a smile that passes from me to you, a hero blithe and happy! – O siegfried! Light-bringing youth! (#87) Love but yourself and let me be: (#98:) do not destroy (#98) what is (#98) yours!
This passage introduces two new motifs heard also in Wagner’s chamber orchestra piece, the Siegfried Idyll, namely #142 and #143. While the first, #142, is heard in conjunction with Bruennhilde’s affirmation that she lives alone for Siegfried’s well-being, #143 is firmly linked with Bruennhilde’s description of Siegfried as the “Hoard of the World” and “Life of the Earth [‘Erde’],” i.e., the life of Erda, and with her appeal to him that he, in effect, not rape her (as Alberich would have done), i.e., not force her to reveal her secrets. {{ #143 leads into another phrase associated here with Bruennhilde’s request that Siegfried: “Leave, o leave me! Leave me be!” I believe this musical phrase may recur later either as an independent motif, or perhaps as what should be considered a fragment of #143. }} Bruennhilde is asking Siegfried not to destroy her function as his unconscious mind, not to trash the repository of his subliminal source of artistic inspiration, by forcing her to give up Wotan’s unspoken secret, his hoard of knowledge, as Alberich would. We have here in the libretto text as striking and dramatic a piece of evidence for our reading as it is possible to imagine, for by calling Siegfried “Hoard [‘Hort’] of the world, life of the earth [‘Erde,’ i.e., Erda], Bruennhilde effectively pronounces Siegfried heir to Wotan’s hoard of knowledge, obtained from Erda, which Wotan imparted to Bruennhilde in his confession, and which Bruennhilde will now, during the height of ecstasy of their loving union, impart to Siegfried subliminally to inspire his art.
Bruennhilde resorts to the image of the reflection in a still brook (recalling Sieglinde’s remark to her twin-brother Siegmund in V.1.3 that, just as she once saw her own reflection in a brook, she now sees her image reflected back to her by Siegmund) in her effort to persuade Siegfried not to coerce her love, telling him that were he to stir this brook with his unbridled passion, the wave would dissolve its clear surface and Siegfried would lose the true reflection of his image, finding instead only the billow’s eddying surge. #142 and #143 now reach their climax of development in conjunction with #98, the motif representing Bruennhilde’s insistence that Wotan frighten away all suitors except an authentic hero (i.e., an artist-hero capable of winning unconscious artistic inspiration from his muse Bruennhilde) as Bruennhilde sums up her appeal by asking Siegfried not to sully the reflection of that smile which passes between them. Finally, as she warns him to love only himself, but let her be, we hear #87 (“Fate,” representing the hoard of knowledge which Alberich had his fellow Nibelungs mine in the bowels of the earth, Erda’s “Umbilical Nest,” the same hoard which Erda imparted to Wotan, Wotan imparted to Bruennhilde in his confession, and Bruennhilde is preparing to impart subliminally to Siegfried), followed by repetitions again of #98. #87 calls to mind the bonds of natural necessity spun by Erda’s daughters, the Norns, and especially Erda’s prediction of the gods’ inevitable fate, an end which Alberichs’ son and proxy Hagen is predestined to bring about. Bruennhilde is therefore calling upon Siegfried to preserve Bruennhilde’s integrity as his unconscious muse, his source of inspiration, so she can keep Wotan’s unspoken secret, just as his grandfather Wotan did by acquiescing in Bruennhilde’s request to hear his confession of his divine “Noth,” and later agreeing to surround Bruennhilde’s vulnerable, powerless sleep with Loge’s fire, so only an inspired artist-hero would have access to the muse, and keep her secrets.
