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Upon comparing the various sources of Wagner’s operatic Gesamtkunstwerk, such as the Nibelungenlied, M. Owen Lee concludes that “the best mythic ideas in the Ring emerged from Wagner’s own imagination” (1998, 20).  He submits that “The subject of Wagner’s Ring is not much less than the world itself, the world projected in myth and music. All of external nature is in the cycle—pure, timeless nature and nature clouded and confounded. And our human nature is there too—all the storms and calms that we know within us, in our conscious and unconscious selves” (35).  Shipman, the river pilot, explores and questions the sources of the power of the Ring Cycle that moves the human soul.  Redemption stems from a more fundamental and powerful source of life, as indicated by the leading motifs that guide the pilot’s artistry.  This source is reflected in the primary colors that constitute the unchanging center of Creation and which elicit hope in a brighter future.  

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