Graf von Loeben and the Legend of Lorelei Part 3

[54] In _Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon_, Munchen, 1914, p. 271. It is significant that Kruger makes this statement, for the subt.i.tle of his book Is "Biographisches und bibliographisches Handbuch mit Motivubersichten und Quellennachweisen." And it is, on the whole, an extremely useful book.

[55] It is impossible to see how Brandes can lay great stress on the fact that this rhyme occurs in both poems. The following rhymes are found on the following pages of the Elster edition, Vol. I, of Heine's works: "Spitze-Blitze" (36), "sitzen-nutzen" (116), "Witzen-nutzen" (124), "sitzen-blitzen" (216), "erhitzet-bespitzet" (242), "Blitz-Sitz" (257), "blitzt-gestutzt"

(276), "blitze-besitze" (319), "blitzet-gespitzet" (464). And in Loeben's poems the rhyme is equally common. The first strophe of his _Ferdusi_ runs as follows:

h.e.l.l erglanzt an Persiens Throne Wo der grosse Mahmud sitzt; Welch Juwel ist's, das die Krone So vor allen schon umblitzt.

And in Schreiber's saga we have in juxtaposition, the words. "Blitze" and "Spitze." The rhyme "Sitze-Blitze" occurs in Immanuel's "Lorelei," quoted by Seeliger, p. 31.

[56] There are, to be sure, only 114 words in Loeben's ballad if we count "um's," "dir's," and "glaub's" as three words and not six.

[57] These numbers are in the Columbia Library.

[58] During these years Heine's letters are dated from Gottingen, Berlin, Gnesen, Berlin, Munster, Berlin, Luneburg, Hamtburg, Ritzenb.u.t.tel, and Luneburg. During these same years Loeben was in Dresden and he was ill.

[59] We need only to mention such a strophe as the following from _Atta Troll_:

Klang das nicht wie Jugendtraume.

Die ich traumte mit Chamisso Und Brentano und Fouque In den blauen Mondscheinnachten?

See Elster edition, II, 421. The lines were written in 1843.

[60] The first edition of Karl Simrock's _Rheinsagen_ came out in 1836. This was not accessible. The edition of 1837, "zweite, vermehrte Auflage," contains 168 poems, 572 pages; this contains Simrock's "Ballade von der Lorelei." The edition of 1841 also contains Simrock's "Der Teufel und die Lorelei." The book contains 455 pages, 218 poems. The sixth edition (1809) contains 231 poems.

In all editions the poems are arranged in geographical order from Sudersee to Graubunden. Alexander Kaufmann's _Quellenangaben und Bemerkungen zu Kart Simrocks Rheinsagen_ throws no new light on the Lorelei-legend.

[61] Cf. _Heinrich Heines samtliche Werke_, edited by Walzel, Frankel, Krahe, Leitzmann, and Peterson. Leipzig. 1911, II, 408. So far as I have looked into the matter, Walzel stands alone in this belief, though Mucke, as has been pointed out above, antic.i.p.ated him in the statement that Heine drew on Schreiber in this case. But Mucke thinks that Heine also knew Loeben.

[62] The reference in question reads as follows: "Ich will kein Wort verlieren uber den Wert dieses unverdaulichen Machwerkes [_Les Burgraves_], das mit allen moglichen Pratensionen auftritt, namentlich mit historischen, obgleich alles Wissen Victor Hugos uber Zeit und Ort, wo sein Stuck spielt, lediglich aus der franzosischen Uebersetzung von Schreibers _Handbuch fur Rheinreisende_ geschopft, ist." This was written March 20, 1843 (see Elster edition, VI. 344).

