Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a translation of a revised version. edited by Anthony Faulkes. of Arm Bjornsson''s Wagner og Valsungar, published in Icelandic in 2000. In it the sources Wagner used in compiling the libretti of his great work. Der king des Nibelungen, are detailed scene by scene through all four operas of the cycle. Many will be surprised to learn that no more than 5% of his material is derived solely from medieval German hooks such as Das Nibelungenlied. while at least 80% is from Old Icelandic writings: the Prose Edda, Eddic poems. and various sagas. The concept of Gotterdämmerung, for example, in which the world is consumed by fire, as well as the flickering flame surrounding Brünnhilde''s mountain fastness, were known to Wagner from Icelandic sources alone, since they do not appear in any German text, and may well have been inspired originally by the volcanic eruptions that occur so frequently in Iceland. About 15% of Wagner''s literary motifs in the Ring are common to both German
