![[W. sitting, almost en face, suit and coat. Colored aquarel.]](gall/rw53aq.jpg)
Introduction
Wagner in 1848
The years 1848 and 1849 were years of revolution. In cities like Paris, Munich, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Dresden and also in Italy, Poland and Austria-Hungary there was significant upheavals of revolutionary character. In 1848 Marx and Engels published the "Manifest der kommunistischen Partei" (the Manifest of the communist Party).
Wagner was in 1848 an active member of the republican "Vaterlandsverein" in Dresden, where he had been "Hofkapellmeister" since 1843. His (in-)famous speech in the "Vaterlandsverein" was held the 14 June, to be published anonymously in the "Dresdner Anzeiger" the 16 June [1]. Wagner in this speech tried to persuade the different political forces to cooperate towards the common goal of the revolution - even including the idea of a "monarchic republic".
The same year Wagner composed the score for Lohengrin. The work on the score was started 1 January and completed 28 April. At the same time he conceived the idea of realising an opera based on the saga of Siegfried (as he told his friend Eduard Devrient 1 April).
At 4 October, his prose résumé for what finally would become one of the supreme works of art in the history of mankind, is complete. The title of this preliminary sketch was initially «Die Nibelungensage (Mythus)» - later this was changed to «Der Nibelungen-Mythus. Als Entwurf zu einem Drama». After 26 years, 21 November 1875, Der Ring des Nibelungen is finally completed, as Wagner concluded Götterdämmerung on that day.
In the period around this first prose résumé and the first libretto sketches [2] for the Ring, the years 1848 and 1849, Wagner also wrote several important texts which may shed light on his intentions with the tetralogy. Among them are «Die Wibelungen. Weltgeschichte aus der Sage» (The Wibelungen. World History as told in Saga), which includes several sections on the Nibelungs, «Die Revolution» (The Revolution), «Die Kunst und die Revolution» (Art and Revolution) and «Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft» (The Art-work of the Future), all written in 1849 [3]. These works are very likely to have been influenced by the philosopher Feuerbach, whom Wagner is known to have read at that time, and with whose writings stylistically common traits have been found at least in The Wibelungen, by the anarchist Proudhon, whom he probably also read [4] (certainly in Paris in 1849), as well as by the ideas of the socialist thinkers Max Stirner, Mikhael Bakunin and Karl Marx.
Wagner's revolutionary engagements were not restricted to theorizing and writing. At this time he got actively involved in the uprising which also happened in Dresden [5]. This uprising took place from 3 to 9 May 1849 with fighting and barricading in the streets. The influential Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, an acquaintance of Karl Marx, also took part in this uprising; Wagner and Bakunin had already met several times during the spring months, as Bakunin in this period was staying with Wagner's close friend, the musician and Wagner's assistant conductor, August Röckel. Among Wagner's activities in these days were two political meetings in his garden with discussions of the arming of the populace, his part-taking in production of hand-grenades, his function as a watch in the tower of the Kreuzkirche and his distribution of flysheets to the royal troops with the request to take the people's side against the Prussian troops.
As a result of these revolutionary activities, as well as the contents of a letter [6] from Wagner to Röckel, which got into the hands of the police at the arrestation of Röckel [7], Wagner had to flee from Dresden - he just narrowly escaped arrest. Wagner fled Dresden 9 May by way of Chemnitz and arrived 13 May in Weimar where he was helped by Liszt. The warrant of arrest for Wagner was upheld until July 1860 when he received a partial amnesty and could return to the German states except Saxony. For 11 years he had to remain in exile, most of the time he resided in Switzerland. In March 1862 he was finally granted "return without punishment" in Saxony, his home country.
The Nibelungen-Myth and the Ring
«Der Nibelungen-Mythus» is differing from the final text of the Ring in several ways. The most obvious of these may be the very end, where in the original draft the Gods not only survive, but are even redeemed by Siegfried's death and Brünnhilde's self-sacrifice. The two protagonists are also redeemed and seen rising above the clouds at their funeral pyre - in exactly the same way as Der Holländer and Senta are transfigured at their end in the much earlier opera. It is of course well known that in the Ring the Gods, Siegfried and Brünnhilde all perishes in the flames. As several commentators have shown, this change may reflect Wagner's more pessimistic views with increasing age. Another consideration, which may have been overlooked, is the fact that in the draft there appears no other gods besides Wotan (and Holda, who is only very briefly mentioned in connection with her apples). This complete lack of a gallery of gods makes them more of an abstract concept than real characters in the drama. The appearance of - and conflicts between - the several gods in the final version, makes them more human, person-like, and less superhuman, god-like. This may make the gods more prone to ruin and downfall. Another angle is the fact of the Gods' guilt. As is shown in the next paragraph, this guilt is increased and augmented what seems to be several orders of magnitude from the initial sketch to the finished Ring. It may well be asserted that the redemption of a community of guilt-ridden Gods by the sacrifice of two indiviuals is no longer plausible. And with the Gods gone up in smoke, there seems little reason to expect the post-mortem redemption of the two dead protagonists. No Gods, no resurrection! From a certain point of view, the Ring may in this respect be regarded as more optimistic than the Mythus, not less. In the Ring, future generations of the humans are ridden of the Gods, thus obtaining a new level of freedom and responsibilty - in other words, their childhood is finally over. At any rate, there can be little doubt that these changes are major improvements in terms of dramatic fulfilment of the work.
Related to this obvious difference between the first draft and the final version is a group of differences focused on the central issue in the tetralogy - the fact of the Gods' guilt, in general shown as Wotan's guilt. This complex of guilt is very much augmented and elaborated in the Ring as it was to become at last. Several examples of this could be mentioned, all of which are missing from the Mythus:
- First, the initial lie of Wotan, when he promises Freia as payment to the giants, a payment he never intended to deliver.
- Second, Wotan's habitual infidelity towards his wife, Fricka. This infidelity is also part of her motivation for supporting the building of Walhall.
- Third, Wotan's encouragement of the sexual relationship between the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde. In the Ring, as opposed to the first draft, the twins are his own illegitimate children with a human woman. Wotan's fathering of the human pair of twins adds increased weight to his burden of infidelity. In addition his encouragement of the incestuous relationship adds to his break with convention - a convention supported and protected by Wotan's own wife, Fricka. Sieglinde's flight from her husband, Hunding, is - especially when strongly supported by Wotan - a direct insult to Fricka, the divine protectress of marriage.
- Fourth, in the Ring, the Walküren, including Brünnhilde, are Wotan's daughters - again, not with Fricka, his wife, but with Erda, the earth-goddess and mother of the Norns. When Wotan confides in Brünnhilde in a way he never would confide in his wife, Fricka, he adds to the deepening breach. When Brünnhilde later follows Wotan's original intention by trying to protect Siegmund in battle with Hunding, instead of following his revised order, based on Wotan's new decision under the influence of Fricka - Brünnhilde both as Wotan's daughter and as his soul-mate is the final catalyst to bring forth the complete estrangement and even enmity between Wotan and Fricka, between the All-father and supreme God and his wife. It is symptomatic that after this point, Fricka no more appears in the drama.
- Fifth and last in the tetralogy what chronologically and by order of importance should have been first, the youthful action of Wotan towards the World-ash. When Wotan gave his eye to drink from the spring of wisdom, he also broke off a branch of the World-ash to make his spear of contracts. The resulting wound made the World-ash barren, leaf-less and rotten, according to the Norns in the Prologue of Götterdämmerung. As a consequence, the tree finally dies and the well of wisdom dries up. This rape of nature by Wotan is according to the tale of the Norns clearly the first and basic sin and the original source of all ensuing conflicts - and of the final downfall of the Gods. This idea, similar to modern ecological-minded philosophies, has a tremendous impact both in itself and especially in the dramatic context of the Ring as a whole - an idea which clearly was totally absent in the original draft for the drama.
There is also another group of differences with major dramatic consequences, centred around the conflict between love and the wish for power:
- First, the Rhine-daughters are appearing only at the end of the drama in the first draft. In the final version, they of course have an important part in setting the action in motion at the beginning. Their role in the start of Das Rheingold must be seen in conjunction with Alberich's forswearance of love. The idea of renunciation of love as a necessary means to achieve absolute power is clearly absent from the original draft. This idea, however, is of major importance in the Ring, and it is introduced in the beginning with the help of the three Rhine-daughters.
