In Germanic mythology , Sigmund ( Old Norse : Sigmundr [ˈsiɣˌmundz̠] , Old English : Sigemund ) is a hero whose story is told in the Völsunga saga . He and his sister, Signý , are the children of Völsung and his wife Hljod . Sigmund is best known as the father of Sigurð the dragon-slayer, though Sigurð's tale has almost no connections to the Völsung cycle except that he was a dragonslayer .
54-468: In the Völsunga saga , Signý marries Siggeir , the king of Gautland (modern Västergötland ). Völsung and Sigmund are attending the wedding feast (which lasted for some time before and after the marriage), when Odin , disguised as a beggar, plunges a sword ( Gram ) into the living tree Barnstokk ("offspring-trunk") around which Völsung's hall is built. The disguised Odin announces that the man who can remove
108-578: A blood eagle on Lyngvi's back. Sigurd himself had a son named Sigmund, who was killed when he was three-years-old by a vengeful Brynhild . Sigmund/Siegmund is also the name of Sigurd/Siegfried's father in other versions of the Sigurd story, but without any of the details about his life or family that appear in Norse Völsung tales and poems. On the other hand, the Old English poem Beowulf includes Sigemund
162-469: A dragon , and guards the gold and the ring in the depths of the forest. Wotan has visited Erda seeking wisdom, and by her has fathered a daughter, Brünnhilde; he has fathered eight other daughters, possibly also by Erda. These, with Brünnhilde, are the Valkyries , whose task is to recover heroes fallen in battle and bring them to Valhalla, where they will protect the fortress from Alberich 's assault should
216-565: A circle of fire that will protect her from all but the bravest of heroes. He bids her a loving farewell and lays her sleeping form down on a rock. He then invokes Loge , the demigod of fire, and creates a circle of perpetual fire around her. Before slowly departing, Wotan pronounces that anyone who fears his spear shall never pass through the fire. Wagner's original title for the work was Siegfried und Sieglind: der Walküre Bestrafung ("Siegfried and Sieglinde: The Valkyrie Punished"), but he quickly simplified this to Die Walküre . Prose sketches for
270-413: A dagger, and I ask myself whether this disgraceful act will really go unavenged?". The premiere was attended by leading figures from the musical world, including Liszt , Brahms , Camille Saint-Saëns , and the violinist Joseph Joachim . The reception from audience and critics was much more positive than had been the case a year earlier with Rheingold , although Osborne quotes one dissenting voice, from
324-676: A large dwelling built around a massive ash tree . Unarmed and wounded, he collapses with exhaustion. Sieglinde enters; she gives Siegmund some water and some honeyed mead, and tells him that she is the wife of Hunding, and that he may rest there until Hunding's return. As they talk, they look at each other with growing interest and emotion. Siegmund gets ready to leave, telling Sieglinde that misfortune follows him, and he does not want to bring it on her; she replies that misfortune dwells with her already. Orchestral Interlude Scene 2 Hunding returns and questions Siegmund's presence. Calling himself Wehwalt ("woeful"), Siegmund explains that he grew up in
378-417: A meaningful glance to a particular spot on the tree in which, the firelight reveals, a sword is buried to the hilt. Scene 3 Sieglinde returns, having drugged Hunding's drink. She reveals that she was forced into the marriage and that during their wedding feast, an old man appeared and plunged a sword into the trunk of the ash tree which neither Hunding nor any of his companions have been able to remove. She
432-423: A mortal woman, to be held in defenceless sleep on the mountain, prey to any man who finds her. The other Valkyries protest, but when Wotan threatens them with the same, they flee. Orchestral Interlude Scene 3 In a long discourse with Wotan, Brünnhilde explains that she decided to protect Sieglinde knowing that this was Wotan's true desire. Wotan consents to her request that he surround her resting place with
486-600: A number of changes between his original draft and the final text. For example, in the first sketch, Wotan appeared in person in Act I to drive the sword into the tree. Siegmund withdrew the sword much earlier in the act, and in Act II Hunding was not slain by Wotan, but left alive to follow Wotan's instruction: "Get hence, slave! Bow before Fricka." Apart from some rough sketches, including an early version of what became Siegmund's "Spring Song" in Act I of Die Walküre , Wagner composed
540-447: A prose outline for Siegfried's Death , based on the legendary hero of Germanic myth . During the following months, he developed the outline into a full "poem" or libretto. After his travels to Switzerland in May 1849, Wagner continued to expand his project, having decided that a single work would not suffice for his purposes. He would, therefore, create a series of music dramas, each telling
