Mats Norrmann wrote:

>Are you kidding man? Wagner had a great lot of humour, and that he
>expressed in his works too.

God, I am sorry!  You are right:  Wagner is a great humourist.  Just
listened to the Ring again today.  Tremendous funny beginning:  the Maidens
singing "Weia!  Wega" Goodness:  Weia!  Waga!  And then:  "Wagalaweia!"
Fantastic!  Wagalaweia!  Now that's what I really call funny.
Tremendous...

(And please do not think strange words like these have anything to do with
Medieval German.  I did my thesis on Medieval German, you know.  It is
nothing but fantasy, unintentional funny fantasy.  - A longer mail on the
Ring's language will follow.  - By the way:  the Stabreim is nothing but a
special form of the alliteration, and Wagner uses Stabreime en masse in the
Ring.  "Walle zur Wiege" - that is a pure Stabreim as "Kind und Kegel" in
Modern German.)

Robert Peters
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