94 Nietzsche
industrial age. When visiting the docks in London, he described his
impressions to Cosima as follows: 'The dream of Alberich has been
realized here. Nibelheim, world domination, activity, labor, everywhere
the pressure of steam and fog" (Cosima Wagner 1052).
Wotan, the head of the gods, who refers to himself as the "light
Alberich," became entangled in the world of power and possessions. He
too will refuse to give the ring back to the Rhinemaidens after he has
captured it, having struck a bargain with the Nibelungs to hand it over
to them instead. He is therefore unable to restore the innocence of
being. Consequendy, Erda, the chthonian Earth Mother, refuses to
acknowledge him: "You are not / what you call yourself" (Wagner, Ring
240). The excesses of power, gold, and bargaining triumph over the nat-
ural order of things.
The mythic world of Richard Wagner takes place on three physical
planes, the lowest of which is the original existence of beauty and love,
embodied by the Rhinemaidens and Erda, the Earth Mother. Above
this plane is the world of the Nibelungs, in which power and posses-
sions are sovereign. Higher still is the third plane, the world of the gods,
now estranged from their chthonian origins. This world is disastrously
entangled in the previous plane. At the end of Das Rheingold, the
Rhinemaidens lament: 'Tender and true it is only in the depths: / false
and fainthearted / is what frolics above!"
Next Siegfried, who is descended from a complex genealogy, takes
the stage. He kills the dragon, innocendy takes the treasure, and gives
Brünnhilde the ring as a token of his love. However, Siegfried is lacking
in wisdom and knowledge, and falls victim to a cabal of envy, lust for
power, and greed. Hägen, the son of Alberich, murders him. The task is
not quite finished. Brünnhilde completes their duty of restoring the ring
to the Rhine. Valhalla goes up in flames, and the gods are apparendy
consumed by fire.
The gods are thus implicated in the widespread corruption in the
world. Salvation will not come from them. Only a free human being can
bring salvation, someone who has broken free from the fateful succès-