[V.2.1: E]
Fricka acknowledges that at least the Valkyries, Wotan’s daughters by Erda, served the gods, but Fricka complains that now that Wotan has resorted to taking on new identities and disguises in order to produce a mortal race of heroes, he may as well finish off the gods:
Fricka: (#79 varis & frags:; #80 varis & frags:) In sadness of spirit I had to stand by, (#77?:) while you fared to the fray with those ill-mannered girls, who were born of the bond of a dissolute love (:#77?); (#86 embryo bass clarinet:) for you still held your wife in sufficient awe that the Valkyrie band (:#86 embryo), and Bruennhilde herself, the bride of your wishes, you gave to me to obey as their mistress. (#86 embryo:) But now new names have taken your fancy, wolf-like you roam through the forest as Waelse (:#86 embryo?); (#79 and/or #80?; #86 embryo:) now that you’ve fallen to fathomless shame and fathered a couple of common mortals (:#79 or #80?; :#86 embryo), would you then fling your wife at the feet of the she-wolf’s litter? – (#79:; #86 embryo hint:) Then finish your work (:#79; :#86 embryo hint) and fill the measure: now you’ve betrayed me, trample me underfoot as well! (#40 or #64?)
Of course, the mere fact that Wotan, ruler of gods and man, should seek redemption for the gods through the agency of a race of mortal men, is itself a foreshadowing of the twilight of the gods which Alberich and his host of night threatens. This ironic notion stems from the Feuerbachian idea that through the Christian belief that God had to take human form in order to redeem man, the Christians were unwittingly admitting that God is, after all, merely man himself, the human species as such:
“ … the true reason why at the end of religion – the present stage in our development – eschatological doctrine represents man as a divine being, … is that God, at least the Christian God, is nothing other than the essence of man.” [306F-LER: p. 270]
[V.2.1: F]
Wotan now tries to persuade Fricka that depending so completely on the infallibility and eternal righteousness of particular mores, customs, traditions, and beliefs, will leave one vulnerable to tide and time if one doesn’t acknowledge inevitable change. For this reason Wotan confesses to her that the gods need a hero, independent of the gods and their laws, who can do what the gods, bound by faith and its false assumption of timeless verities, cannot do, breach faith and break divine law in order to preserve what is truly valuable and good in Valhalla’s legacy, from the inevitability of the twilight of the gods Erda foresaw:
Wotan: You learned nothing at all when I tried to teach you things you can never recognize until the deed has dawned on you. Age-old custom is all you can grasp: but my thoughts seek to
