Before CHAPTER VIII THE SACRIFICE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav) and Hinkle, Beatrice M.
How a god may conquer his care.
Erda:
Thou art not
What thou hast said.
It is the same primitive motive which we meet Wagner: the mother has robbed her son, the sun-god, of the joy of life, through a poisonous thorn, and deprives him of his power, which is connected with the name. Isis demands the name of the god; Erda says, “Thou art not what thou hast said.” But the “Wanderer” has found the way to conquer the fatal charm of the mother, the fear of death:
“The eternals’ downfall
No more dismays me,
Since their doom I willed.
“I leave to thee, loveliest Wälsung,
Gladly my heritage now.
To the ever-young
In gladness yieldeth the god!”
These wise words contain, in fact, the saving thought. It is not the mother who has placed the poisonous worm in our path, but our libido itself wills to complete the course of the sun to mount from morn to noon, and, passing beyond noon, to hasten towards evening, not at war with itself, but willing the descent and the end.[785]
Nietzsche’s Zarathustra teaches:
“I praise thee, my death, the free death, which comes to me because I want it.
“And when shall I want it?
“He who has a goal and an heir wants death at the proper time for his goal and his heir.
“And this is the great noonday, when man in the middle of his course stands between man and superman, and celebrates his path towards evening as his highest hope: because it is the path to a new morning.
“He who is setting will bless his own going down because it is a transition: and the sun of his knowledge will be at high noon.”
Siegfried conquers the father Wotan and takes possession of Brunhilde. The first object that he sees is her horse; then he believes that he beholds a mail-clad man. He cuts to pieces the protecting coat of mail of the sleeper. (Overpowering.) When he sees it is a woman, terror seizes him:
“My heart doth falter and faint;
On whom shall I call
That he may help me?
Mother! Mother!
Remember me!
“Can this be fearing?
Oh, mother! Mother!
Thy dauntless child!
A woman lieth asleep:—
And she now has taught him to fear!
“Awaken! Awaken!
Holiest maid!
Then life from the sweetness of lips
Will I win me—
E’en tho’ I die in a kiss.”
In the duet which follows the mother is invoked:
“O mother, hail!
Who gave thee thy birth!”
The confession of Brunhilde is especially characteristic:
“O knewest thou—joy of the world,