Gunther: (#33:) Won’t you rest beforehand?
Siegfried: (#33:) I’m longing to return.
(He goes down to the shore in order to untie the boat. #33 [Norns’ vari?])
Gunther: You, Hagen! Guard the hall!
(#153 vari; #165?) (#35/#100/#77: [reaches a pitch of great intensity] He follows Siegfried to the shore. Having placed their weapons in the boat, Siegfried and Gunther hoist the sail and prepare to leave, during which time Hagen takes up his spear and shield. Gutrune appears at the door of her chamber at the very moment that Siegfried pushes the boat into the middle of the river.)
Gutrune: (#156b:) Where are the heroes hurrying?
Hagen: (seating himself comfortably in front of the hall with his shield and spear) To the boat, (#140?) (#77:; #159?:) to woo Bruennhilde as wife (:#77; :#159?). (#33 [Norns’ vari?])
Gutrune: Siegfried?
Hagen: See how he hastens (#153 vari:; #156?:) to win you as wife (:#153 vari; :#156?)! (#137 or #139? [or some other musical reference to Siegfried’s fear of the sleeping Bruennhilde from S.3.3?])
Gutrune: (#156b vari) Siegfried – mine! (#156b?: She returns to her chamber in lively agitation. #103; #156b/#40 vari; #103)
The extraordinarily forceful, explosive music depicting Siegfried’s and Gunther’s preparations to abduct Bruennhilde, in order that Siegfried can marry Gutrune, impresses itself on us as if Siegfried is being compelled by a new, irresistible impulse. Wagner’s personal secretary during the rehearsals for the premier of the Ring at Bayreuth in 1876, Heinrich Porges, recorded the impression, surely Wagner’s own, that Siegfried’s sudden passion for Gutrune, under the influence of Hagen’s Potion, is indeed a “force of destiny”:
