The Family of Wagner’s Ring

Brittany Thummel

Music History II

Mary Ellen Haupert

5/10/13

Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a very extravagant, and, in some ways, over-the-top work. The

combination of the Norse mythology and Wagner’s ideas of gesamtkunstwerk make this nearly

twenty hour story one that is not as easily appreciated in the same way other major composers,

such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms might be. Attacks of the Ring include Eduard Hanslick’s

reviews of Wagner’s works, “[Die Walküre is] an abyss of boredom…[some scenes] recall the

medieval torture of waking a sleeping prisoner by stabbing him with a needle at every nod.”i

However, this is not the view of all patrons of Wagner’s Ring. In fact there are many people who

love the telling of this Norse tale and appreciate Wagner’s approach to this risqué story; they

even get over or possibly don’t even acknowledge all the taboo relationships within this classic

myth. Because of this, an in depth analysis of the relationships within the characters of the Ring

cycle is merited. Exploring characters and their relationships within the context of the music

helps the average listener understand the full scope of Wagner’s grand design in the tale of Der

Ring des Nibelung.

Throughout Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelung there are three main characters, one

through the entire cycle, one through all but the first, and one for the last two operas; Wotan,

Brünnhilde, and Siegfried respectively. The entire story of Der Nibelungenlied, which is the

source text for Wagner’s Ring cycle, focuses on the paths of these three characters, necessitating

discussion.

Wotan is the king of the Norse gods, essentially the Norse equivalent to Zeus in Greek

Mythology. He is characterized by his drive for power and control.ii Wotan’s drive for power led

him to extreme ends to get what he wanted. This included trading his eye for the chance to drink

from the “Source of Wisdom”iii, which then gave him the enlightenment to seek the tree of

knowledge and power and take a branch from it to create a spear that is indestructible and is the

holder of oaths taken that deal with him. In essence, this spear is the most powerful item on ever

created and is therefore a fitting companion to Wotan. But the spear was not the only companion

Wotan had. Wotan had several different relationships with living creatures as well; these include

his wife, the earth mother goddess, the Norse version of Mother Earth, and at least one mortal

woman. The result of Wotan’s companionship with the earth mother goddess were the nine

Valkyrie, warrior maidens who oversaw all the earthly battles and picked who were to die and

then shepherded the souls of the heroes to Valhalla on their mighty steeds.iv Of these seven

women, one stepped up and led the group, and here we have the second main character,

Brünnhilde.

Being the leader of the mighty Valkyrie says much about Brünnhilde’s personality. In

order to take charge of a group such as the Valkyrie, one can imagine you would need to be

strong willed, intelligent, physically mighty, and loyal to your fellows; all of these characteristics

describe Brünnhilde in the simplest way. Brünnhilde was unique among the Valkyrie and among

all of Wotan’s children in that she was actually in Wotan’s inner circle. She knew everything

Wotan knew and was the first to learn of anything new that came into light because she was

Wotan’s closest friend and confidant.v But sometimes being so close to a person can make a

mistake seem even worse than it is and things can get blown out of proportion, which is exactly

what happened with Brünnhilde and Wotan. When Brünnhilde sided with the two mortals,

Siegmund and Sieglinde against Wotan’s orders, Wotan banished Brünnhilde to sleep on a rock

surrounded by fire until someone was fearless enough to brave and withstand the fire and come

waken her from her sleep. This person would be the one she was to marry, and this just happens

to be the third main character in this story, Siegfried.

Siegfried was a very strong man who was raised in the woods by an ignorant dwarf who

neglected to teach the boy how to fear. In part, this helps give Siegfried his strength which causes

him to break every sword the man who raised him made him in his blacksmith’s forge, because

he doesn’t fear hurting himself. But since he doesn’t know how to fear, he also doesn’t know

when to take a step back and therefore he goes over the line multiple times, most notable with

Wotan himself. His actions in this show extreme pride in himself, but also much arrogance which

makes it difficult for people to relate to him. Jerry Fodor even quotes in his article on Wagner’s

Ring, “[Siegfried] is a great booby with whom it is impossible to sympathize.”vi Since he was

raised in the woods, Siegfried is also very ignorant of the world and the things that lie beyond the

forest’s trees. This is shown in the fact that when Siegfried arrives on the rock Brünnhilde is

trapped on asleep, he believes her to be a man in armor until he cuts the armor off of her and

discovers otherwise. When this happens, Siegfried starts to learn what fear is because he is drawn

to this woman, but doesn’t really know what or who she is. The feelings he has scare him, but

Brünnhilde awakens and helps ease his worries and he quickly joins with her in feelings of love.

