The Nibelungenlied Essay, Research Paper
The original purpose of this paper was to embrace the majority of Mythology & # 8217 ; s impact on the humanistic disciplines. Before really long I realized that to cover such a huge country, I would be steping perilously near to a book & # 8217 ; s length undertaking. I so decided to restrict the subject to Mythology and its impact on music, specifically classical. Again, this was an tremendous field to restrict to a short research paper. After considerable deliberation I decided to concentrate chiefly on the music of Richard Wagner ( 1813 & # 8211 ; 1883 ) , chiefly his & # 8220 ; Der Ring des Nibelungen & # 8221 ; , or, The Ring of the Nibelung.
The Nibelungenlied is a mediaeval German heroic poem verse form, written in Middle High German in the early 13th century. Its writing is unknown. The verse form is a mixture of Norse and Teutonic Mythology refering the early history of the land of Burgundy. There are several versions of fundamentally the same narrative, inside informations are shaded but the terminal consequences are the same. Wagner used stuff from The Nibelungenlied ( Song of the Nibelung ) , and the Vollsunga Saga ( Saga of the Volsungs ) for the bulk of his maestro work.
The Ring of the Nibelung, a rhythm of four operas & # 8211 ; Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung & # 8211 ; was conceived in 1848 and completed about 25 old ages subsequently. Wagner began with the purpose of composing the libretto of a individual opera drawn from several myths about the race of the Volsungs and the Nibelung & # 8217 ; s hoarded wealth ; it was to be called Siegfried & # 8217 ; s Death, and its content primarilly corresponds to that of the present twenty-four hours Gotterdammerung ( Twilight of the Gods ) .
Between 1848 and 1853, before composing a individual note of music, Wagner wrote foremost, Young Siegfried ( matching to the present twenty-four hours Siegfried ) and so Die Walkure, and Rheingold. By late 1853, composing of the rhythm had begun with Das Rheingold. By 1857 he had completed Die Walkure and two complete Acts of the Apostless of Siegfried, at which clip he postponed work on the Ring for 12 old ages to compose Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger. In 1869 he returned to Siegfried and Gotterdammerung. By 1874 he was completed and the first production of the full rhythm was held in Bayreuth, Germany in 1876.
Without a uncertainty, Richard Wagner transformed the bing myth into something clearly his ain. With his executing, The Nibelungenlied became a vehicle for the ardor of patriotism booming during that period. Here was a narrative glorifying German award and pride, once more, at a clip in history when patriotism was at its extremum. Basically, Wagner became the voice of a really proud German people. As history and myth likewise have proven, pride can be, and normally is a destructive force when taken to extremes. The 80 or so old ages of German history following this period may be the best illustration of this the universe has of all time seen. Before discoursing the myth and the operas, allow us analyze the grounds behind this unprecedented work. Why did Wagner experience the demand to lucubrate on the Saga? What did he trust to accomplish? Where did it all Begin. . . . ?
Like many creative persons, Wagner was greatly influenced by Mythology. The bulk of his other plants were based, at least in portion, on celebrated fables. Der Fliegende Hollander ( The Flying Dutchman ) is based on the Norse myth refering the doomed ship and its crew, destined to sail infinitely ne’er to happen a port to name place. Tristan und Isolde ( Tristan and Isolde ) is the narrative of the hero Tristan and the beautiful Queen Isolde, united by a charming potion in a passion that defies all legal and moral countenances. It is considered one of the greatest love narratives of all time written. Parsival ( Parsifal ) is likely one of the least celebrated Wagnerian operas, but is derived from one of the more celebrated narratives ; the quest for the Holy Grail.
The thought for the probationary Young Siegfried really came from another opera on which Wagner had antecedently begun work. In October of 1846, the composer started the bill of exchange for a five-act drama about Frederich & # 8216 ; Barbarossa & # 8217 ; . It was developed, but Wagner was non comfy with the thought of marshaling a series of historical facts. It was at this point that Wagner realized the similarities between Frederich I and the Nibelung myth. In his head, the Hohenstaufen sovereign was the reincarnation of the pagan Siegfried. This flicker of an thought compelled Wagner to compose Die Wibelungen: Weltgeschichte aus der Saga ( The Wibelungs: History out of Saga ) . This served the intent of uniting myth with history to suit the composer & # 8217 ; s demands. It is ill-defined whether or non Wagner believed any of his ain theories, but this is an undistinguished inquiry. One little permutation and Frederich & # 8216 ; Redbeard & # 8217 ; became a descendant of the divinely sired Siegfried. Because Frederich was a partial incarnation of nationalist socialist aspirations, Wagner had succeeded in accommodating the current feeling in Germany with its great historical Sagas. The Wibelungen essay was the root from which Der Ring diethylstilbestrols Nibelungen sprang. Merely a short clip after the completion of the original essay, Wagner wrote Der Nibelungenmythus, ALSs Entwurf Zu einum Drama ( The Nibelung Myth as a Sketch for a Drama ) . This work was a complete and good constructed secret plan for the full Ring. There is some belief that at this clip Wagner had no construct of the ruin of the Gods. This, nevertheless, is a contestable point, Gregor- Dellin writes, & # 8221 ; The whole thing is a parable. Wagner & # 8217 ; s earliest secret plan for the Ring embodied the self devastation of the Gods. If he left them alive in the verse form & # 8216 ; Siegfried & # 8217 ; s Tod & # 8217 ; , it was for an obvious dramatic ground: They did non look at all and had yet to unwrap their guilt, the beginnings of which remained obscure. This, after all, was opera & # 8221 ; . Wagner completed his prose version of the Ring secret plan, originally entitled Die Nibelungensaga, on October 4th, 1848. This means that during the few hebdomads following his visit to Vienna, in August and September, 1848, he formed a complete mental image of the towering building whose finishing touch, the last note on the Ring mark, would non be laid until 1874. The secret plan was already what the Ring became, & # 8221 ; a socio-critical image of the age with a fabulous construction & # 8221 ; ( Hans Mayer ) , and no 1 who has read Die Wibelungen would challenge that averment. So his class was set, Wagner & # 8217 ; s life long dream of a purely German fabulous Saga set to music was realized. In the history of music, there was, nor will there of all time be, a composer better suited for the undertaking. Now let us look into the myth itself, and some interesting similarities between it and other classical, western mythologies.
The narrative which our verse form Tells, is one of slaying and of retaliation long-nourished, and it ends with the devastation of two ground forcess. The retaliator is a adult female ; the avenged her darling hubby ; her victims are her brothers and her kinsmen. This, in its crudest footings, is the secret plan: holding won the amazonian Queen Brunhilde for King Gunther in exchange for Gunther & # 8217 ; s sister Gutrune, the mighty King Siegfried is murdered by Gunther & # 8217 ; s liege Hagen after a wrangle between the Queens ; for which Gutrune at long last avenges him.
The old transition is an extract from a basic description of the myth by the celebrated writer. It is, as he notes, petroleum, but it is besides really accurate. This observation in itself brings up an interesting analogue with The Iliad. In that piece, Homer depicts the colza of Helen, and the besieging and poke of Troy in a few yearss & # 8217 ; clip. Homer specifically leaves out the insignificant parts, yet we have a graphic image of the cardinal happenings. In comparing, The Nibelungenlied relates a narrative which encompasses all of Brunhilde & # 8217 ; s life from birth to decease. To accomplish this efficaciously, the writer skips immense oversights of clip and dressed ores on of import, specific state of affairss, much like Homer with The Iliad. This fact may really good be one of the more undistinguished similarities between the two heroic poems. For case ; the main God in The Nibelungenlied is Wotan. As The supreme being, he is evidently to be compared to the most celebrated of western, classical, Gods ; Zeus. Interestingly plenty, the association is strengthened by several other factors ; Wotan & # 8217 ; s full home ground is about indistinguishable to Mount Olympus. He occupies a mountain top which overlooks the Earth, in abode with him are other primary Supreme beings, all of which appear to hold matching Grecian deities. Frock is Wotan & # 8217 ; s married woman and besides the defender of domestic virtuousness. Loge is the God off fire. Freia is the girl of Wotan and Frock, every bit good as the Goddess of love and beauty. Besides, Wotan & # 8217 ; s wonts and overall general temperament are close indistinguishable to those of Zeus. He is covetous every bit good as childish. The bulk of the verse form is laced with similarities to Greco-Roman mythology, but, apparent throughout out the piece there are other parrelels drawn with other narratives. For illustration, Siegfried & # 8217 ; s father Siegmund is able to draw the blade & # 8216 ; Needful & # 8217 ; out of a tree. Obviously the similarity with the fabrications of King Arthur and the Knights of the unit of ammunition tabular array is apparent. For all purposes and intents, & # 8216 ; Needful & # 8216 ; is & # 8216 ; Excalibur & # 8216 ; . The significance of the blade in the Ring is comparable to that of Excalibur in the Arthurian narratives. Siegfried himself is the incarnation of a German Achilles. The lone important difference between the two characters is that it is ill-defined whether or non Siegfried & # 8217 ; s ruin is a direct consequence of his pride, as is the instance with Achilles. If talking entirely with the myth and non with the opera, this becomes an unimportant point due to the fact that in The Nibelungenlied Siegfried is non the proper hero as he is in Das Ring diethylstilbestrols Nibelung. The most symbolic comparing of Achilles and Siegfried arises from the fact that they have similar agencies of protection from physical injury. The narrative of Achilles is widely known. Upon being dipped into the river Styx, he became imperviable to harm except for the country behind one of his heels which was non touched by the H2O. Siegfried receives this power as a
consequence of killing the Dragon Fafnir. When he thrust his blade into the beast’s bosom the blood which erupted Forth covered Siegfried except for a little country of his dorsum on which a foliage had fallen, therefore, this became the lone penetrable portion of his organic structure. Of class, as with Achilles, this would finally go a really important factor. Throughout the heroic poem there are several other parrelells drawn with Greco-Roman myth including the deficiency of a structured construct of the transition of clip, Brunhilde’s winging Equus caballus Grandi, an obvious mention to Pegasus, and the significance of the figure three. In The Nibelungenlied there are three Rhine Nymphs, and three Nornir. The Nornir represent the Norse version of the sisters of destiny. The Rhine Nymphs are the original keepers of the gold from which the pealing itself is fashioned. They are the girls of Wotan and are fundamentally to fault for the loss of the gold which basically marks the beginning of the fable. It would look that they are a cross between the Greek Muses and the Sirens. Without a uncertainty the beginnings of the full verse form can be traced to classical Greco-Roman myth. Be this knowing? Or was this merely the lone beginning that the unknown writer had to pull upon for manner and substance? It would look that most literature takes some sort of basic component from the “classics” , even modern plants. The necessities of every play, comedy, and calamity ; love, hatred, greed, war, slaying, etc. . . , came from someplace. In the West, that somewhere is ancient Greece. Now let us go on and analyze the opera and what Wagner did to do it accommodate his demands. What are the differences between Der Ring diethylstilbestrols Nibelung, and The Nibelungenlied?
With the Ring, Wagner establishes a beginning for the fable. He assigns a history to Siegfried and alterations what the verse form has already established. His grounds for this are bad at best, but the most widely accepted suggestion is merely ; & # 8221 ; With The NIbelungenlied, Wagner has a palette from which to make his narrative. It is no different from a painter utilizing the birth of Christ as an inspiration for a picture, or a sculpturer using a character from a scriptural narrative as the topic of a piece of sculpture. If equal recognition is given to the & # 8216 ; primary & # 8217 ; beginning than there is non a problem. & # 8221 ; . The opera is different from the verse form. It can non be more merely stated. Refering the version of the myth to the opera Oliver Ditson writes ; & # 8221 ; Wagner found the stuff for his colossal undertaking in the saga of the northern mythology ; but it required the manus of the maestro playwright to weld the staccato legends into a logically developed and incorporate whole, to follow the relation of cause and consequence ; and by extinguishing what was irrelevant to his intent, and stressing the of import facts of the narrative, to give to the mass of incident life and action, taking to overmastering climaxes. & # 8221 ; What the writer is stating is fundamentally that Wagner was making art from art, that is to state, opera from heroic poesy. While the verse form is an recognized piece of literature, it lacks the gloss and construction to be a successful libretto for an effectual opera. One could utilize the analogy of a film screenplay adapted from a novel, the film normally succeeds in conveying the general crisis of the written narrative, but it is unable to make this by adhering purely to the words of the writer. If this was done at that place would be a 10 hr film that a spectator would non be able to appreciate in one sitting. In the instance of the Ring, Wagner changes important happenings to accomplish something different from the saga. In the opera, Alberich, King of the Nibelung, becomes Hagen & # 8217 ; s male parent and gives the inspiration for the slaying of Siegfried. In the verse form, there is no reference of Alberich being related to Hagen in any manner. One must maintain in head that the verse form is entirely a history of the Nibelung as a race of people, the opera reduces this to a affair of secondary importance as its chief subject is the narrative of the Ring, the myth continues long after the country where the opera ends. In the saga, there is no established relationship between Siegfried and Brunhilde. The lone intent for Siegfried to prosecute Brunhilde is to win the manus of Gutrune from her brother Gunther, King of the Gibichungs. This whole scenario does take topographic point in the opera, but in an wholly different manner, with wholly different effects. In the opera, this happens as a direct consequence of Hagen & # 8217 ; s perfidy. Siegfried has already suffered the test of fire for the manus of Brunhilde, in fact, this is the footing for the flood tide of Siegfried, the 3rd opera in the rhythm.
The 2nd opera, Die Walkure, trades with the history of the Valkyrie, and introduces Siegmund, and Siegliund, Siegfried & # 8217 ; s female parent and male parent. In the opera, Siegmund dies in a conflict with Hunding, Siegliund & # 8217 ; s hubby. This proves to be a monumental scene as it is the beginning of Brunhilde & # 8217 ; s ostracism, every bit good as the flood tide of the 2nd act. Siegliund, after the conflict, is rescued by Brunhilde and flown, ( via Grandi ) , to Valhalla for protection. Siegliund & # 8217 ; s destiny is ne’er given in the opera, but it can be assumed that she dies shortly after giving birth to Siegfried.
The first three operas of the rhythm are clearly different from the myth of which they were born, this is a point that has been reiterated several times throughout this paper, but while in contrast with the saga, they besides have been, to some extent, in understanding with it every bit good. This is the important difference between those operas and the 4th ; Gotterdammerung. The Twilight of the Gods serves as a coda of the full ring rhythm. The tremendous work comes to a stopping point with this opera, and later all inquiries are answered ; all comes together, so to talk. While it remains the last, it was really the first libretto that Wagner wrote. At first this seems unlogical, but if the full ring is analyzed, every bit good as the original saga, it begins to do sense. Gotterdammerung is the one opera of the four that is non straight related to The Nibelungenlied. A good ground for this maybe that Wagner started here, and really had a complete opera in itself with merely this composing, but to him it was non plenty, the composer needed to set up a history for his characters, every bit good as an drift for them to be where they were. If Wagner would hold ended with merely this opera he would hold had something likely really similar to Tristan und Isolde, but that he had already done. Another important point is that this work starts mid-way through the fable, it better served his intent, artistically talking, to kill the indispensable participants off in true romantic magnificence instead than to allow them populate on. What would they make? The looming stoping to the opera, and accordingly the tetralogy, is the decease of Brunhilde and Hagen at the funeral scene of Siegfried. In the saga, all of these participants, excepting Siegfried, travel on to populate and decease another clip.
Despite efforts in some quarters to deny it, there is no uncertainty that Wagner intended his mighty tetralogy as a review of bing society, indicating the manner to a reconstructed universe in which world would reorder its personal businesss otherwise, more just, guided by the spirit of love instead than that of mammon. Nowhere is this purpose more expressed than in Das Rheingold. The work opens with a word picture of the guiltless universe of nature ; the fluxing Waterss of the Rhine, at the underside of which sleeps the gold in its natural, stainless province. With the entry of the midget Alberich arrives the spirit of commercialism: in no clip he has traded in any finer inherent aptitudes he might hold had, including the capacity for stamp love, in order to get the ring, which in bend enables him to roll up illimitable wealth and power. Enslaving a whole race of people in the procedure, he forces others to bring forth more wealth for him, until finally he is toppled by a hostile coup d’etat. But for the new proprietor of the ring, Wotan, the swayer of the Gods, this is merely the beginning of a concatenation of events that is to stop non merely in his ain ruin, but in a planetary catastrophe. Das Rheingold is an fable that gives univocal look to Wagner & # 8217 ; s anti-capitalist universe position. In Marxist footings, it is a review of production dealingss, of the destructive, estranging power of capital, and of development and subjugation in both industrial and societal domains. Wagner perceived Germany & # 8212 ; so humanity itself & # 8212 ; to be in a spiral of moral and religious diminution. The Ringing with its revelatory stoping, offering at least the opportunity of a new beginning, is testimony to that perception. & # 8221 ; In the visible radiation of his mastermind the simple fables acquired a deeper significance ; the colza of the Rheingold, and the expletive which was thenceforth visited upon its owners, crafty or guiltless, became symbolic of the lecherousness for wealth and power, with all its attender immorality, a expletive which could be removed merely through the atonement and prevailing love of Brunhilde, whose self-immolation, while taging the terminal of the reign of the Gods, brought the morning of new epoch & # 8212 ; that of human love & # 8212 ; upon the Earth.
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