Wotan is the god of storms, rage, vengeance, oaths and war:
The oaths sworn by men are etched into his spear, the symbol of his might and authority over man.
In order to enlarge the army protecting the castle of the gods, Valhalla, with all men bound by tribal oaths, he manipulates the strings of the bondage that holds man the slave to a destiny woven for him by the gods, and deceitfully sets tribe against tribe in brutal warfare. Only the souls of the bravest warriors that die on the battlefield (the German word Schlachtenfeld means "slaughter field") are taken up to heaven to join the army guarding Valhalla:
You may wonder how this has much to do with our own time. However, in place of "oaths", we today have "laws" that bind people, "contracts" binding corporations, and "treaties" binding nations. These are the modern "oaths" that enchain us to Lord Wotan. Corporations wage war using aggressive takeover tactics, and seek vengeance through litigation alleging breaches in the law and contracts. Courts are used as bitter battlefields between man and woman fighting for legal custody over children.
Here is what Hermann Göring had to say about the manipulation of public opinion into going into war:
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country
If you remember how George Bush II set the world on the path to war in Iraq, he cried out that the basic oaths of humanity had been broken in an attack on the World Trade Centre. He cried vengeance in the name of his God, which, were he honest, he would have revealed as Wotan—God of rage, vengeance, storms and war. With a story about hidden "WMDs" he manipulated public opinion into going to war to settle an old score his father had left unfinished after Operation Desert Storm. What vengeance he wrought upon this enemy who had swore oaths to their God, and had chosen to die to wreak vengeance against America for past scores. His enemies mistakenly think that the name of this God is Allah, but in truth His real name is Wotan. These wrathful Martyrs of Wotan chose to die in return for the promise to be taken up to the castle of the gods to be attended by the maidens there. Each side swears vengeance in the name of Wotan—the true name of the Abrahamic God—while the Valkyries start to gather over the "perfect storm" that ensues.
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| Wotan lives! |
Through manipulation and twisting of public opinion, the ancient God of rage, vengeance, storms and war rules the world. They call this god by different names, some claim he begat a son, other call him Allah, but either way the true name of the religious devotee's God is Wotan.
As Göring says, the common man is dragged into it, little more than a petty pawn to be sacrificed in a game played by gods. Or in the words of Shakespeare's Gloucester:
As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods,
They kill us for their sport.
King Lear Act 4, scene 1, 32–37
In this world, whose cruel destiny is woven by the gods, man is but an insect and plaything of the gods—and above all the God of hatred and war.
There is yet another parallel to our own world. If the blind lust for power and craving to possess the Rheingold that confers its owner absolute power over the world, is the destructive motivator of all fateful events in the world of the Nibelungs, in ours it is often a a lust for that black gold called oil, and maintenance of geopolitical influence over oil producing regions. The blind lust produces the lies, and manipulations that sets the world on a course to war.
As Hans Sachs says in another Wagner work - Wahn! Wahn! Ueberall Wahn! Madness, madness everywhere! The insane world we live in is ruled over by a blind and maddening lust for power and wealth. In this massive international power game we are all but little pawns of destiny and of the gods.
With that you see just how much the world of the Ring is but a perfect allegory of our world today. It is not a faraway fairy fantasy world but an all too real, too brutal, primitive and dark world ruled over the God of hatred and war. And it matters little if the political backdrop is that Wagner's own day was that leading up to the Franco-Prussian war, and the rise of Prussian Realpolitik:
John Tenniel, Franco-Prussian War
(Punch Magazine, 1870)
(Punch Magazine, 1870)
After all the Franco-Prussian War set the stage for the political tensions that lead to WWI - the Schlachtenfeld of millions:
Equally important is that this is also a loveless world in which women are traded like cattle into the bonds of matrimony as virtual slaves. Indeed, the goddess of marriage is the wife of the god of war. There is not even an afterlife for women, for only men who die bravely on the battlefield have a place in heaven. This is a brutal, patriarchal order in which women count for even less than the common man, who is already little more than an insect-like plaything of the gods and of destiny. Yes, Wagner was aware of such issues for he was sympathetic to the new women's movement with its roots in his time—and that is why stark depiction of patriarchal brutality towards women is such a powerful part of the world of the Ring.
Equally important is that this is also a loveless world in which women are traded like cattle into the bonds of matrimony as virtual slaves. Indeed, the goddess of marriage is the wife of the god of war. There is not even an afterlife for women, for only men who die bravely on the battlefield have a place in heaven. This is a brutal, patriarchal order in which women count for even less than the common man, who is already little more than an insect-like plaything of the gods and of destiny. Yes, Wagner was aware of such issues for he was sympathetic to the new women's movement with its roots in his time—and that is why stark depiction of patriarchal brutality towards women is such a powerful part of the world of the Ring.
This is indeed a dark and pessimistic view of our world. Yet that is the world of the Ring. It is the world described by the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, to whom Wagner dedicated the written text of the Ring, in which man is driven by an unconscious Blind Will (der blinde Wille). If you understand this, you will understand the Ring.
However, what you must also understand is that the Ring asks the questions of how there can be salvation from this madness (Wahn). For far from celebrating savage war and the blind rage of Wotan, Wagner was politically a pacifist just as he was a proto-feminist, and a vegetarian anti-vivisectionist who read the Buddhist influenced philosophy of Schopenhauer, which is a synthesis of Platonism, Buddhism and the idealism of Kant. For the basic tenets of the philosophy of Buddhism is that the most basic fact of existence is that of suffering, and that the root of this suffering is desire—die blinde Wille—the blind rage of the primal Will.
Wotan lives!
Further reading:
Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation
Wotan—the Wandering Jew—and his Untergang
However, what you must also understand is that the Ring asks the questions of how there can be salvation from this madness (Wahn). For far from celebrating savage war and the blind rage of Wotan, Wagner was politically a pacifist just as he was a proto-feminist, and a vegetarian anti-vivisectionist who read the Buddhist influenced philosophy of Schopenhauer, which is a synthesis of Platonism, Buddhism and the idealism of Kant. For the basic tenets of the philosophy of Buddhism is that the most basic fact of existence is that of suffering, and that the root of this suffering is desire—die blinde Wille—the blind rage of the primal Will.
Wotan lives!
Further reading:
Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation
Wotan—the Wandering Jew—and his Untergang
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