Wagner expands on expression for each character though a melodic theme attached to

either characters or something that is related to them significantly; this is called a leitmotif.

However, Wagner did not like the term leitmotif because he thought he took the idea, which had

been established many years earlier, farther, so he called them “melodischen momente”. Wagner

himself discussed the role of the “melodischen momente” as such: “These Melodic Moments…

will be made by the orchestra into a kind of guides-to-feeling through the whole labyrinthine

building of the drama. At their hand we become the constant fellow-knowers of the profoundest

secret of the poet’s aim, the immediate partners in [that realization].” vii Looking into what

Wagner says about the leitmotifs, it is evident that they are quite important within the story and

they can add a lot of interest and information to the story for the listener. With that in mind, it is

pretty safe to assume that there is at least one leitmotif for each of the three main characters.

Wotan himself has at least seven leitmotifs connected to him in either his possessions or his

emotions to give the listener a hint as to what the king of the gods is or will be feeling. One of

the most prominent of Wotan’s leitmotifs is what is entitled “Wotan’s Spear.” This motif is

representative of Wotan’s authority and yet his inhibitions as well, it represents his emotions

when he was getting the wood to make the spear which was from the ash tree of knowledge. But

there is one leitmotif that is considered the “Valhalla” motif that within “Das Rheingold” is

purely representative of the kingdom of the gods, but it eventually morphs into a motif about

Wotan’s creativity and achievement.viii The “Valhalla” motif is one of the most used motifs in the

Ring.

“Wotan’s Spear” “Valhalla”

ix

These motifs are hidden within the orchestration to give hidden hints that sometimes even

change the emotion and add to the story line to foreshadow future events.

Brünnhilde also has many motifs attached to her. Her motifs are more prominent after she

meets Siegfried and falls in love. In fact her two main motifs are entitled “Brünnhilde’s love”

and “Brünnhilde as woman” further emphasizing her change from battle driven Valkyrie to a

woman in love.

“Brünnhilde’s love”

“Brünnhilde as woman”

x

In the first two operas, Brünnhilde’s motifs are very similar to the motifs attached to the

Valkyries and it is clear to see and hear the change in her character through the leitmotifs

attached to her.

Siegfried has the most motifs attached to him than any other character at a grand total of

thirteen directly related to him. Many of leitmotifs are representative of aspects of his

personality, such as “Siegfried’s Boldness”, or they go along with things he proves, such as

“Siegfried’s Strength” and “Siegfried’s Deeds”.

“Siegfried’s Strength”

“Siegfried’s Boldness”

xi

These leitmotifs are not used as often as, for instance, Wotan’s leitmotifs because Wotan is

almost an omnipresent figure that oversees all and Siegfried is only present in the last two operas

and these are all very specific to certain activities.

While the aforementioned characters are the main characters in Wagner’s Ring, it is

necessary to know a bit about some of the lesser characters. This is because these characters all

have something they do, or influence other relationships, that change the course of events in the

lives of the three main characters.

Fricka has a big role in regards to an influence on Wotan. Fricka is the goddess of fidelity

and marriage, and is also married to Wotan. She is described as “crabbed and conservative”xii

which gives off this image of a strong, powerful woman that is determined to get her way no

matter what she has to do or say. However, she is in a less than fortunate position when her

relationship with Wotan is looked at because it is not an ideal marriage. In fact, Fricka is actually

a character to be looked at with empathy in some ways because she is indeed sad and suffering in

her personal life. This is prevalent when we learn of some of Wotan’s sexual escapades through

the course of the first opera of Wagner’s Ring, “Das Rheingold”. And with Fricka being the

goddess of fidelity and marriage, this would obviously lead to some issues in her relationship

Fricka’s little sister is Freia, goddess of beauty and eternal youth; she is the Norse

equivalent of the Roman’s Venus or the Greek’s Aphrodite. She also oversees the orchards of

golden apples that give the gods eternal life. There is not much information on Freia, but it is

clear to see that she is an innocent soul in this tale, and is a victim of circumstance and bad luck

when it comes to Wotan and his plans for her.

