Top Document: [humanities.music.composers.wagner] Wagner General FAQ Previous Document: K. What about Wagner's women? Next Document: M. Which recording of the 'Ring'/ 'Dutchman'/ 'Lohengrin'/ 'Tristan' See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Mrs. Wälse is not named. Fricka refers to the mother of Siegmund and Sieglinde as a she-wolf: "jetzt dem Wurfe der Wölfin wirfst du zu Füssen dein Weib?" (W-2-ii). Here Wagner is mixing his main Siegmund source, the Volsungasaga, with the story of the Wölfings. (Siegmund to Hunding: "Ein Wölfing kündet dir das, den als Wölfing mancher wohl kennt", W-1-ii). The main sources for this clan were the Saga of Dietrich von Bern (Thidhrekssaga af Bern) and the Hugdietrich-Wolfdietrich poems. Returning to 'Volsungasaga', however, we read that Sigmund and his sister were twins, among the children (ten boys, of whom Sigmund was the eldest, and one daughter, Signy) of Volsung and his wife, Hljód. Interestingly, Hjlód was not a "mortal woman", but the daughter of Hrimnir the giant. It is possible that Hjlód was the daughter of Hrimnir who was described as one of Odin's wishmaidens, earlier in the saga. Volsung is the third of his line, his grandfather Sigi being "reportedly" the son of Odin. So both Sigmund's mother and father had connections with Odin. But that's all in one of Wagner's sources for the 'Ring', not in the 'Ring' poems themselves. Strictly speaking, Mrs. Wälse does not have a name. If you want to give her a name, then Hljód (huh-l-yöd) is as good as any. This Old Norse name translates as "howling", which seems singularly appropriate for a she-wolf! User Contributions:Top Document: [humanities.music.composers.wagner] Wagner General FAQ Previous Document: K. What about Wagner's women? Next Document: M. Which recording of the 'Ring'/ 'Dutchman'/ 'Lohengrin'/ 'Tristan' Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: mimirswell@hotmail.com (Derrick Everett)
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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