Alberich meant when, as he was cursing his Ring in R.4, he said any who obtain its power will live in perpetual fear.
[T.2.5: E]
Gunther, having already expressed his own reluctance to relinquish all that Siegfried has meant to him, speaks up for Gutrune’s interest (which Gunther assumes equals his own) when he asks his co-conspirators to consider how they might rationalize Siegfried’s death to her, so that they will not incur blame for it, and she will be reconciled to it, thereby provoking a damning indictment of Gutrune by Bruennhilde:
Gunther: (#156a; #?: [a sinister horn figure associated previously with #170 or #50?]) But Gutrune, ah! whom I didn’t begrudge him: (#156b:; #voc?:) if we punished her husband so, how would we stand in her sight (:#156ab; :#? [sinister horn figure?]; :#voc?)?
Bruennhilde (#156b: flaring up in her rage) (#156a varis >>:) What did my wisdom tell me? (#156a:) What did my runes have to teach me? (#171?; #26a or #41 rhythm?) in my helpless distress it dawns on me now (:#171?): (#156:) Gutrune’s the name of the (#161b voc >> [sung very high on “spell,” i.e. “Zauber”]) spell that spirited away my husband (:#156b)! May she be struck by dread! (#19?)
Hagen: (to Gunther: #153 vari:) Since his death is bound to afflict her, then let the (#103?:) deed (:#103?) be hid from her (:#153 vari). (#103:; #153 vari:) Tomorrow let’s merrily go a-hunting: (#103 >>:) the noble hero will rush on ahead – (#164:; #103 frag or vari [including perhaps a rising vari, a figure which I believe accompanies the Gibichungs when they come down to the Rhine’s shore at Siegfried’s invitation to join him in T.3.2?]) a boar (#170a/#164 >> :) might bring him down (:#170a/#164; :#103 frag or vari [possible T.3.2 reference?]).
Bruennhilde is enraged that Gunther should be so concerned with his sister Gutrune’s feelings when Bruennhilde, Siegfried’s true wife, has suffered the greatest anguish in being betrayed by him. Bruennhilde asks herself what her wisdom (Wotan’s confession) told her, what her runes taught: that Gutrune is the name of the spell which spirited Bruennhilde’s husband Siegfried away, and Bruennhilde curses Gutrune. Wotan’s confession taught Bruennhilde, quite simply, the price to be paid in living for the illusion of transcendent love, that it was destined to failure in the face of prosaic truth, that man’s ideal must ultimately evaporate in the face of the real. And the false muse Gutrune stands for the propensity of all artists, however disinterested their unconscious artistic inspiration may be, to present their work to a public, be it in order to win approbation and
