The Legend of Loreley

More about The Legend of Loreley

The Loreley rock (also spelled Lorelei) is located in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley near Sankt Goarshausen in Germany. The valley was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002. The steep slate rock watches over a part of the river Rhine that is considered very dangerous because of its narrow bends and rocky ground. To this day, ships are being guided by light signals to avoid accidents.

The rock inspired various local legends because it produced a strong echo effect. Etymologists are not sure where and how the name Loreley originated. In earlier times, the rock was also called “Lurlaberch”, “Lurley” or “Lureley”. Up until the 19th century the name had a male German article – this probably changed when the legends of the female siren Loreley emerged. “Ley” is a celtic word meaning rock and it was also used in German dialects of the area. “Lur” seems to have various different meanings – it could mean “loud”, or “to lurk”, or be referring to “Luren”, meaning dwarves and elves. This would mean Loreley rock could be translated to elven rock.

In Clemens Brentano’s ( (1778-1842, an author of the German Romanticist movement) romantic ballad, published in 1801, "Lore Lay" is a beautiful woman adored by many men. She is said to be causing their deaths by bewitching them and is brought before a bishop. She explains that she is suffering from unrequited love for a man who will not return to her, and therefore wishes to die. Instead of convicting her for using magic, the bishop too is enchanted by her beauty and sends her to a nunnery to atone for her sins. On the way there Lore Lay and the three knights guarding her pass the rock by the river Rhine. Lore Lay asks to climb it one last time to look out for her unfaithful lover, believes to spot him on a ship and falls to her death. The knights follow her, and so her name has been echoing from the rock ever since.

This way Brentano created an explanation for the echo effect around the Rhine rock in a time without any science.

https://www.regionalgeschichte.net/bibliothek/aufsaetze/kober-katrin/kober-the-legend-of-loreley.html?L=1

There is also a well-known folk song by the famous German poet Heinrich Heine from 1824 about the Lorelei, which translates as follows:

I don't know what it means,
That I am so sad;
A fairy tale from old times,
I can't get it out of my head.

The air is cool and it's getting dark,
And the Rhine flows quietly;
The peak of the mountain sparkles
In the evening sunshine.

The most beautiful maiden sits
Up there wonderfully
Her golden jewelry sparkles,
She combs her golden hair.

She combs it with a golden comb,
and sings a song as she does so;
It has a wondrous,
Powerful melody.

The boatman in the small boat
Is seized with wild pain;
He doesn't look at the rocky reefs,
He just looks up into the heights.

I think the waves will swallow
The boatman and the boat in the end;
And that is what Lore-Ley did with her singing.