What does “Nothung” mean in Ulysses?
Nothung is the magic sword in Wagner's opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. Stephen cries “Nothung!” in Circe as he raises his ashplant, like a sword, and smashes the brothel's chandelier to drive away his mother's ghost.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 15, Circe. Stephen, at the climax of Circe, in Bella Cohen's music room.
STEPHEN: Nothung!
What it means in plain English
Joyce's stage direction turns the act into an apocalypse: “Time's livid final flame leaps and, in the following darkness, ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppling masonry.”
In fact Stephen only damages a lampshade. Bella demands ten shillings; Bloom throws down a shilling and insists there is not sixpenceworth of damage.
Literary context
In Wagner's Siegfried, the hero reforges Nothung and kills the dragon. Stephen casts himself as Siegfried.
References
- Ulysses, Episode 15, “Circe”
- Richard Wagner, Siegfried (1876)
- Don Gifford with Robert J. Seidman, Ulysses Annotated (revised edition, 1988)
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Questions readers ask
What is Stephen's ashplant?
His walking stick, which he carries all day.
Related terms
Non serviam
“Non serviam” is Latin for “I will not serve”, the words traditionally given to Lucifer when he rebelled against God. Stephen shouts it at his mother's ghost in Circe, refusing again to kneel and pray. It is his defiance in its purest form.
Bella Cohen
Bella Cohen is the madam of the brothel at 82 Tyrone Street where Circe reaches its climax. In Bloom's hallucination she changes into Bello, a man who humiliates him. She is Joyce's Circe, the enchantress who turns men into swine.
Nighttown
Dublin's red-light district and the setting of 'Circe' (Episode 15), where the day's repressed thoughts erupt into hallucination.