On July 16, 1938, The Nation published this essay

[longship]

10. I love the Nibelungen analogy.

Bruunhilde sacrifices her life for love, leaping onto Siegfried's funeral pier on her horse, Grani (in art, often nude). The gods' domain collapses, Wahalla is destroyed, consumed in the flames of that funereal fire.

But the operatic story ends as it began, fifteen hours previously, with the Rhein maidens singing the praises of their Rheingold, restored at last to it's depths, after so much human, and god, intervention.

The collapse of the gods is the lesson here. And Bruunhilde carries her shield proudly. She is the moral center of the legend.

Here is Arthur Rackham's rendering:


And here is Georg Solti's incredible performance of the end of the end, Götterdämmerung:

And yup! That's Birgit Nielson singing Bruunhilde. They don't call Solti's Ring cycle "The Golden Ring" for nothing. It is an astounding performance. All fifteen hours of it. I have listened to it all many times.