Editorial Reviews
Book Description
The novel to enlighten newcomers to Wagner\'s Ring and to provide experienced Wagner fans with new insights.
About the Author
Ian Runcie was born in Birkenhead in 1952 and was educated at Park High School Birkenhead and the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff. He lives with his wife, who is also a doctor and has two daughters. On Writing about Wagner\'s Ring This novel became necessary on the day I realised that the characters in the Ring had their own lives and aspirations. They were just unfortunate enough to have been caught up in a Wagnerian opera and their stories were crying out to be told in novel form. Take Brunnhilde for instance. As far as we are concerned she goes to sleep and is out of the action for a generation or two and an opera and a half. Things may not be the same from her point of view. She goes to sleep with Wotan and wakes up with Siegfried; therein hangs a tale, surely. I was already familiar with Robert Donnington\'s work and the application of Wagner\'s psychological traits and his massive philosophical knowledge to the novel was obviously the way ahead. The ramifications were endless: dragons for example. How did they reach the top of the mythical food chain? Why are they so universal? Why is a fully formed dragon to be found in the art of the Mayan people of Central America from around the time of Christ and how was it possible for this dragon to be adjacent to a God with the face of an Indian elephant? The answer, for me, came during a coincidental visit to the Hill Tribes of Bangladesh. Here were a hill people with woven striped cloth, musical pipes and blowpipes and the similarities to the hill tribes of Peru were striking. These were the people who crossed the Pacific Ocean, or the Bearing Straits, taking with them their memories of real elephants and mythical dragons. All this is nothing to do with Wagner, of course, and it is with regret that I needed to confine the extensive notes to the matter in hand. To visit the author\'s own website, please Click Here
Alberich and Friends,Ian Runcie,Trafford,1412026288,Fiction,Literary,Modern fiction
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