natural law as merely the most dramatic instance in man’s life of the application of that law, has implanted in Wotan (collective, historical man) that existential fear with no specific cause of which Feuerbach spoke. This existential fear is the primary price man pays for the seemingly divine gift of conscious thought (Alberich’s Ring), the curse which the gift of consciousness lays upon man. Erda has anticipated for the gods a sort of day of final judgment on their pretension to divinity, i.e., their alleged immortality, in a formulation straight out of Feuerbach:
“ … love [say, the Rhinedaughters’ joy in the Rhinegold which Alberich renounced] goes back to the beginning of the world, but fear extends to the end of the world; love made the First Day, but fear made the Day of Judgment [Erda’s fear-inspiring proclamation of the inevitable twilight of the gods, “Endet!”].” [320F-LER: p. 290]
Wagner’s imagination was so overawed by Feuerbach’s description of man’s existential fear, the universal fear which knows no specific cause, that Wagner even described it as the essence of the cosmos and the basis of evolution:
“… he [Wagner] pictures to himself the birth of the universe, some central sun which begins to revolve, out of desire, no, out of fear, and how this agitation born of fear was everywhere, and everything a matter of indifference until one gave things a moral significance.” [1080W-{3/20/81} CD Vol. II, p. 643]
[R.4: K]
Thanks to Erda’s warning about the price Wotan must pay to possess Alberich’s Ring and its power, i.e., to possess consciousness of the objective truth, he decides he prefers the consolations of illusion and self-deception, and agrees after all to yield the Ring of consciousness to the Giants, so that his conscious mind, his thinking, can be controlled by his animal instincts:
Donner: (turning decisively to the giants) Listen, you giants! Come back and wait: to you the gold will be given.
Freia: Dare I yet hope so? Does Holda really seem to you worthy of ransom?
(All stare expectantly at Wotan; #53; #? [four-note fanfare, perhaps a #1 vari?]; the latter rouses himself from his thoughts, seizes his spear and brandishes it, as though to indicate a courageous decision: #21)
Wotan: to me, Freia! You are freed: now it’s brought back, (#37:) may our youth return (:#37)! You giants, take your ring! (He throws the ring on to the hoard. The giants release Freia: #25 or
