Wagner’s hovering between the pre-Fallen and Fallen Motifs representing the Rhinegold lends astonishing suspense to the question, will Bruennhilde choose to do this for the Gods’ sake, or not? {{ If the #Remembrance Motif, (#@: E or F?), is indeed heard after Bruennhilde calls Alberich’s Ring Siegfried’s pledge of love, }} then if Bruennhilde refuses to return the Ring to the Rhinedaughters, Bruennhilde shows herself fatally committed to that special Wagnerian love – unconscious artistic inspiration – which is fated to wake, and become conscious now, not only for the artist-hero exclusively (who alone can consign this fatal knowledge back to sleep and forget its fear in the joy of inspiration), but for the artist’s audience (Gunther and the Gibichungs) also.
[T.1.3: F]
Bruennhilde says no, she will not return the Ring to the Rhine to redeem the gods, because she and Siegfried are now freed from the concerns of the gods, and can live for love alone, a love whose bond is now embodied by Alberich’s Ring (the ring which, ironically, could only be forged by renouncing love for power’s sake). She is fatally committed to Wotan’s own unconscious poetic intent, confessed to her in V.2.2, that Siegfried the artist-hero be wholly freed from the gods’ influence (though it is solely through Bruennhilde’s protection that Siegfried is freed from consciousness of the gods’ influence):
(#19 vari [an orchestral explosion which may refer to R.4 when Wotan refused to give the ring to the giants to redeem Freia, just before Erda appeared? – is this the #19/#20a hybrid, or perhaps a #17 vari, as heard when Wotan and Loge bring Alberich captive up from Nibelheim?])
Bruennhilde: Ha! Do you know (#?: [rising repetition of a three-note figure which may reference either Siegfried trying to imitate the Woodbird on his flute in S.2.2, or music relating to Hagen’s request that Siegfried tell the assembled Gibichungs how he came to understand the meaning of birdsong, or from Siegfried’s narrative of this tale, in T.3.2?]; #139 or #Remembrance Motif voc? [perhaps a reference to the motif to which Siegfried sang “remembrance” during his toast to Bruennhilde, and associated with Siegfried’s telling tales of his youth to gunther in T.3.2?]) what it means to me (:#139 or #Remembrance Motif voc?)? (#orch?: [four note figure, perhaps associated in S.3.3 with Bruennhilde’s fear of sexual union with Siegfried?]) How can you grasp it (:#orch? [possible reference to Bruennhilde’s fear of Siegfried?]), (#19 vari: [is this #68?]) you unfeeling child (:#19 vari [is this #68?])! (#17 varis >>: [a new, agitated but optimistic and triumphant vari, which we might call #17 or #19 “Triumphant”]; #19 vari? [perhaps as heard in Wotan’s refusal to give the ring to the giants to redeem Freia in R.4, just before Erda appeared?]) More than Valhalla’s bliss, more than the glory of the immortals (#17 or #19? [perhaps a figure heard when Wotan finally agreed to let Bruennhilde wed a fearless hero in V.3.3?]) the ring is to me: one
