Rhinemaidens
The Rhinemaidens are the three nixies sisters who appear in Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Their individual names are Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde, although they are generally treated as a single entity and they act together accordingly. Of the 34 characters in the Ring cycle, they are the only ones who did not originate in the Old Norse Eddas. Wagner created his Rhinemaidens from other legends and myths, most notably the Nibelungenlied which contains stories involving water sprites or mermaids of the Danube.
The key concepts associated with the Rhinemaidens in the Ring operas—their flawed guardianship of the Rhine gold, and the condition through which the gold could be stolen from them and then transformed into a means of obtaining world power—are wholly Wagner's own invention, and are the elements that initiate and propel the entire drama.
The Rhinemaidens are the first and the last characters seen in the four-opera cycle, appearing both in the opening scene of Das Rheingold, and in the final climactic spectacle of Götterdämmerung, when they rise from the Rhine waters to reclaim the ring from Brünnhilde's ashes. They have been described as morally innocent, yet they display a range of sophisticated emotions, including some that are far from guileless. Seductive and elusive, they have no relationship to any of the other characters, and no indication is given as to how they came into existence, beyond occasional references to an unspecified "father".
The various musical themes associated with the Rhinemaidens are regarded as among the most lyrical in the entire Ring cycle, bringing to it rare instances of comparative relaxation and charm. The music contains important melodies and phrases which are reprised and developed elsewhere in the operas to characterise other individuals and circumstances, and to relate plot developments to the source of the narrative. It is reported that Wagner played the Rhinemaidens' lament at the piano, on the night before he died in Venice, in 1883.
Origins
Alone of the Ring's characters, the Rhinemaidens do not originate from the Poetic Edda or Prose Edda, the Icelandic sources for most of Norse mythology. Water-sprites appear in many European myths and legends, often but not invariably in a form of disguised malevolence. Wagner drew widely and loosely from those legends when compiling his Ring narrative, and the probable origin of his Rhinemaidens is in the German Nibelungenlied. In one part of the Nibelungenlied narrative Hagen and Gunther encounter certain mermaids or water sprites bathing themselves in the waters of the Danube. Hagen steals their clothes, and seeking their return, the mermaid called Hadeburg gives false prophecy that Hagen and Gunther will find honor and glory when they enter Etzel's kingdom. But afterwards another mermaid, Sigelinde, tells Hagen her aunt has lied. If they go to Etzel's land, they will die there.The placement of this scene has several possibilities, but according to Þiðrekssaga, it occurred at the confluence of the Danube and the Rhine. Möringen, where the doomed warriors subsequently ferried across may be Möhringen an der Donau, although Großmehring which is much further east has also been suggested.
This story, itself unrelated to the Ring drama, is echoed by Wagner both in the opening Das Rheingold scene and in the first scene in Act III of Götterdämmerung. Wagner first adapted the story for use in his early libretto of Siegfried's Death, introducing three unnamed water-maids, and locating them in the Rhine, where they warn Siegfried of his impending death. Later these water-maids became Rhinemaidens, and were given individual names: Flosshilde, Wellgunde, and Bronnlinde. As Wagner continued working on his reverse chronology from Siegfried's death, he arrived at what he determined was the initial act of the drama—Alberich's theft of the Rhine gold. Believing that a simple abduction of the unguarded gold would lack dramatic force, Wagner made the Rhinemaidens the guardians of the gold, and he introduced the "renunciation of love" condition. Bronnlinde became Woglinde, probably to avoid confusion with Brünnhilde.
Wagner may also have been influenced by the Rhine River-based German legend of Lorelei, the lovelorn young maiden who drowns herself in the river and becomes a siren, luring fishermen onto the rocks by her singing. Further possible sources lie in Greek mythology and literature. Similarities exist between the maiden guardians in the Hesperides myth and the Rhinemaidens of Das Rheingold; three females guard a highly desired golden treasure that is stolen in the telling of each tale. Wagner was an enthusiastic reader of Aeschylus, including his Prometheus Bound which has a chorus of Oceanids or water nymphs. One author, Rudolph Sabor, sees a link between the Oceanids' treatment of Prometheus and the Rhinemaidens' initial tolerance of Alberich. Just as in Greek myth the Oceanids are the daughters of the titan sea god Oceanus, in Norse mythology—specifically the Poetic Edda—the jötunn sea god Ægir has nine daughters. The name of one of these means "wave" and is a possible source for Wellgunde's name.