- Second, the idea of Freia, Goddess of love, as payment for Walhall, fortress of power, is clearly related to the above. Wotan's promise, however false, is clearly mirroring Alberich's forswearing of love. This not-to-be exchange is not present in the prose sketch - here the Nibelungen-Hoard was to be the payment, Freia (or Holda) is not mentioned in this connection.
- Third, Holda's (Freia's) apples have in the draft the function of being Wotan's instruments of fertility - making possible the birth of Siegmund and Sieglinde in an otherwise barren marriage (the parents being unnamed). The apples may here be seen as a metaphor for Wotan's sex. In the Ring the apples have a more central place in the dramatic action, they ensure the Gods eternal youth. As Freia, the keeper of the golden apples, also is the goddess of love, the golden apples are in reality the fruits of love. This concept is clearly related to the idea of the apples as a "fertiliser" - but equally clearly it has wider implications. One such may be the idea that the physical act of love is what keeps the Gods eternally young - an idea of obvious attraction to the not-so-chaste Wagner.
Finally, there are many differences between The Nibelungen-Myth and the Ring, all of greater or lesser dramatic consequence, but not necessarily connected to the two main issues as presented above. To mention some of the most important ones:
- In the sketch the fire is only present as element, circling the rock of Brünnhilde and consuming Siegfried and Brünnhilde at the final funeral pyre. The fire as a person [8], Loge, is nowhere mentioned; and the fire never touches Walhall. The whole series of qualities connected to Loge, both as element and as person, is thus absent from the initial sketch, but play central roles in the final Ring, as elaborated elsewhere [8].
- The brother-murder by the giant Fafner is not present in the sketch, and the dragon (worm) is not identified with the giant. The idea that the aquisition of an inordinate amount of material wealth - the Nibelungen-Hoard - will turn a person into a dragon, is not included in the first draft. «Ich lieg' und besitz'» says the dragon Fafner, ex-Giant. It is clear that the capitalist-dragon is less of a person than the hard-working Giant, and that the hoard and the power of the Ring has done him no good. In this way Wagner in the final text of the Ring brings out even more clearly the anti-capitalist views implicit in the sketch.
- In The Nibelungen-Myth the counsel to give up the Ring is given Wotan by the three Norns. In the Ring, of course, this admonition comes from Erda, the earth-goddess, who is introduced at this point. The goddess of the earth and of motherly wisdom represents a counterweight to Wotan and the Gods in their blind vanity. The amplification of the Gods' folly in the Ring in relation to the Myth would also, from the dramaturgic point of view, demand a more pregnant, personal and morally integrated presence as a weightier opposition to their blindness and their folly. Hence, Erda.
- In the Mythus the Gibichungen are called «a second hero-stem», and the birth of Hagen by Grimhild is explained by rape, thus preserving the presumed nobility of the Gibichungs. In the Ring, according to Wotan, Grimhild freely gave her sexual favours to Alberich, in return for gold - as told by the God to Brünnhilde in the second scene of the second act of Die Walküre. From this we must conclude that there is an abnormal streak of greed present in the Gibichungs, as their queen, or to-be queen, would engage in such an exchcange. Of course, this huge moral defect in the Gibichungen makes them much more interesting in the dramatic context.
Of somewhat lesser importance are the following changes:
- Siegmund is not married in the Ring.
- Siegmund's sword is called Nothung, [9] not Balmung.
- Siegfried does not kill Hunding, Wotan kills him immediately following the death of Siegmund.
Richard Wagner:
Der Nibelungen-Mythus.
Als Entwurf zu einem Drama.
(1848.)
Dem Schoße der Nacht und des Todes entkeimte ein Geschlecht, welches in Nibelheim (Nebelheim), d. i. in unterirdischen düsteren Klüften und Höhlen wohnt: sie heißen Nibelungen; in unsteter, rastloser Regsamkeit durchwühlen sie (gleich Würmern im toten Körper) die Eingeweide der Erde: sie glühen, läutern und schmieden die harten Metalle. Des klaren edlen Rheingoldes bemächtigte sich Alberich, entführte es den Tiefen der Wässer und schmiedete daraus mit großer listiger Kunst einen Ring, der ihm die oberste Gewalt über sein ganzes Geschlecht, die Nibelungen, verschaffte: so wurde er ihr Herr, zwang sie, für ihn fortan allein zu arbeiten, und sammelte den unermeßlichen Nibelungenhort, dessen wichtigstes Kleinod der Tarnhelm, durch den jede Gestalt angenommen werden konnte, und den zu schmieden Alberich seinen eigenen Bruder, Reigin (Mime - Eugel), gezwungen hatte. So ausgerüstet strebte Alberich nach der Herrschaft über die Welt und alles in ihr Enthaltene.
Das Geschlechtt der Riesen, der trotzigen, gewaltigen, urgeschaffenen, wird in seinem wilden Behagen gestört: ihre ungeheure Kraft, ihr schlichter Mutterwitz reicht gegen Alberichs herrschsüchtige Verschlagenheit nicht mehr aus: sie sehen mit Sorge die Nibelungen wunderbare Waffen schmieden, die in den Händen menschlicher Helden einst den Riesen den Untergang bereiten sollen. - Diesen Zwiespalt benutzte das zur Allherrschaft erwachsendc Geschlecht der Götter. Wotan verträgt mit den Riesen, den Göttern die Burg zu bauen, von der aus sie sicher die Welt zu ordnen und zu beherrschen vermögen; nach vollendetem Bau fordern die Riesen als Lohn den Nibelungenhort. Der höchsten Klugheit der Götter gelingt es, Alberich zu fangen; er muß ihnen sein Leben mit dem Horte lösen; den einzigen Ring will er behalten: - die Götter, wohl wissend, daß in ihm das Geheimnis der Macht Alberichs beruhe, entreißen ihm auch den Ring: da verflucht er ihn; er soll das Verderben aller sein, die ihn besitzen. Wotan stellt den Hort den Riesen zu, den Ring will er behalten, damit seine Allherrschaft zu sichern: die Riesen ertrotzen ihn, und Wotan weicht auf den Rat der drei Schicksalsfrauen (Nornen), die ihn vor dem Untergange der Götter selbst warnen.
Nun lassen die Riesen den Hort und den Ring auf der Gnita- (Neid-) Heide von einem ungeheuren Wurme hüten. Durch den Ring bleiben die Nibelungen mit Alberich zugleich in Knechtschaft. Aber die Riesen verstehen nicht, ihre Macht zu nützen; ihrem plumpen Sinne genügt es, die Nibelungen gebunden zu haben. So liegt der Wurm seit uralten Zeiten in träger Furchtbarkeit über dem Hort: vor dem Glanz des neuen Göttergeschlechtes verbleicht und erstarrt machtlos das Riesengeschlecht, elend und tückisch schmachten die Nibelungcn in fruchtloser Regsamkeit fort. Alberich brütet ohne Rast über die Wiedererlangung des Ringes.