594-519: A revised version of Tannhäuser . However, King Ludwig of Bavaria , to whom Wagner had sold the copyrights to the Ring works, was insistent that the two completed Ring operas be staged, and over Wagner's bitter protests arranged for them to be performed at the Munich Hofoper , Das Rheingold on 22 September 1869 and Die Walküre on 26 June 1870. The core of Wagner's objection to a Munich performance
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#1732848232135648-515: A specially appointed Festival, I propose, some future time, to produce those three Dramas with their Prelude, in the course of three days and a fore-evening". In accordance with this scheme, Wagner preceded Siegfried's Death (later Götterdämmerung ( The Twilight of the Gods ) with the story of Siegfried's youth, Young Siegfried , later renamed Siegfried . This was, in turn, preceded by Die Walküre ( The Valkyrie ), dealing with Siegfried's origins,
702-428: A stage of the story, basing the narrative on a combination of myth and imagination; Siegfried's Death would provide the culmination. In 1851, he outlined his purposes in his essay "A Communication to My Friends": "I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas, preceded by a lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel)". Each of these dramas would, he said, constitute an independent whole, but would not be performed separately. "At
756-548: A sword is also similar to the Norse god Frey. Siegmund is a character in Richard Wagner 's music drama Die Walkure , part of the larger Ring cycle , which tells the story of an incestuous romance between Siegmund and his sister Sieglinde, who have a son named Siegfried. In this story, Wotan (Odin) breaks Siegmund's sword Nothung with his spear, and Siegfried later reforges the broken sword. The story of Sigmund, beginning with
810-550: A visit in Gautland to see the newlyweds three months later. When the Völsung clan had arrived they were attacked by the Gauts ( Geats ) and king Völsung was killed and his sons captured. Signy beseeched her husband to spare her brothers and to put them in stocks instead of killing them. As Siggeir thought that the brothers deserved to be tortured before they were killed, he agreed. Each night
864-475: A wolf, who may have been Siggeir's mother, devoured one of the brothers, until only Sigmund remained. Signy had a servant smear honey on the face of Sigmund and when the she-wolf arrived she started licking the honey off Sigmund's face. As she licked, she stuck her tongue into Sigmund's mouth, whereupon Sigmund bit her tongue off, killing her. Sigmund then hid in the forests of Gautland and Signy brought him everything he needed. Signy gave Siggeir two sons and when
918-439: A woman named Hjördís . After a short time of peace, Sigmund's lands are attacked by King Lyngi. In battle, Sigmund matches up against an old man who is Odin in disguise. Odin shatters Sigmund's sword, and Sigmund falls at the hands of others. Dying, he tells Hjördís that she is pregnant and that her son will one day make a great weapon out of the fragments of his sword. That son was to be Sigurd , who avenged his father by carving
972-561: Is a conflation of several characters in the sagas, notably Siggeir who is wedded to Signy, and the villainous King Hunding who is Siegmund's mortal enemy in the Poetic Edda. Wotan (Odin) appears in the northern sagas as the god of all life as well as of battles, although he is by no means omnipotent. Fricka (Frigg) has most of the hallmarks of her counterpart in the Poetic and Prose Eddas, as wife of Wotan and goddess of family values. Brünnhilde
1026-538: Is a less central figure in the sagas than she is in the Ring cycle. In an early lay , she is sought as a wife by Gunther, who seeks the help of Siegfried in overcoming her superhuman strength. Certain aspects of her Ring character appear in the Eddas and the Nibelungenlied, such as her encirclement by Wotan in a ring of fire, and her rescue by a hero without fear. The Valkyries have a basis in historical fact, within
1080-497: Is heard; he arrives and attacks Siegmund. Under Brünnhilde's power, Siegmund begins to overpower Hunding, but Wotan appears and shatters Siegmund's sword with his spear. Hunding stabs Siegmund to death. Brünnhilde gathers up the fragments of the sword and flees on horseback with Sieglinde. Contemptuously, Wotan kills Hunding with a simple wave of hand, and sets out in pursuit of Brünnhilde, vowing to punish her harshly for her disobedience. Prelude to Act 3 - Walkürenritt ( The Ride of
1134-427: Is killed and his sons captured. Signý beseeches her husband to spare her brothers and to put them in stocks instead of killing them. As Siggeir thinks that the brothers deserve to be tortured before they are killed, he agrees. He then lets his shapeshifting mother turn into a wolf and devour one of the brothers each night. During that time, Signý tries various ruses but fails every time until only Sigmund remains. On