Erda is another prominent figure in Wotan’s romantic life. Erda is the earth goddess and

is referred to as “the mother of all” through the course of Wagner’s ring, which translates to, in

essence, mother earth. She is mainly a dormant figure, meaning that she is usually in a deep sleep

for the majority of her time. Erda is not necessarily a pretty character, in body or mind. This can

be said because she is supposed to be, according to Wagner’s directions, buried to the waist and

covered in hoarfrost, all while being extremely negative and dismayed about everything that has

and will happen, since she can see what is yet to come in the world. xiii So with all this negative

energy coming from her that makes one question why Wotan would have a romantic relationship

with her. She does have some useful qualities though that could have sparked Wotan’s interest.

The Rhinemaidens, as they are commonly called even though the direct translation from

the German “Die Rheintöchter” is Rhinedaughters,xiv are three female characters that look like

young mermaids and act like young girls. They each have names that are never mentioned in the

opera, but are listed in the libretto and score; Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde.xv The three

immortal ladies are quite immature in their actions and carefree. Wagner shows us their

immaturity in the first scene of “Das Rheingold” where the Rhinemaidens taunt and jeer at

Alberich, a dwarf, because of his looks. And it makes sense that they are carefree seeing as they

only have one job, which is to guard and protect the Rheingold at the bottom of the River Rhine

that they reside in and swim around in all day. After they lose the gold and it is made into the

ring, the Rhinemaidens only thought and goal is to get the ring, and therefore the gold, back in its

rightful place at the bottom of the Rhine. These characters however do not have any direct

relationship or interaction with Wotan or almost any of the main characters throughout the course

of the ring. It is almost as if they are in a separate world compared to the rest of the story, and

this is emphasized by the fact that they are rarely in the opera, and their prominent scenes are

scene one and then a scene at the end of the opera just before the final conclusion. Woglinde,

Wellgunde, and Flosshilde are not key characters in the progression of the story, but they do help

give some narrative to the beginning and then some wrap up at the end of the ring cycle.

Siegmund and Sieglinde are only present in “Die Walküre”, but are still important

characters to understand. These two are twins born out of a relationship Wotan had with a human

woman. They were separated at birth and are reunited later in life completely by circumstance.

They each have very unique personalities though.

Chereau describes Siegmund is described as follows: “[he] loves freedom and rejects the

laws. [He is] alive in the present moment, and he is incapable of establishing the slightest link of

cause and effect. He merely notices that his values are opposite of those of society, without

trying neither to adapt himself to them nor to wonder about their validity. He is an epic character

by his long story of pursuing…one supposes him a young person, strong, brave and doubtless

beautiful... [he is unmistakably human]…[he is sensitive to the beauty of nature and the beauty

of a woman.”xvi From this it is clear to see that Siegmund is not the brightest character, but has a

lot to offer. However, his most important quality is his bravery. Patrice Chereau describes

Siegmund’s bravery as such: “Siegmund is brave. Not in the style of the young unconscious who

plays his life at the roulette because he believes he is immortal. But as any conscious being who

knows suffering and fear, and who being true to himself carries the burden of life, which he

hates.”xvii The things brought up in this quote really exemplifies the aspects of Siegmund’s

personality and really shows that he is, or at least could be, a very likeable and relatable

character; possibly one of the most likeable of all the ring’s characters.

Sieglinde is a bit different from her brother because of her difference in upbringing. She

was married off to a man named Hunding who treated her like an obedient dog; their relationship

is one of the traditional ideas of a woman’s job in the household, such as cleaning, cooking, and

doting on the husband. Since he husband is such a domineering person, it is not hard to imagine

how she ended up being a more downtrodden character, with not much optimism or voice. She

does seem like an intelligent woman though, and a very observant one as well because she is the

one that realizes and recognizes that Siegmund is her twin brother whom she only knew for the

first few years of her life. She also brings up the sword which is stick in the tree with almost a

sense that she knows that Siegmund will be the one that is able to release the sword from the

tree’s grasp. It is quite possible that she did know though, because she is a clairvoyant as are

Erda and Brünnhilde. We know this because she does talk about how she has had a vision of

Siegmund being torn apart by wolves, which does come to pass at the end of “Die Walküre”. So

when Siegmund and Sieglinde are looked at together, it would make sense that they got along

well because their personalities were fulfilled by the others.

