(The vassals form a circle round Siegfried and Hagen. #159; #164 Hagen holds out his spear; Siegfried places two fingers of his right hand on the point of the spear.)
Siegfried: [[ #173 ]] Shining steel! Hallowed weapon! Assist my eternal Oath!
(#164) [[ #173 ]] By the point of this spear I swear the oath: spear-point, mark what I say! (#164) (#167) Where blade may bleed me, be it you that bleeds me! (#164) (#167) Where death may strike, be it you that strikes, (#151?; #82?) if that woman’s charge is true, if I broke my vow to my brother! (#77/#78; #150 Vari [as orchestral explosion])
Bruennhilde: (Striding furiously into the circle, tearing Siegfried’s hand away from the spear, and seizing the tip of it with her own hand: [[ #173 ]] Shining steel! Hallowed weapon! Assist my eternal oath! (#164; [[ #173 ]] By the point of this spear I swear the oath: (#151?) spear-point, mark what I say! (#164) (#167) I hallow your thrust that it overthrow him! (#165) (#167) I bless your blade that it bleed him! (#165) (#164) For, just as he broke every oath he swore, this man has now forsworn himself!
The Vassals: (in utter turmoil: #172?) Help, Donner! Let your tempest roar (#150 Vari) to silence this raging disgrace! (#19 Vari &/or #20a? [as orchestral explosion])”
(#@: D or E?) Bruennhilde - Siegfried’s surrogate Rhine - protects Siegfried, at the front, from suffering Wotan’s unhealing wound, his foresight of the gods’ (religion’s) shameful end, so Siegfried remains free from Alberich’s curse of consciousness Bruennhilde as Prometheus, who grants mortal man both the divine gift of conscious knowledge and foresight, and the means to redeem ourselves from consciousness of this knowledge, and the fear it engenders, by hiding it behind the veil of Maya (Wahn), the artistic cunning of self-deceit embodied by religious faith and art. Bruennhilde betrays the secret of Siegfried’s Achilles’ Heel to Hagen and Gunther.
((#@: D or E?) is a compound motif comprised of a #15 Variant and a #150 Variant. See #15 and #150 for motival links. #15 of course represents Bruennhilde’s status as the unconscious mind, and music, that is, her status as a substitute for restoring the Ring to the Rhine to end its curse. The unconscious repository for Wotan’s Hoard of Knowledge (that hoard represented here by #150), through which Siegfried can learn this knowledge subliminally without suffering the wounds which consciousness would cause, is the basis of the protection Bruennhilde grants Siegfried. It explains why he is fearless.)
“Bruennhilde: (Wholly absorbed in her thoughts: (#164) What demon’s art [“Unhold’s List”] lies (#87) hidden here! (#167) (#164) What store of magic (#87)