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#17328482321351188-487: Is longing for the hero who will draw the sword and save her. When Siegmund expresses his love for her, she reciprocates, and when he speaks the name of his father, Wälse , she recognises him as Siegmund, and realises that the sword was left for him. Siegmund then draws the sword from the tree. She reveals herself as Sieglinde, his twin sister. Siegmund names the sword " Nothung " and declares that it will be her protection. The two sing of their passionate love for each other, as
1242-622: Is the second of the four epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner 's Der Ring des Nibelungen (English: The Ring of the Nibelung ). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on 26 June 1870, and received its first performance as part of the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 14 August 1876. As the Ring cycle was conceived by Wagner in reverse order of performance, Die Walküre
1296-453: The Völsunga saga . In Skáldskaparmál he is given as a Sikling and a relative of Sigar who killed the hero Hagbard . Hversu Noregr byggðist specifies that the last Sigar was Siggeir's nephew. According to the Völsunga saga , Siggeir married Signy , the sister of Sigmund and the daughter of King Völsung . Although Völsung agreed to the marriage, Signy herself was unwilling. At
1350-559: The Ring music in its proper sequence. Having completed the music for Das Rheingold in May 1854, he began composing Die Walküre in June, and finished the full orchestral score nearly two years later, in March 1856. This extended period is explained by several concurrent events and distractions, including Wagner's burgeoning friendship with Mathilde Wesendonck , and a lengthy concert tour in London at
1404-633: The Völsunga saga , the Poetic Edda , the Prose Edda , the Nibelungenlied and other fragments of Teutonic literature. From this plethora of material he selected particular elements and transformed them, to create his own narrative through the compression of events, the rearrangement of chronology and the fusion of characters. For example, in the Völsunga saga Siegmund is not Wotan's son, although he arranges
1458-481: The Valkyries ) Scene 1 The Valkyries congregate on the mountain-top, each carrying a dead hero and chattering excitedly. Brünnhilde arrives with Sieglinde, and begs her sisters for help, but they dare not defy Wotan. Sieglinde tells Brünnhilde that without Siegmund she no longer wishes to live. Brünnhilde tells Sieglinde that she is pregnant by Siegmund, and urges her to remain alive for her child's sake, and to name
1512-568: The Volsung twins Sieglinde and Siegmund , separated in childhood, meet and fall in love. This union angers the gods, who demand that Siegmund must die. Sieglinde and the couple's unborn child are saved by the defiant actions of Wotan 's daughter, the title character, Valkyrie Brünnhilde , who as a result faces the gods' retribution. Structure of the Ring cycle Wagner began work on what became his Ring project in October 1848, when he prepared
1566-544: The Wælsing and his nephew Fitela in a tale of dragon slaying told within the main story. Herein the story of Sigemund is told to Beowulf, a warrior also from Gautland . Parallels to Sigmund's pulling the sword from the tree can be found in other mythologies (notably in the Arthurian legends). Also, Sinfjötli and Mordred share the characteristic of being nephew and son to the main characters. The gaining of mythical powers through
1620-435: The act ends. Prelude to Act 2 Scene 1 On a high mountain ridge, Wotan instructs Brünnhilde, his Valkyrie daughter, to protect Siegmund in his forthcoming battle with Hunding. Fricka arrives, and in her role as goddess of family values demands that Siegmund and Sieglinde be punished for their adultery and incest. She scorns Wotan's argument that he requires Siegmund as a "free hero", who can further his plans to recover
1674-473: The banquet Odin appears in disguise wearing a cape and a hood and sticks a sword in the tree Branstock. Then he said that whoever managed to pull the sword out could keep it. Siggeir and everyone else tried but only Sigmund succeeded. Siggeir generously offered three times the sword's value, but Sigmund mockingly refused. Siggeir was offended and went home the next day thinking of revenge. Siggeir invites Sigmund, his father Völsung and Sigmund's nine brothers to
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1728-686: The basis of the famous Ride of the Valkyries that opens Act III. Wagner wrote the concert version of the Ride in 1862, for performance in concerts at Vienna and Leipzig. As with Das Rheingold , many years elapsed between the completion of the Die Walküre score and its first performance. Seeing little chance of the Ring project coming to any immediate fruition, and in need of money, in August 1857 Wagner abandoned work on it and concentrated instead on Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , and on