Wagner's operas do not reveal where the Rhinemaidens came from, or whether they have any connection to other characters. Whereas most of the characters in the cycle are inter-related, through birth, marriage, or sometimes both, the Rhinemaidens are seemingly independent. The identity of their father who entrusted them with the guardianship of the gold is not given in the text. Some Wagnerian scholars have suggested that he may be a "Supreme Being" who is the father of Wotan and all the gods—indeed, of all creation. Others take the German Rheintöchter literally and say that they are the daughters of the Rhine River.
Nature and attributes
The Rhinemaidens have been described as the drama's "most seductive but most elusive characters", and in one analysis as representatives of "seduction by infantile fantasy". They act essentially as a unity, with a composite yet elusive personality. Apart from Flosshilde's implied seniority, demonstrated by occasional light rebukes and illustrated musically by awarding the role to a deeper-voiced contralto or mezzo, their characters are undifferentiated. In The Perfect Wagnerite, his 1886 analysis of the Ring drama as political allegory, George Bernard Shaw describes the Rhinemaidens as "thoughtless, elemental, only half-real things, very much like modern young ladies". The attributes most apparent initially are charm and playfulness, combined with a natural innocence; their joy in the gold they guard derives from its beauty alone, even though they know its latent power. The veneer of childlike simplicity is misleading; aside from proving themselves irresponsible as guardians, they are also provocative, sarcastic and cruel in their interaction with Alberich. When the demigod Loge reports that the Rhinemaidens need Wotan's help to regain the gold, Fricka, the goddess of marriage, calls them a "watery brood" and complains about the many men they have lured away with their "treacherous bathing". They are beguiling and flirtatious with Siegfried, but finally wise as revealed by the undisclosed counsel which they give to Brünnhilde. Sabor sees the personality of the Rhinemaidens as a blend of the "good hearted nature" of the Oceanids and the "austerity" of the daughters of Ægir.The first lines sung by Woglinde in the Ring are dominated by wordless vocalisations. Weia! Waga!... Wagala weia! Wallala weiala weia! This attracted comment both at the 1869 premiere of Rheingold and the 1876 premiere of the entire Ring, with Wagner's work being dismissed as "Wigalaweia-Musik". In a letter to Nietzsche dated 12 June 1872, Wagner explained that he had derived Weiawaga from old German and that it was related to Weihwasser, meaning holy water. Other words were intended as parallels to those found in German nursery lullabies. Thus Woglinde's lines portray both the childish innocence of the Rhinemaidens and the holiness of Nature.
The Rhinemaidens' sorrow in the loss of the gold is deep and heartfelt. As the gods are crossing the rainbow bridge into Valhalla at the end of Das Rheingold, Loge ironically suggests that, in the absence of the gold, the maidens should "bask in the gods' new-found radiance". The maidens' lament then becomes a stern reproof: "Tender and true are only the depths", they sing; "False and cowardly is all that rejoices up there". In the final Götterdämmerung scene they show ruthlessness as, having recovered the ring, they drag the hapless Hagen down into the waters of the Rhine.
The Rhinemaidens are the only prominent characters seen definitely alive at the end of the drama; the fates of a few others are ambiguous, but most have certainly perished. Despite the relative brevity of their roles in the context of the four-opera cycle, they are key figures; their careless guardianship of the gold and their provocation of Alberich are the factors which determine all that follows. Wagner himself devised the "renunciation of love" provision whereby the gold could be stolen and then used to forge a ring with power to rule the world. Since the ring is made from the stolen gold, only its restoration to the Rhinemaidens' care in the waters of the Rhine will lift the curse on it. Hence, the return of the stolen property provides a unifying thematic consistency to Wagner's complex story.