[63] Aloys Wilhelm Schreiber (1763-1840) was a teacher in the Lyceum at Baden-Baden (1800-1802), professor of aesthetics at Heidelberg (1802-13) where he was intimate with the Voss family, historiographer at Karlsruhe (1813-26), and in 1826 he retired and became a most prolific writer. He interested himself in guidebooks for travelers. His manuals contain maps, distances, expense accounts, historical sketches, in short, about what the modern _Baedeker_ contains with fewer statistics and more popular description. His books appeared in German, French, and English. In 1812 he published his _Handbuch fur Reisende am Rhein von Schaffhausen bis Holland_, to give only a small part of the wordy t.i.tle, and in 1818 he brought out a second, enlarged edition of the same work with an appendix containing 17 _Volkssagen aus den Gegenden am Rhein und am Taunus_, the sixteenth of which is ent.i.tled "Die Jungfrau auf dem Lurley." His books were exceedingly popular in their day and are still obtainable. Of the one here in question, Von Weech (_Allgem. deut. Biog._, x.x.xII, 471) says: "Sein _Handbuch fur Reisende am Rhein_, dessen Anhang eine wertvolle Sammlung rheinischer Volkssagen enthalt, war lange der beliebteste Fuhrer auf Rheinreisen." There are 7 volumes of his manuals in the New York Public Library, and one, _Traditions populaires du Rhin,_ Heidelberg, 1830 (2d ed.), is in the Columbia Library. It contains 144 legends and beautiful engravings. (The writer has just [October 15, 1915] secured the four Volumes of Schreiber's _Rheinische Geschichten und Sagen_. The fourth volume, published in 1830. is now a very rare book.)

[64] The remainder of Schreiher's plot is as follows: The news of the infatuated hero's death so grieved the old Count that ho determined to have the Lorelei captured, dead or alive. One of his captains, aided by a number of brave followers, set out on the hazardous expedition. First, they surround the rock on which the Lorelei sits, and. then three of the most courageous ascend to her seat and determine to kill her, so that the danger of her repealing her former deed maybe forever averted. But when they reach her and she h.o.a.rs what they intend to do, she simply smiles and invokes the aid of her Father, who immediately sends two white horses--two white waves--up the Rhine, and. after leaping down to the Rhine, she is safely carried away by these. She was never again seen, but her voice was frequently heard as she mocked, in echo, the songs of the sailors on her paternal stream.

[65] It is not simply in the appendix of Schreiber's _Handbuch_ that he discusses the legend of Lorelei, but also in the scientific part of it. Concerning the Lorelei rock he says (pp. 174-75): "Ein wunderbarer Fels schiebt sich jetzt dem Schiffer gleichsam in seine Bahn--es ist der Lurley (von Lure, Lauter, und Ley, Schiefer) aus welchem ein Echo den Zuruf der Vorbeifahrendem funfzehnmal wiederholt. Diesen Schieferfels bewohnte in grauen Zeiten eine Undine, welche die Schiffenden durch ihr Zurufen ins Verderben lockte."

[66] Brockhaus says (p. xxiv): "Die einfache Sage von den beiden feindlichen Brudern am Rhein, van denen die Trummer ihrer Burgen selbst noch _Die Bruder_ heissen ist in A. Schreiber's Auswahl von Sagen jener Gegenden zu lesen." Usener's tragedy is published In full in this number of _Urania_, pp. 383-442.

[67] Cf. Elster edition, IV, 406-9. The circ.u.mstantial way in which Heine retells this story is almost sufficient to lead one to believe that he had Schreiber at hand when he wrote this part of Elementargeister; but he says that he did not.

[68] Discussion as to the first conception of Heine's _Rabbi_ are found in: _Heinrich Heines Fragment_; _Der Rabbi von Bacharach_, by Lion Feuchtw.a.n.ger, Munchen, 1907; _Heinrich Heine und Der Rabbi von Bacharach_, by Gustav Karpeles, Wien, 1895.

[69] The poem is one of the _Junge Leiden_, published in 1821, Elster (I, 490) says: "Eine bekannte Sage, mit einzelnen vielfach wiederkehrenden uralten Zugen, dargestellt In Simrocks _Rheinsagen_." Simrock had, of course, done nothing on the _Rheinsagen_ in 1821, being then only nineteen years old and an inconspicuous student at Bonn. Walzel says (I. 449.): "Mit einem andern Ausgang ist die Sage in dem von Heine vielbenutzten _Handbuch fur Reisende am Rhein_ von Aloys Schreiber (Heidelberg, 1816) uberliefert." The edition of this work in the New York Public Library has no printed date, but 1818 is written in. Walzel may be correct. The outcome of Heine's poem is, after all, not so different: In Schreiber, both brothers relinquish their clalms to the girl and remain unmarried; in Heine the one kills the other and in this way neither wins the girl.

