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Table of Contents

Title Page
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Guide to abbreviations used in text
Allen Dunning's numbered Guide to the Ring's Musical Motifs
Detailed Table of Contents

The Ring

Introduction


References
Appendix I
Appendix I I

Key Colour Coding

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I would be grateful for donations of any size, small or large, to help defray the cost (1) of maintaining this website, (2) and to finance my past and present research which produced my book posted here, Volume One of "The Wound That Will Never Heal," and my forthcoming revision of Volume One (to be submitted for publication), and completion of Volume Two on Wagner's six other canonic operas and music-dramas. I sacrificed at least seven years of paid employment and incurred debts to complete this project, and am currently unemployed, so I thank you in advance for any financial help you can provide. Your friend, Paul Heise.

Siegfried: Act Three    615-732

Siegfried: Act Three, Scene One      615-646

[S.3.1] Below Bruennhilde's rocky peak: the Wanderer (Wotan) and Erda      615-646          

• [S.3.1: A] Stormy Prelude: Wanderer: (#133) Waken, Erda! I wandered the earth [Erda] to gain knowledge,  and seek it from you who know all things.   615-618

• [S.3.1: B] Erda: Ask my daughters, the Norns. Wanderer: They can’t alter fate. Erda:  Ask Bruennhilde then! Wotan: What use is that?   618-624

• [S.3.1: C] Erda: You who encourage defiance punish our daughter for her defiance?  Let sleep enfold my knowledge!   624-626

• [S.3.1: D] Wanderer: How can I, the god, end the fear you taught me? Your knowledge wanes before my will [Bruennhilde].   626-628

• [S.3.1: E] Wanderer: I now fearlessly will my end. (#134) Once in loathing I bequeathed  the  world to the Nibelung's spite [Hagen], but now in joy I leave  the lordliest Waelsung [Siegfried] heir to my  heritage, freed from the Ring curse because he is loving, and free from greed and fear.  628-640

• [S.3.1: F] Wanderer: When Siegfried (#134) wakes Bruennhilde, she'll redeem the world. I yield gladly to the ever-young. Sleep, primeval fear!  641-646
  

 

Siegfried: Act Three, Scene Two      647-666

[S.3.2] Below Bruennhilde's rocky peak: the Wanderer (Wotan) and Siegfried   647-666            

• [S.3.2: A] Wanderer queries Siegfried to trace his life back as far as he can, to insure Siegfried is not conscious of Wotan's influence.  Wanderer: (#135) How could  you make  sense of the Woodbird's singing? Siegfried:  It was due to the blood  of  a fearsome serpent [Fafner] that fell to me at Envy-Cave.  647-653 
  

• [S.3.2: B] Siegfried, finding Wanderer tiresome, says he may share Mime’s fate.  But Siegfried is Wotan's missing eye: Wotan: (#20ab) I see, my son, that where you know nothing you know  how to get your own way. (#20ab) With the eye which, as my second self, is missing,  you yourself can glimpse  (#20c) the one (#20d) that's left me to see with.  653-658
  

• [S.3.2: C] Siegfried: If you can’t show me the way to her, get out of the way! Wanderer: I'll bar you!  Siegfried:  (#136) Who are  you to bar my way? Wanderer: I'm  the fell's guardian. I locked the woman in sleep. (#23 Variant?) He who wins her takes my power.   659-662
  

• [S.3.2: D] Wanderer: If you don’t fear the fire, my spear will stop you. Siegfried cuts  (#21) Wotan's spear in half with (#57) Nothung, then plunges into Loge's protective ring of fire.   662-666

Siegfried: Act Three, Scene Three      667-732

[S.3.3] On Top of Bruennhilde's Peak: Siegfried and Bruennhilde     667-732

• [S.3.3: A] (#23) Siegfried reaches Bruennhilde’s mountaintop in ecstatic aesthetic arrest. Thinking her a man asleep in armor,  he cuts it away with Nothung, exposing her female body.  Siegfried: (#23) O, how fair! Shimmering clouds have fringed a celestial lake with their waves.   667-670

• [S.3.3: B] Siegfried, (#137) afraid to wake Bruennhilde, learns fear’s meaning. To wake himself, he  must wake Bruennhilde, (#37) even though he die.   670-681