They're tough, they're tuned-in, they're a little bit obsessed.

Diehard Wagnerian fans who assemble wherever "The Ring" is performed are called Ringheads, and often you can tell them by their plastic horned helmets with the long blond braids. Or their Wagner T-shirts, or their credit-card bills (as they fly from Bayreuth, Germany, to Chicago or Seattle or any of several places "The Ring" is performed).

They gather to hear one of the great cultural monuments of all time — all 17 hours of it, spread out over four nights (usually within a single week, as composer Richard Wagner intended). And Ringheads aren't the only ones who are drawn to Wagner: only Hitler and Shakespeare have attracted so many biographers, analysts and apologists.

A Chicago writer called the Ringheads "fans whose devotion to Wagner's operas dwarfs even that of the Grateful Dead's Deadheads." They're not necessarily rich, although like Seattle's Heidi Herrmann, they consider "The Ring" special enough to justify whatever it takes to get there. Herrmann, like many Wagnerites, started listening to opera as a youngster: "My father played the old 78 rpm recordings for me, and had me read the Edda [Old Norse sagas, one of Wagner's major sources for his 'Ring']."

Herrmann has heard 30 "Rings" thus far, including every Seattle Opera production and productions as far afield as New York and Arizona. Next year, she's hoping for Bayreuth, the holy of Wagnerian holies where Der Meister himself produced the first "Ring" performances. She attended so many Seattle "Ring" rehearsals that former general director Glynn Ross advised her to "just bring a mattress and stay here." The German-born fan has hosted many German "Ring" singers who are happy to have a little taste of the old country while in Seattle.

"It's all over so soon," lamented Herrmann of "The Ring." That's not a viewpoint you hear very often, not with these lengthy operas, but it's a measure of Herrmann's Wagnerian devotion.

Rosemarie Anderson might have imbibed "The Ring" through the atmosphere: She was born about 50 miles from Bayreuth. An early devotee of Wagner, she met an American stationed in Germany who knew more about Wagner than she did — love at first sight. Before their marriage, they went to the Bayreuth "Ring" together.

The couple moved to Seattle in 1979, and Anderson later joined the Seattle Opera board ("I'm very, very committed, and I think the Seattle Opera 'Ring' is the best there is." This year she's actually attending two of the three cycles (a cycle is the complete four "Ring" operas).

Anderson is a member of WAM (Wagner and More), a society that now has more than 100 members who flock together not only for study groups but for social fun. Membership is open to any Seattle Opera patron who is both a donor and a subscriber.

"We are ambassadors. We answer questions and will have a hospitality desk [in the McCaw Hall lobby, during "The Ring"]. We'll act as hosts to the screening of the movie."

The movie in question is "The Life of Richard Wagner," a rare 1913 silent film presented by the Wagner scholar Dr. Paul Fryer (Aug. 11, 19 and 27). The shows start at 7 p.m. in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall inside McCaw Hall; tickets are $20, at 206-389-7676.

Does Anderson wear the horned helmet with the flaxen braids that seems to be for sale in nearly every opera boutique?

She laughs.

"Well, I own one, but right now it's in a grandchild's toy box. I don't plan on wearing it."

Melinda Bargreen, Seattle Times music critic