Richard Wagner's Der Ring Des Nebelungen Vernacularized Into American

By Arthur W. Ritchie

Why a vernacularization? While a giant of composition, as a librettist, Wagner stunk. The wordiest of wordy birdies, he might use a paragraph to say yes or half a page to say maybe. Then he grossly over spiced his libretti with adjectives, repetitious phrases, arcane words and meaningless blather to fill in the music, making his ‘little books’ less for poring over, than for snoring over. And that’s just the beginning.
Composers set words to music. Wagner set music to his words. And once he began doing that, his working libretto went out the window as he endlessly fiddled with the words to fit his music. Result? The mess described above gets worse.
So, to make these libretti more readable I’ve: removed countless gratuitous adjectives, and repetitious words and phrases, ditched the ‘thee’ s and ‘thou’ s, and repositioned verbs in sentences to conform to our modern common usage. Then there are the gratuitous sentences and even an occasional paragraph inserted for no purpose other than to fill the musical line that often make no sense at all which I’ve removed for clarity while remembering that they are absolutely necessary in the sung work to maintain the work’s continuity.
So now, instead of fighting your way through a text constantly looking up words or asking, “what the hell does that mean?” you have a completely, totally, and deadly accurate text of these operas! Well, sort of ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arthur W. Ritchie
• Release date: Jul 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463765821

Book preview

Richard Wagner’s

DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN

Vernacularized into American

By Arthur W. Ritchie

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2019 Arthur W. Ritchie

ISBN: 9780463765821

Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

This e-book is licensed for your enjoyment and may be used for any purpose whatsoever save that of making money. That right I reserve to myself.

Why a vernacularization?

Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus

(Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon)

The motto of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft & Wizardry which gave Wagner an

honorary doctorate in lotions, potions, and note-tions.

While a giant of composition, as a librettist, Wagner stunk. The wordiest of wordy birdies, he might use a paragraph to say yes or half a page to say maybe. Then he grossly over spiced his libretti with adjectives, repetitious phrases, arcane words and meaningless blather to fill in the music, making his ‘little books’ less for poring over, than for snoring over. And that’s just the beginning.

Composers set words to music. Wagner set music to his words. And once he began doing that, his working libretto went out the window as he endlessly fiddled with the words to fit his music. Result? The mess described above gets worse.

So, to make these libretti more readable I’ve: removed countless gratuitous adjectives, and repetitious words and phrases, ditched the ‘thee’ s and ‘thou’ s, and repositioned verbs in sentences to conform to our modern common usage. Then there are the gratuitous sentences and even an occasional paragraph inserted for no purpose other than to fill the musical line that often make no sense at all which I’ve removed for clarity while remembering that they are absolutely necessary in the sung work to maintain the work’s continuity.

So now, instead of fighting your way through a text constantly looking up words or asking, what the hell does that mean? you have a completely, totally, and deadly accurate text of these operas! Well, sort of ...

Table of Contents:

Preface:

Wagner’s Sources

Das Rheingold, Precis

Libretto

Die Walküre, Precis

Libretto

Siegfried, Precis

Libretto

Götterdämmerung Precis

Libretto

Preface

Der Ring des Nibelungen is an Allegory:

A befuddlement:

A tale so convoluted that the more you study it,

the more confused you get.

While Wagner was writing the Ring, a diplomat with nearly 50 years’ experience in India returned home to find a note from Queen Victoria requesting an audience.

Tell me about India, she asked.

Majesty he replied, when I’d been in India but a short time, I could have told you everything there was to know about that country. But after nearly half a century in your service there, I must confess, I know absolutely nothing about the place. And so it is with me and Wagner’s ring.

I was introduced to The Ring in 1953 and in short order, could have given you a precis of the work sounding so reasonable you might have actually believed it. But after decades of hearing it, playing some of it in the pit, attending performances of it, and reading much about it, all I can say of it with certainly is that, the making of magic objects or the cursing thereof, without a license can prove problematic; and, that regardless of the number of gods in your family tree, less than a flea farts weight of hormones at puberty can turn even the best bred male on earth into a complete horse’s ass.

A NOTE ON WAGNER’S SOURCES:

Wagner’s Ring libretti are based on the 12th and 13th century Eddas of Iceland, where the first tales of the Norse gods are found. Here, the dwarf Andvari (Wagner's Alberich) has a magic ring and hoard of gold stolen by the gods Odin (Wotan, king of the gods) and Loki (Loge the guy who plays with fire) to pay a debt owed two brothers one of whom, Fafnir, kills the other over the possession of the ring, then turns himself into a dragon to guard his stolen hoard.

Other Eddas’ gods include Thor (Donner, god of thunder who enjoys swinging a big hammer around); Frey (Froh the happy god who is just filler in this story); the goddesses Frigg (Fricka, the wife of Wotan and goddess and preserver of marriage); Freyja (Freia, the sister of Fricka who grows magic apples that keep the gods young); and Jord, meaning Earth in Icelandic (Erda, the earth-mother goddess, and mother of Thor and Brünnhilde.)

