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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

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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.

inspiration, his music, Bruennhilde, as Wotan’s (religious faith’s) heirs, will temporarily redeem man from Alberich’s curse of consciousness, redeem man from the bitter truth, by taking aesthetic possession of Wotan’s hoard of objective, fearful knowledge of Erda’s terrible world, and sublimating it into the Wagnerian music-drama, thus transforming man’s existential woe into bliss

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

[[#135]] Wotan’s interrogation of Siegfried to insure Siegfried does not know who Siegfrfied is, Wotan's unwitting instrument of redemption

Wotan tests Siegfried to insure Siegfried can’t trace his origins back to Wotan, and is therefore the free hero Wotan has longed for. Wotan’s crucial question: how did Siegfried learn the meaning of Woodbirdsong? I.e., is Siegfried an authentically unconsciously inspired artist-hero, who can access man’s collective unconscious, Bruennhilde

(#135’s motival links, if any, not yet ascertained; however, I suspect a harmonic link with the Valhalla Motif #20a)

[[#136]] Wotan bars Siegfried’s access to the sleeping Bruennhilde to insure Siegfried is truly the free, fearless hero needed by the gods for their redemption

(#136’s motival links, if any, not yet ascertained; but it can be considered one of the Motions of Nature)

[[#137ab]] Siegfried learns fear from the sleeping Bruennhilde, his premonition that it is dangerous to wake the repository of Wotan’s unspoken secret, which Wotan couldn’t bear to speak aloud

(#137 derives ultimately from #21, via its transformations into #28, #32b, #60, #62, #81AB, part of #83, and #96ab. It is the basis for #164.)

[[#138]] Kissed by Siegfried, Bruennhilde opens her eyes: the artist-hero Siegfried can now access mankind's (Wotan's) collective unconscious to obtain inspiration