‘Hey! Siegfried’s now slain the evil dwarf! Now I know the most glorious wife for him (:#129?): - (#129a?:) high on a fell she sleeps, (#128a?:) fire burns round her hall; (128b:) if he passed through (#15:) the blaze (#128b:) and awakened (#15:) the bride (:#128b), (#128b end frag:) Bruennhilde then would be his (:#128b end)!’
Hagen: And did you follow (#128b frag) the bird’s advice?
Siegfried: (#128b frag:) Without delay I set out at once (Gunther listens with increasing astonishment. #35 vari:) till I came (#35 vari >> :) to the fiery fell; I passed through the flames and found as reward (with mounting ecstasy: #24) – (#24: [or #139 as heard during the transition S.3.2-3, and also from just before Siegfried woke bruennhilde in S.3.3, heard here on “schlafend,” i.e., “asleep”?]) a wondrous woman asleep (#98>>:) in a suit of shining armour. (#98) I loosed the glorious (#98) woman’s helmet (#98); (#98) emboldened, my kiss awoke her: - [I’ve reversed the order of Spencer’s English translation below to accurately reflect the German original] (#134:) Oh! how clasped me in its ardor (:#134) (#139: [is this the #Remembrance Motif, (#@: e or f?)? [is there any #23 or #99 in this music?]) the fair Bruennhilde’s arm (:#139 [the #Remembrance Motif, (#@: e or f?)])!
That Siegfried could see through Mime’s hypocrisy, i.e., that Siegfried grasped the egoism of Wotan’s lower self Mime, behind the idealism Wotan consciously desired to express, thanks to Siegfried’s knowledge of the true source of inspiration for music (the Woodbird’s Song), reflects the music-dramatist Wagner’s unique insight into the inner processes of artistic inspiration. He claimed that this unique gift was due to the fact that Wagner was both author and composer of his music-dramas, so he could see them from both sides, i.e., from the viewpoint of waking consciousness, and unconsciousness (aesthetic intuition). It was because the practical motives of egoism and fear at the root of man’s religious impulse became too conscious, that man’s religious impulse, represented by Wotan’s longing for redemption, sought refuge in musical feeling, in the secular art (redemption by love) born of the artist-hero’s unconscious artistic inspiration (Siegfried’s love for his muse Bruennhilde). In this way that aspect of religious faith which had been exposed as fearful (Fafner), prosaic, and craven (Mime), was purged and cast aside in favor of the innocence of pure feeling, or love. Thus Siegfried describes here how, after killing Fafner, he also killed Mime. The only evidence presented in his narrative that Siegfried could read Mime’s evil thoughts thanks to Fafner’s blood (i.e. death), is Siegfried’s cryptic remark here that, Mime having confessed to Siegfried his evil thoughts, Siegfried laid him low with Nothung.
At this point - knowing perfectly well that Siegfried, under the spell of Hagen’s potion, has forgotten how the Woodbird told him of the sleeping Bruennhilde and guided him to her - Hagen prepares to offer Siegfried the antidote to his original potion, so that Siegfried will fully recall his