In hoher Tätigkeit ordneten nun die Götter die Welt, banden die Elemente durch weise Gesetze, und widmeten sich der sorgsamsten Pflege des Menschengeschlechts. Ihre Kraft steht über allem. Doch der Friede, durch den sie zur Herrschaft gelangten, gründet sich nicht auf Versöhnung: er ist durch Gewalt und List vollbracht. Die Absicht ihrer höheren Weltordnung ist sittliches Bewußtsein: das Unrecht, das sie verfolgen, haftet aber an ihnen selber. Aus den Tiefen Nibelheims grollt ihnen das Bewußtsein ihrer Schuld entgegen: denn die Knechtschaft der Nibelungen ist nicht zerbrochen; die Herrschaft ist nur Alberich geraubt, und zwar nicht für einen höheren Zweck, sondern unter dem Bauche des müßigen Wurmes liegt nutzlos die Seele, die Freiheit der Nibelungen begraben: Alberich hat somit in seinen Vorwürfen gegen die Götter recht. Wotan selbst kann aber das Unrecht nicht tilgen, ohne ein neues Unrecht zu begehen: nur ein, von den Göttern selbst unabhängiger, freier Wille, der alle Schuld auf sich selbst zu laden und zu büßen imstande ist, kann den Zauber lösen, und in dem Menschen ersehen die Götter die Fähigkeit zu solchem freiem Willen. In den Menschen suchen sie also ihre Göttlichkeit überzutragen, um seine Kraft so hoch zu heben, daß er, zum Bewußtsein dieser Kraft gelangend, des göttlichen Schutzes selbst sich entschlägt, um nach eigenem freiem Willen zu tun, was sein Sinn ihm eingibt. Zu dieser hohen Bestimmung, Tilger ihrer eigenen Schuld zu sein, erziehen nun die Götter den Menschen, und ihre Absicht würde erreicht sein, wenn sie in dieser Menschenschöpfung sich selbst vernichteten, nämlich in der Freiheit des menschlichen Bewußtseins ihres unmittelbaren Einflusses sich selbst begeben müßten. Mächtige menschliche Geschlechter, von göttlichem Samen befruchtet, blühen nun bereits: in Streit und Kampf stählen sie ihre Kraft; Wotans Wunschmädchen schirmen sie als Schildjungfrauen, als Walküren geleiten sie die im Kampf Gefallenen nach Walhalla, wo die Helden in Wotans Genossenschaft ein herrliches Leben unter Kampfspielen fortsetzen. Immer ist aber der rechte Held noch nicht geboren, in dem die selbständige Kraft zum vollen Bewußtsein gelangen soll, so daß er fähig sei, aus freiem Willen die Todesbüßung vor den Augen, seine kühnste Tat sein eigen zu nennen. Im Geschlecht der Wälsungen soll endlich dieser Held geboren werden: eine unfruchtbar gebliebene Ehe dieses Geschlechtes befruchtete Wotan durch einen Apfel Holdas, den er das Ehepaar genießen ließ: ein Zwillingspaar, Siegmund und Sieglinde (Bruder und Schwester) entspringen der Ehe. Siegmund nimmt ein Weib, Sieglinde vermählt sieh einem Manne (Hunding) , ihre beiden Ehen bleiben aber unfruchtbar: um einen editen Wälsung zu erzeugen, begatten sich nun Bruder und Schwester selbst. Hunding, Sieglindes Gemahl, erfährt das Verbrechen, verstößt sein Weib und überfällt Siegmund mit Streit. Brünnhild, die Walküre, schützt Siegmund gegen Wotans Geheiß, welcher dem Verbrechen zur Söhne ihm den Untergang beschieden hat; schon zückt unter Brünnhilds Schild Siegmund zu dem tödlichen Streiche auf Hunding das Schwert, welches Wotan ihm einst selbst geschenkt, als der Gott den Streich mit seinem Speer auffängt, woran das Schwert in zwei Stücken zerbricht. Siegmund fällt. Brünnhild wird von Wotan für ihren Ungehorsam gestraft: er verstößt sie aus der Schar der Walküren und bannt sie auf einen Felsen, wo sie, die göttliche Jungfrau, dem Manne vermählt werden soll, der dort sie findet und aus dem Schlafe erweckt, in den Wotan sie versenkt; sie erfleht sich als Gnade, Wotan möge den Felsen mit Schrecken des Feuers umgeben, damit sie sicher sei, daß sie nur der kühnste Held gewinnen können würde. - Die verstoßene Sieglinde gebiert in der Wildnis nach langer Schwangerschaft Siegfried (der durch Sieg Friede bringen soll) : Reigin (Mime), Alberichs Bruder, ist, als Sieglinde in den Wehen schrie, aus Klüften zu ihr getreten, und hat ihr geholfen: nach der Geburt stirbt sie, nachdem sie Reigin ihr Schicksal gemeldet, und den Knaben diesem übergeben hat. Reigin erzieht Siegfried, lehrt ihn schmieden, meldet ihm den Tod seines Vaters, und verschafft ihm die beiden Stücke von dessen zerschlagenem Schwerte, aus welchem Siegfried unter Mimes Anleitung das Schwert (Balmung) sdimiedet. Nun reizt Mime den Jüngling zur Erlegung des Wurmes, wodurch er sich ihm dankbar erzeigen soll. Siegfried begehrt zuvor den Mord seines Vaters zu rächen: er zieht aus, überfällt und tötet Hunding: hiernach erst erfüllt er Mimes Wunsch, bekämpft und erschlägt den Riesenwurm. Als er seine vom Blute des Wurmes erhitzten Finger zur Kühlung in den Mund fährt, kostet er unwillkürlich von dem Blute und versteht dadurch plötzlich die Sprache der Waldvögel, welche um ihn herum singen. Sie preisen Siegfrieds ungeheure Tat, verweisen ihn auf den Nibelungenhort in des Wurmes Höhle und warnen ihn vor Mime, der ihn nur verwendet habe, um zu dem Horte zu gelangen, und der nun nach seinem Leben trachte, um den Hort für sich allein zu behalten. Siegfried erschlägt hierauf Mime, und nimmt von dem Horte den Ring und die Tarnkappe: er vernimmt die Vögel wieder, welche ihm raten, das herrlichste Weib, Brünnhild, zu gewinnen. Siegfried zieht nun aus, erreicht die Felsenburg Brünnhildes, dringt durch das umlodernde Feuer, erweckt Brünnhild; sie erkennt freudig Siegfried, den herrlichsten Helden vom Wälsungenstamme, und ergibt sich ihm: er vermählt sich ihr durch den Ring Alberichs, den er an ihren Finger steckt. Als es ihn forttreibt, zu neuen Taten auszuziehen, teilt sie ihm ihr geheimes Wissen in hohen Lehren mit, warnt ihn vor den Gefahren des Truges und der Untreue: sie schwören sieh Eide und Siegfried zieht fort.
Ein zweiter, auch von Göttern entsprossener Heldenstamm ist der der Gibiehungen am Rhein: dort blühen jetzt Gunther und Gudrun, seine Schwester. Gunthers Mutter, Grimhild, ward einst von Alberich überwältigt, und sie gebar von ihm einen unehelichen Sohn, Hagen. Wie die Wünsche und Hoffnungen der Götter auf Siegfried beruhen, setzt Alberich seine Hoffnung der Wiedergewinnung des Ringes auf den von ihm erzeugten Helden Hagen. Hagen ist bleichfarbig, ernst und düster; frühzeitig sind seine Züge verhärtet; er erscheint älter, als er ist. Alberich hat ihm in seiner Kindheit bereits geheimes Wissen und Kenntnis des väterlichen Schicksals beigebracht und ihn gereizt, nach dem Ringe zu streben: er ist stark und gewaltig; dennoch erschien er Alberich nicht mächtig genug, den Riesenwurrn zu töten. Da Alberich machtlos geworden, konnte er seinem Bruder Mime nicht wehren, als dieser durch Siegfried den Hort zu erlangen suchte: Hagen soll nun aber Siegfrieds Verderben herbeiführen, um diesem in seinem Untergange den Ring abzugewinnen. Gegen Gunther und Gudrun ist Hagen verschlossen, - sie fürchten ihn, aber schätzen seine Klugheit und Erfahrung: das Geheimnis einer wunderbaren Herkunft Hagens, und daß er nicht sein echter Bruder, ist Gunther bekannt: er schilt ihn einmal einen Albensohn.