1782-402: The child Siegfried . Brünnhilde gives the fragments of the sword Nothung to Sieglinde, who thanks her for her loyalty and comfort, and resolves to save the child. As she departs, Wotan is heard approaching with great wrath. Scene 2 When Wotan arrives, the Valkyries vainly try to hide Brünnhilde. He faces her and declares her punishment: she is to be stripped of her Valkyrie status and become
1836-514: The context of the completed cycle, but the 1870 Munich premiere was arranged at the insistence of his patron, King Ludwig II of Bavaria . Die Walküre has achieved some popularity as a stand-alone work and continues to be performed independently from its role in the tetralogy. The story of Die Walküre is based on the Norse mythology told in the Völsunga saga and the Poetic Edda . In this version,
1890-515: The critic of the Süddeutsche Presse . Having described the first act as "for the most part, drearily long-winded", this critic thought that the second act dragged and came to life only occasionally. He went on: "The third act begins so deafeningly that total stupor would be ensured even if the rest were less long-winded ... The overall effect of the music is not agreeable...". Cosima kept all communications from Munich away from Wagner, and tore up
1944-526: The dwarf recover the ring. Wotan has also wandered the earth, and with a woman of the Völsung race has fathered the twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, who have grown up separately and unaware of each other. From the Völsungs Wotan hopes for a hero who, unencumbered by the gods' treaties, will obtain the ring from Fafner. Prelude to Act I Scene 1 As a large storm rages, Siegmund finds shelter from his enemies in
1998-512: The first two acts were prepared in November 1851, and for the third act early in the following year. These sketches were expanded to a more detailed prose plan in May 1852, and the full libretto was written in June 1852. It was privately printed, with the other Ring libretti, in February 1853. Wagner constructed his Die Walküre libretto from a range of ancient Norse and Germanic sources, principally
2052-435: The forest with his parents and twin sister. One day he found their home burned down, his mother killed and his sister gone. Recently he fought with the relatives of a girl being forced into marriage. His weapons were destroyed, the bride was killed, and he was forced to flee. Hunding reveals that he is kin to one of Siegmund's pursuers; Siegmund may stay, he says, but they must fight in the morning. Before leaving, Sieglinde gives
2106-590: The invitation of the Royal Philharmonic Society , when he conducted a full season amid some controversy, although his own Tannhäuser overture was well received. The system of leitmotifs , integral to the Opera and Drama principles, is used to the full in Die Walküre ; Holman numbers 36 such motifs that are introduced in the work. The well-known "Valkyrie" motif, used to introduce Brünnhilde in Act II, forms
2160-422: The latter's conception by a Völsung woman. Sigurd (Siegfried) is not the child of Siegmund's incestuous marriage to his sister, but of a later wife who preserves the sword fragments. Likewise, in the sagas Sieglinde is a somewhat different character, Signy; she is Siegmund's twin sister, but the son she bears him is not Siegfried, and the manner of her death is quite different from that depicted by Wagner. Hunding
2214-460: The marriage of Signy to Siggeir and ending with Sigmund's vengeance on Siggeir, was retold in the novelette "Vengeance" by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur , which appeared in the magazine Adventure , June 30, 1925. Brodeur was a professor at Berkeley and became well known for his scholarship on Beowulf and Norse sagas. Siggeir Siggeir is the king of Gautland (i.e. Götaland /Geatland, but in some translations also rendered as Gothland ), in
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2268-433: The men and putting on the wolf skins, they are cursed with a type of lycanthropy . Eventually, they avenge the death of Völsung. After Signý dies, Sigmund and Sinfjötli go harrying together. Sigmund marries a woman named Borghild and has two sons, one of them named Helgi . Sinfjötli slays Borghild's brother while vying for a woman they both want. Borghild avenges her brother by poisoning Sinfjötli. Later, Sigmund marries
2322-512: The more critical newspaper reviews. After a second performance, Die Walküre was performed at the Hofoper three further times, alternating with Das Rheingold in a Ring semi-cycle. King Ludwig, who was absent from the premiere, attended one of the later performances. The Munich festival had taken place amid a mounting war fever, as relations between France and the German states rapidly deteriorated;
2376-403: The ninth night, she has a servant smear honey on Sigmund's face and when the she-wolf arrives, she starts licking the honey off and sticks her tongue into Sigmund's mouth, whereupon Sigmund bites her tongue off, killing her. Sigmund then escapes his bonds and hides in the forest. Signý brings Sigmund everything he needs. Bent on revenge for their father's death, she also sends her sons to him in
