I was reminded of how some people compare The Lord of the Rings with Wagner's Ring Cycle, and it occurred to me that I find the ending of the Ring Cycle far more satisfying than the ending of Tolkien's story. There are some similarities between them: the rings of power are both destroyed (or at least placed out of reach); and the rule of supernatural beings ends. In both, humans (or mortals in general) become free to decide their own destinies. How this comes about, dramatically, couldn't be more different, though.
In the Ring Cycle, it is the gods and demi-gods who are the main characters, not humans (or mortals, in the Tolkien). In the end they are destroyed, while the immortals in LOTR, as well as the central hero, Frodo, are rewarded with eternal life in what sounds like a Garden of Eden. In the Ring Cycle, salvation comes, inadvertently, from the gods themselves—the hero Siegfried defeats the king of the gods, Wotan (his grandfather), but is later killed by treachery, and the heroine Brünnhilde (daughter of Wotan) sacrifices her immortality and then her life, and relinquishes the ring of her own free will. The story ends with a great conflagration at Valhalla and incredibly beautiful music (which always gets me boo-hooing) heralding the age of freedom for humanity.
Obviously Wagner has an advantage in being able to use music to elicit emotions, but I still think the way he ends his story, with so much loss and sacrifice, but also unalloyed Joy (to use Tolkien's word), is much more powerful than Tolkien's romantic Happy Ending. I just can't figure out why, other than to suppose that Wagner was just better able to tap into the primal power of myth. I'm really not sure what that is, but I suspect it goes beyond both romance and tragedy; perhaps it is the best of both. Perhaps it is simply the art of catharsis. I know there are one or two of you out there who are familiar with both works—what do you think?
