Siegfried the Failed Hero, Brünnhilde the Redeemer of the World By Carole Cusack

https://www.academia.edu/144978547/Siegfried_the_Failed_Hero_Br%C3%BCnnhilde_the_Redeemer_of_the_World?email_work_card=title In Der Ring des Nibelungen Richard Wagner (1813-1883) dramatically imagined the twilight of the gods as the semi-divine hero, Siegfried, who is ignorant of religion, deities, and all conventions, forges his way in the world. For Wagner, Siegfried is the ‘man of the future’ and ‘the most perfect human being’. Yet modern audiences are often disappointed by Siegfried, perceiving him as boorish and immature, while his heroism is nothing more than a series of acts of violence, for example, causing the deaths of Mime and Fafner, and the fall of Wotan, while remaining ignorant of the value of the Ring, or the identity of the god. In this paper I argue that the free hero created by Wotan is actually Brünnhilde, who succeeds in breaking free from the realm of the gods, retains strength and focus after being ill-used in the human realm, and restores the Ring to the Rhine-daughters. The child of Wotan and Erda, she has divine wisdom, and despite being female and existing only to fulfil Wotan’s wishes, defies her destiny to outclass the putative heroism of Siegfried, and through sacrifice redeems the world. ...