SOURCE: Zegans, Leonard S. “Richard Wagner's Cosmology: Self-Deception, Self-Realization, and the Destruction of Nature.” In The Threat to the Cosmic Order: Psychological, Social, and Health Implications of Richard Wagner's ‘Ring of the Nibelung,’ edited by Peter Ostwald and Leonard S. Zegans, pp. 1-9. Madison, Conn.: International Universities Press, Inc., 1997.

In the following essay, Zegans explores the essentially Romantic cosmology of Wagner's Ring, which he argues emphasizes the struggle between human will and the natural order.

Audiences arrive at a performance of The Ring with a special sense of anticipation. Most attend not only to hear some gripping dramatic scenes or to pass judgment over a new, heralded tenor, but to place themselves under the spell of a brilliant story-teller and musical enchanter. The child in us is still enthralled by the idea of dragons, giants, and helmeted women carrying the bodies of heroes slung across their horses. Yet...