Gunther ist von Hagen darüber belehrt, daß Brünnhild das begehrenswerteste Weib sei, und zu dem Verlangen nach ihrem Besitze von ihm angereizt, als Siegfried zu den Gibichungen an den Rhein kommt. Gudrun, durch das Lob, welches Hagen Siegfried spendet, in Liebe zu diesem entbrannt, reicht auf Hagens Rat Siegfried zum Willkommen einen Trank, durch Hagens Kunst bereitet und von der Wirksamkeit, daß er Siegfried seiner Erlebnisse mit Brünnhild und seiner Vermählung mit ihr vergessen macht. Siegfried begehrt Gudrun zum Weibe: Gunther sagt sie ihm zu, unter der Bedingung, daß er ihm zu Brünnhild verhelfe. Siegfried geht darauf ein: sie schließen Blutbrüderschaft und schwören sich Eide, von denen Hagen sich ausschließt. - Siegfried und Gunther begeben sich auf die Fahrt und gelangen zu Brünnhilds Felsenburg: Gunther bleibt im Schiffe zurück; Siegfried benutzt zum ersten und einzigen Male seine Macht als Herr der Nibelungen, indem er den Tarnhelm aufsetzt, und durch ihn sich Gunthers Gestalt und Aussehen verschafft; so dringt er durch die Flammen zu Brünnhild. Diese, durch Siegfried bereits des Magdtumes beraubt, hat auch ihre übermenschliche Kraft eingebüßt, alles Wissen hat sie an Siegfried - der es nicht nützt vergeben -; sie ist ohnmächtig wie ein gewöhnliches Weib, und vermag dem neuen, kühnen Werber nur fruchtlosen Widerstand zu bieten; er entreißt ihr den Ring - durch den sie nun Gunther vermählt sein soll, - und zwingt sie in den Saal, wo er die Nacht neben ihr schläft, zu ihrer Verwunderung jedoch sein Schwert zwischen sie beide legt. Am Morgen bringt er sie zum Schiffe, wo er seine Stelle zu ihrer Seite unvermerkt von dem wahren Gunther einnehmen läßt, und durch die Kraft des Tarnhelmes sich schnell an den Rhein zur Gibichenburg versetzt. Gunther erreicht mit Brünnhild, welche ihm in düsterem Schweigen folgt, auf dem Rheine die Heimat: Siegfried, an Gudruns Seite, und Hagen empfangen die Ankommenden. - Brünnhild ist entsetzt, da sie Siegfried als Gudruns Gemahl erblickt: seine kalte, freundliche Gelassenheit ihr gegenüber macht sie staunen; da er sie an Gunther zurückweist, erkennt sie den Ring an seinem Finger: sie ahnt den Betrug, der ihr gespielt, und fordert den Ring, der nicht ihm gehöre, sondern den Gunther von ihr empfangen: er verweigert ihn. Sie fordert Gunther auf, den Ring von Siegfried zu begehren: Gunther ist verwirrt und zögert. Brünnhild: so empfing Siegfried den Ring von ihr? Siegfried, der den Ring erkannt, «von keinem Weib empfing ich ihn; den hat meine Kraft dem Riesenwurm abgewonnen; durch ihn bin ich der Nibelungen Herr, und keinem trete ich seine Macht ab». Hagen tritt dazwischen und fragt Brünnhild, ob sie genau den Ring kenne? Sei es ihr Ring, so habe ihn Siegfried durch Trug gewonnen, und er könne nur Gunther, ihrem Gemahle, gehören. Brünnhild schreit laut auf über den Betrug, der ihr gespielt; der fürchterlichste Rachedurst erfüllt sie gegen Siegfried. Sie ruft Gunther zu, daß er von Siegfried betrogen: «Nicht dir - diesem Manne bin ich vermählt, er gewann meine Gunst.» - Siegfried schilt sie ehrvergessen; seiner Blutbrüderschaft sei er treu gewesen, - sein Schwert habe er zwischen Brünnhild und sich gelegt: - er fordert sie auf, dies zu bezeugen. - Absichtlich und nur auf sein Verderben bedacht, will sie Siegfried nicht verstehen: er lüge und berufe sich schlecht auf sein Schwert Balmung, das sie ruhig an der Wand hängen gesehen, als er in Liebe bei ihr lag. - Die Männer und Gudrun bestürmen Siegfried, die Anklage von sich abzuweisen, wenn er es vermöge. Siegfried schwört feierliche Eide zur Bekräftigung seiner Aussage. Brünnhild schilt ihn meineidig: so viele Eide, ihr und Gunther, habe er geschworen, die er gebrochen: nun schwöre er auch einen Meineid, um eine Lüge zu bekräftigen. Alles ist in höchster Aufregung. Siegfried ruft Gunther zu, seinem Weibe zu wehren, die schamlos ihre und ihres Gatten Ehre verlästere: er entfernt sich mit Gudrun in den Saal. - Gunther, in tiefster Scham und furchtbarer Verstimmung, hat sich mit verhalltem Gesicht abseits niedergesetzt: an Brünnhild, dem schrecklichsten inneren Sturme preisgegeben, tritt Hagen heran. Er bietet sieh ihr zum Rächer ihrer Ehre an - sie verlacht ihn als ohnmächtig, Siegfried zu bewältigen: ein Blick aus seinem strahlenden Auge, das selbst durch jene trügerische Gestalt zu ihr geleuchtet, vermöge Hagens Mut zu brechen. Hagen: wohl kenne er Siegfrieds furchtbare Stärke, drum solle sie ihm sagen, wie er zu bewältigen wäre? Sie, die Siegfried gefeit und durch geheimen Segen ihn gegen Wunden gewaffnet hat, rät nun Hagen, ihn im Rücken zu treffen; denn da sie wußte, daß der Held nie dem Feinde den Rücken bieten würde, habe sie an diesem den Segen gespart. - Gunther muß den Mordplan kennen. Sie rufen ihn auf, seine Ehre zu rächen: Brünnhild bedeckt ihn mit den Vorwürfen der Feigheit und des Betruges; Gunther erkennt seine Schuld, und die Notwendigkeit, durch Siegfrieds Tod seine Schande zu enden. Er erschrickt, sich des Bruches der Blutbrüderschaft schuldig zu machen. Brünnhild höhnt ihn mit bitterem Schmerz: was sei an ihr nicht alles verbrechen worden? Hagen reizt Gunther durch die Aussicht auf die Erlangung des Ringes der Nibelungen, den Siegfried wohl nur im Tode werde fahren lassen. Gunther willigt ein; Hagen rät eine Jagd auf morgen, dabei solle Siegfried überfallen, und vielleicht Gudrun selbst sein Mord verheimlicht werden; um sie war Gunther besorgt: Brünnhildes Rachelust schärft sich in der Eifersucht auf Gudrun. So wird von den dreien Siegfrieds Mord beschlossen. - Siegfried erscheint mit Gudrun festlich geschmückt in der Halle, lädt zum Opfer und zur Hochzeitsfeier ein. Heuchlerisch gehorchen die Verschworenen: Siegfried und Gudrun freuen sich des anscheinend wiedergekehrten Friedens.
