speaks of what she and Siegfried will be losing if she avenges herself upon Siegfried for betraying their love.
Gunther asks her to contain herself, but she lashes out at him, again to #164: “(#164) Keep away, betrayer! Self-betrayed! (#82?; #19 or #51?) Know then, all of you, (#101 unison) not to him [i.e., Gunther], (#????? – this may be a very important motival reference which must be identified), but to that man there [pointing to Siegfried] am I wed.” The #101 unison is a reminiscence of the craven Mime, surviving by cunning, subterfuge, and deceit, the very exemplar of the human type of which Gunther and Gutrune are particular instances. Bruennhilde insists she is not wed to such an unworthy man, but only to Siegfried, who forced (#37 – i.e. lovelessly) delight from her, and love.
Siegfried asks Bruennhilde if she can be so careless of her own honor, saying, accompanied significantly by a special #15 variant made up of orchestral pulses, that the tongue that defames it, (#164) he must accuse of lying. It is Siegfried who has been unwittingly careless in making this accusation, because the #15 variant which accompanies his remark is the motival hallmark of the magical protection from the wounds of consciousness, the wounds delivered by Alberich’s curse on the Ring, which Bruennhilde’s love alone has bestowed on Siegfried, granting him the special status of a fearless artist-hero who is able to transform the most terrible things into unearthly beauty through his art, without suffering the consequences. And Siegfried could only enjoy this gift through loving union with his muse Bruennhilde. Therefore it is especially ironic when Siegfried invokes his phallic sword Nothung, and his blood-brotherhood oath to Gunther, as he swears that he never broke faith with Gunther’s honor and never violated Bruennhilde. Siegfried describes how his sword Nothung defended the oath, and we hear not only the expected motifs #157 (The Oath of Blood-brotherhood) and #165 (the motif which recalls how Siegfried separated himself from Bruennhilde by laying Nothung between them), but also #21/#151b, representing Wotan’s spear as the guarantor of oaths, and Hagen’s nefarious influence upon Siegfried, respectively.
But now Siegfried gets into deeper water when he insists – accompanied by a new variant of #57 (the Sword Motif - which takes on a sinuous form, and may well be the variant heard later in T.2.5 when Bruennhilde tells Hagen and Gunther how Siegfried, unbeknownst to him, is protected from wounds at the front – i.e., from foresight of the end, and fear of it – by her magic), insists that its sharp blade sundered Siegfried from this unhappy woman. Bruennhilde seizes the opportunity for some unusual wit at Siegfried’s expense, referencing his sword Nothung as a phallus. She says: “(#164) You cunning hero, look how you’re lying. Just as you’re wrong to appeal to your sword! (#59a Variant [is there any #57 sinuous variant here?]) Well I know (#57) its sharp-set edge, but I also know the scabbard in (#150 Variant) which your true friend Nothung, rested serenely (#57) against the wall while its master won him his sweetheart.” This brings to mind the sexual imagery of Siegfried’s smelting and forging songs as he re-forged Nothung in S.1.3, and Sieglinde’s ecstasy as Siegmund first pulled the sword Nothung out of Hunding’s house-tree in V.1.3. But the most important point being made here lies in the motifs. The sexual union of Siegfried with Bruennhilde being a metaphor for Siegfried’s unconscious artistic inspiration by Wotan’s forbidden hoard of knowledge, it is no accident that we heard #150, the motif representing Wotan’s hoard of runes which Bruennhilde imparted to Siegfried subliminally, as Bruennhilde describes herself as the scabbard into which Siegfried thrust Nothung. And #59a again recalls Bruennhilde’s status as Siegfried’s surrogate Rhine, who protects him from Alberich’s curse of consciousness.
