Richard Wagner His Life and His Dramas / A Biographical Study of the Man and an Explanation of His Work

by W. J. Henderson

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Wotan.

Nur einer könnte, was ich nicht darf: Ein Held, dem helfend nie ich mich neigte, But one may compass what I must leave, A hero held by none of our number,

It is by such wonderful combinations of the guiding themes that the scores of these dramas become so rich in variety, beauty, and meaning. The significance of this passage is clear and eloquent. The plan must fail and the dusk of the gods must come. The phrase marked A is usually designated the theme of the "Gods' Stress." It is plainly, however, the Erda theme and a variant of the "Götterdämmerung." When Siegmund sits on the rock with Sieglinde fainting in his arms, we hear for the first time the motive of Fate, often used afterward:

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FATE.