History Theatre / TheRingOfTheNibelung

Note that it is largely Carl Emil Döpler's costume designs for the {{Valkyries}} in the 1876 Bayreuth production of Wagner's ''Ring'' that has established the popular image of the fat, [[HornyVikings horn-helmeted]], [[ChainmailBikini breast-plated]] operatic soprano, though it may be noted that Döpler's Valkyries actually wear [[NiceHat winged helmets]]. The common expression "The opera ain't over till the [[BrawnHilda fat lady]] sings" may well derive from productions of ''Götterdämmerung'' in which Brünnhilde sings a lengthy monologue just before the conclusion (the actual last words are those of the [[ClassicVillain villain]] Hagen) or from ''Tristan und Isolde'' which actually concludes with a lengthy monologue from the opera's heroine. (The lady in question is generally... ''junoesque'', because the huge soprano voice required to sail over a Wagnerian orchestra is not often found in petite women.) [[spoiler: In both operas, the hero has died in the previous scene, so an uninformed audience member might well have assumed the opera would be over at that point.]]

* NiceHat: Those winged (and {{horn|yVikings}}ed) helmets.

* AccentAdaptation: Of Germanic (thus including Norse) mythology. Except for "Erda," Wagner adapted attested German names for the gods rather than using any of the various actual historic forms: thus Wotan (Wodan, Wuotan, Odin -- possibly meaning "the stirring, the furious, the tempest, the wind"); Fricke and Freia (Frea, Fria, Frouwa, Frikka, Frigg and Freyja -- "the Free Woman, the Lady" -- originally doublets for each other) (Wagner also uses her alternative name "Holda," (modern German ''holde'') -- "the Gracious Woman"); Froh (Fro, Frao, Frawaz, Frey -- "the Lord," originally a masculine doublet of Frigg/Freyja), which means "glad" in modern German (though the older meaning is fossilized in words like ''Frohnleichnam,'' "the Lord's Body," ''i.e., Corpus Christi''); and Erda (Jörð) is Old High German (Modern German "''Erde''") -- "earth."

* AdaptationalVillainy: Hagen in his original appearances. He may have killed Siegfried (in the Nibelungenlied, in the Volsung Saga he and Gunther seem equally responsible in telling their younger brother to do so) but he is ultimately loyal to Gunther. Here Hagen is acting out of desire for the ring and ends up killing Gunther.

* ArtifactOfDoom: The Ring of the Nibelung. Mainly because Alberich cursed all those who would have it after him, but not only due to that. The misery and hatred that it brings is implicit in the very act of making it, since the condition for doing so is the [[PoweredByAForsakenChild renunciation of Love]] (in the broader sense that includes ''all'' affections). Plus, pretty much any item that gives its bearer power over the whole world will end up with a pretty bloody trail behind it of those who sought it out.
* AssholeVictim: Mime used Siegfried as a pawn to get Fafnir's treasure, originally the treasure of Mime's brother Alberich, and intended to poison Sigefried once the boy had killed the dragon. Naturally, very few feel anything for evil-hearted Mime once he has been killed by noble Siegfried.

* AvianFlute: In ''Siegfried'', the titular hero realizes he can understand a bird (represented by the flute) after tasting the blood of the dragon Fafnir, and they have a conversation. The interlude "Forest Murmurs" from that same opera also includes birdcalls on flutes.

* BrawnHilda: Brunhilde is the TropeNamer - but not InUniverse, the trope naming came from stage performances. The part is so physically demanding that generally only a robust woman of strong constitution can perform it.

** At the beginning of ''Die Walküre'', Sieglinde is married to Hunding. A mysterious stranger arrives. The mysterious stranger and Sieglinde fall in love, and Sieglinde drugs her brutish husband. At the end of the act it is revealed that the mysterious stranger is Siegmund, and he is Sieglinde's long-lost brother. The brother and sister ecstatically declare their love at the end of the act. Their child, Siegfried, will be the hero of the eponymous next opera in the cycle.
** And then there are multiple productions that include chemistry between Froh and Freia in ''Das Rheingold'' and/or Hagen and Gutrune in ''Götterdämmerung''.

