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 THE FACIAL
DISPLAYS OF
LEADERS

EDITED BY CARL SENIOR

The Facial Displays of Leaders
 Carl Senior
Editor

The Facial Displays

of Leaders
Editor
Carl Senior
Aston University
Birmingham, UK
The University of Gibraltar
Europa Point, Gibraltar

ISBN 978-3-319-94534-7    ISBN 978-3-319-94535-4 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94535-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018953581

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans-
mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Oleksiy Maksymenko/gettyimages

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Dedicated to
Jack and Harriet
 Contents

1 The Facial Displays of Leadership: A Systematic Review of

the Literature   1
Carl Senior

2 Formidability and Alliance Politics in Humans and

Nonhuman Species  27
Christopher D. Watkins

3 Facing Your Competition: Findings from the 2016

Presidential Election  51
Patrick A. Stewart, Elena Svetieva, Austin Eubanks, and
Jason M. Miller

4 In/Appropriate Aggression in Presidential Debate: How

Trump’s Nonverbal Displays Intensified Verbal Norm
Violations in 2016  73
Erik P. Bucy and Zijian Harrison Gong

vii
viii Contents

5 The Evolutionary Psychology of Leadership Trait

Perception  97
Kristen Knowles

6 Facial Displays of Dominance in Non-­human Primates 123

Rachel M. Petersen, Constance Dubuc, and James P. Higham

7 About Face! Facial Status Cues and Perceptions of

Charismatic Leadership 145
Caroline F. Keating

Index 171
 Notes on Contributors

Erik P. Bucy is the Marshall and Sharleen Formby Regents Professor of Strategic
Communication in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech
University. He is the author of the book Image Bite Politics: News and the Visual
Framing of Elections (with Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Oxford, 2009) and editor of
the Sourcebook for Political Communication Research: Methods, Measures, and
Analytical Techniques (with R. Lance Holbert, Routledge, 2013). His research
interests include visual and nonverbal analysis of political news, normative theo-
ries of media and democracy, and public opinion about the press. Bucy is the
past editor of Politics and the Life Sciences, an interdisciplinary journal published
by Cambridge University Press.
Constance Dubuc has conducted research at Université de Montréal, the
German Primate Center, the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology, New York University, and the University of Cambridge. She is
interested in the evolution of reproductive strategies with a focus on sexual sig-
nalling, variance in male reproductive success, and male-female relationships.
Austin Eubanks is a Social Psychology PhD student at the University of
Arkansas under the mentorship of Scott Eidelman. Broadly, his research inter-
ests are primarily in political psychology, but more specifically he is interested in
Construal Level Theory (i.e., psychological distance) and political/social values
systems. Austin is most interested in refining the methodology used to study
social psychology and is an advocate of open/transparent science that follows
high-quality research practices.

ix
x Notes on Contributors

Zijian Harrison Gong is an assistant professor in the Department of Advertising

at Texas Tech University. His research focuses on motivated processing of media
to understand how message execution elements such as design and layout impact
selective attention, recall, and attitude formation, and how source and message
factors impact the persuasiveness of media content. Practically, his research find-
ings offer tangible insights that help media practitioners enhance the persuasive-
ness of their messages. His research papers have been published in a range of
leading journals in media and communication, including Communication
Monographs, Media Psychology, and the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic
Media.
James P. Higham is Associate Professor of Anthropology at New York
University. He has worked on species-specific and comparative studies of species
in several anthropoid genera, and has guest-edited several special issues on topics
of sexual selection and communication, including on field endocrinology
(Hormones and Behavior, with Jim Roney), multimodal communication
(Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, with Eileen Hebets), primate signals
(American Journal of Primatology, with Stuart Semple), and primate coloration
(International Journal of Primatology).
Caroline F. Keating is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Colgate
University in Hamilton, New York, USA. She is a Syracuse University
PhD. Keating studies how nonverbal cues relate to social dominance, leadership,
and charisma. With collaborators, she showed that humans convey dominance
through facial status gestures akin to those of other primates; that dominant
children and adults are especially good deceivers; and that persuasive performers
often begin by kidding themselves. Keating also studies the charismatic pro-
cesses groups use to inspire devotion. She teaches seminars in leadership and
social bonds from evolutionary, developmental, and cross-cultural perspectives.
Kristen Knowles is Lecturer of Psychology in the Division of Psychology and
Sociology at Queen Margaret University. Her research focuses on the applica-
tion of an evolutionary framework to political psychology. Kristen’s recent work
examines the effects of individual differences on voting decisions and leadership
preferences, using faces and voices as experimental stimuli. Kristen is a member
of QMU’s Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS) and the International
Society for Political Psychology (ISPP).
Jason M. Miller is a graduate student in the Social Psychology program at the
University of Kansas, Lawrence. His research focuses primarily on political psy-
 Notes on Contributors
   xi

chology, and the uses of ideology and belief to justify prejudice. He also does
research on how important political events shift the social acceptability of differ-
ent prejudices.
Rachel M. Petersen is a PhD candidate in Biological Anthropology at
New York University. Her master’s thesis studied how social integration in rhe-
sus macaques effects health through the immune and endocrine system. Her
dissertation research will focus on mechanisms of female mate choice, specifi-
cally mate choice that occurs within the female reproductive tract after mating,
in order to better understand reproductive strategies in male and female
primates.
Carl Senior studies non-verbal behaviour which includes the way the face is
perceived and has examined the skills, traits, and motives associated with quali-
ties such as social dominance, power, and leadership. He is also interested in
learning more about the mechanisms of social behaviour in naturalistic settings.
He was elected a fellow of the British Psychological Society in 2015 and is also
a visiting professor to the University of Gibraltar.
Patrick A. Stewart is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University
of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He has published over 50 journal articles and chapters,
as well as four books, including Debatable Humor: Laughing Matters on the 2008
Presidential Primary Campaign (2012). His work on the nonverbal behaviour of
politicians and their audiences has been published in The New York Times and
The Washington Post and reported on in a broad range of popular press outlets.
He is a certified Facial Action Coding System (FACS) coder whose research
concentrates on the emotional response of followers to leaders.
Elena Svetieva is Assistant Professor in Leadership Communication at the
Department of Communication, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
Prior to joining the department, Elena was a postdoctoral research fellow at the
Center for Creative Leadership, the number one leadership development pro-
vider and think-­thank in North America. Her research focuses on emotion com-
munication and ­nonverbal behaviour in effective leadership, including person
perception, feedback, and emotion regulation between leaders and followers.
She studies these processes using interdisciplinary methods, with a strong focus
on physiological and behavioural measures such as the Facial Action Coding
System (FACS).
Christopher D. Watkins is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Abertay University
in Scotland. His main research interest is dominance, rivalry, competition, and
xii Notes on Contributors

relationships between dominance and facial and vocal characteristics. He is also

interested in human mate choice, studied primarily via examining differences in
attractiveness judgements of faces. To date, his research has revealed that compe-
tition-related factors shape social judgements of faces, with more recent work
examining the role of cues to dominance in our choice of allies, colleagues, and
friends. His publications have attracted media attention from international out-
lets and news media, including Science and APS Observer.
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Displays of lowered (a) and raised (c) brows taken from the
2017 US presidential debate. Image (b) shows a combined low-
ered brow and smile display 9
Fig. 1.2 Examples of the human homologues of primate displays occur-
ring in the first US presidential debate. The smile is shown in
image (a), which is thought to have evolved from the silent
bared teeth display which is a primate submissive gesture, while
image (b) contains a human play face which may have evolved
from the non-human relaxed open mouth display 17
Fig. 2.1 Examples of a composite male face with masculinized (a) shape
cues and feminized (b) shape cues. Example of enhancing facial
cues to shortness (c) and tallness (d) within the same male com-
posite face (see, e.g., Re et al., 2013. All images used and
obtained under a commercial licence from 3d.sk) 33
Fig. 2.2 Snapshot of effect sizes. (a) Masculinized versions of men’s
faces are perceived as more dominant than feminized versions
of men’s faces (1—Watkins, Jones, & DeBruine, 2010b).
Participants enhance facial cues to height in order to enhance
perceived leadership ability (2—Re et al., 2013—all effect sizes
are ≥ this value). On average, men prefer masculine men as
allies (3—Watkins & Jones, 2016). (b) Facial cues to domi-
nance and trustworthiness have a greater bearing on the

xiii
xiv List of Figures

remuneration of senior managers in retail than shop floor man-

agers in retail, as measured in experimental tasks (data from
Fruhen et al., 2015) 34
Fig. 2.3 Snapshot of effect sizes in different cultures and across modali-
ties. Individuals can accurately judge strength from facial pho-
tographs alone, both when judging male students in America
and members of the Tsimane (Sell et al., 2009, Bars A and B).
Low mean fundamental frequency (i.e., a masculine vocal char-
acteristic) is related to measures of men’s threat potential in the
US and in the Hadza (Puts, Apicella, & Cárdenas, 2012, Bars
C–E). Taller and stronger Tsimane men have greater leverage as
political leaders (Glowacki & von Rueden, 2015, Bars F and G) 35
Fig. 3.1 Camera feed “one shot” focusing on head and shoulders of
Hillary Clinton speaking. This shot brings the candidate up-
close and personal to the viewers by focusing solely on the one
candidate, allowing the candidate to dominate visual attention
through their facial displays and movements by their torso,
arms, and hands 58
Fig. 3.2 “Split screen camera shot” of Hillary Clinton speaking and
Donald Trump nonverbally reacting. Note that this side-by-side
camera shot, which is the same frame as Fig. 3.1, allows for view-
ers to see and respond to Trump’s nonverbally rejecting Clinton’s
statement through his aversive facial display of sticking his tongue
out. On the other hand, by focusing solely on the face, Clinton’s
torso, arm, and hand movements are edited out of the shot 59
Fig. 3.3 Camera shot showing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton side
by side allowing physical comparisons. Here, viewers can make
comparative assessments of both candidates’ capacity cues of
height and size (note the horizontal lines on the stage behind
both candidates), while at the same time evaluating and con-
trasting their nonverbal behavior 60
Fig. 4.1 (a) Debate 2—Visual interruption: Trump enters Clinton’s per-
sonal space for the first time, eyeing her to determine whether
and how she will react. Clinton tries to ignore him. (b) Debate
2—Hovering in the background: Having established personal
space violations as a viable strategy to unnerve his opponent
early in Debate 2, Trump looms over Clinton and dominates
the visual frame, even while standing in the background.
 List of Figures
   xv

