the end of the gods is dawning. Hurling her torch into Siegfried’s funeral pyre, #45 (“The Power of the Ring”) sounds as she proclaims she now hurls the torch into Valhalla’s proud fortress. In so doing she not only draws attention to the identical destinies of Valhalla (religion) and the love she shares with Siegfried (inspired secular art), but motivally we are reminded that Valhalla (the abode of the gods) was itself a product of the power of Alberich’s Ring (#19>#20a), which Bruennhilde is renouncing.
As Wotan’s ravens fly off to carry her messages both to Loge, and to Wotan in Valhalla, Bruennhilde leaps on to her horse Grane, and sings her final greeting to Siegfried. Addressing Grane, and accompanied now by motif #178 (which is not a new motif, but simply #93 - Sieglinde’s “Sublime Wonder!” – in its final manifestation), and also Siegfried’s Motif #92, Bruennhilde tells of her longing to join Siegfried in death, consumed by flames that have now entered her heart and breast (as Loge’s flames once entered Siegfried’s breast, as he finally convinced the fearful Bruennhilde to risk joining with him in loving union, the unconscious inspiration of his art). In an ecstasy of oblivion she sings: “(#93 = #178) … to clasp him to me while held in my arms and in mightiest love to be wedded to him!” This seems to lend a metaphysical air to Siegfried’s and Bruennhilde’s fate, since Bruennhilde is having a vision of what could be described as an eternal love which can never die. On the other hand, as we find in Isolde’s final apostrophe to Tristan, it is possible to interpret Bruennhilde’s hyperbolic words here as the ecstasy of madness or Wahn. But I believe it is safest to conclude that - since the loving union of Siegfried with Bruennhilde is Wagner’s metaphor for his own unconscious artistic inspiration, which gave birth to the Ring itself, and the Ring triumphs as a work of art, which will live on in spite of its revelation of tragic truths which are the underlying foundation of its inspiration, truths which call art itself into question - Bruennhilde’s ecstatic proclamation can be construed as a victory for Wagner’s art. As Wagner once said, the death of the hero is the life of the work of art of which he is the subject.
Grane rears up with Bruennhilde in preparation to jump into the flames, as Bruennhilde sings her last words: “(#92c, or the #71 Variant known as “Hero,” or the #57 Variant heard as Bruennhilde named Siegfried in V.3.1, in Bruennhilde’s vocal line:; #134 Variant Orch (?):) In bliss your wife birds you welcome. (#77; #78: With a single bound she urges the horse into the blazing fire)” The motifs Wagner has chosen for Bruennhilde’s final moments, primarily #93, and the cadential figure often heard after #92a (after we’ve first heard #92ab), which we might call #92c (and which is what Dunning identified as the #71 Variant known as the “Hero Motif”), seem to recall that moment of highest drama in V.3.1 when Sieglinde - having been convinced by Bruennhilde to live for the sake of her unborn child Siegfried, who was destined to be the world’s noblest hero - praised Bruennhilde’s self-sacrificial love with the words “Sublimest Wonder!,” sung to the new motif #93. #93 had not been heard again after its introduction in V.3.1, until it became here the basis for Bruennhilde’s final apostrophe to the love she bears Siegfried. That crucial moment in V.3.1 also introduced Siegfried’s own motif #92abac, as Bruennhilde gave the unborn Siegfried his name. #92c, #92’s cadential ending as heard at that crucial moment in V.3.1 when Bruennhilde named Siegfried, is Bruennhilde’s vocal line as she sings her last words before joining Siegfried in death, “In bliss your wife bids you welcome!”
The presence here in the Ring’s finale of these two motifs (#92abc and #93), which were introduced at that moment of decision in V.3.1, and which recall the hopes Sieglinde and
