forged the Ring of human consciousness, and exiled us from the paradise of preconscious instinctual animality - by inspiring Siegfried to figuratively restore lost paradise through art, especially the art of music.
“In the mingling of races the blood of the nobler males is ruined by the baser feminine element: the masculine element suffers, character founders … . The feminine thus remains owing deliverance: here art – as there in religion: the immaculate Virgin gives birth to the Saviour.” [1103W-{10/23/81} BB, p. 202]
[S.3.3: E]
And now what seems a strange and curious thing happens. Bruennhilde reveals to Siegfried that Wotan once confessed to her his thought, and his thought was his longing for redemption through the love with which Bruennhilde will inspire Siegfried. But Siegfried remains entirely oblivious to the content of Bruennhilde’s confession. There are reasons for this which we will examine below:
Bruennhilde: (#140 vari:) O Siegfried! Siegfried! Conquering light (:#140 vari)! (#141 >> :) I loved you always: to me alone (:#141) (#?: [unusual harmony]) was Wotan’s thought revealed (:#? [unusual harmony]). (#88?) (#96?:) The thought which I could never name (:#96?); (#19?; #83 end frag based on #54 [perhaps as heard in V.2.2 when Wotan said to Bruennhilde “He who against the gods would fight for me”?]; #96?: – [perhaps as heard in V.3.3 when Bruennhilde told Wotan she knows he loves Siegmund, though he must deny it, or perhaps her remark to Wotan that he taught her to love what he loves?]) the thought I did not think but only felt; the thought for which I fought, (#96 vari >> :) did battle and have striven (:#19?; :#83 end frag based on #54; :#96); (#140?:) for which I flouted him who thought it (:#140?); (#94 vari:; #58b or #79 hint?:) for which I atoned, incurring chastisement (:#94 vari; :#58b or #79 hint?), (#96?:) because, not thinking, (#96b >> :) I only felt it (:#96b)! Because that (#134:) thought - could you guess it! – was but my love for you (:#134). (#140 vari)
We have heard #96 as Bruennhilde described how she struggled and was chastised for fighting for Wotan’s thought, which she only felt. His thought was his confession of the gods’ need for a hero emancipated from the gods’ protection, a hero who does not need the gods, who could take on the burden of religious men’s guilt, their sin against Mother Nature’s truth, which Alberich’s curse on the Ring punishes, and redeem them from having to suffer the curse of consciousness’ punishment. #96, ultimately derived from the embryonic version of #21 (Wotan’s spear recording the social contract, the basis of his authority), is a variant of #81, the motif recalling Fricka’s thwarting of Wotan’s hope to obtain redemption through a free hero (since, as she said, Wotan could never create a hero truly free and autonomous from Wotan’s egoistic influence), which underwent a musical softening as Bruennhilde rebelled against Wotan’s angry intent to see the Waelsungs go to
