tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188095128035151601.post380646658913551223..comments2024-03-19T00:28:50.450-07:00Comments on Necropolis Now: Norse Gods in the Antipodes: Wagner’s Ring Cycle in MelbourneCaroline Tullyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18295336008587199702noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188095128035151601.post-89343481961466706372013-12-13T22:40:33.049-08:002013-12-13T22:40:33.049-08:00Want to appreciate Wagner whilst on a delightful h...Want to appreciate Wagner whilst on a delightful holiday in Iceland? See here:<br /><br />http://wagnermelb.org.au/xoops/RING%20Expedition%20Iceland%202014.pdfCaroline Tullyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18295336008587199702noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188095128035151601.post-7036126511846766862013-12-03T00:06:40.724-08:002013-12-03T00:06:40.724-08:00Thank you for mentioning that Tolkien's remark...Thank you for mentioning that Tolkien's remark is "debatable." While he detested what Wagner had done with Norse mythology (Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were in standing room together at a complete Covent Garden "Ring" in the 1930s), he certainly got the idea for a "Ring of Power" from Wagner, who made it up. There is no Ring of Power in any of the Norse sagas or eddas. (There is a Ring that attracts gold; it is stolen, by Loki, from a dwarf who puts a curse on it. The gold is indeed cursed, and the dwarf indeed gets it back.) <br /><br />Wagner was so extraordinarily influential in the half century after his death that no one could be cultured and not know his works and themes and methods. Tolkien, who read all the source material, certainly knew Wagner's mythos, and when he was trying to create a MacGuffin for his sequel to "The Hobbit," realized the Ring that Bilbo had found must be it. And the Wagnerian doom fell upon the trophy, deny it as he might.<br /><br />His Gandalf may or may not owe something or other to the Wanderer in Siegfried. Fafnir is far too dumb and brutish to be Tolkien's witty Smaug. Rupert of Hentzauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04388450700003738827noreply@blogger.com