Wagner's massive Ring cycle focuses on mankind's urge to power, which must be balanced by love. Freedom consists in holding both power and love together, in a fearless self-willedness and --most importantly-- self-reliance. In Act II, scene 2, of Die Walkure, Wotan cries out in horror that "I lie in fetters forged by me, I [am the] least free of all living!" (trans. Jameson, 21) He has come to this point because his power is not self-reliant, but rather built on the oaths he has taken and the complex web of loyalties and thralldoms which he has created. In his relentless quest to become a god, he has accidentally also become a slave to his own laws which compell him to act contrary to his love. As he laments, "By force of wildest wishes impelled, I won myself the world; faithless, I wrought in unknowing falseness, binding by bargains what hid mishap." (trans. Jameson, 21-22) At every step of the way one can see that, just as Albrecht did in the beginning of the Rhinegold, Wotan too has surrendered love in his quest for power, and that this lack of balance has made him a slave to power itself. .

             Wotan loves the Walsung, Siegelind and Siegmund, who are his own children. If he were guided by love alone, he would certainly shelter and protect them, and Brunehild recognizes this point when she herself chooses to protect the pair. Yet through-out their lives, Wotan has consistently attempted to refrain from protecting them, allowing their mother to be killed, Siegelind sold into virtual slavery to an unloving husband, and Siegmund to be met with hatred everywhere he goes. Even the interference with which Frika accuses him, in which he provides a magical sword to Siegmund, is not so much calculated for his defense as it is an attempt to arm him to fight the dragon. Wotan points out to Frika that he has restrained himself from helping them because he desires Siegemund to be that one great hero, "one who, free from help of the godhead, fights free from the godhead's control.