[S.1.3: F]
Now Mime faces his true conundrum, the very same which besets Wotan. On the one hand, how can he obtain the Ring and Hoard, and keep Alberich from regaining its power and enslaving him, if Siegfried learns fear from Fafner, and Siegfried is therefore too fearful to slay Fafner? On the other hand, if Siegfried does indeed act the part of Wotan’s hoped-for hero, his free, friendly foe, and therefore remains fearless, slays Fafner, and wins the Ring and Hoard, this is a moot point, since he’s predestined to slay Mime (and therefore is also a threat to all those aspects of the social contract and religious faith which are predicated on egoism and the instinct of self-preservation, embodied by Mime):
(While Siegfried continues filing down the fragments of the sword with impetuous enthusiasm, Mime goes and sits somewhat further away.)
Mime: (#103 frag>>:) He’ll succeed with the sword, I can see that clearly: (#117:?; #33b?:) fearless, he’ll furbish it whole, - (#117/#33b:) the Wanderer knew he would (:#33b)! - (#5/#34:) How can I save (:#117) my timid head (:#5/#34)? (#92:) It will fall to the valiant lad (:#92) if Fafner doesn’t teach him fear! (leaping up with mounting disquiet and then stooping down: #103 frags) (#48 >>:) But alas, poor me! For how could he slay the dragon if he’d first learnt fear from the beast (:#48)? How could I win the ring for myself? (#17>>:) Cursed quandary! I’d be firmly stuck if I couldn’t find some clever means by which to defeat the fearless lad (:#17; :#103 frags).
The disqualifying disadvantage that the martyred heroes - whom Wotan had been gathering in Valhalla for the final fight with Alberich – labored under, was that their heroic deeds unwittingly supported the perpetuation of the rule of the gods, i.e., religious faith, when Wotan knew that the gods’ rule was predicated on his loathsome egoism, which he had disavowed. In order to obtain redemption from the Mime-like, prosaic aspects of religious faith which made it vulnerable to Alberich’s threat to expose its hypocrisy by revealing the truth, Wotan needs a hero who will spontaneously break divine law and breach faith, without fear of suffering any consequences. Mime’s wish to exploit Siegfried solely for Mime’s own preservation and self-aggrandizement, therefore represents the conservative impulse in man’s adherence to the social contract (represented by received opinion, tradition, and religious faith) which resists change. Mime therefore seeks to exploit the artist-hero Siegfried for egoistic ends, while Wotan, unlike Mime, is prepared to sacrifice all those aspects of his character which are Mime-like, in order to free Siegfried’s hands so he can redeem the gods from Alberich’s curse.
Wotan will solve Mime’s problem in the following way. Wotan needs to jettison all those aspects of religion which apparently stem from egoism, all religious beliefs which stake a false claim on the truth by offering man the illusion that his fear of death and pain, and longing for bliss, will be assuaged infinitely in the heavenly abode of the gods, Valhalla. In other words, he needs to
