Lorelei
St. Goar | |
Coordinates | 50°08′22″N 7°43′44″E / 50.13944°N 7.72889°E |
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The Lorelei (
It has been an infamous maritime disaster site since its first records during the 10th century, with a varied mythos, ranging from dwarfs to a siren trying to explain the high number of ship wrecks and the loud echo inside the passage.[2]
Etymology
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Burg_Katz_und_Loreley.jpg/250px-Burg_Katz_und_Loreley.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Loreley_LOC.jpg/250px-Loreley_LOC.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Loreley.jpg/250px-Loreley.jpg)
The name comes from the old German words lureln,
After the
Original folklore and modern myth
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Heine_Bronx_1.jpg/220px-Heine_Bronx_1.jpg)
The rock and the murmur it creates have inspired various tales. An old legend envisioned dwarfs living in caves in the rock.
In 1801, German author Clemens Brentano composed his ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine as part of a fragmentary continuation of his novel Godwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter. It first told the story of an enchanting woman associated with the rock. In the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way thereto, accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Lorelei rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so, and, thinking that she sees her love in the Rhine, falls to her death; the rock ever afterward retaining an echo of her name. Brentano had taken inspiration from Ovid and the Echo myth.
In 1824,
The Lorelei character, although originally imagined by Brentano, passed into German popular culture in the form described in the Heine–Silcher song and is commonly but mistakenly believed to have originated in an old folk tale. The French writer Guillaume Apollinaire took up the theme again in his poem "La Loreley", from the collection Alcools which is later cited in Symphony No. 14 (3rd movement) of Dmitri Shostakovich. The character continues to be referenced in pop culture, such as the 1998 Eagle-Eye Cherry single "When Mermaids Cry."[6]
Accidents
A barge carrying 2,400 tons of
Gallery
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The Lorelei rock in the Rhine Gorge
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Sign on the bank of the Rhine
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Ice at the Lorelei in the winter of 1928/29
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The Lorelei in fog
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Ship accident near the Lorelei, January 2011
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Lorelei seen from the viewpoint Maria Ruh
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Lorelei rock viewed from the river
See also
References
- ^ Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Upper Middle Rhine Valley". UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
- ^ "Märchen - Märchenland Deutschland - Märchen der Romantik - Goethe-Institut". www.goethe.de. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- ^ Loreley - Ein Beitrag zur Namendeutung Archived 2006-06-15 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed June 16, 2006.
- ^ Note: A scan of the sheet music and lyrics (printed in 1859; note the spelling "Lorelei") are available on the commons in three images: File:Lorelei1.gif, File:Lorelei2.gif, File:Lorelei3.gif
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Eagle-Eye Cherry. "When Mermaids Cry". Retrieved 21 February 2024.
- ^ Mara, Darren; Illmer, Andreas (13 January 2011). "Tanker carrying acid capsizes in Germany's Rhine River". Deutsche Welle.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Loreley Information about the Lorelei rock and surrounding area
- Die Lorelei – Heinrich Heine's poem with English translation
- The Lorelei – Translation of the tale, from Ludwig Bechstein's German Saga Book
- Recordings from the