Lorelei nymph Print

Near Sankt Goarshausen, in the most beautiful part of the Rhine valley, the river turns into a sharp curve to the right and on the inside of this curve rises a steep rock, called Lorelei (or Loreley). Today, the Rhine flows quietly at this point, but the sailors on the numerous freight ships that pass there surely know the myth of the Lorelei and know that the Rhine has not always been as harmless as it seems today. The beauty of nature along with its deadly danger was instead an irresistible attraction for the poets of romanticism. The first who felt inspired by the place was the poet Clemens Brentano who, in 1801, wrote the ballad "Lore Lay" about a woman who, due to her irresistible force of attraction on men, is considered a sorceress and who finally, for the pain of love is thrown from the rock Lorelei into the river. This ballad inspired other poets to invent new imaginative stories around that beautiful, but unfortunate woman. The most famous of these poems is undoubtedly that of 1824 by Heinrich Heine. Especially in the version set to music by Friedrich Silcher (in 1837) it became one of the best known poems in German literature, even abroad. Heinrich Heine's poem tells of a beautiful woman who sits high on the rock, combing her blond hair and attracting men to her with her song and looks. The sailors distracted by the song and the beauty of the woman no longer pay attention to the snares of the river and are shipwrecked.