(#151:; #156ab:; Gutrune involuntarily catches Hagen’s eye; she bows her head in humility and, with a gesture indicating that she feels unworthy of him, leaves the hall with faltering steps. #24 vari, #139, or #153?: Watched closely by Hagen and Gunther, Siegfried gazes after Gutrune as though bewitched: #51)
As Gutrune offers Siegfried this drink of welcome we hear for the first time the definitive Gutrune Motif #156ab. Cooke states that #156a is in the same family of Gibichung motifs as #151 (Hagen), #155 (Gunther’s false friendship for Siegfried), and #171 (the Gibichung Horncall, which will herald the double wedding of Gunther with Bruennhilde, and Siegfried with Gutrune). #156b is in the family of motifs which includes #22 (associated in R.2 with Fricka’s hope that in Valhalla she could entice Wotan to sustain his fidelity to her) and #64a, representing perhaps the domestic aspect of love. The liquid, sensuous, poignant nature of this motif strongly suggests that Gutrune possesses a sublime beauty and feminine mystique which would make it plausible that at least some married men would be capable of infidelity to their wives if she brought her seductive power to bear. Some, on the other hand, have argued that had she been such a great beauty she would have married long ago. But I think on balance Wagner intended her to be portrayed as a genuine seductress whose magic might prevail even without a love potion to aid her. Certainly Nattiez’s reading of Gutrune as Wagner’s metaphor for the Harlot, French opera comique, in which the libretto text (the dramatist) serves only as a pretext for pretty, seductive vocal music, would demand that Gutrune be presented as a beauty.
Siegfried holds the proffered drink aloft and softly makes a toast to Bruennhilde and all that she means to him. Again, we must assume that though Siegfried sings this toast for our benefit, it is not meant to be heard by the Gibichungs who are present, but is an interior monologue. If the Gibichungs actually heard his toast to Bruennhilde this would make the subsequent events nonsensical, because these events follow logically from the assumption that among the Gibichungs Hagen alone knows of Siegfried’s true relationship with Bruennhilde. Gunther evidently could not so easily have been persuaded to manipulate Siegfried into winning for him the hand of Bruennhilde had he known in advance of Siegfried’s prior relationship with Bruennhilde.
Both the verbal and subliminal (i.e., motival) content of Siegfried’s toast to Bruennhilde is the following: “(#140) Were all forgotten that you gave me, one lesson alone I'll never neglect: (#134) The first (#139) drink to true remembrance/love (“Minne” also means love) (#19 or #98?) Bruennhilde, I drink to you!” #140 is of course the original love-greeting which Siegfried and Bruennhilde sang to each other after Siegfried woke Bruennhilde in S.3.3, a member of the Love Motif Family which includes #25, #39, #40, #64b, #133, etc. #134 is the motif introduced in S.3.1 when Wotan informed Erda that gods and world will be redeemed through the love of Siegfried and Bruennhilde. I noted earlier that Wagner called this motif a redemption motif, and that according to him at its first sounding it should seem the proclamation of a new religion. It eventually develops, during their S.3.3 love duet, into a motif representing Siegfried’s unconscious artistic inspiration by Bruennhilde, the true meaning of redemption by love (Wagner’s music-drama). It is this, Siegfried’s redemptive, loving union with his muse of inspiration Bruennhilde, that Wotan thought (i.e., imparted to Bruennhilde in his confession), and which Bruennhilde felt (i.e., transmuted into musical motifs). #139 was identified in S.3.3 with Siegfried’s waking of Bruennhilde, a prospect
