contract with Wotan’s heir Siegfried now. Wotan, after all, made his contract with social man’s fear (self-preservation urge) and desire, the Giants Fafner and Fasolt, respectively, and not with man’s intellect, to produce both religion and art, not science and technology. Hagen, as Wagner’s metaphor for the objective, secular, scientific, and skeptical spirit of the modern world, has inherited his father’s cold heart and desire for the power which only objective knowledge can bring, power available only to those who are content to remain loveless, egoistic, isolated, and alone, rather than social. For these reasons Hagen says he didn’t participate in the oath.
Hagen’s cold, passionless blood would mar their drink, he says, as we hear #159, the “Oath of Atonement,” to which Hagen will appeal when he invokes his right to murder Siegfried for allegedly breaking his oath to Gunther later (T.3.2-3). We hear #41, the “Nibelung Labor Motif” which represents the conscious, egoistic motives behind man’s satisfaction of his basic physical needs, and Froh’s optimistic motif #31 (a variant of “Freia’s Golden Apples of Sorrowless Youth Eternal Motif,” #129), as Hagen adds that his blood doesn’t flow truly and nobly like theirs. Instead, he says (accompanied by the “Ring Motif,” #19) that his blood is stubborn and cold, and curdles within him. Finally, we hear the “Loveless World Motif,” #37, as Hagen says his own blood refuses to redden his cheek, which is why Hagen says he keeps well away from their fiery bond. Gunther sums it up and says it all when he suggests to Siegfried that they leave the “cheerless” man alone. Hagen suffers from the fate Nietzsche assigned to the heroes of truth, those with the courage to face the terrible truth of the world, that no transcendent meaning inheres in the world or in men, but is merely imputed to the world and men by our imagination as consolation for the terrible truth. The martyr to truth, Nietzsche asserts, walks alone in solitude, and cannot call himself happy. Hagen is sad because he is by his very objective nature incapable of finding consolation in illusion, unlike the majority of men who draw their sense of self-worth from religion and/or art and the morality derived from these impulses. Hagen will vent his despair in a moving complaint to his father Alberich, in T.2.1 describing the unbearable personal price Hagen has had to pay as heir to Alberich’s intent to venge himself on the gods, on those who depend upon illusion for their sense of self-worth and happiness.
[T.1.2: G]
Quickly forgetting this sobering experience of Hagen’s unhappy isolation and alienation, Siegfried, beset by tempestuous, manic passion to win Bruennhilde for Gunther, so he can win Gutrune for himself, tells Gunther, quick! They must be off!:
Siegfried: (putting on his shield again: #165?; #153 vari >> :) Quick, let’s be off! (#35/#33b/#100 accompaniment >>: [we hear extremely “manic” music based upon these Loge motifs until Siegfried’s and Gunther’s exit]) there lies my boat; (#33 [Norns’ vari?]) to the fell it will bring us swiftly: (he draws closer to Gunther to explain his meaning: #42/#33b >> :) one night on the shore you’ll wait in the skiff: you’ll then bring the woman home. (#151?: He turns to go and beckons Gunther to follow him. #33 [Norns’ vari?])
