after learning of such a companion, Bruennhilde, from the Woodbird. One might have thought, given the profound symbolic significance of Siegfried’s special relationship with his muse Bruennhilde, that this urgent motif of longing would belong to Bruennhilde alone, but surprisingly, when Hagen’s first potion makes Siegfried forget Bruennhilde and fall in love with Gutrune, in T.1.2, #132 will express the urgency of his new-found desire for Gutrune, as if Siegfried’s overwhelming longing for Bruennhilde were transferred entirely to the wholly unworthy Gutrune. We will consider the possible implications of this when we discuss T.1.2
[S.2.3: F]
Siegfried asks the Woodbird to explain the cause of this feeling - as yet a love without a specific object - which is coursing through him, and the answer the Woodbird provides is actually the secret of unconscious artistic inspiration itself, the true basis of the love the poet-dramatist hero shares with his muse, the music produced by the unconscious mind:
Siegfried: What courses so swiftly through heart and senses (:#132b)? Tell me the answer, sweet friend! (He listens.)
Woodbird: (#11/#128b:) Delighting in sorrow, (#128a?:) I sing of love; (#128b:) blissful I weave (#128a?:) my lay from woe (:128b; :#128a?): (#20a voc?:) lovers alone can know its meaning (:#20a voc?)
Siegfried: ([[ #132b: ]]) Exulting, it drives me away from here, out of the forest and on to the fell! – (#35:; #132b:) But tell me again, you lovely songster: shall I (#92:) break through the fire? Can I awaken the bride (:#92)?
(Siegfried listens again: #132b/#98)
Voice of the Woodbird: (#128b) He who wins the bride and awakens Bruennhilde shall never be a coward: (#129?) only he who knows not fear!
Siegfried: (exultantly: #129?) The foolish boy who knows not fear, (#128b?) my woodbird, that is I! This very day I tried in vain (#48?) to learn from Fafner what fear may be. Now I burn with longing to learn it from Bruennhilde: how shall I find my way to the fell?
