Alberich

Legendary figure

Appears in 11 videos · 20 passages, 14 of them in depth.

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani returns to Alberich mainly in the 2021 cycle devoted to Wagner's tetralogy, "How can sciences of history be real?". He sees him as the character with whom everything begins: mocked by the Rhinemaidens because he is dirty and hunchbacked, he renounces love to seize the gold. This is the original sin of the work1. He dwells on one formula: with the gold, Alberich will not have love, but he will be able to buy pleasure. From this he draws a distinction between love and libertinage2. He also reads the character in economic terms: Alberich makes the dwarves work like capital and whips his brother Mime, which for him corresponds to primitive accumulation3 4. He does not reduce him to the role of villain. Alberich is brutal but logical, and he respects the algebra of the Ring, gold or love. Once stripped of the gold, he has neither and curses the ring: he is as much victim as culprit5 6.

Summary produced automatically from 20 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Who is this?

In German heroic legend, Alberich (German:) is a dwarf. He features most prominently in the poems Nibelungenlied and Ortnit. He also features in an Old Norse collection of German legends, Thidreksaga, under the name Alfrikr. His name consists of the elements alb ("elf") and ric "power" or "ruler". It is equivalent to the Old French Alberon or Auberon, from which the English Oberon is derived, and is the source of the Norman French derivation Aubry. […]

Read the article on Wikipedia

Text: Wikipédia, CC BY-SA 4.0, excerpt · Portrait: Arthur Rackham, Public domain

Search these passages

Season 9.2 · 18 Feb 20219 #15 How can sciences of history be real?

11:44King of the elves of the underground world, he renounces love in order to seize the gold: the original sin of the work.
22:01With the gold, he will not have love but will be able to buy pleasure: the distinction between love and libertinism.
25:03Stripped of the gold, he curses it; he has respected the algebra, gold or love, and now has neither.

Season 9.2 · 29 Jan 20219 #13 How can sciences of history be real?

17:24He whips Mime during primitive accumulation.
40:26The first to appear, through libido; he courts the Rhinemaidens badly.
47:07The only one who preferred gold to love; brutal, exploited, but logical.
1:00:24Stripped of everything, without gold or love, he curses all who will possess the ring.

Season 9.2 · 14 Jan 20219 #12 How can sciences of history be real?

57:57King of the black elves, he has renounced love to take gold; he makes the dwarves work like capital and whips his brother.
1:10:11He says that with gold he will be able to buy pleasure.
1:31:34Mocked by the Rhinemaidens for being dirty and hunchbacked, he had nothing to lose by renouncing love.

Season 9.2 · 3 Apr 20219 #18 Twilight of the Gods, or from repetition to liberation

32:07Mocked by the daughters of the Rhine, he commits the irreparable act of stealing the gold.
1:30:14He obeys the law of the Ring: renounce love for gold, and buy pleasure with it.

Season 9.2 · 5 Feb 20219 #14 How can sciences of history be real?

13:09He gives up love for gold, has the gold stolen from him, and loses his hand: he is as much the victim as the villain.
28:05To take revenge, he undermines Valhalla from below.

Series · 5 Jul 2018Being and Code

48:54The dirty little dwarf who gropes the daughters of the Rhine: the one who produces everyday life.

Series · 29 Jan 2016What is to be done? 1/3

19:15The Nibelung renounces love and forges the ring; with the gold, he will buy pleasure.

Season 13 · 13 Oct 2024The eternal return… of the death camps?

1:04:12King of the dark elves, who keeps the dwarves of the underground world under his whip.

Season 11 · 12 Dec 2022Hesitation fascinated by hearing and by sight: Siegfried and Perceval

1:39:31Master of Nibelheim who stole the Rhine gold and renounced love.

Season 9.2 · 14 Apr 20219 #19 Twilight of the Gods, or from repetition to liberation • Part 2

55:21Presented as the cunning dwarf who raised Siegfried at the forge.

Season 5.1 · 31 Dec 2018#5.3 The philosopher's Odyssey: Revolutionary thought

3:56The dwarf blacksmith of the Nibelungen, with whom everything begins, rejected by the Rhine maidens.