Am folgenden Morgen gerät Siegfried in der Verfolgung eines Wildes in die Einsamkeit einer Felsenschlucht am Rhein. Drei Meerfrauen tauchen aus der Flut auf: sie sind weissagende Töchter der Wassertiefe, der einst von Alberich das klare Rheingold entrissen, um aus ihm den mächtigen, verhängnisvollen Ring zu schmieden: der Fluch und die Macht dieses Ringes würde vernichtet sein, wenn er dem Wasser zurückgegeben und somit in das ursprüngliche reine Element wieder aufgelöst würde. Die Frauen trachten nach dem Ringe und begehren ihn von Siegfried, der ihn verweigert. (Er hat schuldlos die Schuld der Götter übernommen, ihr Unrecht büßt er an sich durch seinen Trotz, seine Selbständigkeit.) Sie verkünden ihm Unheil und den Fluch, der an dem Ringe haftet: er soll ihn in die Flut werfen, sonst müsse er heute noch sterben. Siegfried: «Ihr listigen Frauen sollt mich nicht um meine Macht betrügen: den Fluch und euer Drohen achte ich nicht eines Haares wert. Wozu mein Mut mich treibt, das ist mir Urgesetz, und was ich nach meinem Sinne tue, das ist mir so bestimmt: nennt ihr dies Fluch oder Segen, ich gehorche ihm und strebe nicht wider meine Kraft.» Die Frauen: «Willst du die Götter übertreffen?» Siegfried: «Zeigtet ihr mir die Möglichkeit, die Götter zu bewältigen, so müßte ich nach meinem Mute sie bekämpfen. Drei weisere Frauen, als ihr seid, kenne ich; die wissen, wo die Götter einst in banger Sorge streiten werden. Zu der Götter Frommen ist es, wenn sie sorgen, daß ich dann mit ihnen kämpfe. Drum lache ich eurem Drohen: der Ring bleibt mein, und so werfe ich das Leben hinter mich.» (Er hebt eine Erdscholle auf, und wirft sie über sein Haupt hinter sich.) - Die Frauen verspotten nun Siegfried, der sich so stark und weise wähne, als er blind und unfrei sei. «Eide hat er gebrochen und weiß es nicht: ein Gut, höher und werter als der Ring, hat er verloren, und weiß es nicht: Runen und Zauber sind ihm gelehrt, und er hat sie vergessen. Lebe wohl, Siegfried! Ein stolzes Weib kennen wir; die wird den Ring noch heute erwerben, wenn du erschlagen bist. - zu ihr! Sie gibt uns besseres Gehör.» - Siegfried sieht ihnen lachend nach, wie sie singend davonziehen. Er ruft: «Wär ich nicht Gudrun treu, eine von euch hätte ich mir gebändigt!» Er vernimmt die näher kommenden Jagdgenossen und stößt in sein Horn, die Jäger, - Gunther und Hagen an ihrer Spitze, - versammeln sich um Siegfried. Das Jagdmahl wird eingenommen: Siegfried, in ausgelassener Heiterkeit, verspottet sich über sein unbelohntes Jagen: nur Wasserwild habe sich ihm geboten, auf dessen Jagd er leider nicht gerüstet gewesen, sonst würde er seinen Genossen drei wilde Wasservögel gebracht haben, die ihm geweissagt, er würde heute noch sterben. Hagen nimmt beim Trinken die scherzhafte Weise auf: ob er denn wirklich der Vögel Gesang und Sprache verstehe? - Gunther ist trüb und schweigsam. Siegfried will ihn aufheitern und erzählt in Liedern von seiner Jugend: sein Abenteuer mit Mime, die Erlegung des Wurmes, und wie er dazu gekommen, die Vögel zu verstehen. In der folgerecht geleiteten Erinnerung kommt ihm auch der Zuruf der Vögel bei, Brünnhilde aufzusuchen, die ihm beschieden sei; wie er dann zu dem flammenden Felsen gezogen und Brünnhild erweckt habe. Die Erinnerung dämmert immer heller in ihm auf. Zwei Raben fliegen jäh über sein Haupt dahin. Hagen unterbricht Siegfried: «Was sagen dir diese Raben?» Siegfried fährt heftig auf. Hagen: «Ich verstand sie, sie eilen, dich Wotan anzumelden.» Er stößt seinen Speer in Siegfrieds Rücken. Gunther, durch Siegfrieds Erzählung auf den richtigen Zusammenhang der unbegreiflichen Vorgänge mit Brünnhilde geratend, und plötzlich daraus Siegfrieds Unschuld erkennend, war, Siegfried zu retten, Hagen in den Arm gefallen, ohne jedoch den Stoß aufhalten zu können. Siegfried erhebt seinen Schild, um Hagen damit zu zerschmettern, ihn verläßt die Kraft, und krachend stürzt er zusammen. Hagen hat sich abgewandt, Gunther und die Mannen umstehen in teilnahmsvoller Erschütterung Siegfried, welcher seine Augen noch einmal leuchtend aufschlägt: «Brünnhild! Brünnhild! Du strahlendes Wotanskind! Wie seh ich hell und leuchtend dich mir nahn! Mit heilig ernstem Lächeln sattelst du dein Roß, das tautriefend durch die Lüfte schreitet: zu mir richtest du den Lauf, hier gibt es Wal zu küren! Mich Glücklichen, den du zum Gatten korst, mich leite nun nach Walhall, daß ich zu aller Helden Ehre Allvaters Met mag trinken, den du, strahlende Wunschmaid, mir reichest! Brünnhild! Brünnhild! Sei gegrüßt!» Er stirbt. Die Mannen erheben die Leiche auf den Schild und geleiten sie, Gunther voran, feierlch über die Felsenhöhe von dannen.
In den Hallen der Gibichungen, deren Vorplatz im Hintergrunde auf das Rheinufer ausgeht, wird die Leiche niedergesetzt: Hagen hat mit grellem Rufe Gudrun herausgerufen, - ein wilder Eber habe ihren Gatten zerfleischt. Gudrun stürzt voll Entsetzen über Siegfrieds Leiche hin: sie klagt die Brüder des Mordes an; Gunther weist auf Hagen: er sei der wilde Eber, der Mörder Siegfrieds. Hagen: «Nun denn, habe ich ihn erlegt, an den kein anderer sich wohl wagte, so ist, was sein ist, auch meine gute Beute. Der Ring ist mein!» Gunther tritt ihm entgegen: «Schamloser Albensohn, mein ist der Ring, denn von Brünnhilden war er mir bestimmt: Ihr hörtet es alle!» - Hagen und Gunther streiten: Gunther fällt. Hagen will der Leiche den Ring entziehen, sie hebt drohend die Hand empor, Hagen weicht entsetzt zurück; Gudrun schreit in Jammer laut auf; - da tritt Brünnhild feierlich dazwischen: «Schweigt euren Jammer, eure eitle Wut! Hier steht sein Weib, das ihr alle verrietet! Nun fordre ich mein Recht, denn was geschehen sollte, ist geschehen!» - Gudrun: «Ach, Unheilvolle! Du warst es, die uns Verderben brachte.» Brünnhild: «Armselige, schweig! Du warst nur seine Buhlerin: sein Gemahl bin ich, der er Eide geschworen, noch eh er je dich sah.» Gudrun: «Weh mir! Verfluchter Hagen, was rietest du mir mit dem Trank, durch den ich ihr den Gatten stahl: denn nun weiß ich, daß er Brünnhild nur durch den Trank vergaß.» Brünnhild: «Oh, er war rein! Nie wurden Eide treuer gehalten, als durch ihn. So hat ihn Hagen nun nicht erschlagen, nein, für Wotan zeichnete er ihn, zu dem ich ihn nun geleiten soll. Jetzt hab ich auch gebüßt; rein und frei bin ich: denn er, der Herrliche nur, hatte mich gezwungen.» Sie läßt am Ufer Scheithaufen errichten, Siegfrieds Leiche zu verbrennen: kein Roß, kein Knecht soll mit ihm geopfert werden, sie allein will zu seiner Ehre ihren Leib den Göttern darbringen. Zuvor nimmt sie ihr Erbe in Besitz; der Tarnhelm soll mit verbrennen: den Ring aber steckt sie selbst an. «Du übermütiger Held, wie hieltest du mich gebannt! All mein Wissen verriet ich dir, dem Sterblichen, und mußte so meiner Weisheit verlustig sein; du nütztest es nicht, auf dich allein nur verließest du dich: nun du es frei geben mußtest durch den Tod, kommt mir mein Wissen wieder, und dieses Ringes Runen erkenne ich. Des Urgesetzes Runen kenn ich nun auch, der Nornen alten Spruch! Hört denn, ihr herrlichen Götter, euer Unrecht ist getilgt: dankt ihm, dem Helden, der eure Schuld auf sich nahm. Er gab es nun in meine Hand, das Werk zu vollenden: gelöset sei der Nibelungen Knechtschaft, der Ring soll sie nicht mehr binden. Nicht soll ihn Alberich empfangen; der soll nicht mehr euch knechten; dafür sei er aber selbst auch frei wie ihr. Denn diesen Ring stelle ich euch zu, weise Schwestern der Wassertiefe; die Glut, die mich verbrennt, soll das böse Kleinod reinigen; ihr löset es auf und bewahret es harmlos, das Rheingold, das euch geraubt, um Knechtschaft und Unheil daraus zu schmieden. Nur einer herrsche, Allvater, herrlicher, du! Daß ewig deine Macht sei, führ' ich dir diesen zu: empfange ihn wohl, er ist dess' wert!» - Unter feierlichen Gesängen schreitet Brünnhild auf den Scheithaufen zu Siegfrieds Leiche. Gudrun ist über den erschlagenen Gunther, in tiefen Schmerz aufgelöst, hingebeugt im Vordergrunde. Die Flammen sind über Brünnhild und Siegfried zusammengeschlagen: - plötzlich leuchtet es im hellsten Glanze auf: über einem düstern Wolkensaume erhebt sich der Glanz, in welchem Brünnhild, im Waffenschmuck zu Roß, als Walküre Siegfried an der Hand von dannen geleitet. Zugleich schwellen die Uferwellen des Rheines bis an den Eingang der Halle an: die drei Wasserfrauen entführen auf ihnen den Ring und den Helm. Hagen stürzt wie wahnsinnig auf sie zu, das Kleinod ihnen zu entreißen, - die Frauen erfassen ihn und ziehen ihn mit sich in die Tiefe hinab.
