Wagner’s Ring and its Symbols  27416

The Music and the Myth

  • Introduction to the Third Edition
  • Family Trees in the ‘Ring’
  1. Myth and Music[rtoc]
    • Art and reality
    • The images of music[/rtoc]
  2. Prelude to ‘Rhinegold'[rtoc]
    • The beginning of the world as a symbol for our own beginning
    • The state of nature and the fall from innocence
    • Accepting the opposites or escaping them in fantasy
    • The return to nature in rebirth symbolism[/rtoc]
  3. ‘Rhinegold’, Scene 1[rtoc]
    • Alberich and the Rhinemaidens
    • The Rhinemaidens and their gold
    • Money seen as the root of all evil
    • The fire under the water
    • Accidentally on purpose?
    • The renunciation of love
    • A Promethean theft?[/rtoc]
  4. ‘Rhinegold’, Scene 2[rtoc]
    • Wotan as an image of the self
    • Wotan as a sky-god and a saviour god
    • Wotan as inner consciousness
    • Wotan as ego consciousness
    • Wotan as father-image
    • Fricka as part of Wotan’s inner femininity
    • Other representatives of the eternal feminine
    • The gods’ dilemma
    • Loge the trickster and his tricky remedy[/rtoc]
  5. ‘Rhinegold’, Scene 3[rtoc]
    • The paradox of the situation brought out in the music
    • The underworld of Nibelheim
    • The ring as a symbol for the self
    • Tarnhelm as a symbol of unconscious fantasy
    • The tricking of Alberich[/rtoc]
  6. ‘Rhinegold’, Scene 4[rtoc]
    • Wotan acts the ruffian
    • Alberich curses for the second time
    • Alberich’s curse: sheer disaster or blessing in disguise?
    • Erda prophesies to Wotan and Freia is ransomed
    • The curse gets to work: Fafner murders Fasolt
    • Valhalla the impregnable fortress at last[/rtoc]
  7. ‘The Valkyrie’, Act I[rtoc]
    • Incest physical and mythological
    • Incest a danger in the flesh and in fantasy
    • Transgression or heroic accomplishment?
    • Mythological incest as a ritual marriage
    • Siegmund and Sieglinde in their hour of destiny
    • Sieglinde and Hunding hear Siegmund begin his story
    • Siegmund tells us of his unquiet and lonely life
    • Siegmund’s story shows Hunding to be his enemy
    • Why Wotan is entangled in his bargains
    • The sword in the tree
    • The sword itself
    • The long winter ends with the coming of love[/rtoc]
  8. ‘The Valkyrie’, Act II[rtoc]
    • Brynhilde as Valkyrie and more than Valkyrie
    • Wotan and Fricka
    • The sacrificial significance of Siegmund’s death
    • Wotan confides in Brynhilde
    • The end of Siegmund
    • The consequences of Siegmund’s death[/rtoc]
  9. ‘The Valkyrie’, Act III[rtoc]
    • The Valkyrie sisterhood and the rescue of Sieglinde
    • Wotan’s estrangement from Brynhilde
    • The partial reconciliation of Wotan and Brynhilde
    • The parting of Wotan and Brynhilde[/rtoc]
  10. ‘Siegfried’, Act I[rtoc]
    • Mime and Siegfried
    • Mime and Wotan
    • The forging of Nothung[/rtoc]
  11. ‘Siegfried’, Act II[rtoc]
    • Alberich and Wotan
    • Siegfried and the forest murmurs
    • Siegfried and Fafner
    • Alberich and Mime
    • Siegfried’s foster-father
    • The birds guide Siegfried towards Brynhilde[/rtoc]
  12. ‘Siegfried’, Act III[rtoc]
    • Wotan and Erda meet for the last time
    • Wotan and Siegfried
    • Siegfried and Brynhilde
    • To thine own self be true[/rtoc]
  13. ‘Götterdämmerung’, Act I[rtoc]
    • Life’s two faces: the light and the dark
    • The three aged Norns
    • The journey to the Rhine
    • The Gibichungs
    • Siegfried and Gutrune
    • Siegfried and the magic potion
    • The plot against Brynhilde[/rtoc]
  14. ‘Götterdämmerung’, Act II[rtoc]
    • The personal shadow and the shadow archetype
    • The quarrel between Brynhilde and Siegfried
    • The alliance of Brynhilde with Hagen
    • The Terrible Mother as invisible partner in the plot
    • The plot against Siegfried[/rtoc]
  15. ‘Götterdämmerung’, Act III, Part 1[rtoc]
    • Siegfried accepts his destiny
    • Siegfried’s narrative and self-discovery
    • Siegfried’s death[/rtoc]
  16. ‘Götterdämmerung’, Act III, Part 2[rtoc]
    • The dark night of the soul
    • The eternal masculine and the eternal feminine
    • Brynhilde’s hour
    • The return to innocence in a maturer state
    • The voluntary sacrifice of outworn values
    • The baptism by fire and water
    • The sacred marriage as the union of opposites
    • Redemption as transformation in the psyche[/rtoc]
  • Appendix of music examples
  • Chart of selected leading motives
  • Bibliography
  • Numerical index of Motives in the ‘Ring’

Topics covered by this book

  1. Der Ring des Nibelungen (drama)
  2. Götterdämmerung (drama) • p217-274
  3. Siegfried (drama) • p175-216
  4. Die Walküre (drama) • p116-174
  5. Das Rheingold (drama) • p35-115
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