Russell's Ring, Volume 1

[sawyl]

In the best tradition of the BBC, who used to broadcast the Ring Cycle at the rate of one act a week, I've been slowly making my way through volume one of P. Craig Russell's The Ring of the Nibelung. Here's a quick — ha! — overview:

The Rhinegold begins beneath the waters of the Rhine, Alberich the Nibelung is trying to flirt with the three Rhinemaidens. As they tease him, they let slip the secret of the Rhinegold — that anyone who renounces love can forge it into a ring that will rule the world — before rebuffing his advances. Alberich, furious at being spurned, curses love, steals the gold and slopes off to Nibelheim.

In the world above, the giant brothers Fafnir and Fasolte are putting the final touches to Valhalla, the fortress of the gods. Votan has offered to give them Freia, his wife's sister, in payment for their labours but he is secretly relying on the wily Loge to find a loophole in the contract. Loge is able to persuade the giants to accept Alberich's gold in place of Freia, but the giants decide to take her hostage while the gods go and steal the gold.

Deep beneath the earth, Votan and Loge find Alberich using the power of the ring to force the dwarfs to create more treasure for him. After Loge tricks Alberich into using the tarnhelm to transform himself into a toad, the gods steal the treasure and Votan takes possession of the ring. Livid, the dwarf curses the ring, telling Votan that all who see it will plot to possess it, that it will bring no happiness to its wielder but instead will kill them.

The giants, impatient for their reward, demand that the gods hand over the Nibelung treasure, including the tarnhelm and the ring. Votan is about to refuse when an intervention from Erde causes him to change his mind and surrender the ring. As they start to distribute the treasure, the giants quarrel and Fafnir kills his brother — the first victim of Alberich's curse. The Rhinegold ends with the gods entering Vahalla for the first time.

The Valkyrie finds Siegmund exhausted, alone, unarmed and seeking shelter from a storm. Coming across a hut built around an ash tree, he enters an is greeted by Sieglinde who gives him mead and tells him to wait for the return of her husband, Hunding. Upon his return, Hunding reluctantly grants Seigmund sanctuary for the night.

At Sieglinde's prompting, Siegmund tells his story. After the death of his mother and the abduction of his sister, he and his father became outlaws, but became separated whilst chasing through a wood. On learning of his guest's outlaw past, Hunding tells Siegmund that although he has sanctuary for the night, they will fight to the death next morning and, accepting a drugged drink from Sieglinde, he goes to sleep. Siegfried arms himself with the sword Nothung, which had been embedded in the ash tree to await his coming, and elopes with Sieglinde, who he now realises is his sister.

Standing on a high rock, Votan calls his favourite daughter, Brunhilde, and commands her to ensure that Siegmund is victorious in his dual with Hunding. Fricka, Votan's long suffering wife, arrives and demands that Siegmund and Sieglinde pay for their adultery and incest. She rubs Votan's face in his own infidelities, complaining about his daughters, the valkyries, and his son, Siegmund. Votan reluctantly realises that he has no choice and gives in to Fricka's demands.

In an attempt to justify his new orders to Brunhilde, Votan describes the events of The Rhinegold. He explains that Fafnir has the ring, but because of his treaties, he cannot act against the giant. His only hope for escape is the creation of a hero who is not his subject — an apparently impossible thing. After meeting Siegmund in the forest, Brunhilde decides to ignore her father's orders and help the Valsung win his battle, but just as Siegmund appears to be winning, Votan intervenes and shatters Nothung with his sword. Siegmund falls to the ground dying, while Brunhilde carries off the pregnant Sieglinde and the shards of the broken sword.

Votan is furious at his daughter's betrayal, even though she was simply obeying the wishes of his heart. He strips her of her godhood and tells her that she will be bound in magical sleep, to be woken by the first man who finds her. Brunhilde is appalled by her disgrace and begs her father for a favour: to ensure that she can only be wakened by a great hero. Votan agrees, summoning Loge to encircle her sleeping form in fire, before departing in sadness.

Russell's version of Wagner's Ring cycle completely amazing and really seems to capture the spirit of the operas. The text is a translation from the German of Wagner's libretto, so the action follows the plot of the original very precisely, while the images capture all the bizarre contradictions of the original staging — the Rhinemaidens playing beneath the surface of the river, Alberich becoming a dragon and the valkyries carrying the warrior dead into Valhalla. The art even manages to transmute the Wagnerian leitmotivs into comic book form: by repeating a series of images, gradually increasing the detail, Russell is able to evoke the motiv of Nothung, of the ring or of another significant element in the story.

All in all, a work of sublime brilliance. I'm really looking forward to reading the second volume.