Richard Wagner:
The Nibelungen-Myth.
As Sketch for a Drama.
(Summer 1848.)
From the womb of Night and Death was spawned a race that dwells in Nibelheim (Nebelheim), i.e. in gloomy subterranean clefts and caverns: Nibelungen are they called; with restless nimbleness they burrow through the bowels of the earth, like worms in a dead body; they smelt and smith hard metals. The pure and noble Rhine-gold Alberich seized, divorced it from the waters' depth, and wrought therefrom with cunning art a ring that lent him rulership of all his race, the Nibelungen: so he became their master, forced them to work for him alone, and amassed the priceless Nibelungen-Hoard, whose greatest treasure is the Tarnhelm, conferring power to take on any shape at will, a work that Alberich compelled his own brother Reigin (Mime = Eugel) to weld for him. Thus armoured, Alberich made for mastery of the world and all that it contains.
The race of Giants, boastful, violent, ur-begotten [10], is troubled in its savage ease: their monstrous strength, their simple mother-wit, no longer are a match for Alberich's crafty plans of conquest: alarmed they see the Nibelungen forging wondrous weapons, that one day in the hands of human heroes shall cause the Giants' downfall. - This strife is taken advantage of by the race of Gods, now waxing to supremacy. Wotan bargains with the Giants to build the Gods a Burg from whence to rule the world in peace and order; their building finished, the Giants ask the Nibelungen-Hoard in payment. The utmost cunning of the Gods succeeds in trapping Alberich; he must ransom his life with the Hoard; the Ring alone he strives to keep: - the Gods, well knowing that in it resides the secret of all Alberich's power, extort from him the Ring as well: then he curses it; it shall be the ruin of all who possess it. Wotan delivers the Hoard to the Giants, but means to keep the Ring as warrant of his sovereignty: the Giants defy him, and Wotan yields to the counsel of the three Fates (Norns), who warn him of the downfall of the Gods themselves.
Now the Giants have the Hoard and Ring safe-kept by a monstrous Worm in the Gnita- (Neid-) [11] Haide [the Grove of Grudge]. Through the Ring the Nibelungs remain in thraldom, Alberich and all. But the Giants do not understand to use their might; their dullard minds are satisfied with having bound the Nibelungen. So the worm lies on the Hoard since untold ages, in inert dreadfulness: before the lustre of the new race of Gods the Giants' race fades down and stiffens into impotence; fruitless labour. Alberich broods without cease on the means of gaining back the Ring.
In high emprise [12] the Gods have planned the world, bound down the elements by prudent laws, and devoted themselves to most careful nurture of the Human race. Their strength stands over all. Yet the peace by which they have arrived at mastery does not repose on reconcilement: by violence and cunning it was wrought. The object of their higher ordering of the world is moral consciousness: but the wrong they fight attaches to themselves. From the depths of Nibelheim the conscience of their guilt cries up to them: for the bondage of the Nibelungen is not broken; merely the lordship has been reft from Alberich, and not for any higher end, but the soul, the freedom of the Nibelungen lies buried uselessly beneath the belly of an idle Worm: Alberich thus has justice in his plaints against the Gods. Wotan himself, however, cannot undo the wrong without committing yet another: only a free Will, independent of the Gods themselves, and able to assume and expiate itself the burden of all guilt, can loose the spell; and in man the Gods perceive the faculty of such free-will. In Man they therefore seek to plant their own divinity, to raise his strength so high that, in full knowledge of that strength, he may rid him of the Gods' protection, to do of his free will what his own mind inspires. So the Gods bring up Man for this high destiny, to be the canceller of their own guilt; and their aim would be attained even if in this human creation they should perforce annul themselves, that is, must part with their immediate influence through freedom of man's conscience. Stout human races, fruited by the seed divine, already flourish: in strife and fight they steel their strength; Wotan's Wish-maids shelter them as Shield-maids, as Walküren lead the slain-in-fight to Walhall, where the heroes live again a glorious life of jousts in Wotan's company. But not yet is the rightful hero born, in whom his self-reliant strength shall reach full consciousness, enabling him with the free-willed penalty of death before his eyes to call his boldest deed his own. In the race of the Wälsungen this hero at last shall come to birth: a barren union is fertilised by Wotan through one of Holda's apples, which he gives the wedded pair to eat: twins, Siegmund and Sieglinde (brother and sister), spring from the marriage. Siegmund takes a wife, Sieglinde weds a man (Hunding); but both their marriages prove sterile: to beget a genuine Wälsung, brother and sister wed each other. Hunding, Sieglinde's husband, learns of the crime, casts off his wife, and goes out to fight with Siegmund. Brünnhild, the Walküre, shields Siegmund counter to Wotan's commands, who had doomed him to fall in expiation of the crime; already Siegmund, under Brünnhilds shield, is drawing sword for the death-blow at Hunding - the sword that Wotan himself once had given him - when the god receives the blow upon his spear, which breaks the weapon in two pieces. Siegmund falls. Brünnhild is punished by Wotan for her disobedience: he strikes her from the roll of the Walküren, and banishes her to a rock, where the divine virgin is to wed the man who finds and wakes her from the sleep in which Wotan plunges her; she pleads for mercy, that Wotan will ring the rock with terrors of fire, and so ensure that none save the bravest of heroes may win her. - After long gestation the outcast Sieglinde gives birth in the forest to Siegfried (he who gives Peace through Victory): Reigin (Mime), Alberich's brother, upon hearing her cries, has issued from a cleft and aided her: after the travail Sieglinde dies, first telling Reigin of her fate and committing the babe to his care. Reigin brings up Siegfried, teaches him smithery, and brings him the two pieces of the broken sword, from which, under Mime's directions, Siegfried forges the sword Balmung. Then Mime prompts the lad to slay the Worm, in proof of his gratitude. Siegfried first wishes to avenge his father's murder: he fares out, falls upon Hunding, and kills him: only thereafter does he execute the wish of Mime, attacks and slays the Giant-worm. His fingers burning from the Worm's hot blood, he puts them to his mouth to cool them; involuntarily he tastes the blood, and understands at once the language of the woodbirds singing round him. They praise Siegfried for his glorious deed, direct him to the Nibelungen-hoard in the cave of the Worm, and warn him against Mime, who has merely used him as an instrument to gain the Hoard, and therefore seeks his life. Siegfried thereon slays Mime, and takes the Ring and Tarnhelm from the Hoard: he hears the birds again, who counsel him to win the crown of women, Brünnhild. So Siegfried sets forth, reaches Brünnhild's mountain, pierces the billowing flames, and wakes her; in Siegfried she joyfully acclaims the highest hero of the Wälsungen-stem, and gives herself to him: he marries her with Alberich's ring, which he places on her finger. When the longing spurs him to new deeds, she gives him lessons in her secret lore, warns him of dangers of deceit and treachery: they swear each other vows, and Siegfried speeds forth.
A second hero-stem, sprung likewise from the Gods, is that of the Gibichungen on the Rhine: there now bloom Gunther and Gudrun, his sister. Their mother, Grimhild, was once overpowered by Alberich, and bore him an unlawful son, Hagen. As the hopes and wishes of the Gods repose on Siegfried, so Alberich sets his hope of gaining back the Ring on his hero-offspring Hagen. Hagen is sallow, glum and serious; his features are prematurely hardened; he looks older than he is. Already in his childhood Alberich had taught him mystic lore and knowledge of his father's fate, inciting him to struggle for the Ring: he is strong and masterful; yet to Alberich he seems not strong enough to slay the Giant-worm. Since Alberich has lost his power, he could not stop his brother Mime when the latter sought to gain the Hoard through Siegfried: but Hagen shall compass [13] Siegfried's ruin, and win the Ring from his dead body. Toward Gunther and Gudrun Hagen is reticent, - they fear him, but prize his foresight and experience: the secret of some marvellous descent of Hagen's, and that he is not his lawful brother, is known to Gunther: he calls him once an Elf-son.