[70] It is the same story as the one told by Bulwer-Lytton in his _Pilgrims of the Rhine_. chap. xxiv.

[71] All through the body of Schreiber's _Handbuch_, there are references to the places and legends mentioned in Heine's _Rabbi_. On Bacharach there is the following: "Der Reisende, wenn er auch nur eine Stunde in Bacharach verweilt, unterla.s.se nicht, die Ruinen von Staleck zu besteigen, wo eine der schonsten Rheinlandschaften sich von seinen Blicken aufrollt. Die Burg von sehr betrachtlichem Umfang scheint, auf den Trummern eines Romerkastells erbaut. Die, welche die Entstehung derselben den Hunnen zuschreiben, well sie in Urkunden den Namen Stalek.u.m hat, sind in einem Irrtum befangen, denn Stalek.u.m oder Stalek heisst eben so viel als Stalbuhl, oder ein Ort, wo ein Gericht gehegt wurde. Pfalzgraf Hermann von Staleck, starb im 12ten Jahrhundert; er war der letzte seines Stammes, und von ihm kam die Burg, als Kolnisches Lehen, an Konrad Von Staufen."

[72] To come back to Heine and Loeben, Herm. Anders Kruger says (p., 147) in his _Pseudoromantik:_ "Heinrich Heine, der uberhaupt Loeben studiert zu haben scheint," etc. He offers no proof. If one wished to make out a case for Loeben, it could bo done with his narrative poem "Ferdusi" (1817) and Heine's "Der Dichter Ferdusi."

Both tell about the same story; but each tells a story that was familiar in romantic circles.

[73] In reply to a letter addressed to Professor Elster on October 4, 1914, the writer received the following most kind reply on November 23: "Die Frage, die Sie an mich richten ist leicht beantwortet: Heine hat Loeben in seinen Schriften nicht erwahnt, aber das besagt nicht viel; er hat manchen benutzt, den er nicht nennt. Und es kann _gar keinem Zweifel unterliegen_, da.s.s Loeben fur die Lorelei Heines _unmittelbares_ Vorbild ist; darauf habe ich ofter hingewiesen, aber wohl auch andere. Das Taschenbuch _Urania_ fur das Jahr 1821, wo Loebens Gedicht u. Novelle zuerst erschienen, ist unserem Dichter zweifellos zu Gesicht gekommen." No one can view Professor Elster in any other light than as an eminent authority on Heine, but his certainty here must be accepted with reserve, and his "wohl auch andere" is, in view of the fact that, he was by no means the first, and certainly not the last, to make this a.s.sertion, a trifle disconcerting.

[74] The ultimate determining of sources is an ungrateful theme. Some excellent suggestions on this subject are offered by Hans Rohl in his _Die altere Romantik und die Kunst des jungen Goethe_, Berlin, 1909, pp. 70-72. This work was written under the general leaders.h.i.+p of Professor Elster. The disciple would, in this case, hardly agree with the master. p.i.s.sin likewise speaks wisely in discussing the influence of Novalis on Loeben in his monograph on the latter, pp. 97-98. and 129-30. And Heine himself (Elster edition, V. 294) says in regard to the question whether Hegel did borrow so much from Sch.e.l.ling: "Nichts ist lacherlicher als das reklamierte Eigentumsrecht an Ideen." He then shows how the ideas were not original with Sch.e.l.ling either; he had them from Spinoza. And it is just so here. Brentano started the legend; Heine goes back to him indirectly. Eichenidorff and Vogt directly; Schreiber borrowed from Vogt, Loeben from Schreiber, and Heine from Schreiber--and thereafter it would be impossible to say who borrowed from whom.

