Thursday, January 23:
R. did not have a good night, but he says he does not feel ill, and at lunch he tells me he has been “composing well.” (The day before yesterday he told me he had used a reminiscence which would touch me.) I read The Nibelung Myth and Siegfrieds Tod and talk to R. about them. Later he tells me that he originally designed this more in the mode of antiquity; then, during his secluded life in Zurich, he became interested in Wotan’s downfall; in this work he was more a kind of Flying Dutchman. I am surprised by the increased inspiration in the revised treatment of the subject and its ever growing feeling and intensity. When I tell R. of my great pleasure in the Valkyries’ scene (up to Brünnhilde), he says, “It gave me my Valkyries’ theme.” In the evening we finish the story of “Der Landvogt von Greifensee” with great enjoyment.