Gunther and Gutrune do not appear in the ring cycle until the final installment,

“Götterdämmerung”. These two are also siblings like Siegmund and Sieglinde. However, they

are almost complete opposites of the other set of siblings. Looking at these pairs really rounds off

the ring cycle because we really get into the heart of the story with Siegmund and Sieglinde, the

calm and more moral, in most aspects, and we end the ring cycle with Gunther and Gutrune, the

more conniving and self-serving.

Gunther is not necessarily a stable or kind character. He is the King of the area that is

around the area of Bavaria along the Rhine River. His reputation is quite renowned, which is

obvious from Siegfried’s agreement to Gunther’s terms and Siegfried also shows some type of

respect to him when he banks on the shores outside of his castle. But Gunther himself is not the

type of person that should be in a position of power. One description of him says, “[Gunther has

a] bad reputation: coward, hypocrite, vain, interested, fearful etc. That is a lot for a man obsessed

by his image. He is the typical politician preoccupied by his local reputation and the society man

worried about his public image.”xviii He is also known as a cyclothymic; cyclothymic disorder is a

mild form of bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness) in which a person has mood swings over

a period of years that go from mild depression to emotional highs.xix Obviously these

characteristics do not a good person make, so it is easy to see that he is going to cause drama and

upsets in the story.

Gutrune is quite like her brother, but is not as far gone him in respects of his cyclothymic

disorder. She is described as very beautiful, but is also quite superficial and thinks mainly of

enjoying herself and of "having fun".xx These two siblings are so alike and seem to think of

themselves as the ideal representations of what a man and a woman should be. That is why they

try to seek out fitting mates for them, meaning the next best female for Gunther and the next best

male for Gutrune. However, Gutrune does seem to be a bit more aware of things when they start

going wrong. We see this in the confused and quickened passages that she has when Brünnhilde

recognizes Siegfried and explains their relationship and Gutrune realizes that something is not

right in her brother’s plan to get these two as their spouses. However, she does nothing to change

her brother’s mind which speaks quite a bit to her character and her priorities.

The central characters are more integral to the relationships and issues between some of

these characters, but it is important to know what these people are like before trying to analyze

what is going on in these often strange groupings. Wotan is prominent in many relationships

because, as the most powerful man in the world and Valhalla, the dwelling of the gods that

Wotan hired two giants, Fafner and Fafstolt, to build,xxi he would find it his place to step in and

be involved in as much as possible. Four main prominent relationships in the plot include Wotan,

the first being his relationship with Fricka. As previously mentioned, these two are married,

though it is not necessarily a happy union. Fricka agreed to marry Wotan was because Wotan had

already sacrificed one eye for “wisdom” and he threatened to remove his other eye if Fricka did

not marry him. With him being her “king”, for lack of a better explanation, Fricka unwillingly

agreed to the marriage even though she knew of Wotan’s womanizing ways.xxii So it is pretty

easy to see that their marriage would not be a happy one with Fricka being the goddess of fidelity

and marriage and her husband is unfaithful to her. This leads Fricka to try to make herself a part

of Wotan’s life in ways other than love. She does this by pushing her ideas on him and making

sure he follows them. This is quite prominent in both “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walküre” with

how she stands up for the treatment of her sister and with her ideals present in Wotan’s treatment

of his illegitimate children, Siegmund and Sieglinde. It is evident that both are unhappy in their

marriage, but you can see Fricka trying to make it work, just because it is her nature. She even

preservers through their marriage even after Wotan promises her sister, Freia, as payment to the

giants for building Valhalla. The selling of one’s sister is bound to cause some drama in any

relationship, and in an unstable one such as this, it is going to cause a lot of issues. This is

probably a major contributor to the harsh stance Fricka takes against Siegmund and Sieglinde’s

relationship and therefore the reason why she pushes/forces Wotan to curse and call and end to

their liaison with as stark a punishment as death.

Siegmund and Sieglinde are an interesting pair and probably the most risqué couple of all

the couples in the Ring. These two are the product of a relationship between Wotan and a mortal

woman; twins. These two were separated at a young age and raised in very different

atmospheres, but when Siegmund stumbles into the home of Hunding and Sieglinde for shelter

from the winter weather as he runs from the bounty hunters, one of which is Hunding himself.

