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Siegfried:Wotan::say what?:who again?!?!
Mar. 24th, 2005 11:26 amToday we got to sample part of Wagner's Die Walküre in my History of Western Music class. Which meant that my professor had to try to explain the gist of the plot of the entire Ring cycle to our class.
I'd never heard the plot of the Ring cycle, but I am familiar with the Saga of the Volsungs, which is basically the Norse version of the same collection of myths. So when I started hearing about the once-divine warrior maid Brünhilde being laid in a ring of fire, I knew she would later be picked up by Siegfried, braving the fire to save her. I found this backstory about how she got into the ring interesting. We watched a bit, with the king god Wotan laying her in the ring and placing his spear to hold the prison. Our prof explained how Wotan at that moment is singing to the tune of Siegfried's theme; specifically, the theme with his magic sword which he will later use to shatter the spear.
In the Volsung saga, Sigurd (Siegfried's Norse analog) is a distant descendent of the god Odin (Wotan), whose family has a magic sword which one of Sigurd's ancestors had pulled from the tree that Odin had buried it in. (A lot like Arthur pulling the sword from the stone that Merlin set up.) I'm thinking this is the same sword - the king god's gift to his descendents. I appreciated the irony, that Wotan's sword will destroy Wotan's spear. But, well, maybe I'm wrong.
Because then our prof started describing the epic battle which will eventually take place between Siegfried and Wotan. (Sigurd and Odin never battled, as far as I remember. Certainly not as the pivotal battle.) And he's saying how it's just like Star Wars. "Siegfried is like Luke, the hero. And he's got to face his - well, Wotan's his grandfather... sort of... anyway, like facing Vader in this epic battle. Only... with different costumes. And, um... real spears instead of... light... sabers..." (Actually, I'm giving him benefit of the doubt there. He might have said light sticks or spears or some such.)
The analogy was crumbling before his eyes. I was just wishing he'd had a chance to see how mixed his LOTR analogy earlier was. Yes, I'm sure Tolkien lifted the idea of a cursed, powerful magic Ring from these stories (although I'm pretty sure he preferred the Norse version), but the way my prof explained it...
My, I'm glad I'm going home this weekend.
I'd never heard the plot of the Ring cycle, but I am familiar with the Saga of the Volsungs, which is basically the Norse version of the same collection of myths. So when I started hearing about the once-divine warrior maid Brünhilde being laid in a ring of fire, I knew she would later be picked up by Siegfried, braving the fire to save her. I found this backstory about how she got into the ring interesting. We watched a bit, with the king god Wotan laying her in the ring and placing his spear to hold the prison. Our prof explained how Wotan at that moment is singing to the tune of Siegfried's theme; specifically, the theme with his magic sword which he will later use to shatter the spear.
In the Volsung saga, Sigurd (Siegfried's Norse analog) is a distant descendent of the god Odin (Wotan), whose family has a magic sword which one of Sigurd's ancestors had pulled from the tree that Odin had buried it in. (A lot like Arthur pulling the sword from the stone that Merlin set up.) I'm thinking this is the same sword - the king god's gift to his descendents. I appreciated the irony, that Wotan's sword will destroy Wotan's spear. But, well, maybe I'm wrong.
Because then our prof started describing the epic battle which will eventually take place between Siegfried and Wotan. (Sigurd and Odin never battled, as far as I remember. Certainly not as the pivotal battle.) And he's saying how it's just like Star Wars. "Siegfried is like Luke, the hero. And he's got to face his - well, Wotan's his grandfather... sort of... anyway, like facing Vader in this epic battle. Only... with different costumes. And, um... real spears instead of... light... sabers..." (Actually, I'm giving him benefit of the doubt there. He might have said light sticks or spears or some such.)
The analogy was crumbling before his eyes. I was just wishing he'd had a chance to see how mixed his LOTR analogy earlier was. Yes, I'm sure Tolkien lifted the idea of a cursed, powerful magic Ring from these stories (although I'm pretty sure he preferred the Norse version), but the way my prof explained it...
My, I'm glad I'm going home this weekend.
