reference to some music in V.3.1 associated with Bruennhilde’s announcement that Sieglinde carries the world’s greatest hero in her womb, and/or Bruennhilde’s naming of Siegfried, perhaps #93 or the special #57 Variant heard then?]) }} which ward him now against wounds.”
This most significant of passages continues but let us first examine it as far as we’ve gone. Bruennhilde is upset at the irony that her love’s magic, which protected Siegfried from wounds when his love was still true, still protects him now that he’s betrayed her, as we hear #64, the Definitive Love Motif. But the essential point is that #150/#15 underlines her comment that not a single art was known to her that didn’t keep his body safe. This is some of the most intensely expressive music in the entire Ring, both musically and dramatically, because it sums up in the most succinct fashion the nature of Bruennhilde’s magical protection. #15 tells us she is Siegfried’s surrogate Rhine, his temporary redemption from the Ring curse, the curse of consciousness, and #150, representing Wotan’s hoard of knowledge which left Siegfried untaught, is the fearful knowledge of fate which Bruennhilde holds for Siegfried, protecting him from its wounds, particularly the wound of existential fear which had so paralyzed Wotan that he could no longer take action in his own behalf, but had to depend on the unconsciously inspired Siegfried for redemption.
When Bruennhilde, accompanied now by #141 {{ (and perhaps a reference to some portion of the “Hoard of the World Motif” #143, which calls to mind her warning to Siegfried not to abuse the love she offers him) }}, says that unknown to Siegfried he was tamed by her magic spells which protect him from wounds, she describes herself literally as his unconscious mind. Siegfried is wholly unconscious of the gift of protection her love grants, wholly unconscious of the true source of his unconscious artistic inspiration, which is Wotan’s hoard of runes. #141’s first significant conceptual association was Bruennhilde’s remark in S.3.3 that she is Siegfried’s own self (the keeper of the secret of his identity, a secret she doesn’t reveal even to him) if he loves her in his bliss, and that what he does not know (here, #87, the Fate Motif, sounded), she knows for him. #141 therefore is the motif representing the fact that Siegfried’s unconscious mind Bruennhilde knows for him his true identity as Wotan (and therefore Wotan’s true, loathsome identity as Mime), and protects him from Wotan’s foreknowledge of the fate Erda foretold to him, the knowledge which is the source of Wotan’s existential fear. The portentous musico-dramatic resonance of this brief moment in the Ring stems from its condensation into the briefest time and singlest space of the most universal, cosmic ramifications of the entire work, thanks to the Wagnerian “Wonder,” the capacity of musical motifs to absorb, like a sponge, as an intuition or felt memory, every idea, symbol, object, incident, and character with which they have been associated during the entirety of the drama.
Hagen remains unconvinced, and asks: “And so no weapon can harm him?” We now hear #167, the Murder Motif. Bruennhilde answers that in battle, no, nothing can harm him. However, accompanied again by #150/#15, the terribly expressive music which underlay her remark: “Not a single art was known to me … ,” she says, “Never, I knew (#92) would he yield to a foe, (#92; #15 Variant), never, fleeing, present his back; (#57) (#150;#15 Variant) so I spared it the spell’s protection.” Hagen, triumphant at last, responds abruptly: “(#164; #34 or #33b?) And there my spear shall strike him!” Two very important aspects of Bruennhilde’s magical protection are outlined here. First, the fact that Siegfried is fearless means that, since he’d never turn his back to the foe and run away (like Wotan did, in repressing unbearable knowledge of the source of his