Sieglinde quickly recognizes her brother and explains their relationship as brother and sister, but

they fall in love regardless of that. After spending one night together they run off so Hunding

won’t kill Siegmund for the money on his head, but fate is not kind to them seeing as Fricka has

ordered Wotan to curse the relationship of Siegmund and Sieglinde. In order to save Sieglinde’s

life and the life of their unborn child, Siegmund sacrifices himself under Brünnhilde’s advice,

since she is on loves side in this fight, and gives himself over to Hunding. But these two very

loving siblings are not parted for long because Sieglinde dies as she gives birth to her and her

brother’s love child, Siegfried.xxiii

Erda and Wotan also make an interesting couple. They are not a steady pairing, but when

Wotan calls or when Erda feels a disturbance in the world she is awoken and this results in some

type of interaction with Wotan. The most interesting interactions between these two do not

actually happen during the ring cycle, although their interactions there are quite important as

well. The first interaction between Erda and Wotan was a result of Wotan calling her out of her

sleep to find out what he had to do to become more than he already was. Erda then proceeded to

tell him about the water that would give him great wisdom, but would include a great sacrifice.

After he follows her instructions, he returns and attacks, essentially rapes, Erda which resulted in

the birth of Brünnhilde. He then continued to return to her in the same way, and by the end of

these escapades they had parented eleven children; 8 Walküre’s and 3 Rhinemaidens. But what

we do witness as interactions between the two during the ring cycle are quite important as well.

The first time we see Erda is when she appears to Wotan to warn him of the ring and that the

curse Alberich laid upon it was in fact real. Wotan was wise enough to heed Erda’s warning to a

degree but instead of returning it to the Rhine to be guarded by their children, the Rhinemaidens,

he throws it into the world where it is picked up by Fastolt who is then killed by his brother

Fafner so he can get the ring, bringing truth to Erda’s warning about the curse. The second time

we see Erda is when she is called upon by Wotan and she gives another warning but this time it

is of the fall of all of Valhalla, meaning all the gods, rather than just his own downfall as it was

the previous time. By this time Wotan is getting tired of people telling him what to do and telling

him that he is wrong in what he is doing so he dismisses her and puts her back into her deep

sleep.

Wotan has a bad habit of putting people to sleep. Not only did he do this to Erda, but he

did this to Brünnhilde. As previously mentioned, Brünnhilde is the daughter of Wotan and Erda

and the leader of the Valkyrie, but she disobeys her father’s commands and he punishes her with

eternal sleep, unless someone braves the fire surrounding the rock she is to be laid on and

awakens her. But Brünnhilde disobeys Wotan for a reason. While under Wotan’s influence,

Brünnhilde stays in an immature state because he has reins over her, so in order for her to be able

to embrace her womanhood she had to stand up against him.xxiv However, by going against his

will she is actually secretly fulfilling his wishes because Wotan does not actually want to see his

children unhappy, and even worse, dead;xxv the only reason Wotan cursed Siegmund and

Sieglinde was because Fricka demanded it. This information further complicates the relationship

between Wotan and Brünnhilde because this then raises the question of what were Wotan’s true

motives behind putting Brünnhilde into that deep 18 year sleep; was he truly vengeful, as Fricka

wishes to believe, or is he doing it to protect her from Fricka’s wrath. It would seem to favor the

second option since in the final moments of “Götterdämmerung” Wotan answers Brünnhilde’s

pleas for help to be able join Siegfried in a mortal death.

Siegfried and Brünnhilde make a strong couple, for the couple days that they know each

other and fall in love. They are destined to be together, but this is a bit strange and risqué when

you analyze their familiar relations. This is because Brünnhilde is the daughter of Wotan, who

fathered Siegmund and Sieglinde, who joined to create Siegfried, which means Brünnhilde, as

half-sister to Siegmund and Sieglinde, is actually Siegfried’s aunt. And with that known, they

still strike up a strong relationship that seems to withstand even the worst betrayal; infidelity.

This infidelity is the main plot for Götterdämmerung, and it all centers around the second set of

siblings in the Ring, Gunther and Gutrune.