[75] The majority of the _Loreleidichtungen_ can be found in: _Opern-Handbuch_, by Hugo Riemann, Leipzig, 1886: _Zur Geschichte der Marchenoper_, by Leopold Schmidt, Halle, 1895; _Die Loreleysage in Dichtung und Musik_, by Hermann Seeliger, Leipzig, 1898. Seeliger took the majority of his t.i.tles from _Na.s.sau in seinen Sagen, Geschichten und Liedern_, by Henniger, Wiesbaden, 1845. At least he says so, but one is inclined to doubt the statement, for "die meisten Balladen" have been written since 1845. Seeliger's book is on the whole unsatisfactory. He has, for example, Schreiber improving on, and remodeling Loeben's saga; but Schreiber was twenty-three years older than Loeben, and wrote his saga at least three years before Loeben wrote his.

[76] In F. Grater's _Idunna und Hermode, eine Alterthumszeitung_, Breslau, 1812, pp. 191-92, Grater gives under the heading, "Die Bildergallerie des Rheins." thirty well-known German sagas. The twenty-seventh is "Der Lureley: Ein Gegenstuck zu der Fabel von der Echo." It is the version of Vogt.

[77] Aside from the above, some of the less important authors of lyrics, ballads, dramas, novels, etc., on the Lorelei-theme are: J. Bartholdi, H. Bender, H. Berg, J. P. Berger, A. H. Bernard, G. Conrad, C. Doll, L. Elchrodt, O. Fiebach, Fr. Forster, W. Fournier, G. Freudenberg, W. Freudenberg, W. Genth, K. Geib, H. Grieben, H. Gruneberg, G. Gurski, Henriette Heinze-Berg, A. Henniger, H. Hersch, Mary Koch, Wilhelmine Lorenz, I. Mappes, W. Molitor, Fr. Mucke, O. W. Notzsch, Luise Otto, E. Ruffer, Max Schaffroth, Luise Frelin von Sell, E. A. W. Siboni, H. Steinheuer, Adelheid von Stolterfoth, A. Storm, W. von Waldbruhl, L. Werft, and others even more obscure than these.

[78] In Menco Stern's _Geschichten vom Rhein_, the story is told so as to connect the legend of the Lorelei with the treasures of the _Nibelungenlied_. In this way we have gold in the mountain, wine around it, a beautiful woman on it--what more could mortal wish? Sympathy! And this the Lorelei gives him in the echo. In reply to an inquiry, Mr. Stern very kindly wrote as follows: "The facts given in my _Geschichten vom Rhein_ are all well known to German students; and especially those mentioned in my chapter 'Lorelay' can bo verified in the book: _Der Rhein_ von Philipp F. W. Oertel (W. O. v. Horn) who was, I think, the greatest authority on the subject of the Rhine." Oertel is not an authority. In Eduard-Prokosch's _German for Beginners_, the version of Schreiber was used, as is evident from the lines spoken by the Lorelei to her Father:

Vater, Vater, geschwind, geschwind.

Die weissen Rosse schick' deinem Kind, Es will reiten auf Wogen und Wind.

These verses are worked into a large number of the ballads, and since they are Schreiber's own material, his saga must have had great general influence.

[79] There would be no point in listing all of the books on the legends of the Rhine that treat the story of the Lorelei. Three, however, are important, since it is interesting to see how their compilers were not satisfied with one version of the story, but included, as becomes evident on reading them, the versions of Brentano, Schreiber, Loeben, and Heine: _Der Rhein: Geschichten und Sagen_, by W. O. von Horn, Stuttgart, 1866, pp. 207-11; _Legends of the Rhine_, by H. A. Guerber, New York, 1907, pp: 199-206; _Eine Sammlung von Rhein-Sagen_, by A. Hermann Bernard, Wiesbaden, no year, pp. 225-37.

[80] Mrs. Caroline M. Sawyer wrote a poem ent.i.tled "The Lady of Lorlei. A Legend of the Rhine." It is published in _The female Poets of America_, by Rufus Wilmot Griswold, New York, 1873, p. 221. This is not the first edition of this work, nor is it the original edition of Mrs. Sawyer's ballad. It is an excellent poem. Fr. Hoebel set it to music, and Adolf Strodtmann translated it into German, because of its excellence, and included it in his _Amerikanische Anthologie_. It was impossible to determine just when Mrs. Sawyer wrote her poem. The writer is deeply indebted to Professor W. B. Cairns, of the department of English in the University of Wisconsin, who located the poem for him.

