the veil of Maya, continues to hide the truth from mankind, Siegfried would be giving his audience, within the context of his inspired work of art, a revelation of its true source of inspiration. Siegfried would be giving mankind his actual muse of inspiration (his wife) rather than the child of that womb of inspiration, a redemptive work of art. And that would bring about the end not only of unconsciously inspired art, but of Wotan’s hope that Valhalla (man’s religious impulse) could live on in, and be redeemed by, art. In that case redemption by love would be self-betrayed.
These considerations show Siegfried’s and Gunther’s oath of blood-brotherhood in its proper light. Perhaps one reason that Wotan’s spear motif is oft-repeated during their oath-taking (even though Siegfried had previously cut Wotan’s spear in two, and breached Wotan’s law by killing Fafner and taking his Ring), is that Siegfried’s inspired art in a sense restores the broken social contract at a higher level than religious faith. Siegfried the secular value-giver has now replaced Wotan (religion) as value-giver, and therefore takes over Wotan’s responsibilities. The concept here is similar to that inhering in the relationship of Jesus the savior, the hero of the New Testament, to the hero of the Old Testament, God-the-Father. Jesus in a sense breaks the Mosaic Law in order to reconstitute it on a higher plane, breaks the coercive law of fear (the ten commandments, the “thou shalt not’s”) to replace it with the law of love.
[T.1.2: F]
Siegfried has noticed that Hagen did not join them in taking the blood-brotherhood oath, and in a spirit of charity and compassion inquires why. Hagen answers that his own blood is dispassionate and objective, and therefore he’s reluctant to mix it with the blood of those swayed by passion:
(#155; #153; #156a: Siegfried watches Hagen, who has stood behind him during the oath. )
Siegfried: (#156a?:) Why did you take no part in the oath (:#156a?)?
Hagen: (#159:) My blood would mar your drink (:#159)! (#31/#41: [is #29 here also?]) It doesn’t flow truly and nobly like yours (:#31/#41); (#41) (#19:) stubborn and cold (#161 end frag:; #41?:) it curdles within me (:#19; :#161 end frag; :#41?), (#41) (#37:) refusing to redden my cheek (:#37). So I keep well away from your fiery bond. (#151 [or #165?])
Gunther: (to Siegfried) leave the cheerless man alone! (#77; #33 Norns’ vari?)
There is precedent for Hagen’s reluctance to join in this blood-brotherhood oath. Wotan noted in S.2.1, during his confrontation with Hagen’s father Alberich at the mouth of Fafner’s Envy-Cave (Neidhoehle), that Wotan made no contract with Alberich, but dominates Alberich simply with the might of his spear. Similarly, Alberich’s son and agent Hagen does not participate in making a new
