There’s a standard assumption that he’s a bad guy because he’s a basso. For those who look a little further, some dislike him because he forced his wife to marry him. Then came the real assault on opera lovers’ tolerance: he lives in a tree. Now, that’s narrowminded. A long time ago, in other countries, people lived in trees. He even had a big tree with multiple rooms. We ignore, or forget, that Hunding didn’t know he was forcibly marrying the daughter of a god. And at the wedding, when the angry, one-eyed man came in and stuck a sword in the tree, this didn’t seem strange to the guests even though they couldn’t pull it out.

I won’t bother spelling out the virtues of living in a tree. Cognizant readers will decide for themselves. I will elaborate on the real issue.

Hunding is a stand-up guy. He prefers to fight, drink, eat, sleep, cohabitate with his wife, in that order. When his clan summons him for a battle, he picks up his sword and goes — perfectly normal in a primitive warrior society, even admirable if one understands the times (not the London Times, dodo) and the environment.

Well, one day the clan summoned him for battle. He fought well, helped defeat the enemy, and chased one of them through the woods with his fellows to kill him; a traditional end for losers.

So, after a good day’s fighting, he goes home expecting the little woman to greet him with a flagon of ale and a ‘well done, big boy.’ Instead there’s a stranger ogling his wife. He follows the code of hospitality, though he’d rather kick the insolent guy out on his ass and chop him up. He sees the stranger is wounded, obviously in battle, but at first doesn’t say anything about it.

Once the guest is fed, he asks him who he is. In a growing tale of sorrow, arrogance and defiance, the stranger, still ogling Hunding’s wife, reveals he is an enemy. Again, following the code, he lets the guest have a good night’s sleep, but they will fight in the morning.

I won’t go into what happens when Hunding is sleeping. A mickey in his drink gets him out of the way for extramarital conjunction between guest and wife. In the morning, Hunding wakes, does his pre-fight business, faces the enemy ogler, and is about to be defeated by the arranger with a mega sword with the help of a demigoddess, when a god shatters his enemy’s sword. Hunding stabs him to death and the god kills Hunding by pointing his spear at him.

So, what did Hunding do to deserve this fate? He married the wrong girl, but lots of guys do that. He did his duty to his clan, offered hospitality to an undesirable, and just because of an old prophecy that has nothing to do with him, he dies. Is that fair?

Some could rightly assert that Hunding is an honorable warrior who unknowingly picked a god’s daughter. It took a while, but he got his according to the old adage, ‘you don’t mess with the gods.’ All things considered, Hunding may be the innocent victim of the fickle finger of fate. But he’s not really a bad guy. He’s an honest man defending his wife and home, who happened, without his knowing it, to get in the way of a curse.