The ethics of Wagner's The ring of the Nibelung by Lewis Mary E

Author:Lewis, Mary E[lizabeth] Mrs. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883
Publisher: New York and London, G. Putman's sons
Published: 1906-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

The birds in the trees above him attract him by their singing. Happy, joyous birds! Could he but understand their songs, what might they not tell him of his mother? One sings quite near him. He remembers, now, that Mimi has told him that one could learn to understand the birds. He will cut a reed, fashion it, and sing with this songster. If he could but grasp the music, it would teach its own meaning. After trying many times vainly, he relinquishes the effort, for he cannot wake the song. Failing in this attempt, he resorts to winding his horn, for only lately he had called a bear to him by so doing. The sound of the horn rouses Fafnir, who shows himself, monstrous and horrible to the sight!

Siegfried knows that his horn has called forth the dragon, who slowly rolls his cumbrous length forward and pauses at the sight of the hero. Then he speaks, asking who this brave and daring stripling is,

Siegfried rallies him, jestingly expressing his surprise that he, a beast, should have speech. Will the dragon teach him, he asks, the meaning of fear, to learn which he had come ? The beast, for answer, displays his dreadful fangs, and threatens to devour the youth. But Siegfried does not intend to satisfy the appetite of the dragon. It were better to kill him at once. He therefore attacks the monster, sword in hand, parrying a blow from its tail, which lashes violently, exposing its breast to Siegfried, who plunges the weapon to its heart, and brings the beast near to death's door.

The dragon, in these dramas, is the emblem of greed. The blood of the monster symbolizes the life of greed. The life of anything is that within it which is true. But is there anything true in greed ? Nay, not in it, but under-lying it: for greed is built upon honest desire, effort, industry, perseverance, thrift—a false superstructure upon a true foundation—and is not truly greed until it desires and obtains that which is not its own, or, having attained it, withholds that which belongs to the world, thus failing to measure up to the standard of moral law.

Through the long night, while Fricka and Wotan slumbered upon the grassy slope, these giants had labored toilsomely for their chance of possessing the lovely, winsome Freia, and in the joyous day, when they had accomplished their task, they had attested their own unworthiness of the promised reward.

Fafnir, though vanquished, is still alive, and asks to know the identity of the youth who has sought his life, and who has incited him to this deed. Siegfried replies that he does not know who he is, and that he alone, the dragon, has tempted him to the deed.

The sword has now pierced Fafnir to the heart. Wounded to the death as he is, he remembers the old-time honesty and generosity of the giants. He resolves to utter a warning, that the youth's life may be saved and the world enriched.

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