He Scars of Yggdrasill

The purpose of this paper is to explore the conflict between power, politics and family relationships in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Selected familial relationships between characters will be analyzed using various method , including Jungian analysis, comparative mythology and musical analysis. The project will attempt to show that intepretations of the Ring have not given enough attention to the tension and paradoxes inherent in family relationships in Wagner's tetralogy and will provide for a more human understanding of the cycle.