Götterdämmerung
Noun.
A collapse (as of a society or regime) marked by catastrophic violence and disorder; broadly, downfall.
[Origin: German, literally, twilight of the gods, from Götter (plural of Gott god) + Dämmerung twilight.]
(1909)
“The story he could have summarized if he had to. There was no need to read those last five chapters. The First Heaven was about the world before there were people in it. No people, no animals, and no birds, only sea creatures and insects, the whole ruled over by gods and goddesses, some with well-known names, some invented, but all with an Old Testament flavor. These deities behaved like human beings in that they loved and hated, committed crimes and performed heroic deeds, but were apparently immortal and therefore could watch the process of evolution, the gradual change of the tiny swimming things into land creatures and flying creatures. As the millennia passed, the gods foresaw the appearance on earth of man by a process of evolution but were powerless to stop it, though they knew it would mean an end to their immortality. It would mean a Götterdämmerung.” – Not in the Flesh, Ruth Rendell.
I always thought it meant ‘very loud opera with horns on heads’.
Yes, Kengi, that’s also my first association.
The mildly deranged penguin says Wagner meant it to be a relatively quiet opera, full of mournful sobbing and laments as a world without cheese fades away. However, he apparently misinterpreted her suggestion to include a sprightly bagpipe reel, celebrating the absence of peas, resulting in the horned monstrosity known today. (She think the horns have something to do with horses, but by that point had consumed so much bière she doesn’t really recall what Richard had slurred.)