Ring characters not found in the Eddas include Mimi, the Nibelung smith, who Wagner probably found in the Thidriks saga, as a human smith; and the Rhinemaiden, Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde who have several possible sources: The Nibelungenlied where three water sprites tease Hagan and Gunther; the German legend of Lorelei, then there’s the Greek Hesperides myth where three maidens guard a golden treasure. But because Wagner alone names them, some believe he invented them. He didn’t.

Then, the libretti were written in the reverse order in which the operas were both written and are performed. They were written in the order: Götterdämmerung, Siegfried, Die Walküre and Das Rheingold, while the operas were written and are performed as Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung.

From the glorious New York City Metropolitan Opera Production.

Scene 1: Deep in the Rhine River, three Rhinemaiden [Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde] play as Alberich, a Nibelung dwarf, tries to woo them, but they mock him and he gets angry. Suddenly sunlight penetrating the depths falls on the Rhine gold causing it to shine and when Alberich asks what it is, he’s told that it’s the treasure their father has ordered them to protect because—were anyone who renounced love to forge a ring from that gold—that ring would give them the power to rule the world. Cursing love, Alberich seizes the gold and flees, as the Rhinemaiden scream in anger.

Scene 2: Sleeping before his magnificent spanking-new castle on a mountain top, Wotan, king of the gods, is awakened by his wife, Fricka. It seems the castle’s builders, the giants Fasolt and Fafner, are there expecting to be paid. This poses a problem as the deceitful Wotan had promised them Fricka's sister, Freia, the goddess of youth and beauty, as payment for their work, but he never had any intention of ever giving her to them. You see, he pawned the job of coming up with an alternate payment to the giants on Loge, the demigod of fire.

The panic-stricken Freia rushes in with Fasolt and Fafner in hot pursuit demanding that she be turned over to them. And, as Wotan's god-like authority is only sustained by the treaties carved in his spear—including his contract with the giants—Wotan can’t violate his agreement without losing all of his power.

Donner, god of thunder, and Froh god of sunshine, arrive to defend Freia, but Wotan cannot allow force to be used to break the agreement. So, hoping Loge will quickly arrive with a solution to the problem, he stalls for time.

Loge arrives, but believing the deal was based on the giant’s love of Freia, he sees no way around it. As a matter of fact, in his study of the problem, he’d only found one instance of anyone trading love for something else: Alberich who’d cursed love, stolen the Rhinegold and had an all-powerful ring forged from it. But the mentioning of the ring’s power fascinates the giants and Fafner makes a counter-offer: They’ll swap Freia for the Nibelung’s treasure. But having neither the gold nor any claim to it, Wotan objects. The giants shrug their shoulders; give Wotan until the end of the day to change his mind, and leave with Freia. But then the unexpected kicks in: It seems that Freia alone raises the golden apples that keep the gods young, and even in the few hours of her absence, they’ve noticeably begun to age. Now, believing Freia must be freed, Wotan plans a trip with Loge to Alberich's subterranean kingdom, to get the gold one way or another.

Scene 3: Using his ring’s power, Alberich has enslaved the Nibelung dwarfs and forced his metal-smith brother Mimi, to make the Tarnhelm, a magic helmet, that can turn its wearer into any form they wish. and Alberich demonstrates its power by making himself invisible.

Wotan and Loge arrive and Mimi tells them of the Nibelung’s misery under Alberich's rule. Alberich returns, driving his slaves to pile up a huge mound of gold and boasts of how he and his ring will conquer the world!

Loge asks how he can protect himself against theft while he sleeps, and Alberich replies that the Tarnhelm will hide him, by either making him invisible or changing his form. Feigning doubt, Loge asks for a demonstration and Alberich instantly becomes an enormous snake! And, after acting sufficiently terrified, Loge asks if Alberich can reduce his size—something that would be particularly useful for hiding. And Alberich transforms himself into a tiny toad. But now separated from his helmet, he reverts to his natural form and Wotan and Loge easily seize him and drag him to the earth’s surface.

Scene 4: Now on the earth’s surface, Alberich’s given a choice: Your gold, or your life. Furious, he orders the Nibelungen to bring the hoard to Wotan’s new mountain top retreat while hoping to keep the ring, but Wotan demands it. And when Alberich refuses to surrender it, Wotan simply takes it off his hand and puts it on his own [same problem as above]—at which time Alberich curses the ring: Until this ring is returned to me—Alberich—its possessor’s life will be in constant danger until they are killed for possessing it.

The giants return with Freia to see how their offer’s going, but Fasolt’s still in love with Freia and is reluctant to release her insisting that she’ll only be freed if the gold can be piled high enough to completely hide her. But when the gold’s piled in front of her, they still see her head and Wotan’s forced to add the Tarnhelm to the pile to hide it. Then Fasolt spots a tiny crack in the pile exposing one of Freia’s eyes and he wants it sealed. Loge complains that the