Siegfried’s momentary confusion of Bruennhilde with his mother harks back further than Siegfried’s being born through his mother Sieglinde’s death. It looks back to Wotan’s original sin against Mother Nature (Erda’s knowledge of all that was, is, and shall be), as described by Alberich in R.4, a sin Siegfried has unwittingly inherited as Wotan’s unconscious agent of redemption of the gods from Alberich’s curse. Bruennhilde, Erda’s daughter, is, as the artist’s muse, his surrogate mother, his surrogate for Nature, for the truth. Bruennhilde is Siegfried’s muse, or music, and Mother Nature, according to Wagner, gave birth to music:
“ … ‘It took Nature a very long time to produce passion; this is what can lead one to the heights; music is its transfiguration, is, alone among all the arts, directly connected with it.’ “ [1143W-{1/5/83} CD Vol. II, p. 986]
Previously I presented arguments and documentary evidence to support my claim that Bruennhilde, as the womb of Wotan’s wishes, figuratively gave birth to Siegfried after Wotan planted his confession in his wish-womb, the seed of his poetic intent that the artist-hero Siegfried should redeem the gods (religion) from Alberich’s and Hagen’s (science’s) threat to overthrow them (it). And now, by virtue of Wotan’s granting Siegfried access to the womb of his wishes, Bruennhilde, Siegfried can draw artistic inspiration from Wotan’s unspoken secret in order to redeem the world aesthetically, or musically. This - at least in part - is represented by the presence of #134, which we hear as Bruennhilde completes her description of her guardianship over Siegfried’s life with the remark: “so long have I loved you, Siegfried.” #134, introduced in S.3.1 as Wotan declared he no longer feared the twilight of the gods because his desires will be fulfilled by the redemptive love of Siegfried and Bruennhilde, is the motif which represents the new religion, unconsciously inspired art, the redemption by love, which is consummated in Wagner’s music-drama. #134 is the only musical motif from the Ring which Wagner ever called a “redemption” motif.
When #66 accompanies Siegfried’s observation that the mother he thought had died had only been sleeping (he’s asking himself whether his mother is Bruennhilde), this also introduces ambiguity. If #66 is taken only to represent Siegfried’s literal blood-mother Sieglinde, Siegfried has merely confused Bruennhilde with his true mother Sieglinde. But, if we recall that #66 in the course of the entire drama accrues a range of meaning of wider scope, we can’t explain its presence here merely on the basis that it is a reminder of Sieglinde. Assessing #66’s full range of meaning, we find that the Waelsung heroes who unwittingly undertake to redeem the gods (religious man’s longing for transcendent value) through altruistic deeds which are autonomous from religious faith and not motivated by religion’s false promises, as Siegmund does, or through secular art, as Siegfried does, are condemned to pay the price of “Noth” for Wotan’s (religious belief’s) sin against Mother Nature, the price set by Alberich’s curse on the Ring, whose ultimate price is the death of religion and of all the values which stem from it. #66 represents not only Sieglinde’s sympathy for the plight (“Noth”) of her own race the Waelsungs, and specifically her sympathy for the heroes Siegmund (husband) and Siegfried (son), but more broadly the Waelsung race’s “Noth,” or anguish, the price they pay as unwitting saviors of the gods. #66’s recurrence in this passage - in the context of its constant attachment to motif #137, a musical symbol for Siegfried’s fear of the sleeping Bruennhilde – makes sense not only as a reminder of Siegfried’s literal mother Sieglinde and metaphysical mother Bruennhilde (and of course the mother of us all, and specifically Bruennhilde’s mother, Erda), but also as the symbol of the Waelsung’s “Noth.” This is the price they pay as legatees of Wotan’s futile quest for redemption from the truth, his sin of religious
