(#20a?:) wonder and fear (#19 voc?:) hold the gods in thrall (:#20a; :#19 voc?) (#drum roll; #20/#19/#42).
Waltraute has accused Bruennhilde of enjoying the consolations of delusion while Valhalla and its gods, heroes, and Valkyries have been beset by dread. We hear the embryo of a new motif, #164, as Bruennhilde first becomes aware that Waltraute has not sought her out to share in her bliss, but to apprise her of tragedy to come. #164 is based directly on #137, the motif representing Siegfried’s fear of waking Bruennhilde, prompted by his subliminal premonition of making Wotan’s guilt his own. According to Cooke, #137 in turn stems from #81A. #81A represents Wotan’s acknowledgment that all his efforts to win redemption from Alberich’s curse are merely expressions of it, that Wotan can never find a heroic redeemer freed from Wotan’s own most loathsome motives, and its variant #81B embodies Wotan’s intent to let Bruennhilde pay the price of living for Wotan’s ideal, when Wotan himself has conceptually acknowledged it is a product of his own self-deception. #81B was first associated in V.3.2 with Bruennhilde’s query, what hidden guilt makes Wotan renounce her, and Wotan’s response that Bruennhilde’s actions bring their own punishment. This family of motifs originates, according to Cooke, in #21, Wotan’s Spear, and therefore partakes of the social contract’s contradictions.
When Waltraute’s dread and dismay has been perceived by Bruennhilde, instead of the longing to share Bruennhilde’s bliss which Bruennhilde had falsely imputed to Waltraute, Bruennhilde says she is stunned and doesn’t understand her, reminding us of Siegfried, who likewise told Bruennhilde, when she tried to explain how her love for Siegfried was the product of Wotan’s thought, that he was stunned and did not understand her. Bruennhilde’s wisdom, granted to Bruennhilde by her mother Erda via Wotan’s confession and via native inheritance, will not come to her aid now to explain matters because Bruennhilde, like Siegfried, can now only feel the bliss of love. So Bruennhilde finally asks Waltraute what ails the immortal gods, just as she once asked Wotan what ailed him, prompting him to confess his divine “Noth” to her. Waltraute answers by narrating Wotan’s horrific history since he parted from Bruennhilde in V.3.3. Waltraute explains that since that time Wotan no longer sends the Valkyries into battle (where they formerly inspired heroes to endure martyrdom so that they could protect Valhalla after death, resurrected for the final battle against Alberich’s host of night), and that the Valkyries are now lost and leaderless. Wotan now avoids his heroes and ignores their concerns altogether.
Accompanied by #83 (the “Gods’ Need Motif”), Waltraute says Wotan has in solitude ridden the world on his horse as a Wanderer, after disavowing any further interest in his heroes. Accompanied by what seems to be a new compound motif, a mixture of #20a (Valhalla) with #42’s (the Tarnhelm’s) harmony, Waltraute notes that Wotan came home of late, holding the splinters of his spear which had been shattered by a hero (Siegfried). {{ The combination of #20a (or perhaps #20b) with #42’s harmony sounds like a variant of the compound motif comprised of a special harmonic variant of #20b, and #12, which is associated with Wotan’s acknowledgment to Bruennhilde in V.2.2 that Alberich’s son Hagen will inevitably inherit the world and bring about the twilight of the gods. }} This motif compounded of #20a and #42’s harmony is repeated as Waltraute declares with finality that Wotan with a silent sign sent his heroes into the forest to fell the World-Ash Tree.
