Weialala

The song of the Rhinemaidens in Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), final part of the Ring of the Nibelung cycle (1876).

The Rhinemaidens are spirits of the river, water nymphs who guard the Rhinegold. This gold can be made into a ring that will give the owner absolute power, but only at the cost of renouncing love forever. The Rhinemaidens' teasing of the love-lorn dwarf Alberich, who  angers him into paying this price, and he is able to steal the gold.

Wotan, king of the gods, is fearful of Alberich's new power, and tricks him out of the ring; Alberich curses the ring, which will bring death to its future owners. Wotan is then forced to give the ring to the giants Fasolt and Fafner in payment for the building of the fortress of Valhalla; the curse leads to Fafner killing Fasolt for the ring.

Wotan decides that he must retrieve the ring before it is used against him, and fathers heroic twin children to do this for him. The twins (Siegmund and Sieglinde) die, but not before producing a child, Siegfried. The orphan hero kills Fafner and takes the ring: but instead of giving it to Wotan, he promises it to Brünnhilde, Wotan's Valkyrie daughter, with whom he has fallen in love.

Siegfried is tricked into betraying Brünnhilde, and he is once again wearing the ring when he encounters the Rhine maidens. They flirt with him, but warn him he will die if he does not return the ring to the waters. He ignores their warning, and is murdered by Alberich's son. Before the killer is able to take the ring from Siegfried's finger, Brünnhilde appears: she takes the ring, then throws herself onto Siegfried's funeral pyre. The fire cleanses the ring, which is returned to the Rhine; but the flames also climb to Valhalla, destroying the gods.

The theme of The Ring is love and power, and the impossibility of having both. In The Waste Land, the flirtatious water nymphs, relocated to the River Thames, appear to have neither.

The three Thamesmaidens take turns to tell tales of their experiences, as the river goes through London to the sea: the first recalls having regrettable sex on the river by Richmond; the second of a broken relationship in Moorgate; the third of complete loss of connection on the beach at Margate.

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