Gunther and Gutrune decided that they needed to find fitting mates for them since they

are such excellent examples of the male and female gender. Their half-brother tells them of these

immaculate specimens of the opposite gender that would be fitting spouses for them; Siegfried

and Brünnhilde. So when Siegfried shows up on the shores outside their castle looking for

adventure because he was bored alone on the rock with Brünnhilde, Gunther cooks up a master

plan using Siegfried’s lack of fear that is needed to pass through the fire surrounding

Brünnhilde’s rock. In order to make Siegfried forget his love for Brünnhilde and fall in love with

Gutrune and marry her, Gunther gives Gutrune a love potion that will make him forget

everything except the first person he sees, and that person is Gutrune. So Siegfried uses the

magic Tarnhelm to disguise himself as Gunther and takes Brünnhilde off the rock and claims her

for Gunther, and since she is bound by the curse Wotan laid on her, she has to marry whoever

passes through the fire, so therefore she has to marry Gunther believing that he is the one that

came and retrieved her. This means that the destined couple of Siegfried and Brünnhilde is now

broken and there is now Siegfried and Gutrune, and Gunther and Brünnhilde. Brünnhilde tries to

explain things when she sees Siegfried, but he is under the influence of the potion and doesn’t

know of their relationship. But things start going wrong quickly and Gunther takes to the lies

told to him by his half-brother about Siegfried having secret plans to steal Brünnhilde and the

throne and starts a fight which ends in a trick that results in a sword through Siegfried’s chest. At

this point Brünnhilde throws herself on Siegfried’s funeral pyre and Gunther and Gutrune are

both left alone just as before.xxvi Gunther and Gutrune gain nothing from their relationships with

Siegfried and Brünnhilde except distrust of each other because Gutrune could see that there was

love between Siegfried and Brünnhilde and was starting to side with them and see that what her

brother was doing was wrong.

There are many strange relationships within Wagner’s Ring, and many of them don’t

really move the plot along at all, or they just help remind the listener of what has happened. But

knowing more about each character and their relationships to the main characters does help one

to understand all the intricate little things that to some seem ridiculous or unnecessary but

actually bring more to the emotional turmoil depicted in this sixteen hour long tale of epic

proportions. It is necessary to know who you are talking about among the Ring characters to

really comprehend the full scope of this family and their story.

i Eduard Hanslick, Wagner Opera, http://www.wagneropera.net.

ii Philip Kitcher and Richard Schacht, Finding an Ending: Reflections on Wagner's Ring, (London, Oxford University Press, 2005).

iii Herbert Knust, “What’s the Matter with One-eyed Riley?” Comparative Literature 17, no.4 (1965): 290-291.

iv

Colombia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed., s.v. “Valkyrie.”v

Deryck Cooke, I Saw the World End: A Study of Wagner’s Ring (London, Oxford University Press, 1979), 327-330.vi

Jerry Fodor, "What Wotan Wants," The London Review of Books, 26, no. 15 (2004): 8-10,vii

Evenson, Kristian. Wagner Trell, "Leitmotifs in Der Ring des Nibelungen - an introduction." Last modified 2008. Accessed May 8, 2013. http://www.trell.org/wagner/motifs.html.viii

Billam, Peter. PJB, "The Leitmotifs of Wagner's Ring." Accessed May 8, 2013. http://www.pjb.com.au/mus/wagner/index.htmlix

Ibid.x

Ibid.xi

Ibid.xii

William McDonald, "What Does Wotan Know? Autobiography and Moral Vision in Wagner's "Ring"," 19th Century Music, 15, no. 1 (1991): 36-51.

xiii

Patrice Chereau. Opera Online, "Richard Wagner Der Ring." Accessed April 27, 2013. http://ring.mithec.com/eng/whoswho.html.

xiv

Deryck Cooke, I Saw the World End: A Study of Wagner’s Ring (London, Oxford University Press, 1979), 139.xv

Patrice Chereau. Opera Online, "Richard Wagner Der Ring." Accessed April 27, 2013. http://ring.mithec.com/eng/whoswho.html.

xvi

Ibid.xvii

Ibid.xviii

Ibid.xix

Zieve, David. PubMed Health, "A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia." Last modified Sept 19, 2012. Accessed April 29, 2013. xx

Patrice Chereau. Opera Online, "Richard Wagner Der Ring." Accessed April 27, 2013. http://ring.mithec.com/eng/whoswho.html.

xxi

Magee, Elizabeth. Richard Wagner and the Nibelungs. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.xxii

William McDonald, "What Does Wotan Know? Autobiography and Moral Vision in Wagner's "Ring"," 19th Century Music, 15, no. 1 1991: 36-51.xxiii

Magee, Elizabeth. Richard Wagner and the Nibelungs. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990: 68.xxiv

Ibid.xxv

Ibid.xxvi

Deryck Cooke, I Saw the World End: A Study of Wagner’s Ring (London, Oxford University Press, 1979), 158.