Seattle and Wagner's epic Ring Cycle inspired by Scandinavian myths and heroes

Greer Grimsley/Die Walkure/Seattle Opera/Ring Cycle 2005

Greer Grimsley carries a big stick as Wotan, god of Valhalla, in Seattle Opera's epic Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner

Seattle Opera begins it's epic opera series about the battle of love versus power as the way the world works. It's forces of nature battling to the death in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, based on Scandinavian and German myths. Many Scandinavians call Seattle home particularly Norwegians who live in Ballard, where Puget Sound meets Elliot Bay. There salmon fly upstream at the locks, completing the circle of life by coming home to spawn before their battered bodies, some with sea lion bites, die.

According to Wikipedia, the Völsunga saga is a legendary saga, a late 13th century Icelandic prose rendition of the origin and decline of the Volsung clan (including the story of Sigurd and Brynhild and destruction of the Burgundians). It is largely based on epic poetry. The earliest known pictorial representation of this tradition is the Ramsund carving, Sweden, which was created c. 1000 AD.
The origins of the material are considerably older, however, and it echoes real events in Central Europe during the fifth and sixth centuries. Here is the link: Volsunga saga.

Thanks to my colleague Steve Smoliar the concert writer for that. He also notes a silent film about Siegfried by Fritz Lang.

Further, the 'Nibelungenlied', translated as 'The Song of the Nibelungs', is an epic poem in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge.

'The Nibelungenlied' is based on pre-Christian Germanic heroic motifs (the "Nibelungensaga"), which include oral traditions and reports based on historic events and individuals of the 5th and 6th centuries. Here is the link: Nibelung

I myself wonder if Scandinavian trolls inspired Wagner's underworld of the Nibelung. The dwarves. The short counterpart to the giants, all cursed by the pursuit of the gold ring and the power it holds to enslave.

A Norwegian troll crouches under the Fremont Bridge in Seattle.

Norwegian Troll/Aurora Bridge/Fremont, Seattle, Washington/Photo: Jim Harper

Photo: Jim Harper

Meanwhile Seattle does pay tribute to it's mythical heroes such as Leif Erikson. His statue stands at the marina in Ballard near Shilshole Beach. The Nordic Heritage Museum tried to take him down for maintenance a few years ago but he refused to budge. Eventually the museum won and turned over a new Leif. Scandinavian descendants may purchase a rock at his feet. Seriously, you get your Scandinavian ancestors' name engraved along with the Scandinavian country of origin and year.

For me that would be Stavanger, Norway with the name Thorsen, some time around 1900. My ancestors farmed. I had a great aunt who lived to be 104 in Stavanger. Aunt Ruth Thorsen. When she turned 100 the Norwegian king sent her a birthday card. When I visited her during summer break from UC Berkeley in 1979, she told me how the Nazis came through and sank all communication devices. No Norwegians were killed. However the Nazis took everything like radios by loading them on a barge and floating the barge to the middle of the lake and sinking the barge.

She also had stock in the beer brewery on that lake. It was a fine tradition to have fresh shrimp on the dock with an ice cold beer. The Norwegian dream is to have one's own boat on the fjord, as an American wants a house.

So. Other favorite things to do in Seattle besides Pike Market for a crumpet when I go for the Ring Cycle this month:

Ray’s Boathouse in Ballard, near Shilshole Beach with Leif Erikson

Ballard Locks with the salmon ladders

Discovery Point nature area on the cliffs over Puget Sound with a lighthouse on the beach (Magnolia)

Scandinavian delis in Ballard with gjetost, kavli and lingonberries

Restaurants like Flying Fish in Belltown with an oyster bar

Space Needle at night
http://www.spaceneedle.com/

I had a friend with a season pass to the Space Needle so he would ride the elevator and needle the young operator by asking,