hear a premonitory hint of the music which will be heard when Bruennhilde in T.2.5 tells Hagen and Gunther that, unbeknownst to Siegfried, her magic has protected him at the front from wounds, and therefore he is only vulnerable at the back. This needs to be checked in the score. If true, it would be a remarkable foreshadowing of the ultimate instance in which Wotan’s hope for redemption from Alberich’s curse is weak and vulnerable, since Wotan’s final effort to redeem the gods and the world from Alberich’s curse, in Siegfried’s alleged invulnerability to it, proves to be just as futile as all Wotan’s prior efforts. }}
Wotan, angered by Alberich’s ability to put his finger on the root of Wotan’s problem, observes that though Alberich has not personally bound himself by any agreements engraved on the Spear of Wotan’s divine authority and law, nonetheless, this social contract, as an externally coercive influence, can keep Alberich under control. However, while this may once have been true, during the lengthy period when the mytho-poetic world view of religion held universal sway, and political might at least nominally drew its sanction from this divine authority, it will not be true in the future. Wotan’s authority (religious belief and faith) has become a paper tiger in the modern, secular, scientific world, though still capable of rousing a large number of people, and large majorities in less developed parts of the world, to passions and actions which stifle intellectual freedom, and may even bring about the demise of civilization as we know it.
[S.2.1: D]
Alberich has astutely detected Wotan’s hidden agenda: he notes that Wotan’s confidence arises from his hope to attain his end, the theft of the Ring from Fafner, in order to keep Alberich from regaining possession of it, through his proxy heroes.
Alberich: (#50:) How proudly you threaten with insolent strength, yet how fearful you are at heart (:#50)! – (#51:) Doomed to die through my curse is he who holds the hoard: - (#50:) who will fall heir to it (:#51; :#50)? (#17 or #19?:; #37 hint?:) Will the coveted [“neidliche”] hoard once again belong to the Nibelung (:#17? or #19?; :#37 hint?)? That fills you with endless care. For once I grasp it again in my fist, (#37?) then, (#17 >>:) unlike foolish giants, (#37?) I’ll use the power of the ring: (#?: [music possibly associated with Bruennhilde’s description for Hagen and Gunther of how she, unknown to Siegfried, protects him at the front with magic from wounds, perhaps a #15 vari &/or #150 vari?]) then tremble, (#52 vari:) eternal guardian of heroes (:#?; :#52 vari)! (#45) Valhalla’s heights I’ll storm with Hella’s host: then I shall rule the world! ((#@: b) = #20b/#33b)
Wotan: (calmly: #37?:) I know your mind full well; it gives me no cause for worry (:#37?): (#114a vari:) he shall command the ring who wins it.