* TheChessmaster: Wotan likes to ''think'' he is this, but actually is easily outgambitted by Fricka and even (in a way) Siegfried. However, at least one contemporary production (the spectacular Copenhagen Ring, for this and other reasons nicknamed the Feminist's Ring) plays it straight with ''Brünnhilde'' of all people: she not only manipulated Wotan into accepting her terms of punishment, but chose her future husband in doing so -- who is not even born at this point, but has already been named by her. Talk about long-term thinking.

** Odin and Volsung are combined with the latter being a mortal guise of the former.

** Loge is a combination of Loki (god of cunning) and Logi (god of fire). His name further drives the point home: it is a {{Main/Portmanteau}} of the [[{{UsefulNotes/GermanLanguage}} German words]] ''lühe'' (lie) and ''lohe'' (flame).
** Fasolt is a composite of Hreidmar, the dwarf king whose son Loki killed (resulting in Loki stealing Andvari's treasure and ring to pay the weregild) and the unnamed giant who built Valhalla's walls but wanted Freyja in payment (in the myths, Loki stopped him from finishing his work, he wasn't paid, and Thor beat the crap out of him when he got mad about it).
** The dwarf in the original myth was named Andvari, Alberich is the name of a completely different dwarf.
** Sieglinde is a combination of Signy, sister of Sigmund with whom he had incestuous relations, and Hjordis, wife of Sigmund and mother of Sigurd.

* ConflictingLoyalty: What the Ring cycle is all about. The characters are divided and scattered between their desires and duties. ''Die Walkure'' especially tackles this well, since Brunnhilde states that she is serving Wotan's deepest desires of his heart (helping Siegmund and Sieglinde) while disobeying his commands (kill Siegmund) which he is forced to do by Fricka. Wotan is forced to punish Brunnhilde and remove her from the Valkyrie even if she is his favorite daughter.

* CoolSword: Nothung ("Born of Need"), Wagner's equivalent to the ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}'' 's "Balmung" ("Destruction") or ''Volsungasaga'''s "Gram" ("Wrath").
* CurbStompBattle: The first act and a half of ''Siegfried'' is spent building up to what ought to be an epic battle between the fearless Siegfried and Fafner the dragon. The actual fighting only goes on for one minute before Siegfried runs Nothung through Fafner's heart, and is set to rather perfunctory music.
* CursedItem: Alberich uses the Rhine-gold's own power to curse the ring he made out of it before surrendering it along with other treasures Loge and Wotan force him to give to Fasolt and Fafner as payment for building Walhall. The {{curse}} immediately takes effect as Fafner murders Fasolt to take the ring and riches for himself. Then, years later, Siegfried slays Fafner (who turned himself into a dragon), takes the ring and ends up betrayed and killed himself.
* DarkAgeEurope: Though really more TheTimeOfMyths. The Jahrhundertring averted this by updating the setting to the UsefulNotes/IndustrialRevolution. The forges and dark mines of the Nibelungen becomes a mine-shaft and factory setting. This was based on the fact that the Ring cycle was contemporary to this era.

* DespairEventHorizon: Wotan hits his when he realizes he'll be forced to abandon Sigmund to be killed by Hunding.
* DecompositeCharacter: Fasolt and Mime both take the role of Regin, the former as Fafnir's brother and the latter as Siegfried's evil-hearted foster father.

* TheDitz: Freia in ''Das Rheingold'' has her ditzy moments. When she is bought free, she is touched and says: "Do you really think I am worth all that gold?" Evidently she doesn't realize that Wotan mostly just want to keep her for her magical apples, and she also missed Erda's long speech about how Wotan should give up the Ring.

* EntitledToHaveYou: Siegfriend shows flashes of this attitude when he first meets Brunnhilde; when the latter is upset about having her breastplate and helmet removed (which [[{{Depower}} deprives her of her Valkyrie powers]] and leaves her as defenseless as a mortal), Siegfried pays her distress no mind, repeatedly attempting to embrace her (which she rebuffs) and demanding that she "sei mir ein Weib" ("be my woman") stating "Durch brennendes Feuer fuhr ich zu dir!" ("Through blazing fire I forced my way to you!")

** Siegfried and Hagen are both illegitimate and both being used to recover the ring, Siegfried by his Grandfather Wotan and Hagen by his father Alberich.
* EvilLaugh: Alberich gets one when he steals the Rhinegold from the maidens.

* EvilVersusEvil: Alberich and Mime. However Mime can easily come across as too pathetic to be evil.

* FlamesOfLove: Siegfried and Brünnhilde meet and fall in love against a backdrop of fire (the RingOfFire that she was imprisoned in) and their story also ends in fire, with them being reunited in death on a funeral pyre.

* ForWantOfANail: Wotan spends the whole saga trying to keep the ring from falling back into Alberich's hands. Except that all he had to do was return the ring to the Rhinemaidens, which he couldn't do, because he had to pay Fasolt and Fafner for building Valhalla by giving them the ring. And the main reason he built Valhalla was because Fricka hounded him into it. And the only reason she did that was to keep him home and hopefully stop him from running around cheating on her. So in the final analysis, the whole mess could have been avoided if Wotan had just kept his dick in his pants.

* GreekChorus: the leitmotives work as the equivalent of the Greek chorus of old. Advances in composition and music during the {{Main/Romanticism}} era lead Music/RichardWagner to develop this musical technique. Wagner was a FanBoy of old Greek dramas, especially those of {{Creator/Aeschylus}}. Thus, he deviced a way to make his operas a seamless and endless flow of music, where commentary about the events happening on stage (much like in the Greek chorus of old) was done by recurring musical phrases: the leitmotives.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Oddly enough, Gunther, who is based on an actual 6th century Burgundian ruler, Gunthahari.

* HuntingAccident: Hagen claims that Siegfried has been slain by a wild [[FullBoarAction boar]]. It lasts about five seconds before Brunnhilde unmasks him.

* IdiotHero: Siegfried ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer.
* IgnoredConfession: In the final act of ''Götterdämmerung'', Gutrune confesses that [[spoiler: she created the LovePotion that made Siegfried forget Brunnhilde.]] However, Brunnhilde doesn't seem to hear this ([[HeroicBSOD or be able to register it]]) and continues wondering why [[spoiler: Siegfried had betrayed her.]]

* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: When Mime is first seen his brother Alberich is tormenting him. Then Mime raises Siegfried to kill Fafner so he can get the ring, however Siegfried is such a jerk to him you can easily feel sorry to him. Mime does try to kill Siegfried, but this certainly seems understandable.

** In ''Twilight of the Gods'', Brunnhilde is dumbfounded when she sees her adored husband Siegfried happily preparing to marry Gutrune. Siegfried has been brainwashed, but she doesn't know that at the moment.

** Alberich's cruel mistreatment of the enslaved Nibelungen in ''Das Rheingold'' is probably there to convince the viewer that Alberich is evil, so we don't feel sorry for him when the gods steal his ring.

* MacGuffin: The titular Ring (based on the mythological Andvaranaut, which merely had the power to find gold), which has vast but vaguely-defined powers, and to make it one must renounce love. Unfortunately, its wearers tend to have it stolen from them for whatever reason before they can do much with it, and Alberich makes things worse by cursing it so that disaster comes to any who own it.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The Rheinmaidens explain to Alberich that the power of the Rheingold may only be won by renouncing love, and then mercilessly tease him. [[WhatAnIdiot Yeah, thanks a lot.]]

* SadlyMythtaken: Or sometimes Willfully Mythtaken. Wagner enraged folklorists from his own time to the present for adapting ancient myths and legends with abandon, and in the process, [[AdaptationDisplacement ousting the originals]] from the minds of most of the public.
** The greatest example is how the cycle is a composite of three entirely unrelated myths- the building of Valhalla's walls (with Fafner and Fasolt being composites of Fafnir and Hreidmar, the original recipients of the ring, with the unnamed giant who built the walls and didn't get paid in the original story), the story of the Andvaranaut (which originally only had the power to help the wearer find gold, and was stolen by Loki as reparations for accidentally killing Hreidmar's son in the form of an otter), a part of the Volsunga Saga, and Ragnarok (the Norse apocalypse, which was ''not'' caused by Siegfried's death or Odin carving a spear off the World Tree).

* StealingFromThieves: Alberich steals the Rhinegold, but is robbed of it soon afterwards by Loge and Wotan. Wotan is eager to get the Rhinegold but wouldn't want to renounce love (which is the necessary condition for stealing the gold from its original place in the Rhine).

** In ''The Rhine-Gold'', the Rhine-Maidens are three water-women who guard the magical Rhine-Gold, but lose it to Alberich who forges it into a magical ring. In Act 3 of ''Gotterdämmerung'', Siegfried, the present owner of Alberich's ring, accidentally encounters the Rhine-Maidens who warn him about the curse of the ring and urge him to return it to the river. When Siegfried dismisses the warning, they predict Siegfried's death, which comes to pass.
** In the beginning of ''Gotterdämmerung'', the three Norns are seen weaving the thread of Destiny, and sing a song which predicts the burning of Valhalla and the end of the gods. The thread snaps suddenly, foreshadowing that their prophecy will come true by the end of the opera.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: At the end Alberich is still around, however this is appropriate as only he and the Rhinemaidens survive and the Ring Cycle started with them. Some versions don't make it clear what happened to Gutrune, though she is supposed to face DeathByDespair.

* A sumptuous complete adaptation based on the translation by Patrick Mason, ''The Ring of the Nibelung'', was produced by P. Craig Russell (Dark Horse Press, 2000-2001). "The Rheingold" and "Gotterdamerung" were told over the course of four issues while "The Valkyrie" and "Siegfried" were told over the course of three. This adaptation is for readers age sixteen and up.

* The third episode of Operavox is an adaptation of "Das Rheingold". Due to a thirty minute run time Donner, Froh, Mime and Erda were all omitted.

* AccentAdaptation: Of Germanic (thus including Norse Mythology). Wagner uses the attested German names for the Gods, thus Wotan (Odin) and Fria (Freyja). The other names such as Donner (Thor) is [[MeaningfulName German for thunder]] which is realted to the old German name Donar. All these words mean thunder in their respective language. Erda (Jord) is Old High German and means earth much like Jord. Froh (Freyr) means glad but originates in the [[OlderThanDirt Proto-Germanic]] word frawaz and is also related to the word Frö which means lord. Froh is thus actually a misstranslation from Wagner's part that should be Frao since Freyr is the masculine form of Freyja and means lord.

''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' ("The Ring of the Nibelung"[[labelnote:Translation note]]this is sometimes mistranslated as the plural "Nibelungs", but the singular is correct -- the Nibelung referred to is Alberich. The name "Nibelung" (literally, "mist-descendant") refers to the race of dwarfs to which Alberich belongs. This particular noun is declinated in German, which results in the ending "-en".[[/labelnote]]) is an [[TheEpic epic]] cycle of four {{opera}}s by Music/RichardWagner (hence the alternative term, the "Ring Cycle," which is sometimes applied to the whole).[[note]]Wagner himself eschewed the term "opera" as applied to these works, preferring to refer to them as "Bühnenfestspiele", "stage-festival-plays"; the term "music-drama," though also rejected by Wagner himself, is generally preferred by his followers.[[/note]] The cycle premiered at the Wagner Festival Theater in Bayreuth, August 13th-17th, 1876, though the first two sections of the work had already appeared at the Munich Court Opera in 1869 and 1870.

Note that it is largely Carl Emil Döpler's costume designs for the {{Valkyries}} in the 1876 Bayreuth production of Wagner's ''Ring'' that has established the popular image of the fat, [[HornyVikings horn-helmeted]], [[ChainmailBikini breast-plated]] operatic soprano, though it may be noted that Döpler's Valkyries actually wear [[NiceHat winged helmets]]. The common expression "The opera ain't over till the [[BrawnHilda fat lady]] sings" may well derive from productions of ''Götterdämmerung'' in which Brünnhilde sings a lengthy monologue just before the conclusion (the actual last words are those of the [[ClassicVillain villain]] Hagen) or from ''Tristan und Isolde'' which actually concludes with a lengthy monologue from the opera's heroine. (The lady in question being fat because the huge soprano voice required to sail over a Wagnerian orchestra is not often found in petite women.) [[spoiler: In both operas, the hero has died in the previous scene, so an uninformed audience member might well have assumed the opera would be over at that point.]]

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: through the 16 hours that last the 4-part opera series, we get the names of 3 Rhine Daughters, 3 Nornes, 7 Gods, 8 Valkyries...

* KillEmAll: ''Götterdämmerung'' culminates with Siegfried's death, prompting Brünnhilde to make a HeroicSacrifice that burns down Walhall with all the gods and heroes inside.

* NamedWeapons: The principal sword in the ''Ring'' is named Nothung.

* IncestIsRelative: Apart from Siegfried's parents, Siegfried has a relationship with his aunt Brünnhilde, as Wotan is her father.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: Following the ''Venusberg'' scene in ''[[Theatre/TannhaeuserUndDerSaengerkriegAufWartburg Tannhäuser]]'', Wagner was no stranger to this:
** ''Das Rheingold'' opens with the Rhine Maidens frolicking underwater in a scene that scandalized many in the 1870s. One critic referred to it as ''das Hurenaquarium'' ("the whores' aquarium"), which angered the husband of one of the singers who had been in that scene so much that he took the critic to court. In one more recent Bayreuth production the singers were required to perform in the nude and sing while swimming in real water.
** Act 1 of ''Die Walküre'' closes with long-separated twins Siegmund and Sieglinde about to have sex, just when (in the words of Wagner's stage instructions) "the curtain falls quickly". Compared to that, even the much-loved "Wotan's farewell and fire magic" at the end of act three faces tough competition.

!!Works which adapt or cite ''The Ring of the Nibelung'':

[[folder:Animated Film]]
* One of the planned sequences for Creator/WaltDisney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' was the "Music/RideOfTheValkyries."
[[/folder]]

* ''Manga/GiantRobo''
* ''Manga/TheLegendOfKoizumi'' features a [[StupidJetpackHitler reincarnated cyborg Wagner]] as one of ThoseWackyNazis whom our heroes battle, complete with [[CallingYourAttacks attacks]] based on his operas.
* The ''Anime/YuGiOh'' character, Siegfried von Schroider, is derived from the Wagnerian character, and one of his cards is even called "Nibelung's Ring." Moreover, he has a Valkyrie deck, which is a reference to ''Walküre''.
* The foundation for The World in the ''Franchise/DotHack'' series is based off of this and Norse mythology in general. Several characters also are references.
* ''LightNovel/TrinityBlood'': Melchior von Neumann's favourite [[RobotGirl Auto-Doll]] is named Sieglinde.
* ''Anime/PonyoOnTheCliffByTheSea'' also references the Ring. Ponyo's original name is Brunhilde, and like the character of the same name from the opera, she's a supernatural being who defies her father and falls in love with a human. In case someone thought all this is coincidental, the connection is further emphasized when her leitmotif is orchestrated as a pastiche of the "Ride of the Valkyries" during the climactic tsunami scene.

* In ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' #294-299 (1980) Roy Thomas and Keith Pollard adapt the Ring as an event that happened in the past with Thor as both Siegmund and Siegfriend in addition to himself and Valkyrie and Brunhilda. It is the only adaptation in this folder that is rated for everyone. Each opera was told over the course of two issues, sometimes ending in the middle of an issue where the next one would then begin.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/ApocalypseNow'': In which, of course, the "[[Music/RideOfTheValkyries Walkürenritt]]" provides SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic. For further uses of that piece in films, please see [[Music/RideOfTheValkyries that page]].
* ''Film/Batman1989'': Siegfried's funeral music heavily influenced Danny Elfman's Batman theme.
* ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'': Tom Cruise makes the [[{{Anvilicious}} obvious]] invocation.
* In a MusicalGag, the cavalry [[TheBlacksmith blacksmith]] in Creator/JohnFord's ''Film/SheWoreAYellowRibbon'' is named [[Music/RichardWagner Wagner]]; when he appears, the soundtrack plays the [[ForgingScene smithying]] {{Leitmotif}} from the ''Ring''.
* Excerpts from this cycle are a recurring theme in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse.
** Red Skull listens to ''Götterdämmerung'' as he's having his portrait painted in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger.''
** Loki makes a clever use of his leitmotif, choreographing one of his fight scenes to it in ''Film/TheAvengers2012.''
* In the beginning of ''Film/DasTestamentDesDoktorMabuse'', the film cuts from a fiery explosion (something that can be called a Feuerzauber in German slang) to Kommissar Lohmann humming ''Wotans Feuerzauber'' from the finale of ''Die Walküre'' and telling his secretary that this evening [[TemptingFate he at last has the time to attend a performance of that opera]]. Of course that is precisely the moment when the telephone rings...
* In ''Film/OneTwoThree'' the family doctor is called in to diagnose what is wrong with Scarlett Hazeltine, which causes him to miss the first act of ''Die Walküre''. After he reveals that she is pregnant, he cheerfully leaves, humming ''Music/TheRideOfTheValkyries''. That piece is then also used as background music to [=MacNamara=] and co. driving to East Berlin to spring Scarlett's husband from jail.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" books, Siegfried Farnon got that name because his father was a fan of Wagner.
* In George C. Chesbro's ''The Beasts of Valhalla'', EvilutionaryBiologist Siegmund Loge (ha ha) is a fanatical Wagner fan.
* The main character of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'' also admits to cribbing the plot for one of his books from ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''.
* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''The Chronicles of Chaos'', there is banter mangling together ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''.
* Stephen R. Donaldson's ''The Gap'' series is literally a SpaceOpera, being an adaptation of the ''Ring'' InSpace.
* Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw’s ''The Perfect Wagnerite'' is an analysis of the ''Ring'' from a Socialist point of view. It was a big influence on Patrice Chéreau's ''Jahrhundertring'', the production for the centennial of the Bayreuth festival in 1979.
* In Nicholas Meyer's Literature/SherlockHolmes {{Pastiche}} ''The Seven Per Cent Solution'', Holmes (who adores Wagner), Dr. Watson, and Sigmund Freud all attend a performance of ''Siegfried''; Watson and Freud fall asleep.
* In James Joyce's ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'', Stephen Dedalus yells "Nothung!" as he destroys a lamp with his staff.
* In ''[[Literature/TalesOfTheFiveHundredKingdoms The Sleeping Beauty]]'', the little bird warns Siegfried not to take the ring or mess with Bruunhilde, saying it will be his "[[DoomyDoomsOfDoom DOOM!]]" After a book's length of other adventures, Bruunhilde is awakened by a completely different prince, tells Wotan exactly what she thinks of him and the entire story, and informs him that she took the Ring back to the river maidens herself and put an end to the whole silly misunderstanding.
* Creator/TomHolt's comic fantasy novel, ''Literature/ExpectingSomeoneTaller'', is, ''very'' loosely, a sequel, set in modern times.
* The novella ''Wälsungenblut'' ("Wälsung Blood", written in 1906) by [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Thomas Mann]] invokes ''Die Walküre'': Decadent Jewish twins [[PropheticName Siegmund and Sieglind]] Aarenhold decide to emulate the example of their namesakes after attending a performance of the opera.
* In ''Literature/SoulMusic'' Susan, while doing her grandfather's Duty, has to visit a battlefield, where she meets a group of Valkyries in a scene that parodies the beginning of act 3 of ''Die Walküre''.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* On ''Series/Kingdom2007'' during a ChaseScene involving Peter Kingdom's CoolCar and a guy on a bike. Lyle [[DiegeticSwitch puts on]] the "Music/RideOfTheValkyries."
* In the Münster ''Series/{{Tatort}}'' Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne is a great admirer of Richard Wagner, which led him to give his diminutive assistant Silke Haller the nickname Alberich. In the course of later episodes she acquired a dog called Wotan, which belonged to a murder victim [[spoiler: who turned out to be Boerne's near-identical half-brother]], and it was revealed that she lives in ''Rheingoldweg'' ("Rhine Gold Way").

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/GraveDigger's ''Rheingold'' is a ConceptAlbum which is based on ''The Ring of the Nibelung''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* In the aftermath of the Enron disaster, the Firesign Theater compared the Enron story to "The Ring cycle," with hilarious results. A video of that show can be found on the DVD of ''Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]
* The great Creator/AnnaRussell hilariously parodied the ''Ring'' in routines like "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7wH-k8LgQ The Ring of the Nibelungs: An Analysis]]" [''sic''] and the PoirotSpeak-based "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPhFBE4UGvA Schreechenrauf]]."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In the ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' episode ''The Tomb of Sammun-Mak'', we know that [[LittleMissBadass little]] [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Amelia Earhart]] listens to "The Ride of the Valkyries" as a lullaby.
* The ActionRPG ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'' is riddled through with Wagnerian references. There's even a character named Wagner!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The third episode of Operavox is an adaptation of "The Rhinegold." Due to a thirty minute run time Donner, Froh, Mime and Erda were all omitted.
* In ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Adventure Time With Finn And Jake]]'', Billy's sword is called Nothung.
* In ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'', the music played when the Le-Matoran are preparing to attack the Nui-Rama Hive is the "Music/RideOfTheValkyries".
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Mr. Burns gets to fight in a tank ("I've been waiting 25 years for this"), and he plays "Music/TheRideOfTheValkyries" as the SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic. He gets JustForFun/{{Rickroll}}ed.
* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short, ''WesternAnimation/WhatsOperaDoc'' (and its 1945 precursor, ''WesternAnimation/HerrMeetsHare''), although most of the music in them is not from the ''Ring''.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' had the episode "A Fright at the Opera," in which a performance of Wagner's work gets interrupted by a horde of real (if ghostly) Valkyries.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'', Mrs. Beakley is playing Brünhilde in an opera performance - which results in her being kidnapped by actual Vikings...
[[/folder]]

