which Bruennhilde’s mother Erda foretold. But Wotan draws an unexpected advantage out of his intent to punish Bruennhilde with exile from Valhalla: by casting her free from the gods, their faith and laws, he frees Bruennhilde to live for love of the Waelsung heroes she has chosen, especially her future lover, the artist-hero Siegfried, and to suffer their fate as well.
Since Wotan declares he will no longer share whispered counsel with Bruennhilde, i.e., no longer repress his intolerable knowledge into her through confession, he is saying in effect that Bruennhilde will now transfer her role as man’s collective unconscious to Siegfried, the artist-hero, for whom she can perform her new role as his muse, his unconscious source of inspiration. As Wotan said, what he once gave to Bruennhilde, his unconscious confession, will now be taken away from her by her new lover, who will draw inspiration from it. And Bruennhilde, the womb of Wotan’s wishes, by virtue of having taken into herself, through Wotan’s confession, the seed of Siegfried’s future inspiration, Wotan’s hoard of forbidden knowledge, can figuratively give birth to Siegfried, the individual artist-hero in whom the spirit of the primal Folk (Wotan), who created the gods by projecting their own human nature on to them through unconscious artistic inspiration, will now live on. Wotan asked what “use” his “Will” could be to him, because he can only will the creation of heroes who are as unfree as the imagination which dreamed them into existence. Bruennhilde’s (his will’s) use to Wotan is that she will give birth to his hero Siegfried, who is Wotan himself, minus consciousness of his true identity, history, and purpose.
[V.3.3: D]
Bruennhilde now reminds Wotan that since she is his will, his other half, his unconscious mind, and therefore his repository for his dangerous hoard of knowledge, the unspoken secret he expected her to keep, he would be exposing himself to shame if he exposed her to shame by letting just any passing man, rather than an authentic hero, win her and thus fall heir to the knowledge which is the cause of Wotan’s shame and fear. He would be giving up his last hope of redemption, his last hope of salvaging the essence of Valhalla, the longing for transcendent value:
Bruennhilde: (simply: #96b transformation?:) Little use, I fear, was the foolish maid, who, stunned by your counsel, understood nothing, for my private counsel (:#96b transformation?) counseled but one thing – to love whatever you loved. (#96b transformation?:) If I must leave you and shyly shun you, if you must sunder what once was whole, and hold far off one half of yourself – O god, don’t forget (:#96b transformation?) that it once belonged to you wholly! (#81:; #83 hint: [not #82?]) You cannot want to dishonour that part of you which is ageless nor suffer a shame (#? – [short chord bursts; not #51?]) that brings you disgrace (:#81; :#83 hint): you’d only abase yourself if you saw me as mockery’s plaything! (#5 repeated?)
