfish animal instincts, which built these walls of religious self-deception upon which mankind depends for his sense of transcendent self-worth. Through Wotan’s self-doubt Wagner is suggesting to us that we, the historical Folk, who involuntarily and unconsciously invented our religions and our gods, are subliminally aware that we are lying to ourselves, i.e., that we are dependent on the liar-god Loge, whose cunning represents our own gift for self-deception.
Porges recorded Wagner’s view that Erda, Mother Nature, who imparts this objective knowledge to Wotan, which he can’t bear to contemplate consciously, is Wotan’s superior, the “inexorable voice of his conscience,” that is to say, his objective, intellectual conscience:
