Twilight of the Gods

Sometimes the symbolism is just too much.

Wotan facing up to Seigfried

In Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, Wotan's spear is the source of his power as King of the Gods.  Once Seigfried breaks the spear resisting Wotan's attempt to bar his path to Brunnhilde, Wotan's power ebbs and his eventual demise in Gotterdammerung is inevitable.  The next generation has prevailed.

Wagner gives the spear its own musical figure (leitmotive), a descending scale that is used throughout the cycle to symbolise Wotan himself, his authority and his anger. (Hear the motive here - the prelude to Act 3 of Seigfried).

Wotan's spear shattered.

This leitmotive, and the issue of the spear, came to Fantasy Bob during net practice last night.   FB is nothing if not Wotanesque.  For all FB's power and authority derives from his trusty Gray Nicolls Nitro, a weapon about which he has eulogised previously.  It is therefore more than a tragedy that his spear shattered as he attempted to dig out a yorker.  He felt his authority begin to ebb away, his power crumbling in time to the leitmotive's rhythm.  Symbolically, it was FB's last net of the season.  The fact that the yorker was bowled by one of the club's better junior members only makes the symbolism greater.  And then, to ram home the symbolism even further, came an e-mail asking FB to return the 4th XI batting trophy so it can be inscribed with this year's winner at the end of the season.  Ouch.

Truly Gotterdammerung, TheTwilight of FB, cannot be too far away.