associated with Wotan’s runes which Bruennhilde subliminally imparted to Siegfried, leaving him untaught, and with Siegfried’s unwitting prophecy that ultimately he will not keep the secret of Wotan’s runes which Bruennhilde imparted to him), as Siegfried resumes his tale. We hear the Woodbird’s tunes #129 and #128b, as well as #15 (the Rhinedaughters’ joyous cry “Rhinegold! Rhinegold!”), as Siegfried mimics the Woodbird’s final message to him, that now that Siegfried’s slain the evil dwarf Mime, he can wake, woo, and win the most wondrous wife who lies asleep within a wall of fire, Bruennhilde. #15 of course recalls Bruennhilde’s status as Siegfried’s surrogate Rhine, with whom he can leave the Ring, its power (the curse) being kept safe (rendered harmless) in Bruennhilde’s protective hands.
Hagen brusquely encourages Siegfried to tell them whether he followed up the Woodbird’s advice, while Gunther grows increasingly livid at what seems at first hearing like evidence of Siegfried’s dishonesty and betrayal. Siegfried, wholly oblivious to the implications and potentially fatal consequences of his confession, now ecstatically recounts his joy in finding the wondrous Bruennhilde asleep. We are reminded of Tannhaeuser’s confession – as if under a magical spell, which renders him wholly oblivious of the risk he takes in exposing his secret source of inspiration - during his performance of his contest-song in the Wartburg Castle, of the time he spent in the Venusberg with his muse of unconscious inspiration Venus, an admission so repugnant, a confession of sin deemed so irredeemable to his audience, that it makes him subject to execution, banishment and excommunication from the church.
We now hear #24 or #139 (the motif of Siegfried’s awakening of Bruennhilde) and #98 (the motif associated with Bruennhilde’s plea that Wotan protect her sleep with terrors so only a fearless, worthy hero could wake her), as Siegfried describes how he removed her armor and kissed her awake. Siegfried’s tale climaxes in bliss – exulting, he says: “(#134) Oh! How clasped me in its ardor [following here the word order of the German original, not the English translation] (#139) the fair Bruennhilde’s arm!” #134 and #139 were, of course, the two primary motifs heard in T.1.2 when Siegfried, in the act of drinking Hagen’s original potion of forgetfulness and love, made a toast to love and remembrance of Bruennhilde, even as the potion made him forget her and fall in love with his false muse Gutrune. Siegfried, having drunk the antidote to that potion, now has full and complete remembrance not only of his former lover and muse of inspiration Bruennhilde, but presumably of every secret that she held for him, his original source of inspiration, the full implications of Wotan’s unspoken secret. Wagner did not need to spell any of this out here: it is implicit within the context of the drama, and in all the wealth of meaning with which the musical motifs we are now hearing resonate, by virtue of their entire history of association with elements of the drama, and even by virtue of their musical genealogy.
A key to Wagner’s life’s work, a basis for the “Wonder” of his art, was the seemingly magical property of his musical motifs, that they could convey the hidden motives of the characters so that they need not proclaim their motives aloud to the audience, freeing them to speak in a more direct, naïve, and authentic way, as Wagner put it. #134, of itself, conveys the entirety of Wotan’s confession of the unspoken secret of his fate to Bruennhilde (Siegfried’s muse of unconscious artistic inspiration), and also conveys his hope to be redeemed from his fate, since it was associated in S.3.1 with Wotan’s proclamation to Erda that the love Siegfried shares with Bruennhilde will redeem the world (i.e., redeem the gods from Alberich’s curse), and associated in S.3.3 with Bruennhilde’s assertion that Wotan’s thought (his confession of his need for a free hero, and the
