whole surrounding burgher-world.” [836W-{6-8/72} Actors and Singers: PW Vol. V, p. 216-217; p. 220]
Siegfried, as the self-divested, fearless and seemingly ego-less hero, who does not know who he is because Bruennhilde holds this knowledge for him, can be identified with the poet’s capability of total self-divestment, akin to the “mime” (in this case referring to the actor who mimes, or represents, a character other than himself), which Wagner contrasts with that other poetic capability of the highest perspicacity, i.e., Wotan’s experience and knowledge, which is imparted to Siegfried subliminally through Bruennhilde. When Siegfried grows fearful before waking Bruennhilde, we find a parallel to Wagner’s remark above that at the abyss’s brink (i.e., in the presence of the sleeping Bruennhilde, Siegfried’s unconscious mind) the poet shudders at the perils of playing with his personality, which may turn to madness. And lastly, Siegfried’s childlike nature can be compared with that of the mime as described by Wagner.
Siegfried’s curiosity is piqued by Wotan’s unusual attire, so he asks Wotan why he wears his hat over his face, to which Wotan answers that that is the way the wanderer wears his hat when walking against the wind, which is to say, against nature itself. This feature of Wotan’s personality will be echoed by Siegfried himself in T.1.2 when Hagen, spotting Siegfried rowing his boat to Gibichung Hall upriver against the natural current of the Rhine, says he recognizes Siegfried the dragon-killer from his strength alone. This equation of Wotan with Siegfried highlights their status as figurative killers of their mother, Nature, since they strive against nature’s natural flow. We hear #66 again in this context because the “Noth” to which Wotan and his Waelsung heroes are subject is the direct consequence of their defiance of nature’s objective reality.
Still curious about the old geezer, Siegfried observes that under Wotan’s hat Siegfried can see that one of his eyes is missing, as we hear #20ab (the first two segments of the Valhalla Motif). We’ll learn from the Norns in T.P that Wotan had to sacrifice one eye to obtain wisdom from the spring which flows out from under the roots of the World-Ash, from which he broke off its most sacred branch to manufacture his spear of divine covenants (the social contract). And of course, it was thanks to this contract that the Giants built Valhalla (#20ab). Siegfried insults Wotan gratuitously by suggesting that he probably lost this eye because he stood in someone’s way, and might lose the other one if he doesn’t get out of Siegfried’s way. But Wotan patiently responds with one of the most imposing, impressive passages of rhetoric in the Ring. In the first part of this passage, again accompanied by #20ab, Wotan says he sees that where Siegfried knows nothing, he knows how to get his own way. It is precisely because Bruennhilde holds for Siegfried the knowledge of his true identity and history that Siegfried does not know who he is, and therefore enjoys the privilege of not feeling the fear of the end which paralyzes Wotan. This emancipation from Wotan’s disadvantages frees Siegfried to be the autonomous and loving hero Wotan desired, who does spontaneously and effortlessly what Wotan laboriously planned. It is precisely because Siegfried knows nothing, is blind to Wotan’s contradictions, that he can be heroic at all.
{{ The variant of #20b we hear when Wotan tells Siegfried that where Siegfried knows nothing, Siegfried knows how to get his own way, sounds somewhat like the #20b variant associated in V.2.2 with Wotan’s account of Erda’s prediction that, with the birth of Alberich’s son Hagen, the twilight of the gods will not be long delayed. If this is the case it adds special meaning to this passage, because Siegfried’s fearlessness, the gift granted him by virtue of Bruennhilde’s
