I have always enjoyed Wagner's music, but not so much the opera which I find difficult to follow; when given the task to illustrate the ring cycle itself as an aid to Shaw's text, I rediscovered the words of Wagner's masterpiece. In fact, Der Ring des Nibelungen haunted me for several months afterward, so in the end I decided to study, read many books on the subject, to finally translate the ring cycle into modern prose; laboring to make it even more enjoyable for the reader, with illustrations featuring political figures of our time. Shaw's comment/characterization served the translator well in transcribing Wagner's operatic ring cycle into fictional story about Norse gods, demigods, dwarfs and Yes! a dragon. Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung Dwarf), was a big influence on J. R. R. Tolkien whose The Lord of the Rings was directly and heavily derived from Richard Wagner's ring cycle, in which Wagner proposed to produce a myth in three complete dramas, preceded by a lengthy prelude; though already famous for his music, Wagner proved in this masterpiece that he was much more than a composer.