on with our Yuletide story...
So, I needed to get my hands on a recording of the Ring. I went to Amazon to research my options, and discovered that Wagner fans are an opinionated lot *g*. There are many choices, and many lengthy, passionate reviews written for each one, and even arguments in the comment threads of the reviews. I ended up going with Clemens Krauss conducting the Bayreuth festival, sometime in the 1950s. What sold me on this one was (a) the price, since I got it new for $38 (14 CDs!!), and (b) even its detractors acknowledge that the performances of the singers are for the most part phenomenal. The criticisms center on the orchestra and the sound quality.
For my own part, I was quite satisfied with this purchase. What I wanted was to really *feel* the characters, and I definitely felt them here. I wanted passionate, committed performances, not pristine audio quality, and that's what I got.
While waiting for my CDs to arrive, I started doing background research. My recipient, mithrigil, gave me the prompt "The courtship of the earth itself", referring to Wotan's liaison with Erda. As I reviewed Norse and Germanic mythology, I discovered that Wagner had actually done a lot of work to the source material in creating the character of Erda. In Norse mythology, a giantess named Jörð (whose name means "earth") is Thor's mother (and Odin is his father). However, only this bare fact survives -- there is no further information about her. Wagner combined this sketchy reference to a female personification of Earth with the unnamed seeress of the Völuspá, who describes for Odin the fate of the world, including the fall of the gods. He makes this character into the mother of the Norns, as well as the mother of Brünnhilde.
I saw some interesting speculation that Wagner's ideas about Erda might have been shaped by the two years that he spent in Riga early in his career, where he would have encountered folk beliefs about Laima, the Latvian goddess of earth, birth, and fate, on an almost daily basis. So I felt free to jump all over that, as you can imagine *g*. I incorporated some favorite symbols of Laima (like the snake, linden, and bear) into the story.
I had an idea for a series of encounters between Erda and Wotan over the ages, and it lined up with what I remembered of the operas as well as what I read in the summaries I found online. So I started writing away merrily, and listening to my CDs when they arrived, and only occasionally checking in with a full libretto to make sure that I got all the details of what they were singing. That was how I ran smack into the passage in Die Walküre where Odin tells Brünnhilde the truth of her parentage, and his version of the circumstances of her birth were *nothing* like what I had envisioned.
So it was back to the drawing board for me. But in the end, I think the story ended up the better for it. Wotan believes that he enchanted Erda and got what he wanted from her, but I contend that Erda knew exactly what was going on, and had her own reasons for playing along.
ETA: Oh, also!
jae's got an interesting discussion going about writing fic in a language other than the source's language, and I commented about some of my stylistic choices there.
This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/388217.html.
comments on that entry. Please comment there using OpenID.
For my own part, I was quite satisfied with this purchase. What I wanted was to really *feel* the characters, and I definitely felt them here. I wanted passionate, committed performances, not pristine audio quality, and that's what I got.
While waiting for my CDs to arrive, I started doing background research. My recipient, mithrigil, gave me the prompt "The courtship of the earth itself", referring to Wotan's liaison with Erda. As I reviewed Norse and Germanic mythology, I discovered that Wagner had actually done a lot of work to the source material in creating the character of Erda. In Norse mythology, a giantess named Jörð (whose name means "earth") is Thor's mother (and Odin is his father). However, only this bare fact survives -- there is no further information about her. Wagner combined this sketchy reference to a female personification of Earth with the unnamed seeress of the Völuspá, who describes for Odin the fate of the world, including the fall of the gods. He makes this character into the mother of the Norns, as well as the mother of Brünnhilde.
I saw some interesting speculation that Wagner's ideas about Erda might have been shaped by the two years that he spent in Riga early in his career, where he would have encountered folk beliefs about Laima, the Latvian goddess of earth, birth, and fate, on an almost daily basis. So I felt free to jump all over that, as you can imagine *g*. I incorporated some favorite symbols of Laima (like the snake, linden, and bear) into the story.
I had an idea for a series of encounters between Erda and Wotan over the ages, and it lined up with what I remembered of the operas as well as what I read in the summaries I found online. So I started writing away merrily, and listening to my CDs when they arrived, and only occasionally checking in with a full libretto to make sure that I got all the details of what they were singing. That was how I ran smack into the passage in Die Walküre where Odin tells Brünnhilde the truth of her parentage, and his version of the circumstances of her birth were *nothing* like what I had envisioned.
So it was back to the drawing board for me. But in the end, I think the story ended up the better for it. Wotan believes that he enchanted Erda and got what he wanted from her, but I contend that Erda knew exactly what was going on, and had her own reasons for playing along.
ETA: Oh, also!
jae's got an interesting discussion going about writing fic in a language other than the source's language, and I commented about some of my stylistic choices there.
This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/388217.html.
comments on that entry. Please comment there using OpenID.