Tag Archives: Der Ring des Nibelungen

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Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was the most influential composer of the nineteenth century and one of the most influential composers in the history of Western art music. Read more …

Published: January 23, 2019 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged music, Norse mythology, North American New Right, opera, originals, Quintilian, Richard Wagner, stagecraft | Comments closed

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An Esoteric Commentary on the Volsung Saga, Part I

Collin Cleary

A carving depicting Sigurd sucking the dragon’s blood off his thumb, from a stave church in Setesdal, Norway.

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Part II here

The purpose of this essay is to offer an account of the hidden meaning of the Volsung Saga (Völsunga saga). In drawing out this meaning, I will approach the saga from a Traditionalist standpoint, broadly speaking; i.e., from the standpoint of Guénon and Evola. I will touch on some details concerning the relation of the saga to other sources, but I do not aim to provide anything like the sort of account a historian or philologist might give. Read more …

Published: August 7, 2018 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Collin Cleary, Germanic paganism, Germanic tradition, Julius Evola, Norse sagas, North American New Right, originals, paganism, Rene Guénon, Richard Wagner, Volsunga Saga, Wotan | Comments closed

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I Saw the World End:
Wagner’s Ring in Munich

John Morgan

5,540 words / 32:41

To listen in a player, click here. To download the mp3, right-click here and choose “save link as” or “save target as.” To subscribe to the CC podcast RSS feed, click here.

Seeing an opera production these days, if you’re anything even approximating a small-t traditionalist, is always a risky business. When the guardians of Western culture – who actually hate Western culture, or at least what it was until recently – want to change literature, painting, television, or film to suit whatever agenda they’re pursuing at the time, it’s a relatively simple matter: they simply create new works in new styles. Read more …

Published: August 3, 2018 | Posted in Counter-Currents Radio, North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Bavarian State Opera, John Morgan, North American New Right, opera, opera reviews, originals, podcasts, Richard Wagner | Comments closed

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Wagner Bicentennial Symposium
Wagner’s Place in the Germanic Tradition
Part 8: Gelassenheit

Collin Cleary

2,275 words

Part 8 of 8

Gelassenheit

We can say that the plot of the Ring is simply this: Western man, in the person of Wotan, finally awakens to the destructiveness of his thumotic nature, and wills his own end. (See my review of Duchesne’s Uniqueness of Western Civilization for a discussion of how Western man is preeminently thumotic man.) Read more …

Published: July 9, 2013 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Arthur Schopenhauer, articles, Asatru, Brünnhilde, Collin Cleary, European identity, Faustian man, Gelassenheit, Ludwig Feuerbach, Martin Heidegger, myth, narcissism, North American New Right, Odin, originals, Richard Wagner, Ring cycle, Siegfried, thumos, vanity, Wagner Bicentennial Symposium, warrior ethics, Wotan | Comments closed

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Wagner Bicentennial Symposium
Wagner’s Place in the Germanic Tradition
Part 7: Siegfried & Götterdämerung

Collin Cleary

3,645 words

Part 7 of 8

Siegfried

If Wotan is the main character of the Ring, Siegfried is its hero. However, in dealing with the character of Siegfried we do not depart from our discussion of Wotan at all. This is because Siegfried, like many of the other characters in the Ring, is a kind of hypostatization of an aspect of Wotan himself. Read more …

Published: July 8, 2013 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Arthur Schopenhauer, articles, Asatru, Brünnhilde, Collin Cleary, European identity, Faustian man, myth, narcissism, North American New Right, Odin, originals, Richard Wagner, Ring cycle, Siegfried, thumos, vanity, Wagner Bicentennial Symposium, Wotan | Comments closed

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Wagner Bicentennial Symposium
Wagner’s Place in the Germanic Tradition
Part 6: Das Rheingold & Die Walküre

Collin Cleary

2,707 words

Part 6 of 8

Das Rheingold

When the events of Das Rheingold begin, the Wotan-Loge relationship is already well-established, and the primeval crimes described earlier are long past. However, the opera begins with yet another crime against nature: Alberich’s theft of the Rhinegold. Read more …

Published: July 5, 2013 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Arthur Schopenhauer, articles, Asatru, Brünnhilde, Collin Cleary, European identity, Faustian man, myth, North American New Right, Odin, originals, Richard Wagner, Ring cycle, Wagner Bicentennial Symposium, Wotan | Comments closed

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Wagner Bicentennial Symposium
Wagner’s Place in the Germanic Tradition
Part 5: The One-Eyed God

Collin Cleary

2,522 words

Part 5 of 8

The story of the Ring involves four ages, similar to those taught in Tradition.

The Age of Titans is the period represented by figures somehow more primordial than the gods: Erda, the Norns, and possibly the Rhine daughters. Events in this age are not depicted in the Ring; they are merely referred to (primarily in Götterdämmerung).

Wagner Bicentennial Symposium
Wagner’s Place in the Germanic Tradition
Part 4: Wotan & the Faustian West

Collin Cleary

2,783 words

Part 4 of 8

Wotan and the Faustian West

As noted in the Introduction to this essay, at the time of the Ring’s conception Wagner was an anarchist revolutionary. Major influences on his thinking included Bakunin, Feuerbach, Hegel, and possibly Marx (though of these only Bakunin was an anarchist). Read more …

Published: July 3, 2013 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged Arthur Schopenhauer, articles, Asatru, classical music, Collin Cleary, European identity, Faustian man, myth, North American New Right, Odin, opera, originals, Oswald Spengler, Richard Wagner, Ring cycle, Wagner Bicentennial Symposium, Wotan | Comments closed

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Wagner Bicentennial Symposium
Wagner’s Place in the Germanic Tradition
Part 3: Wagner’s Use of Source Materials for the Ring

Collin Cleary

3,473 words

Part 3 of 8

Wagner’s Use of Sources for the Ring

As a brief summary of how Wagner makes use of the major sources discussed in section three above, I don’t think one could do any better than this paragraph from an article by Elizabeth Magee:

Looking back, we can see how the Eddas supplied most of Das Rheingold, Read more …

Published: June 4, 2013 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Asatru, Collin Cleary, Eddas, myth, Nibelungenlied, North American New Right, originals, Richard Wagner, Ring cycle, Volsunga Saga, Wagner Bicentennial Symposium | Comments closed

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Wagner Bicentennial Symposium
Wagner’s Place in the Germanic Tradition
Part 2: The Story of Der Ring des Nibelungen

Collin Cleary

3,462 words

Part 2 of 8

The Story of Der Ring des Nibelungen

For the uninitiated, I will now tell the story of the Ring, confining myself to essentials. Even the initiated would do well to read this summary, just to re-familiarize themselves with the story, as the account of Wagner’s use of the source material to follow will presuppose that one is well-acquainted with the events of all four operas. Read more …

Published: June 3, 2013 | Posted in North American New Right | Also tagged articles, Asatru, classical music, Collin Cleary, mythology, North American New Right, opera, originals, Richard Wagner, Ring cycle, Wagner Bicentennial Symposium | Comments closed

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Wagner Bicentennial Symposium
Wagner’s Place in the Germanic Tradition
Part 1: The Origins of Der Ring des Nibelungen

Collin Cleary

5,716 words

Part 1 of 8

1. Introduction

Richard Wagner is the man principally responsible for keeping the Germanic mythological tradition alive in the modern world. Countless individuals have been exposed to that tradition through Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, and it is safe to say that at any given moment somewhere in the world some portion of the Ring is being played or performed. Read more …