Nuanced Tone

Richard Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for his Ring Cycle of which Götterdämmerung ('The Twilight of the Gods') is the finale. The title is a German translation of the Old Norse 'Ragnarök', a series of events that includes the death of most of the gods. It was to be followed by the submersion of the world in water and an eventual rebirth of earth, gods and humanity by means of a very few survivors. This prophecy was written in the Poetic Edda, a thirteenth century compilation of traditional Norse myths...