Gunther is being apprised [14] by Hagen that Brünnhild is the woman most worth desire, and excited to long for her possession, when Siegfried speeds along the Rhine to the seat of the Gibichungs. Gudrun, inflamed to love by the praises he has showered on Siegfried, at Hagen's bidding welcomes Siegfried with a drink prepared by Hagen's art, of such potence that it makes Siegfried forget his adventures with Brünnhild and marriage to her. Siegfried desires Gudrun for wife: Gunther consents, on condition that he helps him win Brünnhild. Siegfried agrees: they strike blood-brothership and swear each other oaths, from which Hagen holds aloof. - Siegfried and Gunther set out, and arrive at Brünnhild's rocky fastness: Gunther remains behind in the boat; Siegfried for the first and only time exerts his power as Ruler of the Nibelungen, by putting on the Tarnhelm and thereby taking Gunther's form and look; thus masked, he passes through the flames to Brünnhild. Already robbed by Siegfried of her maidhood, she has lost alike her superhuman strength, and all her runecraft has she made away to Siegfried - who does not use it; she is powerless as any mortal woman, and can only offer lame resistance to the new, audacious wooer; he tears from her the Ring - by which she is now to be wedded to Gunther -, and forces her into the cavern, where he sleeps the night with her, though to her astonishment he lays his sword between them. On the morrow he brings her to the boat, where he lets the real Gunther take his place unnoticed by her side, and transports himself in a trice to the Gibichenburg through power of the Tarnhelm. Gunther reaches his home along the Rhine, with Brünnhild following him in downcast silence: Siegfried, at Gudrun's side, and Hagen receive the voyagers. - Brünnhild is aghast when she beholds Siegfried as Gudrun's husband: his cold civility to her amazes her; as he motions her back to Gunther, she recognizes the Ring on his finger: she suspects the imposture played upon her, and demands the ring, for it belongs not to him, but to Gunther who received it from her: he refuses it. She bids Gunther claim the ring from Siegfried: Gunther is confused, and hesitates. Brünnhild: So it was Siegfried that had the ring from her? Siegfried, recognizing the Ring: «From no woman I had it; my right arm won it from the Giant-worm; through it am I the Nibelungen's lord, and to none will I cede its might.» Hagen steps between them, and asks Brünnhild if she is certain about the Ring? If it be hers, then Siegfried gained it by deceit, and it can belong to no one but her husband, Gunther. Brünnhild loudly denounces the trick played on her; the most dreadful thirst for vengeance upon Siegfried fills her. She cries to Gunther that he has been duped by Siegfried: «Not to thee - to this man am I wed; he won my favour.» - Siegfried charges her with shamelessness: Faithful had he been to his blood-brothership, - his sword he laid between Brünnhild and himself: - he calls on her to bear him witness. - Purposely, and thinking only of his ruin, she will not understand him. - The clansmen and Gudrun conjure [15] Siegfried to clear himself of the accusation, if he can. Siegfried swears solemn oaths in confirmation of his word. Brünnhild taxes him with perjury: All the oaths he swore to her and Gunther, has he broken: now he forswears himself, to lend corroboration to a lie. Everyone is in the utmost commotion. Siegfried calls Gunther to stop his wife from shamefully slandering her own and husband's honour: he withdraws with Gudrun to the inner hall. - Gunther, in deepest shame and terrible dejection, has seated himself at the side, with hidden face: Brünnhild, racked by the horrors of an inner storm, is approached by Hagen. He offers himself as venger of her honour: she mocks him, as powerless to cope with Siegfried: One look from his glittering eye, which shone upon her even through that mask, would scatter Hagen's courage. Hagen: He well knows Siegfried's awful strength, but she will tell him how he may be vanquished? So she who once had hallowed Siegfried, and armed him by mysterious spells against all wounding, now counsels Hagen to attack him from behind; for, knowing that the hero ne'er would turn his back upon the foe, she had left it from the blessing. - Gunther must be made a party to the plot. They call upon him to avenge his honour: Brünnhild covers him with reproaches for his cowardice and trickery; Gunther admits his fault, and the necessity of ending his shame by Siegfried's death; but he shrinks from committing a breach of blood-brotherhood. Brünnhild bitterly taunts him: What crimes have not been wreaked on her? Hagen inflames him by the prospect of gaining the Nibelung's Ring, which Siegfried certainly will never part with until death. Gunther consents; Hagen proposes a hunt for the morrow, when Siegfried shall be set upon, and perhaps his murder even concealed from Gudrun; for Gunther was concerned for her sake: Brünnhilde's lust-of-vengeance is sharpened by her jealousy of Gudrun. So Siegfried's murder is decided by the three. - Siegfried and Gudrun, festally attired, appear in the hall, and bid them to the sacrificial rites and wedding ceremony. The conspirators feigningly obey: Siegfried and Gudrun rejoice at the show of peace restored.
Next morning Siegfried strays into a lonely gully by the Rhine, in pursuit of quarry. Three mermaids dart up from the stream: they are soothsaying Daughters of the waters' bed, whence Alberich once had snatched the gleaming Rhine-gold to smite from it the fateful Ring: the curse and power of that Ring would be destroyed, were it re-given to the waters, and thus resolved into its pure original element. The Daughters hanker for the Ring, and beg it of Siegfried, who refuses it. (Guiltless, he has taken the guilt of the Gods upon him, and atones their wrong through his defiance, his self-dependence.) They prophesy evil, and tell him of the curse attaching to the ring: Let him cast it in the river, or he must die to-day. Siegfried: «Ye glib-tongued women shall not cheat me of my might: the curse and your threats I count not worth a hair. What my courage bids me, is my being's law; and what I do of mine own mind, so is it set for me to do: call ye this curse or blessing, it I obey and strive not counter to my strength.» The three Daughters: «Wouldst thou outvie the Gods?» Siegfried: «Shew [16] me the chance of mastering the Gods, and I must work my main to vanquish them. I know three wiser women than you three; they wot [17] where once the Gods will strive in bitter fearing. Well for the Gods, if they take heed that then I battle with them. So laugh I at your threats: the ring stays mine, and thus I cast my life behind me.» (He lifts a clod of earth, and hurls it backwards over his head.) - The Daughters scoff at Siegfried, who weens himself as strong and wise as he is blind and bond-slave. «Oaths has he broken, and knows it not: a boon far higher than the Ring he's lost, and knows it not: runes and spells were taught to him, and he's forgot them. Fare thee well, Siegfried! A lordly wife we know; e'en to-day will she possess the Ring, when thou art slaughtered. To her! She'll lend us better hearing.» - Siegfried, laughing, gazes after them as they move away singing. He shouts: «To Gudrun were I not true, one of you three had ensnared me!» He hears his hunting-comrades drawing nearer, and winds his horn: the hunts-men - Gunther and Hagen at their head - assemble round Siegfried. The midday meal is eaten: Siegfried, in the highest spirits, mocks at his own unfruitful chase: But water-game had come his way, for whose capture he was not equipped, alack! [18] or he'd have brought his comrades three wild water-birds that told him he must die to-day. Hagen takes up the jest, as they drink: Does he really know the song and speech of birds, then? - Gunther is sad and silent. Siegfried seeks to enliven him, and sings him songs about his youth: his adventure with Mime, the slaying of the Worm, and how he came to understand bird-language. The train of recollection brings him back the counsel of the birds to seek Brünnhilde, who was fated for him; how he stormed the flaming rock and wakened Brünnhild. Remembrance rises more and more distinct. Two ravens suddenly fly past his head. Hagen interrupts him: «What do these ravens tell thee?» Siegfried springs to his feet. Hagen: «I rede [19] them; they haste to herald thee to Wotan.» He hurls his spear at Siegfried's back. Gunther, guessing from Siegfried's tale the true connection of the inexplicable scene with Brünnhilde, and suddenly divining Siegfried's innocence, had thrown himself on Hagen's arm to rescue Siegfried, but without being able to stay the blow. Siegfried raises his shield, to crush Hagen with it; his strength fails him, and he falls of a heap. Hagen has departed; Gunther and the clansmen stand round Siegfried, in sympathetic awe; he lifts his shining eyes once more: «Brünnhild, Brünnhild! Radiant child of Wotan! How dazzling bright I see thee nearing me! With holy smile thou saddlest thy horse, that paces through the air dew-dipping: to me thou steer'st its course; here is there Lot to choose (Wal zu küren)! Happy me thou chos'st for husband, now lead me to Walhall, that in honour of all heroes I may drink All-father's mead, pledged me by thee, thou shining Wish-maid! Brünnhild, Brünnhild! Greeting!» He dies. The men uplift the corpse upon his shield, and solemnly bear it over the rocky heights, Gunther in front.