''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' ("The Ring of the Nibelung"[[labelnote:Translation note]]this is sometimes mistranslated as the plural "Nibelungs", but the singular is correct -- the Nibelung referred to is Alberich. The name "Nibelung" (literally, "mist-descendant") refers to the race of dwarfs to which Alberich belongs. This particular noun is declinated in German, which results in the ending "-en".[[/labelnote]]) is a cycle of four operas by Music/RichardWagner (hence the alternative term, the "Ring Cycle," which is sometimes applied to the whole).[[note]]Wagner himself eschewed the term "opera" as applied to these works, preferring to refer to them as "Bühnenfestspiele", "stage-festival-plays"; the term "music-drama," though also rejected by Wagner himself, is generally preferred by his followers.[[/note]] The cycle premiered at the Wagner Festival Theater in Bayreuth, August 13th-17th, 1876, though the first two sections of the work had already appeared at the Munich Court Opera in 1869 and 1870.

[[quoteright:273:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WagnerSiegfried_6520.jpg]]

* MusicOfNote: The "[[Music/RideOfTheValkyries Ride of the Valkyries]]" is the StandardSnippet.

* AtTheOperaTonight: The ''Ring'' operas rank among the favorites for characters to attend, as in Nicholas Meyers' SherlockHolmes novel, ''The Seven Per Cent Solution'' (''Siegfried'').

* In Nicholas Meyer's SherlockHolmes {{Pastiche}} ''The Seven Per Cent Solution'', Holmes (who adores Wagner), Dr. Watson, and Sigmund Freud all attend a performance of ''Siegfried''; Watson and Freud fall asleep.

* On ''Series/{{Kingdom}}'' during a ChaseScene involving Peter Kingdom's CoolCar and a guy on a bike. Lyle [[DiegeticSwitch puts on]] the "Music/RideOfTheValkyries."

* PlayingWithFire: Loge.

* PunchClockVillain: Wotan starts out full of passionate hunger for power but gradually moves more and more into this trope later in the cycle.

%% ** Alberich.

* Prologue: ''Das Rheingold'' ("The Rhine-Gold")
* Day I: ''Die Walküre'' ("The Valkyrie")

* Day III: ''Götterdämmerung'' ("Twilight of the Gods")[[note]]this is sometimes stated, especially in older references, as '''''Die''''' ''Götterdämmerung'', "'''The''' Twilight of the Gods", but Wagner never used the article in his references to the work.[[/note]]

''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' ("The Ring of the Nibelung"[[labelnote:Translation note]]this is sometimes mistranslated as the plural "Nibelungs", but the singular is correct -- the Nibelung referred to is Alberich. The name "Nibelung" (literally, "mist-descendant") refers to the race of dwarfs to which Alberich belongs. This particular noun is declinated in German, which results in the ending "-en".[[/labelnote]]) is a cycle of four operas by Music/RichardWagner (hence the alternative term, the "Ring Cycle," which is sometimes applied to the whole).[[note]]Wagner himself eschewed the term "opera" as applied to these works, preferring to refer to them as "Bühnenfestspiele", "stage-festival-plays"; the term "music-drama," though also rejected by Wagner himself, is generally preferred by his followers.[[/note]] The cycle premiered at the Wagner Festival Theater in Bayreuth, August 14th-17th, 1876, though the first two sections of the work had already appeared at the Munich Court Opera in 1869 and 1870.