Before CHAPTER VIII THE SACRIFICE
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav) and Hinkle, Beatrice M.
How I have ever loved thee!
Thou wert my gladness,
My care wert thou!
Thy life I sheltered;
Or ere it was thine,
Or ere thou wert born,
My shield was thy guard.”[786]
The pre-existence of the hero and the pre-existence of Brunhilde as his wife-mother are clearly indicated from this passage.
Siegfried says in confirmation:
“Then death took not my mother?
Bound in sleep did she lie?”
The mother-imago, which is the symbol of the dying and resurrected libido, is explained by Brunhilde to the hero, as his own will:
“Thyself am I
If blest I be in thy love.”
The great mystery of the Logos entering into the mother for rebirth is proclaimed with the following words by Brunhilde:
“O Siegfried, Siegfried,
Conquering light!
I loved thee ever,
For I divined
The thought that Wotan had hidden—
The thought that I dared
Not to whisper—[787]
That all unclearly
Glowed in my bosom
Suffered and strove;
For which I flouted
Him, who conceived it:[787]
For which in penance
Prisoned I lay,
While thinking it not
And feeling only,
For, in my thought,
Oh, should you guess it?
Was only my love for thee.”
The erotic similes which now follow distinctly reveal the motive of rebirth:
Siegfried:
“A glorious flood
Before me rolls.
With all my senses
I only see