The Rhinegold (“Das Rheingold”) is the first of this series of four non-musical movies based on the epic four-opera cycle Der Ring Des Nibelungen by 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner (who based these four operas loosely on characters from ancient Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the Nibelungenlied).
The Rhinegold concerns Alberich, a Nibelung dwarf, who steals a lump of magic gold from the three Rhinenmaidens, after renouncing love, and uses it to forge a magic ring that would give its wearer the power to rule the world. However, Wotan, the king of the gods, captures Alberich and forces him to give up the ring, a magic helmet called the Tarnhelm, and a hoard of gold. Upon being released, Alberich places a terrible curse on the ring: until it returns to Alberich, it will bring anguish and death to those who possess it, and everyone else will be consumed by envy. Wotan then intends to use the ring to pay two giants named Fasolt and Fafner in return for building a new castle for the gods, but is tempted to keep it for himself. However, Erda, the goddess of the Earth, wisdom, and fate, warns him to give up the ring and avoid its curse. So he gives the ring (along with the Tarnhelm and Alberich’s gold) to the giants. Fafner kills Fasolt and then leaves with the ring and the rest of Alberich’s treasure. Soon after, the gods enter their new castle, which Wotan names Valhalla, unaware of the catastrophes that the ring will bring upon the world.
