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Table of Contents

Title Page
Dedication Page
General Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations for key references
Guide to abbreviations used in text
Allen Dunning's numbered Guide to the Ring's Musical Motifs
Detailed Table of Contents

The Ring

Introduction


References
Appendix I
Appendix I I

Key Colour Coding

Donations Welcome

I would be grateful for donations of any size, small or large, to help defray the cost (1) of maintaining this website, (2) and to finance my past and present research which produced my book posted here, Volume One of "The Wound That Will Never Heal," and my forthcoming revision of Volume One (to be submitted for publication), and completion of Volume Two on Wagner's six other canonic operas and music-dramas. I sacrificed at least seven years of paid employment and incurred debts to complete this project, and am currently unemployed, so I thank you in advance for any financial help you can provide. Your friend, Paul Heise.

[[#127]] Wotan’s hope that in Siegfried he has found his free hero

Wotan says of Siegfried: “… let him stand or fall; his own master is he … .”

(#127 based on #105 and #111; possibly related to #120)

[[#128ab]] The First “Woodbirdsong” – music as man’s artificial bid to restore his lost innocence

(both #128 and #129 based on #4. #174abc, as a loose inversion of #4, is also related to #128 and #129. All of these pentatonic motifs are in the same family as #98.)

[[#129ab]] The Second “Woodbirdsong” – music as man’s artificial bid to restore lost innocence

(See #128 for #129’s motival links)

[[#130]] The selfishness and egotism of the Nibelung siblings Alberich and Mime

Representing the egoism which is the foundation of all human motives

(#130’s motival links, if any, not yet ascertained)

[[#131]] “Mime’s False Friendship”

After killing Fafner, Siegfried, by virtue of sucking Fafner’s burning blood off his fingers, is suddenly able to grasp the meaning of the Woodbird’s song, who tells him that Mime, though seeming to proffer friendship, will betray his true, treacherous intent in his speech. Siegfried can discern ulterior, egoistic intent behind Mime’s