[81] Cf. _Otto Ludwigs gesammelte Schriften_, edited by Adolf Stern, Leipzig, 1801, I. 69, 107, 114.

[82] It has been impossible to determine just when Sucher (1789-1860) set Heine's ballad to music, but since he was professor of music at the University of Tubingen from 1817 on, and since he became interested in music while quite young, it is safe to a.s.sume that he wrote his music for "Die Lorelei" soon after its publication. The question is of some importance by way of finding out just when the ballad began to be popular. Strangely enough, there is nothing on Silcher in Hobert Eitner's compendious _Quellen-Lexicon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten der christlichen Zeitrechnung_, Leipzig, 1900-1904. Heine's ballad is included in the _Allgemeines deutsches Commersbuch unter musikalischer Redaktion von Fr. Silcher und Fr. Erck_, Stra.s.sburg, 1858 (17th ed.), but the date of composition is not given.

[83] In _Pauls Grundriss der germanischen Philologie_, I, 1039, Mogk says: "Die Weiblichen Nixen bezaubern durch ihren Gesang, die Loreley und ahnliche Sagen mogen hierin ihre Wurzel haben." The only trouble is, no one has thus far unearthed this saga.

[84] Wilhelm Hertz gives (pp.229-30) instances of this so that uncertainty as to its accuracy is removed. The pa.s.sages are striking in that they concern the "Lorberg" and the "Lorleberg."

[85] In chap, XV Eichendorff introduces the ballad as follows: "Leontin, der wenig darauf achtgab, begann folgendes Lied uber ein am Rheine bekanntes Marchen." The reference can be only to Brentano, despite the fact that the first two lines are so strongly reminiscent of Goethe's "Erlkonig." Eichendorff and Brentano became acquainted in Heidelberg and then in Berlin they were intimate. There is every reason to believe that Eichendorff knew Bretano's "Rheinmarchen" in ma.n.u.script form. For the relation of the two, see the Kosch edition of Eichendorff's works. _Briefe_ and _Tagebucher,_ Vols. XI-XIII.

[86] Niklas Vogt included, to be sure, in his _Jugendphantasien uher die Sagen des Rheins_ (_ca._ 1811) an amplified recapitulation in prose of Brentano's ballad. Schreiber knew this work, for in his _Handbuch_ there is a bibliography of no fewer than ten pages of "Schriften, welche auf die Rheingegend Bezug haben." So far as one can determine such a matter from mere t.i.tles, the only one of these that could have helped him in the composition of his Lorelei-saga is: _Rheinische Geschichten und Sagen_, von Niklas Vogt. Frankfurt am Main, 1817, 6 Bande.

[87] Eduard Thorn says (p. 89): "Man darf annehmen, da.s.s Heine die Ballade Brentano's kennen gelernt hat, da.s.s er aus ihr den Namen entlehnte, wobei ihm Eichendorff die Fa.s.sung 'Lorelei' lieferte, und das ihm erst Loebens Auffa.s.sung der Sage zur Gestaltung verhelfen hat." It sounds like a case of _ceterum censeo_, but Thorn's argument as to Brentano and Heine is so thin that this statement too can be looked upon only as a weakly supported hypothesis.

[88] Cf. Raimund p.i.s.sin's monograph, pp. 73-74.

[89] There are about two thousand words in Schreiber's saga, and about five thousand in Loeben's.

[90] It must be remembered that Schreiber's manuals are written in an attractive style: his purpose was not simply to instruct, but to entertain. And it was not simply the legends of the Rhine and its tributaries, but those of the whole of Western Germany that he wrote up with this end in view.

[91] Some minor details that Loeben, or Heine, had he known the _Marchen_ in 1823, could have used are pointed out in Wilhelm Hertz's article, pp. 220-21.

[92] Cf. Gorres' edition, pp. 94-108.

[93] Cf. _ibid_., pp. 128-40, and 228-44. It is in this _Marchen_ (p. 231) that Herzeleid sings Goethe's "Wer nie sein Brod in Thranon asz."

[94] Cf. Gorres' edition, pp. 247-57. There are a number of details in this _Marchen_ that remind strongly of Fouque's _Undine_, which Brentano knew.