based on Alberich’s remark about his ring in R.4: “No joyful man shall ever have joy of it.”?]) (#37 vari:) nor sue for the hand of fair women (:#37 vari)!
Gutrune: (with mounting terror: #103 vari:) What are they bringing (:#103)?
(The procession reaches the middle of the hall and the Vassals set down the body on a rapidly prepared mound. #92/#103 vari)
Hagen: (#45:) A wild boar’s prey (:#45): Siegfried, (#151?:) your dead husband (:#151?)!
(#132, 137 or #164?: [this seems to be music associated in S.3.3 with Siegfried’s fearful agitation either before waking Bruennhilde, or afterwards when he was desperate to persuade her to wake for him?] Gutrune cries out and throws herself on the body. general dismay and grief; Gunther looks to his swooning sister. #87?)
Gunther: (#164 frag/#155 vari:) Gutrune, sweet sister, (#156?:) raise your eyes! Speak to me (:#164 frag/#155 vari; :#156?)!
Gutrune: (recovering consciousness) Siegfried! Siegfried slain! (she pushes Gunther violently away.) (#132, #137, or #164?: [more music which expressed Siegfried’s agitation and fear in Bruennhilde’s presence from S.3.3?]) Away, faithless brother, my husband’s murderer (:#132, #137, or #164?)! (#?: [more of the music which expressed Siegfried’s agitation in Bruennhilde’s presence from above, but sounding more like #164?]) Oh help me! Help me! Woe! Ah woe! They’ve slaughtered Siegfried (:#? [perhaps #164?])!
As Hagen concludes his insensitive and deliberately provocative remarks with his blunt announcement of Siegfried’s death, we hear #45 (the “Power of the Ring”), this being the final instance in which the power of Alberich’s Ring is wielded over men. It expresses Hagen’s sadistic joy in power’s triumph over love itself. Gutrune falls upon Siegfried’s body in grief, and then castigates her brother Gunther, who tries in vain to console her, accusing him of being a co-conspirator in Siegfried’s death. {{ Some of the music which depicts Gutrune’s agitation here sounds like either #132 (the music which in S.2.3 expressed Siegfried’s agitation upon learning from the Woodbird of the sleeping Bruennhilde, his future wife), or #137, the music (based upon #81, especially #81B, and ultimately #21) which represented Siegfried’s fear of waking