(c) Debate 3—Anger/threat display: Along with nonverbal dis-

agreement and staring into the camera, anger/threat displays
are a routine feature of Trump’s attacks on Clinton, featuring in
94% of the issue attacks coded in this study. (d) Debate 3—
Defiance gesture: The repertoire of displays that Trump wielded
during the campaign were anchored by his trademark defiance
gesture with arm raised and finger pointing skyward as if to
suggest resistance to authority or an opposing force 85
Fig. 4.2 CRM evaluation of Trump’s attack strategies by party identifi-
cation  88
Fig. 5.1 Faces transformed for low- and high-masculinity. Each pair of
faces represents a masculinised and feminised version of the
same face. The difference between a composite image of 50
male faces and a composite of 50 female faces was calculated to
capture sexually dimorphic facial features. The difference was
applied to each face ±50%, yielding masculinised and femi-
nised versions. Reproduced from Little, Connely, Feinberg,
Jones, and Roberts (2011) 103
Fig. 6.1 Facial expressions of dominance in the rhesus macaque. The
image on the left shows a threatening face (a) and the image on
the right shows a submissive fear grin (b) 127
Fig. 6.2 Color signals of dominance in the male mandrill. Image (a)
shows a male of low dominance rank and image (b) shows a
male of high dominance rank 129
Fig. 6.3 Illustration of differences in the facial width to height ratio in
non-human primates (fWHR). Facial width is measured as the
distance between the left and right boundary of the face and
facial height is measured as the distance from the highest point
on the upper lip to the highest point of the eyelid. Image (a)
depicts a high ratio and image (b) shows a low ratio 130
Fig. 7.1 Physiognomic status cues are imitated here by changing the
sizes and shapes of facial aspects. Actual faces (middle) were
digitally manipulated to look more receptive on the left (by
making eyes and lips larger, thinning brows, and rounding
chins) and to look more formidable on the right (by making
eyes smaller, brows thicker, lips thinner, and chin more angu-
lar). The ages of these faces are judged similarly but perceptions
of dominance and submissiveness are altered in the direction
expected by Status Cue Theory 150
xvi List of Figures

Fig. 7.2 Examples of the make-up techniques used to reduce (Column

A) or enhance (Column B) the appearance of neoteny and
receptivity of female faces. Eyeliner, eye pencil, mascara, foun-
dation, powder, blush, and lipstick were applied to make brows
thick or thin and arched, lashes thin or thick and long, cheeks
and chin more angular or round, complexion less or more
smooth, and lips thin or full, respectively 160
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 The primary (in bold) and secondary search terms used to
interrogate the literature 4
Table 3.1 Camera time across the first two primary debates for each
major party during the last US presidential elections (Trump
vs Clinton) 57
Table 4.1 Frequencies of Trump’s nonverbal display behavior within
attack segments 84
Table 5.1 Studies of task-contingent leadership preferences 109

xvii
 1
The Facial Displays of Leadership:
A Systematic Review of the Literature
Carl Senior

Introduction
In his seminal essay ‘Smile’ the noted MIT Professor, Alan Lightman
described how the complex social interplay between a man and a woman
is facilitated by one simple facial display (Lightman, 1996). The contrac-
tion of the bilateral risorius and zygomaticus muscle groups, which
together connect the corners of the lips to the zygomatic arch, results in
a characteristic smile display. The subsequent perception of this display
can drive a range of behaviours in the immediate social group. In the
Lightman essay, such behaviour took the form of a man moving closer to
a woman to engage in conversation. However, this was more than a mere
romantic tale; it was a forensic examination into the possible biological
mechanisms that drive social behaviour in others. We now know that the
smile also conveys information about the type of leader you are (Senior,

C. Senior (*)
Aston University, Birmingham, UK
The University of Gibraltar, Europa Point, Gibraltar
e-mail: c.senior@aston.ac.uk

© The Author(s) 2018 1

C. Senior (ed.), The Facial Displays of Leaders,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94535-4_1
2 C. Senior

Barnes, et al. 1999; Senior, Phillips, Barnes, & David, 1999) and ­different
types of smiles can even facilitate specific types of social behaviour that
drive various leadership attributions such as affiliation or dominance
(Rychlowska et al., 2017). Yet even armed with such a detailed analysis
Lightman concludes with the admission that he cannot answer the most
fundamental of all questions—and that is why does such social behaviour
occur after perceiving certain displays.
There is no doubt that the human face both inspires and intrigues.
From Boticcelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ to Warhol’s study of Marilyn Monroe
the artistic community has been quick to embrace this intrigue. There are
many reasons why the human face holds a privileged role in our canon of
artistic expression (see, e.g., Carroll & Russell, 1997; Jones, 2006).
Thanks to the work of noted scholars such as Paul Ekman, James Russell,
Andrew Young, and many others, we now understand how the muscula-
ture surrounding various facial features can contract to display and com-
municate complex internal states such as anger, surprise, or happiness
(Ekman, 1992). The study of emotional displays is indeed a fruitful area
of research endeavour, but the human face is a far more complex vector
than this and communicates a vast and rich repertoire of social processes
that go beyond merely showing people how you feel.
The perception of leadership traits in others is an important social pro-
cess that can also be garnered from certain facial displays (Antonakis &
Eubanks, 2017; van Vugt & Grabo, 2015). Such is the efficacy of this
display system that even a slight head tilt, which would alter the per-
ceived angle of a neutral facial display, can have a significant effect on the
subsequent perception of social dominance (Mignault & Chaudhuri,
2003). We are very good at using the face to detect leaders, indeed in very
short period of time observers can process various facial displays and
make accurate inferences as to leadership effectiveness (Todorov,
Mandisodza, Goren, & Hall, 2005; Willis & Todorov, 2006, see also,
Zebrowitz & Montepare, 2005). This ability is not learned or trained and
is also present in young children who are able to correctly detect success-
ful political leaders (Antonakis & Dalgas, 2009; see also Keating & Bai,
1986).1 The less tangible evidence an observer has on the effectiveness of

1
See also Keating (1985) for a simply fascinating read.
 The Facial Displays of Leadership: A Systematic Review… 3

an individual’s leadership abilities, the more they tend to rely on facial

cues to make leadership judgements (Antonakis & Jacquart, 2013). It
would seem that we may have an innate ability to perceive leadership via
facial cues and also use these displays as a form of heuristic mechanism to
enable veridical judgements to quickly take place.
The importance of facial displays in the communication of leadership
is unsurprising given that the leader-follower relationship is a fundamen-
tal human process that occurs in most human societies (King, Johnson,
& van Vugt, 2009).2 From a sociobiological perspective, delay in the
assessment of leadership abilities in others would impact the effectiveness
of group decisions and as a result may bring significant costs to the wel-
fare of the group in subsequent access to resources, and so on (Conradt
& Roper, 2007). Indeed, human social groups benefit from being able to
communicate leadership effectively by taking advantage of a highly com-
plex facial musculature that has evolved to enable the communication of
a vast range of social processes (Schmidt & Cohn, 2001; See also
Thompson, 1891 for an interesting perspective). Yet, there still remain a
number of questions that need to be addressed before it is possible to
converge on a complete understanding of the relationship between the
human face and perception of leadership. Is there a single facial display
that communicates leadership more effectively than others or do various
displays operate in synchrony to provide a more holistic and effective
display? In other words is the signal property of this behavioural pheno-
type facilitated by a specific component of the face or is it driven by a
larger configural effect involving several components? Given that there is
evidence of cross cultural recognition of facial displays of basic emotions
(Ekman, Sorenson, & Friesen, 1969; Ekman & Friesen, 1971) and even
more complex emotional states such as shame and pride (Tracy &
Matsumoto, 2008) can the face transmit a universally recognized signal
property or is it culturally bound? The possibility that recognition of such
displays may be innate does indeed raise the tantalizing possibility that
there may be a universally recognized facial display of leadership?

2
In light of its importance to the success of the social group, it goes without saying that leadership-­
type behaviours occur within other non-human groups, see, for example, Allee, Allee, Ritchey, and
Castles (1947) for an interesting analysis.
4 C. Senior

The purpose of this chapter is therefore twofold. First an initial model

is developed that identifies and describes a group of facial displays that
convey leadership. Here a systematic review of the literature was carried
out to arrive at these characteristics. This review was based firmly within
the sociobiological model and its primary focus were the so-called honest
signals that convey leadership from the face.
This chapter also serves to introduce the book that you are holding and
to describe the contribution that each of the chapters has made towards
our understanding of the state of the union between facial displays and
leadership. As you will see it is clear that we have been fortunate to have
renowned experts in the field contribute to the text. Individually each
chapter stands alone as a significant contribution. But when they are con-
sidered together their respective contributions to our understanding of
this area become more evident. These contributions present a research
framework for the study of the facial displays of leadership—a manifesto
for future research.
To begin, a straightforward, yet quite complex, question is first
addressed with a review of the literature.

What Are the Facial Displays of Leaders?

The first stage of the systematic literature review procedure was to iden-
tify keywords related to leadership and facial displays (see Table 1.1).
The keywords were divided into primary and secondary search terms.

Table 1.1 The primary (in bold) and secondary search terms used to interrogate
the literature
Facial displays (Countenance OR Expression OR Frown OR Glare OR Look OR
leader/s Scowl OR Mask OR Facial Display)
(Leader OR Chief OR Commander OR Director OR Ruler OR
Head OR Manager OR Boss OR Captain OR Dean OR
Eminence OR Governor OR President)
Leadership (Leadership OR Authority OR Command OR Control OR
Influence OR Power OR Initiative OR Pre-eminence OR
Superiority)
All of the primary and secondary terms were used together so that every
possible pairing was considered
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
tenderly of the hero who had placed it there, and who was perhaps,
even then, leaving the paths of men to come to her side once more.
Suddenly a flash of lightning appeared across the sky and a clap of
thunder sounded far away. Strange sounds broke the stillness,
sounds well remembered by her: the hoofs of wind-horses speeding
through the clouds, the whistling of rushing blasts, the ring of steel
armor. Starting up in wild excitement, she saw a black thunder-cloud
rushing towards the rock.
“Brünnhilde! Sister! Are you asleep or awake?” called the clear voice
of one of the warrior goddesses, as a war-horse sprang to earth from
the midst of the clouds.
With a cry of joy Brünnhilde ran to meet the Walküre, saying:
“Waltraute, truest sister, welcome!” and asking tenderly about the
rest of the maidens and her father Wotan.
But Waltraute was sad and anxious, and seemed in fearful haste.
She interrupted Brünnhilde’s passionate description of her hero and
her happiness in his love by sad words of the gloom that reigned in
Walhalla. She told the story of the hewing of the World-Ash, the
fagots piled high about the great palace; of the gods and heroes
assembled in awe. She spoke of Wotan sitting in silence holding his
broken spear in his hand.
She said that once, and once only, had he spoken, and that he had
then said: “When the Rhine daughters gain from Brünnhilde the Ring
the world will be released from the power of the spell.”
Waltraute begged Brünnhilde to give her the Ring, so that she,
Waltraute, might carry it to the Rhine Maidens.
“If you wish, you may ward off the shadow of the gods,” said the
Walküre, kneeling at her sister’s feet. But Brünnhilde looked at her
as though in a trance.
“Like a sorrowful dream it seems—this that you tell me. I do not
understand it. I am no longer one of the gods. You, pale sister—what
have you to do with me?”
Passionately, Waltraute asked for the Ring which she wore, but
Brünnhilde replied that it was Siegfried’s love-gift, and that she would
never give it up. Again Waltraute besought her, for the sake of the
gods, the bright mighty gods, who were going to destruction, to give
up the magic circlet.
Brünnhilde answered quietly that she prized love more than the
welfare of all the gods, and that the Ring was dearer to her than the
palace of Walhalla; and she bade Waltraute be gone, refusing once
for all to give up Siegfried’s gift.
“Woe! woe!” wailed the Walküre, speeding wildly away. “Woe for you,
sister! Woe for the gods in Walhalla! Woe!”
She was gone, amid thunder and rushing winds.
Sitting again on the rock alone, Brünnhilde looked down to where the
guarding fire-circle burned brighter and brighter. A horn-call sounded
in the distance.
“Siegfried!” cried Brünnhilde, rushing forward.
But who was that who sprang from out the fire and stood before her?
Not Siegfried, surely, but some stranger—a stranger with face partly
masked by a curious helmet of some sort.
No wonder that she did not recognize her hero in the man before
her, who, by the aid of the Tarnhelm, bore the semblance of Gunther,
the Gibichung. He told her that he had come to take her away with
him and marry her; and when she ordered him to yield before the
strength of the mighty Ring on her finger, he caught her hand and
tore the circlet from it, placing it on his own.
“Now yield to me! You must be my wife,” he commanded; and, weak
and powerless, Brünnhilde was conquered and led away by the
warrior, who was none other than Siegfried—had she but known it!—
Siegfried, her hero, who did not remember her at all, and only looked
upon her as the bride of his brother-hero Gunther, the bride that
must be delivered safely into the real Gibichung’s hand.
BRÜNNHILDE AND SIEGFRIED
For Siegfried cared nothing for her himself, and thought only of the
fair maiden down in the great hall built upon the shore of the Rhine—
Gutrune, the lady of the Gibichungs.
And that was how the Nibelung’s spell again brought sorrow and
misery to the wearer of the Rhinegold’s Ring.

Tarnhelm Motif
[Listen] [MusicXML]

Gutrune Motif
[Listen] [MusicXML]
 Motif of Revenge
[Listen] [MusicXML]

CHAPTER III

THE RHINE CHIEF’S BRIDE

It was night on the Rhine. Hagen sat asleep before the hall of the
Gibichungs, leaning against a pillar. Before him crouched his
Nibelung father, Alberich, who had come to speak with him through
his dreams.
They spoke of the Rhinegold in mysterious undertones, Hagen in the
voice of one who talks in sleep. They spoke of the Dusk of the Gods
which drew near so quickly, and of the might which would be theirs
when the Ring fell into their hands. And until dawn came they
concocted plots deep and cruel.
Then the Nibelung’s small, dark figure disappeared in a pale mist,
and all that was left of him was the echo of his voice, as he called,
faintly, while vanishing:
“Be true, Hagen, my son; be true! Be true! True!” The voice died
away into silence.
As the dawn broke and the rising sun was mirrored brightly in the
Rhine, Hagen awoke with a start. At the same moment Siegfried
appeared, saying that he had hastened to the hall of the Gibichungs
with the aid of the Tarnhelm, leaving Gunther and his bride to follow
in a barge up the Rhine.
As Gutrune came out to meet him, he hailed her exultantly, saying
that he had won her as wife when he brought the wild mountain-maid
to her brother. He told her and Hagen the tale of how he had gone
through the fire and found the woman within the enchanted circle,
and had conquered her, and had brought her to Gunther, who had
waited at the foot of the mountain. The only thing that he did not tell
them was that he had torn the Ring from the woman’s finger, and so
vanquished her. Strange to say, he had forgotten that as completely
as he had forgotten his old love for Brünnhilde and his first journey
through the fire. Now, when he looked at the bright circlet on his
finger, he remembered that it was one which he had obtained at
Hate Hole, but had forgotten that it had ever left his hand. So that
was the beginning of more sorrow.
Siegfried and Gutrune went into the hall together, and Hagen called
the vassals about him from far and wide to welcome the bride to her
new home on the Rhine. When the barge came slowly up the river,
strong warriors plunged into the water to meet it, and dragged the
boat close to the shore. From the hall came Gutrune, full of welcome
and kindness. For you know she had no idea it was Brünnhilde
whom she had caused the hero to forget, and she was really glad to
greet her brother’s bride. At her side walked Siegfried, and they were
followed by innumerable women who had come trooping out to
behold the new lady of the Gibichungs.
But, as Gunther led his pale, sad bride from the boat, she suddenly
stood still, trembling and shuddering, and staring with wild,
bewildered eyes at Siegfried. Her voice shook and her face was as
white as death as she asked how he came there with Gutrune; and
when he showed that he had totally forgotten her and looked upon
her only as Gunther’s bride, she staggered and sank into the young
hero’s arms, whispering, faintly and sorrowfully:
“Siegfried knows me not!”
Calling to Gunther to come near, the Volsung pointed to him and
bade poor Brünnhilde arouse herself, for the great chief’s sake. But,
as Siegfried stretched out his hand, she saw the Ring, and, starting
wildly up, asked furiously how he came by it—saying that Gunther
had torn it from her on the Walküres’ rock, and demanding of
Gunther why he had given it to Siegfried.
Now, of course, the Rhine Chief had never even seen the Ring, and
thought, not unnaturally, that Siegfried had taken it from Brünnhilde
and then kept it for himself from a feeling of greed and a desire to
possess it. The young hero, when questioned, merely answered that
it was one he had found at Hate Hole, and that he had won it from no
woman, but a monster worm which he had killed. And he thought
that he was telling the whole truth, for it was all that he could
remember.
But Brünnhilde, who knew nothing of the magic-potion, saw in his
words the deepest and most terrible deceit, and she burst into such
rage and despair that Siegfried declared that he would try to satisfy
her by swearing the Spear-Oath.
So Hagen held out his spear, and Siegfried placed his hand upon the
point and declared by the haft of war that he had never harmed the
woman, or been for a moment false to Gunther, and bade that very
spear bring him death if he had.
Breaking into the circle which the warriors made around Siegfried,
Brünnhilde declared him a traitor and deceiver, and called down the
vengeance of the gods upon his head.
For her heart was broken, poor Brünnhilde! and she hardly knew
what she said or did; so that when Siegfried and the others ceased
trying to pacify her and left her alone with Gunther and Hagen, and
when the latter crept up to her and said that he would avenge her
wrongs and kill the hero who had made her love him and had then
deserted her, she told him how to do it. She said that she had placed
divine spells of protection upon every part of his body except his
back.
“For I knew,” said Brünnhilde, with momentary tenderness, “that he
was too brave to ever, in flight, turn that to an enemy.”
“At his back shall my spear-point strike!” said Hagen, exultantly. “In
his back shall he be wounded unto death!”
Raising her arms towards the sky, Brünnhilde broke into wild,
passionate words of revenge. For she had almost lost her reason
through the shock of sorrow at finding Siegfried false to her, and she
declared that that was the sacrifice that was needed to lift the sorrow
off so many hearts; that was the one great deed that must bring relief
after so much misery. Earth and heaven cried aloud for one thing,
she said—Siegfried’s death.
GUNTHER AND BRÜNNHILDE
As she stood, almost transfigured by her own words, sounds of joy
and merriment drew near, and the wedding procession of Siegfried
and Gutrune passed by. Gunther caught Brünnhilde’s hand and drew
her into the crowd of men and women, and she passed on with the
other bridal couple to be married.
Loudly and merrily rang the laughter, and the sounds of festivity rose
high. But Hagen, like a dark, evil spirit, laughed, because he seemed
at last so near to his desires.

Motif of the Rhine-Maidens’ Prophecy

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Fate Motif
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 CHAPTER IV

ON THE BANKS OF THE RHINE

Where the steep rocks led down to the river Rhine, and the low
shrubs grew in green luxuriance, where the wildest part of the wild
forest was mirrored in the water, came the three water-fairies,
Woglinde, Flosshilde, and Wellgunde, to sing in the quiet, golden
light of the late afternoon. They sang sorrowfully and regretfully of
their lost treasure; they circled like wind-ripples upon the surface of
the Rhine, and tossed the bright drops of water about with a soft,
splashing sound as of tiny bells. The river murmured like a harp
lightly played upon by fairy fingers, and the voices of the nymphs
were as sweet as the tones of the wind moving through the rushes.
To this lovely, magic-haunted spot came Siegfried, looking for a bear
which he had wounded during a hunt, and had tracked through the
woods. The nymphs began to talk to him, and as he answered
merrily they drew nearer to the rock where he stood, telling him that
they would see that he found his bear if he would, in payment, give
them the Ring that he wore upon his finger.
Laughingly, he answered that he had slain a dragon before he could
obtain that Ring, and that it would be foolish to give it up now for the
sake of a bear.
After a few more merry words the nymphs became suddenly serious.
Rising together to the surface of the water, they raised their arms
towards him and spoke solemn words of prophecy. They told him
that sadness awaited him; that the Ring would bring him nothing but
ill-hap; that it was made of the stolen Rhinegold, and that a spell had
been laid upon it that brought sorrow and death to whoever
possessed it.
“As the monster worm fell,” said the Rhine Maidens, slowly, “so will
you fall—and soon! Give it to us, that we may hide it in the river! For
that alone can break the spell.”
And, as Siegfried laughingly shook his head, they continued to plead
still more earnestly. They bade him avoid the spell, saying that its
history had been woven into the Norns’ great rope; that it must be
shunned and feared. But Siegfried scoffed at the Norns and the
rope, and said that Fafner had warned him of this danger long ago;
that he had no fear of his life, and would freely fling that away.
“Farewell, Siegfried!” said the Rhine Maidens, as they turned to
leave him. “A stately woman will soon possess your circlet. She will
better do our bidding. Let us go to her!”
They swam swiftly away, leaving Siegfried laughing on the shore.
For he thought nothing of their words, believing their prophecies to
have been threats because he would not give them what they
wished.
Laughing still, he blew a long call on his horn, which was answered
on all sides by the other hunters, who soon made their appearance,
most of them carrying game of some sort—bear or deer; and Hagen,
who was one of the first to come into the little glen down by the
Rhine, made sport of Siegfried, because he, the best hunter of them
all, had no booty to show for his day’s sport.
Siegfried laughingly told them about the three Rhine Maidens who
had warned him of his approaching death; and Gunther, moving
apart from the others with a curious shadow and sadness on his
face, started terribly, while Hagen merely laughed a harsh,
revengeful laugh.
Gunther did not forget his Oath of Brotherhood; and, though he
believed that Siegfried had deceived him, he hated to harm him, or
allow him to be harmed, without better cause. He shuddered and
shook his head when the young hero brought him the horn of wine.
The rest of the hunters flung themselves down under the trees, and
drank merrily and rested in the deepening golden light of the
afternoon, but Gunther sat apart from them, gloomy and silent, like
one who dreamed sad dreams, and could not arouse himself.
At last, Siegfried, noticing his depression, said that he would tell him
the story of his boyhood, if it would amuse and cheer him.
And sitting down on the stump of a great tree, with his shield and
weapons at his feet, and on all sides the warriors listening eagerly to
his words, the young Volsung began his tale, and Hagen stood near,
leaning on his spear, a look of grim expectation on his dark face.
It was of Mime that Siegfried spoke first, Mime and the life in the
cave; the forging of Nothung, and finally the journey to Hate Hole,
and the slaying of the monster worm, Fafner.
He told how the Dragon’s blood had given him power to understand
the language of birds; and, as he spoke, memories of the soft
woodland voices and the rustling of the trees passed tenderly across
his mind. He told of the winning of the Rhinegold Ring and the
Tarnhelm, of the treachery of Mime, and of how he had killed him
with Nothung.
Then he paused, for Hagen came up to him with a drinking-horn
filled with wine, which he bade him swallow, saying it would help to
clear his memory. Siegfried raised it to his lips and drank, and Hagen
stood near, leaning on his spear, and smiling grimly. For the wine
had in it something that would, indeed, bring back the young hero’s
memory, and Hagen knew that, when he remembered Brünnhilde,
he would be as one deaf and blind to all else, and would so prove an
easy victim.
 HAGEN AND SIEGFRIED

Siegfried put down the drinking-horn, and, after a moment’s silence,

resumed his tale, while the memory of the forest sounds passed
softly and constantly across his brain. He told, in tender tones, how
the bird had sung to him of a glorious bride sleeping amid fire far
away; and of how he had passed through the enchanted flame-
circle, and, with a kiss, awakened her from her long sleep; and he
spoke her name with such love and tenderness that even Hagen’s
wicked heart should have been touched for a moment; but he only
stood leaning on his spear and smiling—always smiling—as one
smiles who has knowledge greater than his fellows.
Gunther started up wildly as Siegfried whispered the name of
“Brünnhilde”; for the Rhine Chief understood all now, and realized in
that short time what deep wickedness it must have been that had
parted the noble Volsung and his bride. There had been no deceit,
no treachery, no broken Oath of Brotherhood—none of the
wickedness had been on the young hero’s side. Gunther dropped his
head in horror.
But Hagen took a step forward.
“See you those Ravens?” he said, slowly, pointing to two great black
birds flying upward from the Rhine. They were Wotan’s King-Ravens,
which had been sent out to bring tidings back to Walhalla, and which
were returning there with news that the Dusk of the Gods was at
hand. Siegfried turned to gaze after them as they flew. It was
growing late. The yellow afternoon light was deepening to red gold.
The sun was setting. The Ravens flew away, their broad black wings
bathed in the ruddy light, and it was like the light of a great fire.
“They arouse in me revenge!” cried Hagen, and he raised his spear
and stabbed the young Volsung in the back. Siegfried staggered
wildly; and then, raising his shield, tried to crush Hagen with it. But
then even his great strength left him, and he fell back upon the
ground, while the warriors drew near with exclamations of horror and
faces on which a great awe had fallen.
“I have been revenged,” said Hagen, and passed up the rocks and
out of sight amid the growing dusk. The sunset was as red as blood
now. There was an ominous look in its lurid light—yet a strange
peace also. It lay on the head and figure of the young hero like a
king’s crown and robe.
AFTER SIEGFRIED’S DEATH
In the hush that had fallen, Siegfried raised himself upon his arm and
spoke.
He spoke of Brünnhilde, his bride; again he seemed to be on the
Walküres’ rock; again she lay before him asleep; again he awakened
her with a kiss. He seemed to look into her eyes, to hear her voice;
she was his once more.
And with the words “Brünnhilde beckons to me! Greeting!” Siegfried
sank back and died. And the last light from the setting sun went out
of the sky.
It was very dark—very dark and silent. The warriors raised the hero
upon their shoulders and bore him up the rocks. After a while the
moon rose, and the pale light touched the helmets of the men and
Siegfried’s armor as the procession passed up through the shadows.
A mist was rising from the Rhine, and it was very still.
Siegfried was dead, the last of his race—the noble race of Volsungs.
He was the bravest of them all, this son of Siegmund and Sieglinde,
who had so loved each other. He had done many great deeds with
his good sword Nothung. He had been a courageous man and the
highest hero in the world, and he had won the love of Brünnhilde, the
noblest woman ever born. And he was dead—Siegfried, the Volsung.