In the Hall of the Gibichungs, whose forecourt extends at the back to the bank of the Rhine, the corpse is set down: Hagen has called out Gudrun; with strident tones he tells her that a savage boar had gored her husband. - Gudrun falls horrified on Siegfried's body: she rates her brother with the murder; Gunther points to Hagen: He was the savage boar, the murderer of Siegfried. Hagen: «So be it; an[d] I have slain him, whom no other dared to, whatso was his is my fair booty. The ring is mine!» Gunther confronts him: «Shameless Elf-son, the ring is mine, assigned to me by Brünnhild: ye all, ye heard it.» - Hagen and Gunther fight, Gunther falls. Hagen tries to wrench the Ring from the body, - it lifts its hand aloft in menace; Hagen staggers back, aghast; Gudrun cries aloud in her sorrow; - then Brünnhild enters solemnly: «Cease your laments, your idle rage! Here stands his wife, whom ye all betrayed. My right I claim, for what must be is done!» - Gudrun: «Ah, wicked one! 'Twas thou who brought us ruin.» Brünnhild: «Poor soul, have peace! Wert [20] but his wanton: [21] his wife am I, to whom he swore or e'er he saw thee.» Gudrun: «Woe's me! Accursed Hagen, what badest thou me, with the drink that filched her husband to me? For now I know that only through the drink did he forget Brünnhilde.» Brünnhild: «O he was pure! Ne'er oaths were more loyally held, than by him. No, Hagen has not slain him; for Wotan has he marked him out, to whom I thus conduct him. And I, too, have atoned; pure and free am I: for he, the glorious one alone, o'erpowered me.» She directs a pile of logs to be erected on the shore, to burn Siegfried's corpse to ashes: no horse, no vassal shall be sacrificed with him; she alone will give her body in his honour to the Gods. First she takes possession of her heritage; the Tarnhelm shall be burnt with her: the Ring she puts upon her finger. «Thou froward [22] hero, how thou held'st me banned! All my rune-lore I bewrayed [23] to thee, a mortal, and so went widowed of my wisdom; thou usedst it not, thou trustedst in thyself alone: but now that thou must yield it up through death, my knowledge comes to me again, and this Ring's runes I rede. The ur-law's runes, too, know I now, the Norns' old saying! Hear then, ye mighty Gods, your guilt is quit: thank him, the hero, who took your guilt upon him! To mine own hand he gave to end his work: loosed be the Nibelung's thraldom, the Ring no more shall bind them. Not Alberich shall receive it; no more shall he enslave you, but he himself be free as ye. For to you I make this Ring away, wise sisters of the waters' deep; the fire that burns me, let it cleanse the evil robbed from you to weld to ill and bondage. one only shall rule, All-father thou in thy glory! As pledge of thine eternal might, this man I bring thee: good welcome give him; he is worth it!» - Midst solemn chants Brünnhilde mounts the pyre to Siegfried's body. Gudrun, broken down with grief, remains bowed over the corpse of Gunther in the foreground. The flames meet across Brünnhild and Siegfried: - suddenly a dazzling light is seen: above the margin of a leaden cloud the light streams up, shewing Brünnhild, armed as Walküre on horse, leading Siegfried by the hand from hence. At like time the waters of the Rhine invade the entrance to the Hall: on their waves the three Water-maids bear away the Ring and Helmet. Hagen dashes after them, to snatch the treasure, as if demented, - the Daughters seize and drag him with them to the deep.
Notes:
[1] Different sources give different dates for the publication of this speech. Some maintain the speech was published anonymously before the 14 June, some give the date as the day after the speech, the 15. The date given here is according to Nattiez 93, p307. The title of the speech was «Wie verhalten sich republikanische Bestrebungen dem Königthume gegenüber?» (How do Republican aspirations stand in relation to the monarchy?).
[2] The résumé Der Nibelungen-Mythus was immediately followed by a prose draft for an opera called Siegfried's Tod (sic: the original spelling!), dated 10 October 1848, and then a verse draft completed 28 November the same autumn. This libretto sketch is later revised and turned into Götterdämmerung.
[3] The Wibelungen has earlier been dated to the summer 1848 (e.g. Ashton Ellis Vol 7 p257), that is, before The Nibelungen. Now, however, it is presumed to have been written around February 1849 (Nattiez 93, p307). Die Revolution was printed on the front page of the revolutionary periodical "Volksblätter" (Dresden) 8 April 1849 (ibid, p308). Volksblätter was established and edited by Wagner's close friend, August Röckel. Die Kunst und die Revolution was completed in Zurich late July 1849 (ibid, p308) and Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft 4 November the same place (ibid, p308).
[4] Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-65), french anarchist author, important theorist of socialism. Proudhon published his first major work, Qu'est ce que la Propriété in 1840, it was translated into German in 1844. Wagner is known to have read this book in Paris in 1849, after his flight from Dresden, but it is probable that he already read it, or parts of it, in Dresden before he wrote Die Nibelungen-Mythus. (An English translation of Proudhon's book is available on internet at this link: Proudhon: What is Property?, or here for an extract only.)
[5] Today it is easy to forget that the aims of the revolutionary movement in Dresden and other parts of Germany at this time were simply some of the democratic ideals we now takes as granted: Freedom of speech, press and organization - without censorship, freedom from feudal oppression, equal rights for education and an elected, representative parliament based on universal suffrage.
[6] This letter to August Röckel, who at the time was in Prague, is dated 2 May 1849. In it Wagner writes, among other things: «People are preparing for a decisive conflict, if not with the King at least with the Prussian troops; there is only one thing they are afraid of, namely that the revolution may come too soon.» (Selected Letters, p145.) Especially this sentence gave the court a clear impression that Wagner was closely connected with the leading revolutionaries in Dresden at the time and that he had detailed knowledge of their plans for an uprising in this town. Based on this letter, the court issued the warrant for arrest on Wagner, dated 16 May 1849.
[7] August Röckel was sentenced to death, but this was later changed to life imprisonment. Of this punishment he had to serve 13 years in prison and he was released in January 1862.
[8] For a further discussion of the complementary aspects of Loge, see the article Loge - person and element, commentator and agent.
[9] Nothung - from Not, need, distress. The one who is needed (when in distress). Balmung - perhaps from Balsam, balm, something that is soothing of healing. The one who brings relief.
[10] The German prefix "ur-" means original, fundamental, primeval, old or ancient. Ashton Ellis prefers to use the prefix as it is instead of suggesting a translation. In a note elsewhere (Ashton Ellis Vol 1 p169), he comments on this prefix: «We cannot, however, help envying the Germans their pregnant prefix "ur", a shadow of which we fancy we may still detect in our English "early", "ere-while" or "erst"; again perhaps in our "hoary"; and almost certainly in "yore".»
[11] neid - envy, jealousy. In the Ring: Neidhöhle, "cavern of envy".
[12] emprise - (archaic) an (adventurous, daring) undertaking, enterprise.
[13] compass - (formal) to device or contrive, often with craft or skill, to bring about, to achieve.
[14] apprise - (formal) to give notice to, tell.
[15] conjure - (archaic) to charge or entreat earnestly or solemnly.
[16] shew - (archaic) to show.
[17] wit, wot - (archaic) to know, to come to know, to learn.
[18] alack - (archaic) used to express sorrow or regret.
[19] rede - (archaic) to advise, to give counsel to.
[20] wert - (archaic) past second person singular of to be.
[21] wanton - promiscuous, (archaic) undisciplined.
[22] froward - (archaic) habitually disobedient and contrary.
[23] bewray - (archaic) to devulge, betray
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Der Nibelungen-Mythus was written 150 years ago and the English translation was published by William Ashton Ellis 100 years ago.
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