This book traces Richard Wagner's literary activities as he prepared for, and then created, the libretti of his monumental music drama Der Ring des Nibelungen. The book opens with a review of Wagner's creative work prior to 1848, the year in which he wrote the composition that would serve as a guide-plan for the lengthy Ring. Special focus is made on this guide-plan, a comparison of the two available English translations, a new English translation, and the original document in German. Detailed attention is given the two distinct endings of the Ring and the numerous textual changes that Wagner made within the final scene of the work.