Full of pathos though this episode be, it but brings us to the threshold of a scene of such overwhelming power that it may without exaggeration be singled out as the supreme musico-dramatic climax of all that Wagner wrought, indeed of all music. _Siegfried's_ last ecstatic greeting to his Valkyr bride has made us realize the blackness of the treachery which tore the young hero and _Brünnhilde_ asunder and led to his death; and now as we are bowed down with a grief too deep for utterance--like the grief with which a nation gathers at the grave of its noblest hero--Wagner voices for us, in music of overwhelmingly tragic power, feelings which are beyond expression in human speech. This is not a "funeral march," as it is often absurdly called--it is the awful mystery of death itself expressed in music.
Motionless with grief the men gather around _Siegfried's_ corpse. Night falls. The moon casts a pale, sad light over the scene. At the silent bidding of _Gunther_ the vassals raise the body and bear it in solemn procession over the rocky height. Meanwhile with majestic solemnity the orchestra voices the funeral oration of the "world's greatest hero." One by one, but tragically interrupted by the Motive of Death, we hear the motives which tell the story of the Wälsungs' futile struggle with destiny--the Wälsung Motive, the Motive of the Wälsungs' Heroism, the Motive of Sympathy, and the Love Motive, the Sword Motive, the Siegfried Motive, and the Motive of Siegfried the Hero, around which the Death Motive swirls and crashes like a black, death-dealing, all-wrecking flood, forming an overwhelmingly powerful climax that dies away into the Brünnhilde Motive with which, as with a heart-broken sigh, the heroic dirge is brought to a close.
Meanwhile the scene has changed to the Hall of the Gibichungs as in the first act. _Gutrune_ is listening through the night for some sound which may announce the return of the hunt.
Men and women bearing torches precede in great agitation the funeral train. _Hagen_ grimly announces to _Gutrune_ that _Siegfried_ is dead. Wild with grief she overwhelms _Gunther_ with violent accusations. He points to _Hagen_ whose sole reply is to demand the ring as spoil. _Gunther_ refuses. _Hagen_ draws his sword and after a brief combat slays _Gunther_. He is about to snatch the ring from _Siegfried's_ finger, when the corpse's hand suddenly raises itself threateningly, and all--even _Hagen_--fall back in consternation.