In Die Walkure, Wotan, King of the Norse Gods, strips his daughter, the Valkyrie Brunhilde, of immortality for disobeying him. He ultimately grants her eternal protection, but audiences eternally struggle to decipher the plot in Wagner’s four linked Ring operas. For an easier-to-follow story of another bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
