 | Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung: A Companion by Stewart Spencer
Buy used from: $111.10 Includes Spencer's full translation of the operas--probably the best standalone version available--plus valuable background articles.
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 | Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $1.91 Another good translation, noted for staying within the meter of the original German.
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 | Wagner Without Fear: Learning to Love--and Even Enjoy--Opera's Most Demanding Genius by William Berger
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $2.33 This is probably the best introduction to Wagner and his operas for the musical layman.
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 | Wagner: (Revised ed.) by Barry Millington
Buy new: $24.95 / Used from: $6.43 A fine introduction to Wagner and his operas for those with musical training.
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 | Enjoying Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung
A 4.5-hour guided tour of the Ring, on audiocassette. Helps you recognize the many "motifs" (themes) that the music is famously built on.
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 | The Nibelungenlied: Prose Translation (Penguin Classics) by Anonymous
Buy new: $8.24 / Used from: $1.79 The German saga of the hero Siegfried. This was a major source not for the entire Ring cycle--as is often thought--but for the fourth opera, Twilight of the Gods.
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 | The Saga of the Volsungs (Penguin Classics) by Anonymous
Buy new: $9.89 / Used from: $4.17 This Icelandic version of the Siegfried story was Wagner's most important source for the Ring cycle as a whole.
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 | The Poetic Edda (Oxford World's Classics)
Buy used from: $2.75 A thirteenth-century collection of Icelandic bardic poetry. This is one of the two major sources for what we know about Norse mythology, and was one of Wagner's main sources for the Ring.
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 | The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology by Snorri Sturluson
Buy new: $16.95 / Used from: $3.05 A thirteenth-century Icelandic treatise on bardic poetry. This is our other major source for Norse mythology, and was another of Wagner's main sources.
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 | The Early Germans (The Peoples of Europe) by Malcolm Todd
Buy new: $27.56 / Used from: $25.05 A look at Germany in the time of the Ring.
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 | Rackham's Color Illustrations for Wagner's "Ring"
Buy new: $11.65 / Used from: $7.99 Sixty-four watercolor illustrations by a classic illustrator, first published in 1910-11 with Margaret Armour's Ring translation. He certainly loved the Rhinemaidens.
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 | Der Ring Des Nibelungen
Buy new: $111.98 / Used from: $64.49 The orchestral playing is majestic, achingly lovely. My favorite recording.
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 | Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen (Ring Cycle) / Sir Georg Solti by Sir Georg Solti
Buy new: $147.99 / Used from: $104.99 A classic recording noted for its sense of drama and fine voices.
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