figuratively reborn, with a new artwork in hand that allows us to forget the fear which inspired it. Siegfried can learn fear from Bruennhilde subliminally, for, during his unconscious sojourn with her (like Tannhaeuser’s sojourn with Venus in the Venusberg, where he goes for unconscious artistic inspiration, and normally forgets after waking, when he creates a new work of art and presents it before an audience), he confronts Erda’s objective knowledge of the truth (represented here by #37), as Wotan did before him, to draw from it the inspiration to create the artwork in which he, and we, can forget our existential fear.
[S.3.3: C]
Now Siegfried summons up his courage and kisses Bruennhilde awake. The best introduction to this key passage, which appears to provide indirect evidence of how Wagner may have described the meaning of Siegfried’s heroic act among his inner circle at the time of the Ring’s first rehearsals and premier in 1876, is the following remark by Berthold Kellermann (cited previously) regarding comments made by a Count Aponyi in 1876 during the rehearsals and premier of Wagner’s Ring:
“A certain Count Apponyi from Hungary spoke … in the form of a parable, taking his text from Wagner’s Nibelungs: ‘Bruennhilde (the new national art) lay asleep upon a rock surrounded by a great fire. The god Wotan had lit this fire, and only the victorious and finest hero, a hero who did not know fear, was to win her as his bride. (…) Along came a hero, the like of whom had never been seen before, Richard Wagner, who forged a weapon from the shards of the sword of his fathers (the classical German masters), and with this he penetrated the fire and with his kiss awoke the sleeping Bruennhilde.” [892W-{8/20/76} From a letter by Berthold Kellermann to his parents, reporting on the final performance of the Ring and the subsequent celebrations: WR, p. 250]
Granted that this extract was not written by Wagner himself, we will find nonetheless an overwhelming amount of evidence that Siegfried’s and Bruennhilde’s love-duet which follows is Wagner’s metaphor for the unconscious artistic inspiration which produced his own revolutionary artform, the music-drama, and the Ring in particular:
(He sinks, as though dying, on the sleeping woman, and, with his eyes closed, presses his lips to her mouth. #37 vari?:; #139 in a lyrical vari on strings?; #87; #139?; #87; [[ #139 ]] [develops to loud climax]; [[ #138 ]]; #harps; #?: [four notes, followed by a trill; do they reference a motif?]; #? [high, ethereal strings] #138; #harps; #ethereal strings; #138 or 140? [the melody of “hail to you, light-bringing day”?]; #19 hint?]: Bruennhilde opens her eyes. Siegfried starts up and remains standing in front of her. Bruennhilde slowly sits up. she raises her arms and, with solemn gestures, welcomes her return to an awareness of earth and sky. #87 or #138 chord on harps?)
