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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: Fricka, shuddering with horror, outraged in every instinct, comes
clamoring for punishment. Wotan pleads the general necessity of
encouraging heroism in order to keep up the Valhalla bodyguard;
but his remonstrances only bring upon him torrents of reproaches
for his own unfaithfulness to the law in roaming through the
world and begetting war-maidens, "wolf cubs," and the like. He is
hopelessly beaten in the argument. Fricka is absolutely right
when she declares that the ending of the gods began when he
brought this wolf-hero into the world; and now, to save their
very existence, she pitilessly demands his destruction. Wotan has
no power to refuse: it is Fricka's mechanical force, and not his
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