Death Motif
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 Motif of the Dusk of the Gods
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CHAPTER V

THE LAST TWILIGHT

Alone through the great hall of the Gibichungs wandered Gutrune,
awaiting Siegfried’s return from the hunt. Going to Brünnhilde’s
chamber in the hope of finding a companion in her anxiety, she saw
that the room was empty, and remembered that she had seen, some
time before, a woman’s figure descend towards the Rhine. As she
thought of her brother’s wild, strange bride, Gutrune shuddered. She
moved restlessly about the hall, listening for the clear horn-call that
always heralded the coming of the Volsung.
Suddenly, Hagen appeared with a look of triumph on his dark, evil
face; and, directly afterwards, many people came running, in wild
confusion, carrying torches, and lamenting the hero’s death. And,
finally, came the warriors bearing Siegfried upon a great bier.
With wails of anguish, Gutrune flung herself on her knees beside her
hero, and pushed Gunther away wildly when he strove to comfort
her, calling him the murderer of her husband.
But Gunther denied the charge, and pointed to Hagen, accusing him,
in heart-broken tones, of having slain their hero. Hagen answered,
with calm defiance, that he had, indeed, killed Siegfried, and that he
now demanded as booty the Ring that gleamed upon the finger of
the Volsung.
Fiercely, Gunther claimed the circlet for his sister, as widow’s dower.
Hagen sprang forward to attack him, and the half-brothers fought
wildly together for the Rhinegold Ring. At last, with an exultant
gesture, Hagen raised his sword above his head; for, at his feet lay
Gunther, the Gibichung—dead.
“The Ring!” cried the Nibelung’s son, and he sprang to the bier. But,
ere he could touch Siegfried’s hand where gleamed the circlet, it
raised itself threateningly. And even Hagen started back in terror. On
all sides people trembled with fear and horror. Gutrune screamed
wildly as her eyes encountered her brother’s body on the ground.
Into this place of sorrow and confusion came a tall woman, robed in
white, with a face most beautiful in its gentleness and strength; and
before so calm and tender a gaze the crowd parted, as though in
awe, to let the woman pass.
It was Brünnhilde, who had heard from the water-maidens everything
that had happened on the shores of the Rhine. She understood all
now. She understood that he had never been false, knowingly; that
his last loving words had been of her—and her alone. And she had
come, with her great wisdom and her great love, to bring peace to
the turbulent hearts gathered about Siegfried’s bier.
She stood for a long time gazing down on the face of her hero—“The
highest hero of worlds,” she called him. She looked around her and
smiled upon the confusion and sorrow, and, before the tenderness
and solemn sweetness of that smile, the confusion seemed to die
away and the sorrow seemed but as something too small to be
shown.
Piteously, Gutrune sobbed out words of regret for the wrong which
had been done Brünnhilde, and reproached Hagen for his share in
the plot. But Brünnhilde hardly heard.
In slow, solemn tones, she ordered a funeral pyre to be lighted on
the banks of the Rhine, and, bending over Siegfried, she spoke
tenderly of his love and of his nobility and truth.
Then, turning away, she raised her arms on high and broke into
sublime words, in which she reproached Wotan for his wrath, and
added that already his Ravens were on their way to Walhalla to carry
the long-deferred tidings of the last Twilight—so close at hand.
“Rest! Rest! O gods!” she said, softly, and paused. She turned
towards Siegfried again and drew the Ring from his finger. Then she
spoke to the three invisible Rhine children, and told them to take the
circlet from her ashes when she had been burned with her hero.
The pyre was erected now, and Siegfried’s body had been placed
upon it. Grani was led in, and Brünnhilde laid her arm upon his neck
tenderly, and spoke of the warrior who was dead and of the leap into
the flames they were both about to take. Wildly, she seized a torch
and lighted the pyre; and, as the flames rose high, she sprang upon
the horse’s back and raised him for a leap.
“Siegfried! Siegfried! See!” she cried—and her voice echoed both far
and near. “Gladly greets thee thy bride!”
Into the flames sprang Grani, the stanch war-horse, and the Walküre
was gone from the eyes of men forever. But, behold! Her deed
brought release from the sin and sorrow of many years.
The flames, rising high and higher, made a great fiery wall between
the earth and sky. The Rhine Maidens swam up to the shore and
caught a bright circlet lying near in the midst of a heap of ashes.
Hagen, springing after it, was lost in the Rhine’s rushing waters
forever.