|
FAQ
Why did the Mythology of Siegfried disappear in much of the world during the 1940s and 50s?
I've been posting questions that are on Folklore and Mythology. Some folks may find it interesting to read some answers and perhaps think a bit of Folklore and Mythology instead of current fads.
Suggested Answer
Gosh My Dad had eighty good years. He died on Friday after eighty five, and we're taking all this so calmly but for some odd reason there are all these questions that -- y'know. He fought in WWII. In the German Theater. My earliest memories of the Ring of the Niebelungs were a summary in the World Book encyclopedia and all KINDS of references in the propaganda and the historical material Dad collected until the end. When I brought home a recording from the library, it was okay because Jean Madeira sang Erda. She was married to Francis Madeira who conducted the local symphony which we all attended and the name of course was Portuguese. That was what made it okay. I didn't get into it or discover the Niebelungenlied and Dietrich Von Berne till I was out on my own.
Plus Wagner was an anti-Semite. I mean, the more you learn about him, the WORSE he sounds -- like the Gnostics. You read Origen first on how horrible they are and pretty soon you get tired of Christian Orthodoxy. Then you get your hands when you are older on the Secret Gospel of John and read about Jesus leading his disciples in a dance to celebrate that someone else instead of him was crucified and you get the sickening suspicion that maybe Origen was right. "An abyss of madness and heresy."
Hitler did love him, and promote him. Fritz Lang loved him enough to do two films about Siegfried before he left because he did NOT love the Nazis, but the truth is that Wagner and therefore Siegfried were controversial for GOOD reason. Had he been alive in the thirties and forties, there is no question that he would have been a nazi, as the Wagners in charge of Bayreuth at the time were.
And in fact most of the world remembers this.
|
