[S.3.2: C]
Siegfried, accompanied by #135, tells Wotan that unless he can show Siegfried the way to Bruennhilde, Siegfried has no use for him. Siegfried has pricked Wotan’s pride and, suddenly nostalgic for the power he’s losing to Siegfried, Wotan strongly suggests, accompanied by #81, that if Siegfried knew him Siegfried would not insult him. #81 calls to mind Wotan’s capitulation to Fricka’s argument that mortal men cannot have a free will, since all that they are comes from the gods. It was this bitter knowledge that threw Wotan into despair of ever finding a truly free hero, and compelled Wotan to engineer Siegmund’s death at Hunding’s hands. The same argument, of course, could be applied if there are no gods, but that man is merely a product of nature. There is no free will either way: everything acts, as Wotan himself told Alberich, according to its nature, which is not something random but fixed (or, if there is randomness and chaos at the bottom of things, as the quantum physicists tell us, nonetheless this fact can’t provide any comfort to those seeking to posit man’s “Free Will”). Wotan’s point is that Siegfried’s defiance, which Wotan now chastises because it is so arrogant in its ignorance, is ultimately the consequence of Wotan’s own desire for a hero who, in his defiance of the gods, would be their friend. Siegfried’s arrogance, founded as it is on his ignorance of the “Noth” which besets Wotan, is ironic in the extreme:
Siegfried: (#135 vari: [moving upward only and repeating 3 notes, possibly as heard in T.3.2 when the Gibichungs, Gunther, and Hagen come down to the shore of the Rhine to join Siegfried during the hunt whose quarry is in fact Siegfried?]) But listen, I’ll gossip no longer; quickly, show me the way (:#135) and be on your way, too! (#?: [a strange little musical figure, possibly foreshadowing the moment in T.3.1 when Siegfried refuses to give the ring to the Rhinedaughters because they tried to appeal to fear rather than love?]) (#115 or 152?:) For nothing else do I deem you of use (:#152?)! (#103?: [or some Rhinedaughter or Woodbird music?]) So speak or I’ll send you packing (:#103? [or some Rhinedaughter or Woodbird music?])!
Wanderer: (gently: #81:) If you but knew me, (#81:; #87?:) brave-hearted youth, (#81?:) you’d spare me this affront! (:#81; :#87?) So dear to you, I’m sorely (#87 hint?: [without the harmony?]) wounded (:#87 hint? [without the harmony?]) by your threats. (#66:) Though I’ve always loved your radiant kind (:#66), (#81 varis:) my furious rage might also cause it dread. (#81:; #23?:) You to whom I’m well-disposed, too glorious by far (:#81; :#23?) (#87?:) do not arouse my wrath [“Neid”] today (:#87?) – it could ruin both you and me!