2430-595: The oldest one was ten years old, she sent him to Sigmund to train him to avenge the Völsungs. The boy did not stand a test of courage so Signy asked Sigmund to kill her worthless son. The same thing happened to Siggeir's second son. Signy came to Sigmund in the guise of a witch and she and her brother committed incest and had the son Sinfjotli . After some adventures Sigmund and Sinfjotli killed Siggeir. Die Walkure Die Walküre ( German pronunciation: [diː valˈkyːʁə] ; The Valkyrie ), WWV 86B ,
2484-585: The primitive Teutonic war-cult. According to Cooke, originally they were "grisly old women who officiated at the sacrificial rites when prisoners were put to death." They became entwined in legend: in the Poetic Edda they emerge as supernatural warrior maidens carrying out Odin's orders as to who should die. In the Poetic Edda the Valkyries are given names: Skuld, Skogul, Gunn, Hild, Gondul and Geirskogul. Some of these names differ in other sources. The names that Wagner gave to his Valkyries were his own invention, apart from Brünnhilde and Siegrune. Wagner effected
2538-413: The ring from Fafner, uninhibited by Wotan's contracts. She retorts that Siegmund is not free but is Wotan's pawn, whose every move the god seeks to direct. Defeated by Fricka's argument, Wotan reluctantly agrees that he will not protect Siegmund. Scene 2 After Fricka leaves, the troubled Wotan gives Brünnhilde the full story, and with great sorrow rescinds his earlier instruction; he orders her to give
2592-401: The sword will have it as a gift. Only Sigmund is able to free the sword from the tree. Siggeir is smitten with envy and desire for the sword. He tries to buy it but Sigmund refuses. Siggeir invites Sigmund, his father Völsung and Sigmund's nine brothers to visit him in Gautland to see the newlyweds three months later. When the Völsung clan arrive, they are attacked by the Gauts; King Völsung
2646-780: The victory to Hunding and then departs. Orchestral Interlude Scene 3 Siegmund and Sieglinde are running away from Hunding but are forced to stop. With a vision of Hunding's dogs scratching Siegmund's face Sieglinde faints, consumed with guilt and exhaustion. Orchestral Interlude Scene 4 Brünnhilde suddenly appears to Siegmund and tells him of his impending death; he refuses to follow Brünnhilde to Valhalla when she tells him Sieglinde cannot accompany him. Siegmund still believes that his father's sword will assure him of victory over Hunding, but Brünnhilde tells him it has lost its power. Siegmund threatens to kill both Sieglinde and himself. Much moved, Brünnhilde decides to defy her father and grant victory to Siegmund. Scene 5 Hunding's horn
2700-458: The whole tetralogy being fronted by a prologue, Das Rheingold . Because Wagner prepared his texts in reverse chronological sequence, Die Walküre was the third of the dramas to be conceived and written, but appears second in the tetralogy. During the lengthy time that has passed since the gods entered Valhalla at the end of Das Rheingold , Fafner has used the Tarnhelm to assume the form of
2754-548: The wilderness, one by one, to be tested. As each fails, she urges Sigmund to kill them, until one day when he refuses to continue killing innocent children. Finally, in despair, she comes to him in the guise of a völva and conceives a child by him, Sinfjötli (named Fitela in Beowulf ). Sinfjötli, born of their incest , passes the test. Sigmund and his son/nephew, Sinfjötli, grow wealthy as outlaws . In their wanderings, they come upon men sleeping in cursed wolf skins. Upon killing
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#17328482321352808-486: The work, using a system of recurring leitmotifs to represent people, ideas, and situations rather than the conventional operatic units of arias, ensembles, and choruses. Wagner showed flexibility in the application of these principles here, particularly in Act III, when the Valkyries engage in frequent ensemble singing. As with Das Rheingold , Wagner wished to defer any performance of the new work until it could be shown in
2862-545: Was his relationship with the married Cosima von Bülow , with whom he was cohabiting in Switzerland; he could not return to Munich without provoking scandal, and therefore could not directly control the performances. As the date for the Die Walküre premiere approached, Wagner grew more distressed and sullen; a letter from the critic Franz Müller reporting that everything was going well did nothing to console him. Cosima wrote in her diary that his distress "pierces my heart like
2916-412: Was the third of the four texts to be written, although Wagner composed the music in performance sequence. The text was completed by July 1852, and the music by March 1856. Wagner largely followed the principles related to the form of musical drama, which he had set out in his 1851 essay Opera and Drama under which the music would interpret the text emotionally, reflecting the feelings and moods behind
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