The answer lay in books he bought and borrowed, reading hundreds of sources on Norse mythology and legend. As Walter notes in his essay, Wagner biographer Elizabeth Magee did extensive research into where the composer gleaned the ideas that built this epic narrative. That doesn’t mean Wagner didn’t do his homework.
“In short, it’s made-up mythology.” Don't wait on Facebook to pick your New Mexico news.īy clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with The Paper. “In a nut-shell, his Cycle isn’t truly mythology-instead, it’s an original piece of storytelling that borrows here and there from the tangle of Nordic tales-a few noteworthy characters, a few notorious episodes-then weaves them into an overall plotline that’s largely brand-new,” writes Walter in an essay about the book series. The entire Ring Cycle is based on Norse mythology but here’s the grand surprise: Wagner made up most of it himself. If you see parallels to Game of Thrones and Neal Gaiman’s American Gods, you get an A+. Walter’s book series breaks down the opera’s four sections: Das Rheingold (see Alberich above) Die Walküre (the Valkyries and their leader Brünnhilde, who is Wotan’s daughter) Siegfried (who wakes up the dragon Fafner by tooting his hunting horn) and Götterdämmerung ( Twilight for the Gods). “Even some people who wouldn’t dream of going to the opera love this one.” “People who fall in love with the Ring Cycle are also addicted to fantasy fiction,” Walter said.
Drama and death ensue, along with mind-blowing masterpieces from a 105-piece orchestra. Wotan steals the ring to pay for his castle keep, Valhalla Alberich curses the ring, twice. To kick off this 15-plus-hour opera written to be performed over four days, the dwarf Alberich steals gold from the Rhine maidens and has his slaves forge it into a ring. But he does evolve into that wise old man, a trusted elder with an ironic sense of humor,” Walter said.
“Wotan screws up very, very badly in the Ring. One of those characters is the Norse god Wotan, whom we might think of as Gandalf or Obi Wan Kenobi or Dumbledore. “But there are characters in Lord of the Rings that are taken directly from the Ring Cycle.” “Tolkien doesn’t admit it,” Walter said in last week’s interview. Tolkien most certainly got his ideas for LOTR from the Ring. Even if you don’t know your Brünnhilde from your Sieglinde, you’ll be able to tell that J.R.R. Fantasy fiction fans can go gaga over Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle ( Der Ring des Nibelungen) according to Rick Walter, author of a recent series on the four-part opera.
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